BBC
Encyclopedia
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster
. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House
in the City of Westminster
, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff. Its main responsibility is to provide public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom
, Channel Islands
and Isle of Man
.
The BBC is an autonomous public service broadcaster that operates under a Royal Charter and a Licence and Agreement from the Home Secretary
. Within the United Kingdom its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee
, which is charged to all British households, companies and organisations using any type of equipment to record and/or receive live television broadcasts; the level of the fee is set annually by the British Government
and agreed by Parliament
.
Outside the UK, the BBC World Service
has provided services by direct broadcasting and re-transmission contracts by sound radio since the inauguration of the BBC Empire Service in December 1932, and more recently by television and online. Though sharing some of the facilities of the domestic services, particularly for news and current affairs output, the World Service has a separate Managing Director, and its operating costs have historically been funded mainly by direct grants from the British government. These grants were determined independently of the domestic licence fee. A recent spending review has announced plans for the funding for the world service to be drawn from the domestic licence fee.
The Corporation's 'guaranteed' income from the licence fee and the World Service grants are supplemented by profits from commercial operations through a wholly owned subsidiary, BBC Worldwide
Ltd. The company's activities include programme- and format-sales, magazines including the Radio Times
and book publishing. The BBC also earns additional income from selling certain programme-making services through BBC Studios and Post Production Ltd.
, formerly BBC Resources Ltd, another wholly owned trading subsidiary of the corporation. The BBC is sometimes referred to as "Auntie Beeb".
The privately owned BBC was the world's first national broadcasting organisation and was founded on 18 October 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd
. The original company was founded in 1922 by a group of six telecommunications companies—Marconi, Radio Communication Company, Metropolitan-Vickers
(MetroVick), General Electric
, Western Electric
, and British Thomson-Houston
(BTH)—to broadcast experimental radio services. The first transmission was on 14 November of that year, from station 2LO
, located at Marconi House, London.
The British Broadcasting Company Ltd was created by the British General Post Office (GPO) and John Reith
applied for a job with the existing company and later became its employee general manager. The company was wound-up and on 1 January 1927 a new non-commercial entity called the British Broadcasting Corporation established under a Royal Charter
became successor in interest.
To represent its purpose and (stated) values, the Corporation adopted the coat of arms, including the motto "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation". The motto is generally attributed to Montague John Rendall, former headmaster of Winchester College
, and member of the first BBC Board of Governors. The motto is said to be a "felicitous adaptation" of Micah
4: 3 "nation shall not lift up a sword against nation".
Experimental television broadcasts were started in 1932 using an electromechanical 30 line system developed by John Logie Baird
. Limited regular broadcasts using this system began in 1934, and an expanded service (now named the BBC Television Service) started from Alexandra Palace
in 1936, alternating between an improved Baird mechanical 240 line system and the all electronic 405 line Marconi-EMI system. The superiority of the electronic system saw the mechanical system dropped early the following year.
started by saying, "As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted ..." In fact, the first person to appear when transmission resumed was Jasmine Bligh
and the words said were "Good afternoon, everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh ...?"
The European Broadcasting Union
was formed on 12 February 1950, in Torquay with the BBC among the 23 founding broadcasting organisations.
Competition to the BBC was introduced in 1955 with the commercial and independently operated television network of ITV
. However, the BBC monopoly on radio services would persist into the 1970s. As a result of the Pilkington Committee
report of 1962, in which the BBC was praised for the quality and range of its output, and ITV was very heavily criticised for not providing enough quality programming, the decision was taken to award the BBC a second television channel, BBC2
, in 1964, renaming the existing service BBC1. BBC2 used the higher resolution 625 line standard which had been standardised across Europe. BBC2 was broadcast in colour from 1 July 1967, and was joined by BBC 1 and ITV on 15 November 1969. The 405 line VHF transmissions of BBC1 (and ITV) were continued for compatibility with older television receivers until 1985.
Starting in 1964 a series of pirate radio
stations (starting with Radio Caroline
) came on the air, and forced the British government finally to regulate radio services to permit nationally based advertising-financed services. In response the BBC reorganised and renamed their radio channels. The Light Programme was split into Radio 1
offering continuous "Popular" music and Radio 2
more "Easy Listening". The "Third" programme became Radio 3
offering classical music and cultural programming. The Home Service became Radio 4
offering news, and non-musical content such as quiz shows, readings, dramas and plays. As well as the four national channels, a series of local BBC radio stations were established in 1967, including Radio London
.
In 1974, the BBC's teletext
service, Ceefax
, was introduced, created initially to provide subtitling, but developed into a news and information service. In 1978 BBC staff went on strike just before the Christmas of that year, thus blocking out the transmission of both channels and amalgamating all four radio stations into one.
Since the deregulation of the UK television and radio market in the 1980s, the BBC has faced increased competition from the commercial sector (and from the advertiser-funded public service broadcaster Channel 4
), especially on satellite television, cable television, and digital television
services.
The BBC Research Department
has played a major part in the development of broadcasting and recording techniques. In the early days it carried out essential research into acoustics and programme level and noise measurement.
In recent decades, a number of additional channels and radio stations have been launched: Radio 5
was launched in 1990 as a sports and educational station, but was replaced in 1994 with Radio 5 Live
, following the success of the Radio 4 service to cover the 1991 Gulf War. The new station would be a news and sport station. In 1997, BBC News 24
, a rolling news channel, launched on digital television
services and the following year, BBC Choice
launched as the third general entertainment channel from the BBC. The BBC also purchased The Parliamentary Channel, which was renamed BBC Parliament
. In 1999, BBC Knowledge
launched as a multi media channel, with services available on the newly launched BBC Text digital teletext service, and on BBC Online. The channel had an educational aim, which was modified later on in its life to offer documentaries.
was renamed BBC Four
and became the BBC's arts and documentaries channel. In addition, CBBC
, which had been a programming strand as Children's BBC since 1985, was split into CBBC and CBeebies
with both new services getting a digital channel: the CBBC Channel
and CBeebies
Channel. In addition to the television channels, new digital radio stations were created: 1Xtra
, 6 Music
and BBC7. BBC 1Xtra
was a sister station to Radio 1
and specialised in modern black music, BBC 6 Music
specialised in alternative music genres and BBC7 specialising in archived and children's programming.
