The BBC is one of the Europe’s leading public service broadcasters for digital innovation, a study suggests.



The British broadcaster – and its Finnish counterpart Yle – have both adapted well to the changing media landscape because they have invested in their mobile output and encouraged a “pro-digital culture where new media are seen as opportunities rather than as threats”.

According to research from the Reuters institute for the study of journalism, at Oxford University, released on Tuesday, the two broadcasters had embraced constant change and developed strong social media strategies.

By contrast, their counterparts in France, Italy, Germany and Poland have had difficulties because they were less well funded, faced political pressure or were operating in less technologically advanced markets – among other barriers – the report’s authors found.

The report says senior editorial staff at the BBC and Yle had recognised the importance of continually adapting “even when these changes involve hard decisions such as cutting legacy services to free up money for new initiatives” and laying off staff.

They had also shown a willingness to experiment, despite the knowledge that some of their initiatives would inevitably fail, says the report. Overall the British and Finnish broadcasters had managed to attract online audiences more in keeping with their established offline reach than their European counterparts.

Figures from Digital News Report 2015 – which were presented in the Reuters study – showed that 48% of the UK public used BBC online, making it the most popular source of news in the UK.

The broadcaster was followed by Mail Online, which accounted for 14%, and Huffington Post and the Guardian online, which both held 12% shares of the UK’s online news audience, according to the figures.

In addition, the data showed that 27% of the UK population said their smartphone was their main way of accessing online news, while they suggested that half of British smartphone users used the BBC news app.



Dr Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, the director of research at the Reuters Institute – and co-author of the report – said: “The media environment continues to change at a faster pace than public service media do. Most public service media are falling behind and are losing touch especially with younger audiences.

“To remain relevant and reach a wide and diverse audience, they need to be able to adapt much more quickly than they have in the past as digital media continues to evolve.”