"BBC World Service reaches a global audience of 210 million weekly via TV, radio, online and social media. Of these, 87.8 million are in Africa," explains Digital Business Development Director for EMEA, BBC Worldwide, Isla Macleod.
"We have a strong and long-standing commitment to providing high-quality, regional programming - created by Africans, for Africa. This latest move will allow us to significantly enhance our existing offering by reinvesting the revenue generated from advertising into high-quality journalism as well as the technology that enables us to share our programming across the continent."
The website bbc.com/africa, the BBC Arabic and BBC Hausa websites bbcarabic.com and bbchausa.com, which have enabled advertising outside the UK, will shortly be followed by bbcafrique.com (in French), bbcgahuza.com (in Kinyarwarda/Kirundi), bbcsomali.com and bbcswahili.com.
"The African websites present advertisers and brands with an excellent platform to reach new audiences across the continent. Advertisers will be able to reach at scale audiences via its non-English-language sites, which have not been previously enabled for advertising. This is a first to market opportunity, underpinned by the BBC's strong presence in and coverage of Africa," Macleod concludes.