The following few years resulted in repositioning of some of the channels to conform to a larger brand: in 2003, BBC Choice
became BBC Three
, with programming for younger generations and shocking real life documentaries, BBC News 24 became the BBC News Channel in 2008, and BBC Radio 7 became BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2011, with new programmes to supplement those broadcast on Radio 4
. In 2008 another channel was launched, BBC Alba
, a Scottish Gaelic service.
The 2004 Hutton Inquiry
and the subsequent Report raised questions about the BBC's journalistic standards and its impartiality. This led to resignations of senior management members at the time including the then Director General, Greg Dyke
. In January 2007, the BBC released minutes of the Board meeting which led to Greg Dyke's resignation.
Unlike the other departments of the BBC, the BBC World Service is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, more commonly known as the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom abroad.
In the past few years, the BBC has experimented in high-definition television
. In 2006, BBC HD
launched as an experimental service, and became official in December 2007. The channel broadcasts HD simulcasts of programmes on BBC One
, Two
, Three
and Four
as well as repeats of some older programmes in HD. In 2010, a HD simulcast of BBC One launched: BBC One HD. The new channel uses HD versions of BBC One's schedule and uses upscaled versions of programmes not currently produced in HD.
On 18 October 2007, BBC Director General Mark Thompson announced a controversial plan to make major cuts and reduce the size of the BBC as an organisation. The plans included a reduction in posts of 2,500; including 1,800 redundancies, consolidating news operations, reducing programming output by 10% and selling off the flagship Television Centre
building in London. These plans have been fiercely opposed by unions, who have threatened a series of strikes, however the BBC have stated that the cuts are essential to move the organisation forward and concentrate on increasing the quality of programming.
On 20 October 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
George Osborne
announced that the television licence fee would be frozen at its current level until the end of the current charter in 2016. The same announcement revealed that the BBC would take on the full cost of running the BBC World Service
and the BBC Monitoring
service from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
, and will part finance the Welsh broadcaster S4C
.
Further cuts were announced on 6 October 2011, so the BBC could reach a total reduction in their budget of 20%, following the licence fee freeze in October 2010. Details include cutting staff by 2000 and sending a further 1000 to the MediaCityUK development, with BBC Three moving in 2016, the sharing of more programmes between stations and channels, sharing of radio news bulletins, more repeats in schedules, including the whole of BBC Two daytime and for some original programming to be reduced. Also, the BBC HD
channel would be closed and replaced with an HD simulcast of BBC Two, however flagship programmes, other channels and full funding for CBBC
and CBeebies
would be retained.
(formerly the Board of Governors
). General management of the organisation is in the hands of a Director-General
, who is appointed by the Trust; he is the BBC's Editor-in-Chief and chairs the Executive Board.
The 2007 Charter specifies that the mission of the Corporation is to "inform, educate and entertain". It states that the Corporation exists to serve the public interest and to promote its public purposes: sustaining citizenship and civil society, promoting education and learning, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence, representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities, bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.
This Charter also created the largest change in the governance of the Corporation since its inception. It abolished the sometimes controversial governing body, the Board of Governors
, and replaced it with the BBC Trust
and a formalised Executive Board.
Under the Royal Charter, the BBC must obtain a licence from the Home Secretary
. This licence is accompanied by an agreement which sets the terms and conditions under which BBC is allowed to broadcast. It was under this Licence and Agreement (and the Broadcasting Act 1981
) that the Sinn Féin broadcast ban from 1988 to 1994 was implemented.
as the governing body of the Corporation. The Trust sets the strategy for the corporation, assesses the performance of the BBC Executive Board in delivering the BBC's services, and appoints the Director-General.
BBC Trustees are appointed by the British monarch
on advice of government ministers. There are currently ten trustees with two vacancies, headed by the Chairman, Lord Patten of Barnes
and the vice-chairman Diane Coyle
. There are trustees for the four nations; England (Alison Hastings
), Scotland (Bill Matthews), Wales (Elan Closs Stephens
) and Northern Ireland (Rotha Johnston
). The remaining four trustees are Richard Ayre
, Anthony Fry, David Liddiment
and Mehmuda Mian.
. The Executive Board consists of both Executive and Non-Executive directors, with non-executive directors being sourced from other companies and corporations and being appointed by the BBC Trust
. The executive board is made up of the Director General, Mark Thompson
, as well as the head of each of the main BBC departments, with the exception of the BBC North Group. These at present are George Entwistle, Director of BBC Vision; Tim Davie
, Director of BBC Audio & Music; Ralph Rivera, Director of Future Media; Zarin Patel
, Chief Financial Officer; Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer and Helen Boaden
, Director of News.
In addition to these members, there are also five non-executive directors, these are currently Marcus Agius
, the senior non-executive director and Chairman of Barclays; Robert Webb QC, the chairman of BBC Worldwide Ltd, former General Counsel and part of British Airways
; Dr Mike Lynch
OBE, the co-founder and Chief Executive of Autonomy Corporation
; Val Gooding
, the former Chief Executive of BUPA and Simon Burke
the non-Executive Director.
All aspects of the BBC fall into one or more of the above departments, with the following exceptions:
, £1.9 billion for ITV
and £214 million in 2007 for GCap Media
(the largest commercial radio broadcaster).
The revenue is collected privately and is paid into the central government Consolidated Fund
, a process defined in the Communications Act 2003
. This TV Licensing collection is currently carried out by Capita, an outside agency. Funds are then allocated by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Treasury and approved by Parliament via legislation. Additional revenues are paid by the Department for Work and Pensions to compensate for subsidised licences for eligible over 75 year-olds.
Income from commercial enterprises and from overseas sales of its catalogue of programmes has substantially increased over recent years, with BBC Worldwide
contributing some £145 million to the BBC's core public service business.
According to the BBC's 2009–2010 Annual Report its income can be broken down, as follows:
The licence fee has, however, attracted criticism. It has been argued that in an age of multi stream, multi-channel availability, an obligation to pay a licence fee is no longer appropriate. The BBC's use of private sector company Capita Group
to send letters to premises not paying the licence fee has been criticised, especially as there have been cases where such letters have been sent to premises which are up to date with their payments, or do not require a TV licence.
The BBC uses an advertising campaign to inform customers of the requirement to pay the licence fee. These letters and adverts have been criticised by Conservative
MPs Boris Johnson
and Ann Widdecombe
, for having a threatening nature and language used to scare evaders into paying. Audio clips and television broadcasts are used to inform listeners of the BBC's comprehensive database. There are a number of pressure groups campaigning on the issue of the licence fee.
