12 August 2016. The BBC Pashto TV programme BBC Naray Da Wakht (BBC World Right Now) will be part of the daily schedule of Pakistan’s new Pashto-language channel, Mashriq TV, which starts broadcasting on Sunday 14 August.
Broadcast live from London in prime time – 18.30 Pakistan Standard Time – and presented by Sana Safi and Amanullah Atta, BBC Naray Da Wakht brings 24 minutes of key global and regional news reporting. The Friday sports supplement, Lobay, includes in-depth coverage of sporting developments that are of special interest to regional audiences.
The move to bring BBC Naray Da Wakht to Pashto-speakers in Pakistan via Mashriq TV builds on the show’s success in Afghanistan where it has a weekly viewership of 1.6 million via Shamshad TV. It adds to the BBC’ presence in Pakistan where it reaches a weekly audience of 13.1 million people on TV, radio and digital platforms, in Urdu, Pashto and English (2015).
BBC Afghan Editor, Meena Baktash, said: “We are proud that Mashriq TV will carry BBC Naray Da Wakht as part of its inaugural broadcast. A quarter of BBC Pashto’s global weekly audience of 6.7 million people is in Pakistan, and we hope that our programme’s daily broadcasts via Mashriq TV will make our content even more accessible to them. We are looking forward to this collaboration.”
Based in Peshawar, Mashriq TV aims at reaching Pashto-speaking audiences in north-western Pakistan and Islamabad. CEO, Mashriq TV, Syed Ayaz Badshah commented: “Launching a channel from Peshawar has been a great endeavour which we hope will help revive the entrepreneurial spirit in the region. We welcome this rebroadcasting collaboration with the BBC and are looking forward to the daily broadcasts of the BBC Pashto programme – they set a high standard for our editorial team to live up to.”
BBC Naray Da Wakht is also available on demand via the BBC Pashto channel on YouTube and the website bbcpashto.com. BBC Pashto is part of BBC World Service.
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For more information, please contact:
BBC World Service Group Communications – Lala Najafova lala.najafova@bbc.co.uk
Notes to editors:
BBC World Service delivers news content around the world, on radio, TV and digital, reaching a weekly audience of 246 million. As part of BBC World Service, BBC Learning English teaches English to global audiences. The BBC World Service Group operates around the world in 30 languages, on radio, TV and digital. The BBC attracts a weekly global news audience of 320 million people to its international news services including BBC World Service, BBC World News television channel and bbc.com/news.