BBC Burmese channel launches on the Viber messaging platform

Published: 9 December 2015

With its population of 48.7 million, Myanmar (also known as Burma) has 29 million active mobile subscriptions. According to the international telecoms providers operating in the country, Myanmar is among world leaders in smartphone usage.

BBC Burmese Editor, Tin Htar Swe, comments: “While BBC Burmese audio news bulletins are available for listening on mobile phones in Myanmar, this is the first time BBC Burmese content is made available on a chat app. With Viber’s reported 14.8 million unique users* in Myanmar, we can now connect with our audiences - existing and new - through this growing platform, offering them access to news from the BBC, in their language.”

To access the BBC Burmese Public Chat on Viber App, users are required to:

• go to their App Store and download the Viber App on their smart phone; Viber will ask them to provide their phone number - that’s all they need to register
• once they are in Viber, they need to click on the ‘Public’ icon - this takes them to Viber Public Chats
• hit the magnifying glass and search for the BBC Burmese Public Chat
• hit ‘Follow’ - and the chat will be visible whenever the ‘Public’ icon is clicked.

Notes to Editors
BBC Burmese reaches 6.9 million people every week (2015). The BBC Burmese Facebook page has over 3.7 million fans (December 2015). The BBC Burmese radio programming is broadcast on shortwave and on Asiasat5 satellite television channel and streamed online via bbcburmese.com. Selected radio programming is rebroadcast by some of the country’s nationwide FM networks. BBC Burmese TV news bulletins are broadcast live on the national TV channel, Myanmar National Television (MNTV) at 20.45 local time (14.15 GMT) Monday to Friday, and are streamed live on the website bbcburmese.com.

BBC Burmese is part of BBC World Service which also offers a Public Chat channel in Nepali on Viber App. BBC World Service’s content in other languages is also available via messaging apps such as LINE, We Chat and Telegram.

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