Broadcasting House
in Portland Place
, London, is the official headquarters of the BBC. It is home to three of the ten BBC national radio networks, BBC Radio 3
, BBC Radio 4
, and BBC Radio 4 Extra. On the front of the building are statues of Prospero
and Ariel
, characters from William Shakespeare
's play The Tempest
, sculpted by Eric Gill
. Renovation of Broadcasting House began in 2002 and is scheduled for completion in 2012.
BBC Television
and BBC News
are currently based at BBC Television Centre
a purpose built television facility and the second built in the country located in White City, London
. This facility has been host to a number of famous guests and programmes through the years, and its name and image is familiar with many British citizens. Nearby, the BBC White City
complex contains numerous programme offices, housed in Centre House, the Media Centre and Broadcast Centre. It is in this area around Shepherd's Bush
that the majority of BBC employees work.
As part of a major reorganisation of BBC property, the entire BBC News operation is expected to relocate from the News Centre at BBC Television Centre
to the refurbished Broadcasting House to create what is being described as "one of the world's largest live broadcast centres". Following completion Broadcasting House will also be home to most of the BBC's national radio stations, and the BBC World Service
. The major part of this plan involves the demolition of the two post-war extensions to the building and construction of an extension designed by Sir Richard MacCormac. This move will concentrate the BBC's London operations, allowing them to sell Television Centre, which is expected to be completed by 2015.
In addition to the scheme above, the BBC is in the process of making and producing more programmes outside of London. This involves producing more programmes at production centres such as Belfast
, Glasgow and, most notably, Manchester. As part of the scheme, BBC North West
is moving from New Broadcasting House
, Oxford Road, to MediaCityUK in Salford
. Joining them are the BBC Sports, BBC Children's
, Radio 5 Live
, BBC Breakfast
and BBC Philharmonic
departments and services from London. MediaCityUK will therefore become the biggest staffing operation outside London.
As well as the two main sites in London (Broadcasting House and White City), there are seven other major BBC production centres in the UK, mainly specialising in different productions. Broadcasting House Cardiff
, has been home to BBC Cymru Wales, which specialises in drama production. Open since October 2011, and containing 7 new studios, Roath Lock is notable as the home of productions such as Doctor Who
and Casualty (TV series)
. Broadcasting House Belfast
, home to BBC Northern Ireland
, specialises in original drama and comedy, and has taken part in many co-productions with independent companies and notably with RTÉ
in the Republic of Ireland. BBC Scotland
, based in Pacific Quay, Glasgow is a large producer of programmes for the network, including several quiz shows. In England, the larger regions also produce some programming.
The largest 'hub' of BBC programming from the regions
is BBC North West
from New Broadcasting House
, Manchester. At present they produce all Religious and Ethical programmes on the BBC, as well as other programmes such as A Question of Sport
, however this is to be expanded as part of the BBC North
project involving the region moving to MediaCityUK. BBC Midlands, based at The Mailbox
in Birmingham, also produces drama and contains the headquarters for the English regions
. Other production centres include Quarry Hill
in Leeds, home of BBC Yorkshire
, Broadcasting House Bristol, home of BBC West
and famously the BBC Natural History Unit
. Another production centre is Broadcasting House, Southampton which is home to BBC South
. This centre has only recently began producing network productions.
There are also many smaller local and regional studios throughout the UK.
In the UK, BBC One
and BBC Two
are the BBC's flagship television channels. Several digital
only stations are also broadcast: BBC Three
, BBC Four
, BBC News, BBC Parliament
, and two children's channels, CBBC
and CBeebies
. Digital television is now in widespread use in the UK, with analogue transmission being phased out by December 2012.
BBC One is a regionalised TV service which provides opt-outs throughout the day for local news and other local programming. These variations are more pronounced in the BBC 'Nations', i.e. Northern Ireland
, Scotland
and Wales
, where the presentation is mostly carried out locally on BBC One and Two, and where programme schedules can vary largely from that of the network. BBC Two variations exist in the Nations, however regions today rarely have the option to 'opt out' as regional programming now only exists on BBC One, and regional opt outs are not possible in the regions that have already undertaken the switch to digital television. BBC Two was also the first channel to be transmitted on 625 lines in 1964, then carry a small-scale regular colour service from 1967. BBC One would follow in November 1969.
A new Scottish Gaelic television channel, BBC Alba, was launched in September 2008. It is also the first multi-genre channel to come entirely from Scotland with almost all of its programmes made in Scotland. The service was initially only available via satellite
but since June 2011 has been available to viewers in Scotland on Freeview and cable television.
The BBC also has a HD
channel, BBC HD
, that launched on 9 June 2006 following a 12 month trial of the broadcasts. It became a proper channel in 2007, and screens HD programmes as simulcasts of the main network, or as repeats. The corporation has been producing programmes in the format for many years, and states that it hopes to produce 100% of new programmes in HDTV by 2010. On 3 November 2010, a high-definition simulcast of BBC One was launched, entitled BBC One HD.
In the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the BBC channels are available in a number of ways. In these countries digital and cable operators carry a range of BBC channels these include BBC One, BBC Two and BBC World News, although viewers in the Republic of Ireland may receive BBC services via 'overspill' from transmitters in Northern Ireland or Wales, or via 'deflectors' – transmitters in the Republic which rebroadcast broadcasts from the UK, received off-air, or from digital satellite.
Since 1975, the BBC has also provided its TV programmes to the British Forces Broadcasting Service
(BFBS), allowing members of UK military serving abroad to watch and listen to them on two dedicated TV channels.
Since 2008, all the BBC channels are available to watch online, either through the channel website, or through the BBC iPlayer
service. This online streaming ability came about following experiments with live streaming, involving streaming certain channels in the UK.
The BBC has ten national radio stations, six stations serving the BBC Regions and numerous others covering the Local regions in England. Of the ten national stations, five are major stations and are available on FM
, DAB
and online. These are BBC Radio 1
, offering new music and popular styles and being notable for its chart show; BBC Radio 2
, playing Adult contemporary
, country and soul music amongst many other genres; BBC Radio 3
, playing classical and jazz music and home to the BBC Proms; BBC Radio 4
, offering current affairs, factual, drama and comedy speech programmes and BBC Radio 5 Live
, broadcasting 24 hour news, sport and talk programmes.
