iafrica.com (
www.iafrica.com
), South Africa`s leading Internet portal site, today (11 May, 2000) announced an agreement with the world`s leading international broadcaster BBC World Service. The agreement means that BBC`s news on African, Business and World issues, which is tailor-made for the African audience, will be available on a co-branded page on iafrica.com as of 1 June 2000.
In addition to news content, the BBC section of iafrica.com will also provide various audio streaming facilities of news broadcasts from BBC World Service Radio including Focus on Africa, Network Africa, Newshour, The World Today and World Business Report. The BBC`s audio news on the Internet is the most listened to in the world.
The co-branded section will also be accessible from the Metropolis portfolio of business-to-business (B2B) communities, including techafrica.com, miningafrica.com, commsafrica.com and chemafrica.com.
The BBC World Service has over 45 million listeners throughout Africa but active marketing of the Service`s online arm to the African public has, to date, been quite limited. The agreement creates an online window for the African market to access the latest headline news reported by the BBC`s award winning correspondents from Africa and around the world. The BBC page on iafrica.com will link to official BBC sites which generated nearly 23 million page impressions in March.
iafrica.com has consistently taken pole position as the nation`s single premier online destination since its launch in 1997 and serves in excess of 13 million audited page impressions per month (www.abis.co.za). This represents 24% of audited Internet traffic locally and more than a third of traffic to portal sites.
"We are proud to be associated with the BBC World Service", said Tim Spira, Content Director for Metropolis Transactive Holding. "The BBC brand is recognised internationally for its high standards of reporting and its journalistic integrity - principles that iafrica.com and the Metropolis Group as a whole hold very dear. We believe that the partnership will deliver significant value to users of the iafrica.com portal as well as our B2B communities, adding a new dimension of relevant and timely news and analysis from Africa and abroad."
Barry Langridge, Head of region for Africa & Middle East, BBC World Service, is also very enthusiastic about the partnership. "Online deals are a very important way for the BBC to compete in the South African market and we are delighted to have signed this agreement with Metropolis."
iafrica.com is a division of Metropolis Transactive Holdings Pty Ltd.
Share