IRIB World Service

IRIB World Service

Type	Radio network
Country	Iran
Availability	International
Owner	Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
Launch date	1956
Official website	http://english.irib.ir/

IRIB World Service is the official international broadcasting station of Iran.

The voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran started work in 1956 with the aim of familiarizing different world nations with Iran’s history and culture as well as its different regions and historical sites. Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, elaborating on the revolution’s stances and the ideals of the Islamic Republic system were put high on the radio’s agenda.

The radio’s schedule includes the news, political commentaries, different series and features on special occasions.

Languages

The Voice of Iran currently broadcasts in 28 languages:

Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Bengali Bosnian Chinese Dari English French

Georgian German Hausa Hebrew Hindi Indonesian Italian Japanese Kazakh Kurdish

Pashto Persian Russian Spanish Swahili Tajik Turkish Urdu

IRIB historical output (1950-1996)

Comparison of IRIB to other external services:

Estimated total direct programme hours per week of some external radio broadcasters for 1996

Broadcaster	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	1996[1]
VOA, RFE/RL & Radio Martí	497	1,495	1,907	1,901	2,611	1,821
China Radio International	66	687	1,267	1,350	1,515	1,620
BBC World Service	643	589	723	719	796	1,036
Radio Moscow / Voice of Russia[2]	533	1,015	1,908	2,094	1,876	726
Deutsche Welle	0	315	779	804	848	655
Radio Cairo / ERTU	0	301	540	546	605	604
IRIB World Service	12	24	155	175	400	575
All India Radio	116	157	271	389	456	500
NHK World Radio Japan	0	203	259	259	343	468
Radio France Internationale	198	326	200	125	379	459
Radio Netherlands Worldwide	127	178	335	289	323	392
Israel Radio International	0	91	158	210	253	365
Voice of Turkey	40	77	88	199	322	364
Radio Pyongyang / Voice of Korea	0	159	330	597	534	364
Radio Bulgaria	30	117	164	236	320	338
Radio Australia	181	257	350	333	330	307
Radio Tirana	26	63	487	560	451	303
Radio Romania International	30	159	185	198	199	298
Radio Exterior de España	68	202	251	239	403	270
RDP Internacional	46	133	295	214	203	226
Radio Havana Cuba	0	0	320	424	352	203
Rai Italia Radio	170	205	165	169	181	203
Radio Canada International	85	80	98	134	195	175
Radio Polonia	131	232	334	337	292	171
Radio RSA / Channel Africa	0	63	150	183	156	159
Sveriges Radio International	28	114	140	155	167	149
Magyar Rádió	76	120	105	127	102	144
Radio Prague[3]	119	196	202	255	131	131
Voice of Nigeria[4]	0	0	62	170	120	127
Radio Belgrade	80	70	76	72	96	68

Source: International Broadcast Audience Research, June 1996

The list includes about a quarter of the world's external broadcasters whose output is both publicly funded and worldwide. Among those excluded are Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and various international commercial and religious stations.

Notes:

1. 1996 figures as at June; all other years as at December.
2. Before 1991, broadcasting for the former USSR.
3. Before 1996, broadcasting for the former Czechoslovakia.
4. Nigeria's external service is now off air.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the Iran publicly-funded broadcaster

External links

• IRIB World Service in English (Live Webcast), French, German, Italian, Russian.