In addition to these five stations, the BBC also runs five additional stations that broadcast on DAB and online only. These stations supplement and expand on the big five stations, and were launched in 2002. BBC Radio 1Xtra
sisters Radio 1, and broadcasts new black music and urban tracks. BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra sisters 5 Live and offers extra sport analysis, including broadcasting sports that previously were not covered. BBC 6 Music
offers alternative music genres and is notable as a platform for new artists.
BBC Radio 7, later renamed BBC Radio 4 Extra, provided archive drama, comedy and children's programming. Following the change to Radio 4 Extra, the service has dropped a defined children's strand in favour of family-friendly drama and comedy. In addition, new programmes to complement Radio 4 programmes were introduced such as Ambridge Extra
, and Desert Island Discs revisited. The final station is the BBC Asian Network
, providing music, talk and news to this section of the community. This station evolved out of Local radio stations serving certain areas, and as such this station is available on Medium Wave frequency in some areas of the Midlands.
As well as the national stations, the BBC also provides regional stations. In the 'Nations', six stations serve large areas of these regions. In Scotland, these are BBC Radio Scotland
and BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
, the latter providing programmes in Scots Gaelic
; in Wales these are BBC Radio Wales
and BBC Radio Cymru
, the latter providing programming in Welsh
and in Northern Ireland there is BBC Radio Ulster
with an opt out for the North West called BBC Radio Foyle
. Furthermore, there are 40 BBC Local Radio
stations in England and the Channel Islands, usually covering specific cities and their surrounding areas (Such as BBC Radio Bristol
), for counties, or regions (Such as BBC Three Counties Radio
), or geographic features (Such as BBC Radio Solent
covering the South Coast).
As part of BBC Local Radio, the BBC also serves the Channel Islands
, which strictly speaking are not part of the United Kingdom, through its TV News service and BBC Guernsey and BBC Radio Jersey
. These services are funded from locally collected licence fees. However, despite this, the BBC does not offer Local Radio for the Isle of Man
, primarily because the island has been served by the popular and long lasting independent commercial station, Manx Radio
.
For a worldwide audience, the BBC World Service
provides news, current affairs and information in 28 languages, including English, around the world and is available in over 150 capital cities. It is broadcast worldwide on shortwave
radio, DAB and online and has an estimated weekly audience of 180 million listeners. Since 2005, it is also available on DAB in the UK, a step not taken before, due to the way it is funded. The service is funded by a Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid, administered by the Foreign Office
, however following the Governments spending review in 2011, this funding will cease, and it will be funded for the first time through the Licence fee. In recent years, some services of the World Service have been reduced; the Thai
service ended in 2006 as did the Eastern European languages, with resources diverted instead into the new BBC Arabic Television
.
Historically, the BBC was the only legal radio broadcaster based in the UK mainland until 1967, when University Radio York (URY)
, then under the name Radio York, was launched as the first, and now oldest, legal independent radio station in the country. However, the BBC did not enjoy a complete monopoly before this as several Continental stations, such as Radio Luxembourg
, broadcast programmes in English to Britain since the 1930s and the Isle of Man based Manx Radio
began in 1964. Today, the BBC still has some of the most popular Radio stations, with BBC Radio 2 being the most popular of the network and the most popular in the country, with 12.9 million weekly listeners in 2006.
BBC Programming is also available to other services and in other countries. Since 1943, the BBC has provided radio programming to the British Forces Broadcasting Service
, which broadcasts in countries where British troops are stationed. BBC Radio 1
is also carried in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio
and Sirius Satellite Radio
.
The BBC is a patron of The Radio Academy
.
and BBC World News. In addition to this, news stories are available on the BBC Red Button service, Ceefax
and BBC News Online
. In addition to this, the BBC has been developing new ways to access BBC News, as a result has launched the service on BBC Mobile, making it accessible to mobile phones and PDAs, as well as developing alerts by e-mail, digital television, and on computers through a desktop alert.
Ratings figures suggest that during major crises such as the 7 July 2005 London bombings
or a Royal Event, the UK audience overwhelmingly turns to the BBC's coverage as opposed to its commercial rivals.
On 7 July 2005, the day that there were a series of coordinated bomb blasts on London's public transport system, the BBC Online website recorded an all time bandwidth
peak of 11 Gb
/s at 12:00 on 7 July. BBC News received some 1 billion total hits on the day of the event (including all images, text and HTML
), serving some 5.5 terabyte
s of data. At peak times during the day there were 40,000 page requests per second for the BBC News website. The previous day's announcement of the 2012 Olympics being awarded to London caused a peak of around 5 Gbit/s. The previous all time high at BBC Online was caused by the announcement of the Michael Jackson
verdict, which used 7.2 Gbit/s.
and archive. It was launched as BBC Online, before being renamed BBCi, then bbc.co.uk, before it was rebranded back as BBC Online. The website is funded by the Licence fee, but uses GeoIP
technology, allowing advertisements to be carried on the site when viewed outside of the UK. The BBC claims the site to be "Europe's most popular content-based site" and states that 13.2 million people in the UK visit the site's more than two million pages each day. According to Alexa's
TrafficRank system, in July 2008 BBC Online was the 27th most popular English Language website in the world, and the 46th most popular overall.
The centre of the website is the Homepage, which features a modular layout. Users can choose which modules, and which information, is displayed on their homepage, allowing the user to customise it. This system was first launched in December 2007, becoming permanent in February 2008, and has undergone a few aesthetical changes since then. The Homepage then has links to other micro-sites, such as BBC News Online
, Sport
, Weather
, TV and Radio. As part of the site, every programme on BBC Television or Radio is given its own page, with bigger programmes getting their own micro-site, and as a result it is often common for viewers and listeners to be told website addresses
(URLs) for the programme website.
Another large part of the site also allows users to watch and listen to most Television and Radio output live and for seven days after broadcast using the BBC iPlayer
platform, which launched on 27 July 2007, and initially used peer-to-peer
and DRM
technology to deliver both radio and TV content of the last seven days for offline use for up to 30 days, since then video is now streamed directly. Also, through participation in the Creative Archive Licence group, bbc.co.uk allowed legal downloads of selected archive material via the internet.
The BBC has often included learning as part of its online service, running services such as BBC Jam
, Learning Zone Class Clips
and also runs services such as BBC WebWise
and First Click which are designed to teach people how to use the internet. BBC Jam
was a free online service, delivered through broadband and narrowband connections, providing high-quality interactive resources designed to stimulate learning at home and at school. Initial content was made available in January 2006 however BBC Jam was suspended on 20 March 2007 due to allegations made to the European Commission
that it was damaging the interests of the commercial sector of the industry.
