BBC Persian Television

BBC Persian
Country United Kingdom
Broadcast area
HeadquartersBroadcasting House, London
Programming
Language(s)Persian
Picture format1080p (16:9 HDTV)
Ownership
OwnerBBC
Sister channelsList of BBC channels
History
Launched14 January 2009; 15 years ago (2009-01-14)
Links
Websitebbc.com/persian
Availability
Terrestrial
Oqaab
(Afghanistan)
Channel 15
Streaming media
BBC Online[1]
BBC Persian TV presenters Majid Afshar & Rana Rahimpoor, 2017

BBC Persian Television (Persian: تلویزیون فارسی بی‌بی‌سی Televizion-e Fârsi-ye BBC) is the BBC's Persian language news channel that was launched on 14 January 2009.[1] The service is broadcast by satellite and is also available online. It is aimed at the 120 million Persian-speakers (Both native and secondary speakers) in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Persian has one of the fewest native and total speakers in the BBC World Service, with 35 million native speakers (in Iran), 11 million native speakers (in Afghanistan) and 9 and 5 million native speakers in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan respectively. The total native and secondary speakers of Persian is approximately 120 million. This is in contrast with Hindi/Urdu, which has around 1.5 billion native speakers and more than 2 billion total speakers.[2]

Iranian authorities have been known to harass and intimidate family members of the BBC Persian staff.[3] BBC director Mark Thompson said that the staff of BBC Persian had been subject to "increased levels of intimidation alongside disturbing new tactics" by the Iranian government.[4]

  1. ^ "BBC Awaits response to Persian TV". BBC. 14 January 2009. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  2. ^ https://24x7offshoring.com/the-importance-of-hindi-language-of-1-3/
  3. ^ "Iran's threats to BBC Persian staff must be confronted". The Guardian.
  4. ^ "Iran accused of intimidating BBC Persian staff". BBC.