Review Insights · App Store
BBC: World News & Stories
BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. · 85,898 ratings · ★ 4.5
4.5
★★★★★
85,898 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 55 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"news"
24 negative reviews mention this · 44% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Need subscription for everything. Don’t waste your time downloading the app at this point, you need to have an active subscription to read any news article no matter what. More worried about money than the news" - duffdogg98
2
"subscription"
15 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Need subscription for everything. Don’t waste your time downloading the app at this point, you need to have an active subscription to read any news article no matter what. More worried about money than the news" - duffdogg98
3
"free"
11 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be great. Excellent reporting and features. But every item used to be free, now most of them are by subscription only. Ugh." - Florida Traverer
4
"paywall"
10 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unusable with out subscription. After using the BBC app for over 15 years, it is now in-usable in the US. Everything, even push notifications about major world events are behind a paywall. This makes it unusable." - Chicchic321
5
"every"
9 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Need subscription for everything. Don’t waste your time downloading the app at this point, you need to have an active subscription to read any news article no matter what. More worried about money than the news" - duffdogg98
6
"read"
8 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Need subscription for everything. Don’t waste your time downloading the app at this point, you need to have an active subscription to read any news article no matter what. More worried about money than the news" - duffdogg98
7
"articles"
7 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "pay per read. Let us watch (more) ads in exchange for articles. as oppose to full subscription" - ads for articles
8
"article"
6 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Need subscription for everything. Don’t waste your time downloading the app at this point, you need to have an active subscription to read any news article no matter what. More worried about money than the news" - duffdogg98
9
"money"
6 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Need subscription for everything. Don’t waste your time downloading the app at this point, you need to have an active subscription to read any news article no matter what. More worried about money than the news" - duffdogg98
10
"biased"
6 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Profiteering. The institution that has traditionally put its values and service to its community ahead of profit has finally succumbed greed. No longer is there a source for impartial, quality news reporting. The BBC is no longer any better than its Amer…" - Disillusioned Brit
📋 All 55 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Need subscription for everything
Don’t waste your time downloading the app at this point, you need to have an active subscription to read any news article no matter what. More worried about money than the news
Funny
Funny how the developers respond to five star reviews but not to the one star reviews, is it because they can’t answer why we in the US have to pay a subscription?
Paid News
So sad for one of the world’s greatest news sources to make you pay to read any article. I thought news suppression was supposed to be a horrible thing
Problems with the app
My phone keeps overheating with this app. It keeps dropping off and shutting down, fix and repair this app.
Unusable with out subscription
After using the BBC app for over 15 years, it is now in-usable in the US. Everything, even push notifications about major world events are behind a paywall. This makes it unusable.
Profiteering
The institution that has traditionally put its values and service to its community ahead of profit has finally succumbed greed. No longer is there a source for impartial, quality news reporting. The BBC is no longer any better than its American capitalist, biased contemporaries. Step out of it BBC, rise above the rest again
Paying for it
It’s a shame that the USA has to pay for bbc news
Stop asking me every day for a rating even after i rate the app!
Thank you!
Paid Subscription will kill this app
Forcing people to pay an exorbitant amount yearly for news outside the UK is asinine. Completely unethical, makes sense coming from a company that’s become a soulless mouth piece for the liars in power.
Paying for news
Do not like that for any good article I need to join and pay now
Tittle
Don’t like the subscription
Used to be good
The app used to be good, but now almost every article is behind a paywall. And there are pop up ads for the few that you can access. After using the app for many years, finally removing it! I do pay for NYT, but this just isn’t worth it to me.
Sad
A paywalll???
Used to be great
Excellent reporting and features. But every item used to be free, now most of them are by subscription only. Ugh.
Why change?
Make your money with ads , not charging. There are other sources of news for free. Glad to see the empire go down!!!
People
There are people that can’t afford to pay to read your articles on the internet. And I am not on any government assistance programs to get free every thing. Have a great day
No free news…
After years of free news; now every outlet expects you to pay to read their lackluster AI stories. I didn’t say fake; this has to do with money. They accept money for ads, but do advertisers know we are looking for free news? We are not reading.
Used daily
This was a source of daily news until I needed to subscribe and pay for it.
Paywall
Sold out and now have to pay for articles
Articles
Too many articles require separate subscriptions.
Hoping for honesty
Stop putting “there was a knife that the reflection pool” in the headline!!!
BBC is still trusted but they are pulling the punches in controversial situations, especially regarding Trump and you are way to pro-Israel. I turn it off EVERY TIME YOU INTERVIEW AN ISREAL PROPAGANDIST. In other words, every time Israel is allowed to spew it’s nonsense .
