Why BBC leads the pack in global breaking news

It's also the most retweeted news source.

According to a release, two studies have revealed that BBC World News is the leader in global breaking news, with stories from a wider spread of locations and journalists in more countries than other international news broadcasters. The BBC’s leadership in coverage of fast moving international stories is also reflected in independent data which shows that the BBC is by far the most retweeted news source on Twitter.

These findings form the basis of two new marketing campaigns which are running on the channel and bbc.com to highlight the broadcaster’s breaking news leadership and social media credentials. 

The original study, conducted in partnership with LiveStation, examined the four main international news providers and showed that BBC World News is ahead on the breadth of its editorial agenda and the extent of its editorial resource. 

Peter Horrocks, Chairman, BBC Global News Ltd, said: “Audiences rightly value the BBC for its accuracy and impartiality and we are consistently rated the world’s most trusted news broadcaster. This data also shows we are just as fast as our competitors and are number one for breaking news from “The BBC’s breaking news is authentic news – rather than the non-existent or minor developments in stories which other broadcasters label ‘breaking news’.

“Our competitors boast about how far they go to cover stories. We don’t need to ‘go there’ because the BBC is there already – in a far wider range of locations than other The study reveals that the BBC covers stories from the widest variety of locations, with journalists in almost 100 countries. This is more than any other broadcaster and offers the unique ability to provide local insight into events of global importance.

Over the study period, the BBC had local reporters covering breaking news stories from considerably more countries than any of its competitors. BBC World News also has the richest variety of content, reporting on a more even spread of topics across the world than the other news channels. 

Contrary to widespread perceptions, the BBC is as least as fast as other international broadcasters, and often faster. When compared to its competitors, the BBC was first with the story on marginally more occasions than anyone else.

The LiveStation findings have since been validated by a similar study conducted this month in partnership with Kantar Media. Breaking news matters on radio, TV, online and especially on social media. Recent research from NewsWhip shows that the BBC is the world’s most retweeted news brand, with its stories shared a record 2.7 million times in March – almost 50% more than any other publisher. Bbc.com also achieved record figures with 96 million unique users and an all-time high of 1.3 billion page views* over the same month.