BBC rolls out paid subscriptions for US users
The BBC has in recent years seen a fall in the number of people paying the license fee, a charge of 174.50 pounds ($239.76) a year levied on all households who watch live TV, as viewers have turned to more content online.
From Thursday, frequent US visitors to the BBC's news website will have to pay $49.99 per year or $8.99 per month for unlimited access to news articles, feature stories, and a 24-hour livestream of its news programs.
While its services will remain free to British users as part of its public service remit, its news website operates commercially and reaches 139 million users worldwide, including nearly 60 million in the US
The new pay model uses an engagement-based system, the corporation said in a statement, allowing casual readers to access free content.
'Over the next few months, as we test and learn more about audience needs and habits, additional long-form factual content will be added to the offer for paying users,' said Rebecca Glashow, CEO of BBC Global Media & Streaming.
The British government said last November it would review the BBC's Royal Charter, which sets out the broadcaster's terms and funding model, with the aim of ensuring a sustainable and fair system beyond 2027.
To give the corporation financial certainty up to then, the government said it was committed to keeping the license in its current form and would lift the fee in line with inflation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Pakistan launches digital land record, passport services for diaspora in UK
ISLAMABAD: In a major development, Islamabad has launched digital land record and passport processing services for Pakistanis living in the United Kingdom (UK), the Pakistani foreign office said on Monday. The development came during a visit to the UK by Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, who inaugurated the landmark initiatives at the Pakistan High Commission in London on Monday. The UK is home to over 1.6 million Pakistanis who have often complained of difficulties in sale, purchase, transfer and settlement of disputes concerning their lands back home, despite contributing significantly to remittances, business and cultural links. The Land Record Service enables British Pakistanis to remotely access and manage property records in Pakistan's most populous Punjab province, according to the foreign office. 'This digital platform offers services such as online sale deeds, 'Fard' (Record of Rights), 'e-Girdawari,' mutation entries and document attestation, all secured by blockchain technology to ensure transparency and prevent fraud,' the foreign office said in a statement. 'A dedicated Land Services Desk at the Pakistan High Commission in London will support the pilot phase, with plans to expand to other Pakistani consulates in the United Kingdom.' Concurrently, the One Window Passport Processing System, implemented by the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports (IMPASS), streamlines passport application procedures by consolidating multiple steps into a single, efficient counter, according to the foreign office. 'This system reduces processing time to approximately 10 minutes per application, enhancing convenience, reducing congestion, and ensuring greater transparency for British Pakistanis,' it said. Dar described the initiatives as 'a digital leap toward safeguarding diaspora rights and fostering investment,' while the foreign office said they marked a significant step toward efficient, transparent and accessible governance for Pakistanis abroad. The Pakistani deputy premier earlier met the UK's Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamish Falconer, and shared Pakistan's commitment to economic reforms and perspective on regional developments, including peace and stability in South Asia following a military standoff with India in May. 'Both sides reviewed the full spectrum of bilateral relations and reaffirmed their shared commitment to deepening cooperation across political, economic, climate, and people-to-people domains,' the Pakistani foreign office said. The UK is among Pakistan's largest bilateral development partners, with cooperation spanning education, health, climate resilience, governance reform and trade. Dar is on an official visit to the UK since Saturday to strengthen Pakistan-UK ties, boost cooperation in digital technology, artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship, and enhanced cooperation with the Commonwealth. Separately, the deputy premier held a meeting with Pakistani-origin British parliamentarians, Mohammad Yasin, Tahir Ali, Imran Hussain, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain, according to the foreign office. He underscored the deep historical and cultural bonds between Pakistan and the UK and emphasized Pakistan's strong commitment to enhancing bilateral parliamentary exchanges with the United Kingdom. 'He noted that such engagements facilitate the sharing of democratic experiences, international best practices, and core democratic values, which are vital for the growth and stability of democratic institutions in both countries,' the foreign office said.
Asharq Al-Awsat
12 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Gold Gains on Soft Yields; Focus on Trump-Zelenskiy Meeting
Gold prices eked out gains on Monday, helped by lower US Treasury yields, while market players awaited US President Donald Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders later in the day. Spot gold gained 0.4% to $3,348.28 per ounce, as of 0840 GMT on Monday, after hitting its lowest level since August 1. US gold futures for December delivery rose 0.3% to $3,393.40. "The firm tone to gold prices has returned today with the market nudging the $3,350 level (as) the combination of soft yields and a weaker dollar would for sure create a tailwind for gold," said independent analyst Ross Norman. Benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields fell from more than two-week highs. On the geopolitical front, European leaders are set to join Zelenskiy for talks with Trump later on Monday to discuss how to approach a possible deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by Russia's Vladimir Putin and Trump at their Alaska summit on Friday, sources briefed on Moscow's thinking said. "Front-running the geopolitical news would be unwise just now given that almost any outcome is conceivable. If there was a sense that tensions over Ukraine were easing, then we might expect some modest softness in gold prices," Norman added. Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for more cues on Fed's interest rate path. Economists polled by Reuters largely expect the Fed to announce a rate cut in September, its first this year, with a possible second cut by year-end. Non-yielding bullion, considered a safe-haven asset during periods of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, tends to perform well in a low-interest-rate environment. Elsewhere, spot silver was up 0.2% at $38.08 per ounce, platinum was steady at $1,335.06 and palladium was up 0.6% at $1,118.92.
