AfricaCast 2011: BBC World News: 'In Africa, television news is very fast closing the gap with our radio news service.'

The BBC's global television news service, BBC World News (DStv 400 / TopTV 400), is very fast gaining on the BBC's global radio service, BBC World Service, in Africa.

In fact, many more people are watching, rather than listening to the BBC's news output in South Africa.

''It's pretty clear for us at the BBC, that for Africa - while radio still dominates - TV is very fast closing the gap,'' said Richard Porter, controller of English, BBC Global News, who is responsible for the BBC World News TV channel.

Richard Porter was speaking at the AfricaCast 2011 TV summit that kicked off today in Cape Town as part of the 14th AfricaCom conference and talked about how to deliver attractive news content for the African market.

''Here in South Africa many more people access the BBC through TV than they do through radio,'' he said. ''The reach of BBC through television in Africa has increased by about 55% the past 5 years and it reaches the high-end audience across platforms.''