BBC is still trusted but they are pulling the punches in controversial situations, especially regarding Trump and you are way to pro-Israel. I turn it off EVERY TIME YOU INTERVIEW AN ISREAL PROPAGANDIST. In other words, every time Israel is allowed to spew it’s nonsense .
Shifted to subscription
This used to be a great app. Now every article is blocked behind a required subscription.
Paywall
If you put your news coverage behind paywalls to make money and commercialize information, the public will flock to FREE right-wing media outlets to get their news. But don’t be surprised how radicalized the news-consuming public is.
Stop
Stop asking me to rate. It’s annoying n I’ll give 1 star every time
Sad
I have always looked to the BBC as a trusted source for the news . It’s a sad day when they start to charge for keeping people informed of what is happening in the world .
No free content
Can’t read any stories without a paid subscription
Taxpayer funded
Should be free for English OAP’s
Not worth the cost
Stories are not updated fast enough. Same news appears for weeks on end.
Biased, and Poor Quality
Content is biased. Shows a good Britain, US, India and White Race; and a maligned Arab, China, Blacks and others.
Fake news. Pro west.
Fake news. Pro west.
British Brainwashing Corporation
Your journalism is biased, distorted and of a very poor quality…
Public News Should Be Publicly Accessible
I believe BBC News should be broadly accessible to the public. As a trusted news organization with an important public service mission, I feel that access to news should not be restricted by a paywall
paywall?
Seriously?
Public disservice
Really sucks you’re charging for ppl to stay informed. Living in the US, unbiased real news can be hard to come by, so many, many ppl here have been relying on BBC. Pls make your news app free again!🙏🙏🙏
Licence
I live between UK and USA and pay for bcc licence in UK. Don’t see why I should also pay a subscription fee in USA when I’m already paying for a full licence in UK.
Dishonest and biased
BBC news is bias and lies. Don’t trust this site for an impartial report of global events.
Pay Wall News
Publicly funded by UK government, and now a paywall outside the UK. Not interested in funding another countries publicly funded news for them to have free money.
Also, becoming less and less focused on news, and more opinion as facts reporting.
Also, becoming less and less focused on news, and more opinion as facts reporting.
Pay wall
Since the pay wall has been added I find myself less likely to use this app or looking at the page itself.
Blocking many of the stories now
Has recently starting blocking much of the content unless you have a subscription. Guess it was too good to last.
Review
Every day you keep sending me these review requests to rate you between 1 and 5 stars. This is very annoying to me so please stop doing it!
News should be free
Your news should be free and unbiased, which it isn’t.
Crashes all the time
Besides the subscription aspect, which seems ridiculous considering you can make more navigate around ads like others, the app crashes constantly. This is 2026 and this app is less stable than many in 2010.
Unusable.
Crashes on open across multiple devices and reinstalls, on the latest iOS. No improvement from rounds up updates. Uninstalling.
Subscriptions ruin everything
Being from the US, news here is all political, and I preferred the BBC for neutral and varied reporting. But seems in the future we will need to subscribe to use the breaks of our cars, subscribe to walk a street, to have a dog, to call 911, to use the toilet and even to live. Greed is killing this planet and I’m tired of it. Greedy news and entertainment outlets don’t realize the more they squeeze people spitting ads and subs into their faces the more they hate the products being presented and the more they hate the company doing so. Deleted this once my favorite news app!
Paywall is random
Tell the reader which articles are free with some sort of symbol or icon in the article headline. Otherwise it’s a paywall minefield when the only way to find out is to click on the article and suffer the paywall pop up. Reuters does this same nonsense. Must be a British thing.
pay per read
Let us watch (more) ads in exchange for articles. as oppose to full subscription
Biased coverage
Totally biased coverage on some topics. Read with a glass of salt.
Audio
My life has not been the same since the sunsetting of BBC Sounds outside of the UK. I dearly miss the ability to listen to DJ shows when I want to. No longer having the ability to “time shift” means that, because of the time difference between GMT and EST, I miss my most favorite shows and DJs. Please give consideration to bringing back this feature. If a subscription fee is required, then so be it.
Not worth the paywall
I loved the alternative take on the news the BBC site provides and there are many interesting feature articles. But with so many sites competing for my subscription money, I cannot justify what this site charges.
Blocking News Articles
Why are they blocked in the USA, but not outside the USA. Should not be done.
Merchandise vs News
What percent of the news stories are available to the hoi polloi? Someone like me. 40% or less? So you want me to pay to read you? I would sooner revisit the Black Hole of Calcutta.
+ 5 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
88%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
8%
Negative (1-2★)