In recent years some major on-line companies and politicians have complained that BBC Online receives too much funding from the television licence, meaning that other websites are unable to compete with the vast amount of advertising-free on-line content available on BBC Online. Some have proposed that the amount of licence fee money spent on BBC Online should be reduced—either being replaced with funding from advertisements or subscriptions, or a reduction in the amount of content available on the site. In response to this the BBC carried out an investigation, and has now set in motion a plan to change the way it provides its online services. BBC Online will now attempt to fill in gaps in the market, and will guide users to other websites for currently existing market provision. (For example, instead of providing local events information and timetables, users will be guided to outside websites already providing that information.)
Part of this plan included the BBC closing some of its websites, and rediverting money to redevelop other parts.
On 26 February 2010 The Times
claimed that Mark Thompson
, Director General of the BBC, proposed that the BBC's web output should be cut by 50%, with online staff numbers and budgets reduced by 25% in a bid to scale back BBC operations and allow commercial rivals more room. On 2 March 2010, the BBC reported that it will cut its website spending by 25% and close BBC 6 Music and Asian Network, as part of Mark Thompson's plans to make " a smaller, fitter BBC for the digital age".
digital television
services, which are available through Freeview (digital terrestrial), as well as Freesat
, Sky (satellite), and Virgin Media
(cable). Unlike Ceefax
, the service's analogue counterpart, BBC Red Button is able to display full-colour graphics, photographs, and video, as well as programmes and can be accessed from any BBC channel. The service carries News, Weather and Sport 24 hours a day, but also provides extra features related to programmes specific at that time. Examples include viewers to play along at home to gameshows, to give, voice and vote on opinions to issues, as used alongside programmes such as Question Time
. At some points in the year, when multiple sporting events occur, some coverage of less mainstream sports or games are frequently placed on the Red Button for viewers to watch. Frequently, other features are added unrelated to programmes being broadcast at that time, such as the broadcast of the Doctor Who
animated episode Dreamland
in November 2009.
Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC responsible for the commercial exploitation of BBC programmes and other properties, including a number of television stations throughout the world. It was formed following the restructuring of its predecessor, BBC Enterprises, in 1995.
The company owns and administers a number of commercial stations around the world operating in a number of territories and on a number of different platforms. The channel BBC Entertainment
shows current and archive entertainment programming to viewers in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with the BBC Worldwide channels BBC America
and BBC Canada
(Joint venture with Knowledge Network Corporation) showing similar programming in the North America region and UKTV in the Australasia region. The company also airs two channels aimed at children, an international CBeebies
channel and BBC Kids
, a joint venture with Knowledge Network Corporation, which airs programmes under the CBeebies and BBC K brands. The company also runs the channels BBC Knowledge
, broadcasting factual and learning programmes, and BBC Lifestyle
, broadcasting programmes based on themes of Food, Style and Wellbeing. In addition to this, BBC Worldwide runs an internation version of the channel BBC HD
, and provides HD simulcasts of the channels BBC Knowledge and BBC America.
BBC Worldwide also distributes the 24-hour international news channel BBC World News. The station is separate from BBC Worldwide to maintain the station's neutral point of view, but is distributed by BBC Worldwide. The channel itself is the oldest surviving entity of its kind, and has bases and correspondents in over 200 countries. As officially surveyed it is available to more than 274 million households, significantly more than CNN
's estimated 200 million.
In addition to these international channels, BBC Worldwide also owns, together with Virgin Media
, the UKTV
network of ten channels. These channels contain BBC archive programming to be rebroadcast on their respective channels: Alibi, drama; Blighty, British-oriented; Dave (slogan: "The Home of Witty Banter"); Eden, nature; GOLD, comedy; Good Food, cookery; Home, home and garden; Really
, female programming; Watch
, entertainment and Yesterday, history programming.
In addition to these channels, many BBC programmes are sold via BBC Worldwide to foreign television stations with comedy, documentaries and historical drama
productions being most popular. In addition, BBC television news appears nightly on many Public Broadcasting Service
stations in the United States, as do reruns of BBC programmes such as EastEnders
, and in New Zealand on TV One.
In addition to programming, BBC Worldwide produces material to accompany programmes. The company maintained the publishing arm of the BBC, and is currently the third-largest publisher of consumer magazines in the United Kingdom. BBC Magazines
, formerly known as BBC Publications, publishes the Radio Times
as well as a number of magazines that support BBC programming such as BBC Top Gear
, BBC Good Food, BBC Sky at Night
, BBC History
, BBC Wildlife
and BBC Music
. This department included independent magazine publisher Origin Publishing, which BBC Worldwide owned between 2004 and 2006.
BBC Worldwide also publishes books, to accompany programmes such as Doctor Who
under the BBC Books
brand, and also owns the biggest travel guidebook and digital media publisher in the world, Lonely Planet
. Soundtrack albums, talking books and sections of radio broadcasts are also sold under the brand BBC Records
, with DVD's also being sold and licensed in large quantities to consumers both in the UK and abroad under the 2 Entertain
brand. Archive programming and classical music recordings are sold under the brand BBC Legends.
, the BBC Singers
, BBC Symphony Chorus
and BBC Big Band
based in London, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
in Glasgow, the BBC Philharmonic
in Manchester, the BBC Concert Orchestra
based in Watford and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales
in Cardiff. It also buys a selected number of broadcasts from the Ulster Orchestra
in Belfast. Many famous musicians of every genre have played at the BBC, such as The Beatles (The Beatles Live at the BBC is one of their many albums). The BBC is also responsible for the United Kingdom coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest
, a show with which the broadcaster has been associated for over 50 years.
, which monitors radio, television, the press and the internet worldwide.
In the 1980s, the BBC developed several PCs, most notably the BBC Micro
.
and electrical staff by Amicus
. Union membership is optional, staff are not automatically covered by a union, and is paid for by staff members and not by the BBC.
)", This heralded the transformation of television into a popular and dominant medium. Nevertheless, "throughout the 1950s radio still remained the dominant source of broadcast comedy". Further, the BBC was the only legal radio broadcaster until 1968 (when URY
obtained their first licence).
