BBC World Service hangs onto UK audience

THE BBC World Service is maintaining its UK audience despite "a challenging year" which has seen service closures and job cuts announced.

Figures released by radio audience measurement body Rajar showed the station's weekly reach remained steady at 1.7 million in the UK in the first two quarters of this year.

That is up from 1.3 million in the last quarter of 2010.

Richard Porter, acting controller English at BBC Global News, said: "It's been a challenging year for us but we've continued to offer high-quality impartial international news."

The World Service will be paid for by the licence fee, rather than by the government, from 2014.

More than one in four of its 2,400-strong staff will be axed, with around 480 of the jobs going over the next year.