Saudi Gazette
17 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
New wave of African pride rises in the Caribbean
PORT OF SPAIN — Augustine Ogbo works as a doctor, treating patients in clinics across the striking Caribbean island of St Lucia. When he returns to his home in the coastal town of Rodney Bay, he clocks in for his second job — as the owner and solo chef of a Nigerian takeaway. "Egusi soup and fufu, that's more popular... they love jollof rice too," Dr Ogbo says, reeling off a list of his customers' favourite dishes. The 29-year-old hails from Nigeria — population 230 million — but crossed the Atlantic for St Lucia — population 180,000 — to train as a doctor in 2016. He set up his home-based takeaway, named Africana Chops, in 2022, after being incessantly asked by his St Lucian friends for Nigerian fare. The takeaway is now thriving, Dr Ogbo tells the BBC, and not just because his island customers think the food is tasty."They know that we all have the same ancestral origin. So most of the time, they want to get in touch with that," Dr Ogbo explains, adding that interest in African culture has grown "tremendously" since he arrived almost a decade Lucia is not alone in this the Caribbean, the desire to reconnect with the population's African heritage appears to have strengthened over the past few across the Caribbean have been expressing African pride through cultural means, such as food, clothing and travel, while governments and institutions from both sides of the Atlantic have been meeting to forge economic ties.A significant part of the islands' population descended from enslaved West and Central Africans, who were forcibly transported to the Caribbean by European merchants in the 17th and 18th was abolished in much of the Caribbean during the 1800s, while independence from European powers came the following descendants of enslaved people retained some African customs, but largely developed their own standalone cultures, which differ from island to the past, there have been major campaigns to encourage African pride, as Dorbrene O'Marde, who runs the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission, says."It was particularly strong in the 1930s or so, and then again in the 1960s — we saw a major outpouring in sync with the [American] black power movement during that period," he says, talking to the BBC on the island of Antigua.O'Marde believes the Caribbean is witnessing a renewed, more promising version of such "pan-Africanism" (a term used to describe the idea that people of African descent should be unified)."It has widened beyond psychological and cultural themes and we are now talking in broader economic terms, such as stronger transportation links between the Caribbean and Africa," he says."We are in a different phase now of pan-Africanism – one that's not going to wane like before."One thing that separates this wave of African pride from the ones that came before is social Howard, an entertainment and cultural enterprise lecturer at the University of the West Indies, says a "significant" amount of Jamaicans are connecting with Africa through platforms such as TikTok."People are learning more about black history beyond slavery," he tells the BBC from his home in the Jamaican capital, also points to the global rise of Afrobeats, a musical genre from Nigeria and feels that in Jamaica specifically, the popularity of Afrobeats is partly down to a desire to reconnect with the continent."Through the music videos, [Jamaicans] are seeing certain parts of Africa are similar to Jamaica and are developed. We had a concept of Africa as this place where it is backward and it's pure dirt road... the music is changing that."Asked about the view of some Jamaican commenters online — that islanders do not need to reclaim their African heritage as they have an equally valid, hard-won Jamaican heritage of their own — Howard stresses that the two are not distinct."Our whole culture is African, with a little sprinkling of Indian and European and Chinese. But for the most part it is African-derived. It is the most dominant part of our culture," he leaning into their African heritage are not just consuming the culture, but actually getting on flights and exploring the continent tourism authority in Ghana — once a major departure point for enslaved Africans being shipped to the Caribbean — told the BBC there had been a "notable increase" in holidaymakers from the islands in recent Werner Gruner, South Africa's consul to the Bahamas, says that over the past two or three years, his office has seen a rise in local people travelling to South Africa, Ghana and Kenya."I see a lot of interest in safaris and I think people also start to realise that South Africa and other African countries are actually very well developed," Gruner Burkina Faso, an economically struggling country under military rule that is not well known for tourism, is apparently on some people's buckets lists. O'Marde says some of his countrypeople want to visit the country because of the pan-African leanings of its leader, Ibrahim Traoré.Getting to the mother continent from the Caribbean can, however, be complicated, with travellers often forced to fly via this year, in a speech in which she referred to herself as a "daughter of Africa", Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley called for the construction of "air and sea bridges" between Africa and the Caribbean."Let us make these changes, not just for heads of state, but for ordinary people who wish to trade, travel, and forge a shared future," she institutions like the African Union, African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) have been working on the "trade" angle, hosting conferences and setting up memorandums of understanding with their Caribbean says trade between the two regions could jump from around $730m (£540m) to $1.8bn (£1.33bn) by 2028, provided the right conditions are at the moment, Africa and the Caribbean have some of the lowest indicators in the world for transport infrastructure, logistics quality and customs efficiency, according to the World an attempt to reduce trade barriers, the prime minsters of Grenada and the Bahamas this year called for Africa and the Caribbean to launch a shared Prime Minister Philip Davis told delegates at an Afreximbank meeting in Nigeria they should "seriously" consider a single digital currency, while Grenada's Dickon Mitchell said: "Such a move would symbolically and practically affirm our shared identity not just as trading partners, but as members of a truly global Africa".Getting more than 60 countries to coordinate and launch a standard system would be no easy feat, but Mitchell said this must be done if the regions are to "take control of [their] own future".Back in St Lucia, Dr Ogbo says his attempts to bring egusi, fufu and jollof to local people are a small but worthy contribution to the strengthening of relations between Africa and the June, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu signed various cooperation agreements with St Lucia during a state visit and Dr Ogbo sees Africana Chops as an extension of that."I can say I'm working hand-in-hand with the Nigerian government and even the St Lucian government to promote the African culture," he doctor and businessman is now trying to upgrade his food business to a full-fledged restaurant — and he hopes the "cultural exchange" between Africa and the Caribbean also goes from strength to strength."It's awesome!" he says. "I'm really, really excited about that." — BBC