Even since the advent of commercial television and radio, the BBC has remained one of the main elements in British popular culture through its obligation to produce TV and radio programmes for mass audiences. However, the arrival of BBC2 allowed the BBC also to make programmes for minority interests in drama, documentaries, current affairs, entertainment and sport. Examples are cited such as I, Claudius
, Civilisation, Tonight
, Monty Python's Flying Circus
, Doctor Who
and Pot Black
, but other examples can be given in each of these fields as shown by the BBC's entries in the British Film Institute
's 2000 list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
. The export of BBC programmes through both services like the BBC World Service
and BBC World News, as well as the channels operated by BBC Worldwide
mean that BBC productions can now be experienced worldwide.
The term BBC English (Received Pronunciation) refers to the former use of Standard English
with this accent. However, the organisation now makes more use of regional accents
in order to reflect the diversity of the UK, though clarity and fluency are still expected of presenters. From its 'starchy' beginnings, the BBC has also become more inclusive, and now attempts to accommodate the interests of all strata of society and all minorities, because they all pay the licence fee.
Competition from Independent Television
, Channel 4
, Sky
and other broadcast television stations, has lessened the BBC's influence, but such public broadcasting remains a major influence on British popular culture.
in The Goon Show
in the 1950s, when he referred to the "Beeb Beeb Ceeb". It was then borrowed, shortened and popularised by Kenny Everett
. Another nickname, now less commonly used, is "Auntie", said to originate from the old-fashioned "Auntie knows best" attitude (but possibly a sly reference to the "aunties" and "uncles" who were presenters of children's programmes in early days) in the days when John Reith
, the BBC's first director general, was in charge. The two nicknames have also been used together as "Auntie Beeb", and Auntie has been used in out-take programmes such as Auntie's Bloomers.
General:
Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...
. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...
in the City of Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff. Its main responsibility is to provide public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom
Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the term "public service broadcasting" refers to broadcasting intended for the public benefit rather than for purely commercial concerns. The communications regulator Ofcom, requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfil certain requirements as part of their...
, Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
and Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
.
The BBC is an autonomous public service broadcaster that operates under a Royal Charter and a Licence and Agreement from the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
. Within the United Kingdom its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee
Television licensing in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies, any household watching or recording live television transmissions is required to purchase a television licence every year. As of 2010, this costs £145.50 for colour and £49.00 for black and white. The licence is required to receive any live...
, which is charged to all British households, companies and organisations using any type of equipment to record and/or receive live television broadcasts; the level of the fee is set annually by the British Government
Government of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Government is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining Ministers...
and agreed by Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
.
Outside the UK, the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
has provided services by direct broadcasting and re-transmission contracts by sound radio since the inauguration of the BBC Empire Service in December 1932, and more recently by television and online. Though sharing some of the facilities of the domestic services, particularly for news and current affairs output, the World Service has a separate Managing Director, and its operating costs have historically been funded mainly by direct grants from the British government. These grants were determined independently of the domestic licence fee. A recent spending review has announced plans for the funding for the world service to be drawn from the domestic licence fee.
The Corporation's 'guaranteed' income from the licence fee and the World Service grants are supplemented by profits from commercial operations through a wholly owned subsidiary, BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
Ltd. The company's activities include programme- and format-sales, magazines including the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
and book publishing. The BBC also earns additional income from selling certain programme-making services through BBC Studios and Post Production Ltd.
BBC Studios and Post Production
BBC Studios and Post Production is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, providing TV studios and post production services to the media industry....
, formerly BBC Resources Ltd, another wholly owned trading subsidiary of the corporation. The BBC is sometimes referred to as "Auntie Beeb".
History of the BBC
British Broadcasting Company
The British Broadcasting Company Ltd was a British commercial company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom and licensed by the British General Post Office...
. The original company was founded in 1922 by a group of six telecommunications companies—Marconi, Radio Communication Company, Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam...
(MetroVick), General Electric
The General Electric Company plc
The General Electric Company or GEC was a major British-based industrial conglomerate, involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications and engineering. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was renamed Marconi Corporation plc in 1999 after its defence arm,...
, Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
, and British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines. They were merged with the similar Metropolitan-Vickers company in 1928, but the two maintained their own...
(BTH)—to broadcast experimental radio services. The first transmission was on 14 November of that year, from station 2LO
2LO
2LO was the second radio station to regularly broadcast in the United Kingdom . It began broadcasting on 11 May 1922, for one hour a day from the seventh floor of Marconi House in London's Strand...
, located at Marconi House, London.
The British Broadcasting Company Ltd was created by the British General Post Office (GPO) and John Reith
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom...
applied for a job with the existing company and later became its employee general manager. The company was wound-up and on 1 January 1927 a new non-commercial entity called the British Broadcasting Corporation established under a Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
became successor in interest.
To represent its purpose and (stated) values, the Corporation adopted the coat of arms, including the motto "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation". The motto is generally attributed to Montague John Rendall, former headmaster of Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, and member of the first BBC Board of Governors. The motto is said to be a "felicitous adaptation" of Micah
Micah (prophet)
Micah, meaning “who is like Yahweh," was a prophet who prophesied from approximately 737-690 BC in Judah and is the author of the Book of Micah. He was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos and Hosea and is considered one of the twelve minor prophets of the Tanakh . Micah was from...
4: 3 "nation shall not lift up a sword against nation".
Experimental television broadcasts were started in 1932 using an electromechanical 30 line system developed by John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
. Limited regular broadcasts using this system began in 1934, and an expanded service (now named the BBC Television Service) started from Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...
in 1936, alternating between an improved Baird mechanical 240 line system and the all electronic 405 line Marconi-EMI system. The superiority of the electronic system saw the mechanical system dropped early the following year.
Post WW2
Television broadcasting was suspended from 1 September 1939 to 7 June 1946 during the Second World War. A widely reported urban myth is that, upon resumption of service, announcer Leslie MitchellLeslie Mitchell (broadcaster)
Leslie Mitchell , was famous in the United Kingdom as the first voice heard on BBC Television at its inception on 2 November 1936, and also for making the first announcement on Associated-Rediffusion, the first ITV company, on 22 September 1955...
started by saying, "As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted ..." In fact, the first person to appear when transmission resumed was Jasmine Bligh
Jasmine Bligh
Jasmine Lydia Bligh was one of the first three BBC Television Service presenters in the 1930s, along with Leslie Mitchell and Elizabeth Cowell, providing continuity announcements and introducing programmes in-vision....
and the words said were "Good afternoon, everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh ...?"
