The BBC has revealed its figures for the number of people now watching its live online news streams, which show that people are increasingly opting to use the internet to access news.
The BBC figures show that over half a million people watched live streaming of the government’s budget last week on the BBC’s website, while only 1.3 million watched it live on the television. These figures demonstrate that the gap between the number of people using the internet to access news and the number that use the television is shrinking.
The BBC’s controller, Kevin Bakhurst, says the online news audience is increasingly significant to the broadcasting network. “The majority of the audience still watches live coverage conventionally on the TV, but a rapidly growing and significant part of our audience is now watching live BBC News coverage online,” says Bakhurst.
He also pointed out that, although the majority on the online viewing occurs when people are at work during the usual 9-5 periods five days per week; significantly, there is also increasing use of the internet to access news during the weekends.
The BBC News website currently gets around 350,000 visits each week, but during major news events, this number peaks significantly higher, illustrating the public’s willingness to use the internet as a source for news articles and news video streaming.
