Record audience for World Service

Bush House, the London home of the World Service

The BBC World Service is reaching its biggest ever audience - with online usage trebling over the past year.

More than 151 million people are tuning in to over 40 language services, an increase of eight million on last year's 143 million figure.

World Service chief executive Mark Byford

The English network alone is up by five million to 40 million each week.

Usage of the World Service website has trebled and now stands at 22 million page impressions each month. Its partnership with BBC News Online has created the most-accessed audio news site on the web.

World Service chief executive Mark Byford called the figures "an oustanding achievement by everyone who works at the World Service".

He added: "We couldn't wish for a better endorsement of our programmes. The World Service operates in an increasingly competitive environment around the globe, so progress is all the more pleasing in this context.

Usage of the BBC's Arabic news site is up 400% since its launch four months ago

"We are, far and away, the world's leading international radio broadcaster."

The figures show that listening via the BBC's own traditional short and medium wave transmissions us up by six million to 126 million.

And 36 million listen to World Service programmes on FM and medium wave thanks to partnerships with local stations around the world.

The largest growth in audiences has been in Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Online usage has been boosted by new Arabic and Chinese sites. The World Service is currently developing companion sites in Russian and Spanish.

It also plans to have all of its language services available in streaming audio via the internet within four years.