The European Broadcasting Union
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union is a confederation of 74 broadcasting organisations from 56 countries, and 49 associate broadcasters from a further 25...
was formed on 12 February 1950, in Torquay with the BBC among the 23 founding broadcasting organisations.
Competition to the BBC was introduced in 1955 with the commercial and independently operated television network of ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
. However, the BBC monopoly on radio services would persist into the 1970s. As a result of the Pilkington Committee
Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting
The Pilkington Committee was set up on 13 July 1960 under the chairmanship of British industrialist Sir Harry Pilkington to consider the future of broadcasting, cable and "the possibility of television for public showing"...
report of 1962, in which the BBC was praised for the quality and range of its output, and ITV was very heavily criticised for not providing enough quality programming, the decision was taken to award the BBC a second television channel, BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, in 1964, renaming the existing service BBC1. BBC2 used the higher resolution 625 line standard which had been standardised across Europe. BBC2 was broadcast in colour from 1 July 1967, and was joined by BBC 1 and ITV on 15 November 1969. The 405 line VHF transmissions of BBC1 (and ITV) were continued for compatibility with older television receivers until 1985.
Starting in 1964 a series of pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
stations (starting with Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is an English radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly...
) came on the air, and forced the British government finally to regulate radio services to permit nationally based advertising-financed services. In response the BBC reorganised and renamed their radio channels. The Light Programme was split into Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
offering continuous "Popular" music and Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
more "Easy Listening". The "Third" programme became Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
offering classical music and cultural programming. The Home Service became Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
offering news, and non-musical content such as quiz shows, readings, dramas and plays. As well as the four national channels, a series of local BBC radio stations were established in 1967, including Radio London
BBC London 94.9
BBC London 94.9 is London's BBC Local Radio station, and part of BBC London. Broadcasting across Greater London and beyond on 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media Channel 930, Sky Channel 0152 and also online...
.
In 1974, the BBC's teletext
Teletext
Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
service, Ceefax
Ceefax
Ceefax is the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and will run until April 2012 for Pages from Ceefax, while the actual interactive service will run until 24 October 2012, in-line with the digital switchover.-History:During the late 60s, engineer...
, was introduced, created initially to provide subtitling, but developed into a news and information service. In 1978 BBC staff went on strike just before the Christmas of that year, thus blocking out the transmission of both channels and amalgamating all four radio stations into one.
Since the deregulation of the UK television and radio market in the 1980s, the BBC has faced increased competition from the commercial sector (and from the advertiser-funded public service broadcaster Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
), especially on satellite television, cable television, and digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
services.
The BBC Research Department
BBC Research Department
-Function:It has responsibility for researching and developing advanced and emerging media technologies for the benefit of the corporation, and wider UK and European media industries, and is also the technical design authority for a number of major technical infrastructure transformation projects...
has played a major part in the development of broadcasting and recording techniques. In the early days it carried out essential research into acoustics and programme level and noise measurement.
In recent decades, a number of additional channels and radio stations have been launched: Radio 5
BBC Radio 5 (former)
BBC Radio 5 was a BBC radio network that carried sport, children's and educational programmes.It was transmitted via analogue radio on 693 and 909 kHz, and lasted for three years and eight months. The success of BBC Radio 4's coverage of the Gulf War, on a service known as Scud FM,...
was launched in 1990 as a sports and educational station, but was replaced in 1994 with Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
, following the success of the Radio 4 service to cover the 1991 Gulf War. The new station would be a news and sport station. In 1997, BBC News 24
BBC News 24
BBC News is the BBC's 24-hour rolling news television network in the United Kingdom. The channel launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 17:30 as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic television channels, becoming the first competitor to Sky News, which had been running since 1989...
, a rolling news channel, launched on digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
services and the following year, BBC Choice
BBC Choice
BBC Choice was a BBC TV station which launched on 23 September 1998 and closed on 9 February 2003. It was the first British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in digital format, and was the first new channel from the BBC since BBC Two launched in 1964...
launched as the third general entertainment channel from the BBC. The BBC also purchased The Parliamentary Channel, which was renamed BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament...
. In 1999, BBC Knowledge
BBC Knowledge
BBC Knowledge was an early BBC digital television channel, available by cable, satellite, or terrestrial digital broadcasting, providing a programme of documentary, cultural and educational television.-Launch:...
launched as a multi media channel, with services available on the newly launched BBC Text digital teletext service, and on BBC Online. The channel had an educational aim, which was modified later on in its life to offer documentaries.
21st century
In 2002, a number of new channels and stations were made: BBC KnowledgeBBC Knowledge
BBC Knowledge was an early BBC digital television channel, available by cable, satellite, or terrestrial digital broadcasting, providing a programme of documentary, cultural and educational television.-Launch:...
was renamed BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
and became the BBC's arts and documentaries channel. In addition, CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
, which had been a programming strand as Children's BBC since 1985, was split into CBBC and CBeebies
CBeebies
CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...
with both new services getting a digital channel: the CBBC Channel
CBBC Channel
CBBC is a BBC television channel aimed at 6 to 12 year olds. It complements the CBBC programming that continues to air on BBC One and BBC Two. Launched on 11 February 2002, it broadcasts from 7am to 7pm on Freeview, cable, IPTV and digital satellite, occupying the same bandwidth as, but a different...
and CBeebies
CBeebies
CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...
Channel. In addition to the television channels, new digital radio stations were created: 1Xtra
BBC Radio 1Xtra
BBC Radio 1Xtra is a digital radio station in the United Kingdom from the BBC specialising in new black music, sometimes referred to as urban music. Launched at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been codenamed Network X during the consulation period and is the sister station to BBC Radio 1...
, 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
and BBC7. BBC 1Xtra
BBC Radio 1Xtra
BBC Radio 1Xtra is a digital radio station in the United Kingdom from the BBC specialising in new black music, sometimes referred to as urban music. Launched at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been codenamed Network X during the consulation period and is the sister station to BBC Radio 1...
was a sister station to Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
and specialised in modern black music, BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
specialised in alternative music genres and BBC7 specialising in archived and children's programming.
The following few years resulted in repositioning of some of the channels to conform to a larger brand: in 2003, BBC Choice
BBC Choice
BBC Choice was a BBC TV station which launched on 23 September 1998 and closed on 9 February 2003. It was the first British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in digital format, and was the first new channel from the BBC since BBC Two launched in 1964...
became BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
, with programming for younger generations and shocking real life documentaries, BBC News 24 became the BBC News Channel in 2008, and BBC Radio 7 became BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2011, with new programmes to supplement those broadcast on Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. In 2008 another channel was launched, BBC Alba
BBC Alba
BBC Gàidhlig is the department of BBC Scotland that produces Scottish Gaelic language programming. This includes TV programmes for BBC Alba and BBC Two Scotland, the BBC Radio nan Gàidheal radio station and the BBC Alba website.-Television:...
, a Scottish Gaelic service.
The 2004 Hutton Inquiry
Hutton Inquiry
The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.On 18 July 2003, Kelly, an employee...
and the subsequent Report raised questions about the BBC's journalistic standards and its impartiality. This led to resignations of senior management members at the time including the then Director General, Greg Dyke
Greg Dyke
Gregory "Greg" Dyke is a British media executive, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing 'tabloid' television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am...
. In January 2007, the BBC released minutes of the Board meeting which led to Greg Dyke's resignation.
Unlike the other departments of the BBC, the BBC World Service is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, more commonly known as the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom abroad.
In the past few years, the BBC has experimented in high-definition television
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. In 2006, BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
launched as an experimental service, and became official in December 2007. The channel broadcasts HD simulcasts of programmes on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
and Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
as well as repeats of some older programmes in HD. In 2010, a HD simulcast of BBC One launched: BBC One HD. The new channel uses HD versions of BBC One's schedule and uses upscaled versions of programmes not currently produced in HD.
On 18 October 2007, BBC Director General Mark Thompson announced a controversial plan to make major cuts and reduce the size of the BBC as an organisation. The plans included a reduction in posts of 2,500; including 1,800 redundancies, consolidating news operations, reducing programming output by 10% and selling off the flagship Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
building in London. These plans have been fiercely opposed by unions, who have threatened a series of strikes, however the BBC have stated that the cuts are essential to move the organisation forward and concentrate on increasing the quality of programming.
On 20 October 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
George Osborne
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne, MP is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in...
announced that the television licence fee would be frozen at its current level until the end of the current charter in 2016. The same announcement revealed that the BBC would take on the full cost of running the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
and the BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation which monitors, and reports on, mass media worldwide. Based at Caversham Park in Caversham, Reading in southern England, it has a number of overseas bureaux including Moscow, Nairobi, Kiev, Baku, Tashkent, Cairo, Tbilisi, Yerevan...
service from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
, and will part finance the Welsh broadcaster S4C
S4C
S4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fifth oldest British television channel .The channel - initially broadcast on...
.
Further cuts were announced on 6 October 2011, so the BBC could reach a total reduction in their budget of 20%, following the licence fee freeze in October 2010. Details include cutting staff by 2000 and sending a further 1000 to the MediaCityUK development, with BBC Three moving in 2016, the sharing of more programmes between stations and channels, sharing of radio news bulletins, more repeats in schedules, including the whole of BBC Two daytime and for some original programming to be reduced. Also, the BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
channel would be closed and replaced with an HD simulcast of BBC Two, however flagship programmes, other channels and full funding for CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
and CBeebies
CBeebies
CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...
would be retained.
Governance
The BBC is a corporation, independent from direct government intervention, with its activities being overseen by the BBC TrustBBC Trust
The BBC Trust is the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and aims to act in the best interests of licence fee payers....
(formerly the Board of Governors
Board of Governors of the BBC
The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...
). General management of the organisation is in the hands of a Director-General
Director-General of the BBC
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and is now appointed by the BBC Trust....
, who is appointed by the Trust; he is the BBC's Editor-in-Chief and chairs the Executive Board.
Charter
The BBC operates under a Royal Charter, with the current Charter having come into effect on 1 January 2007 and running until 31 December 2016. The Royal Charter is reviewed every 10 years.The 2007 Charter specifies that the mission of the Corporation is to "inform, educate and entertain". It states that the Corporation exists to serve the public interest and to promote its public purposes: sustaining citizenship and civil society, promoting education and learning, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence, representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities, bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.
This Charter also created the largest change in the governance of the Corporation since its inception. It abolished the sometimes controversial governing body, the Board of Governors
Board of Governors of the BBC
The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...
, and replaced it with the BBC Trust
BBC Trust
The BBC Trust is the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and aims to act in the best interests of licence fee payers....
and a formalised Executive Board.
Under the Royal Charter, the BBC must obtain a licence from the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
. This licence is accompanied by an agreement which sets the terms and conditions under which BBC is allowed to broadcast. It was under this Licence and Agreement (and the Broadcasting Act 1981
Broadcasting Act 1981
The Broadcasting Act 1981 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The effect of the Act was to consolidate the previous Independent Broadcasting Acts 1973, 1974 and 1978 and the Broadcasting Act 1980. The Act was repealed by the Broadcasting Act 1990...
) that the Sinn Féin broadcast ban from 1988 to 1994 was implemented.
BBC Trust
The BBC Trust was formed on 1 January 2007, replacing the Board of GovernorsBoard of Governors of the BBC
The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...
as the governing body of the Corporation. The Trust sets the strategy for the corporation, assesses the performance of the BBC Executive Board in delivering the BBC's services, and appoints the Director-General.
BBC Trustees are appointed by the British monarch
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
on advice of government ministers. There are currently ten trustees with two vacancies, headed by the Chairman, Lord Patten of Barnes
Chris Patten
Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC , is the last Governor of British Hong Kong, a former British Conservative politician, and the current chairman of the BBC Trust....
and the vice-chairman Diane Coyle
Diane Coyle
Diane Coyle, OBE , is a freelance economist, and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and Vice Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation....
. There are trustees for the four nations; England (Alison Hastings
Alison Hastings
Alison Hastings is the member for England on the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and a Vice President of the British Board of Film Classification....
), Scotland (Bill Matthews), Wales (Elan Closs Stephens
Elan Closs Stephens
Elan Closs Stephens CBE is a Welsh educator and civil servant, the Wales representative on the BBC Trust.Born in Talysarn in the Nantlle Valley, Gwynedd, she was educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle and Somerville College, Oxford....
) and Northern Ireland (Rotha Johnston
Rotha Johnston
Rotha Johnston, CBE is a British entrepreneur in commerce and property. She is the Northern Ireland member of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation....
). The remaining four trustees are Richard Ayre
Richard James Ayre
Richard Ayre is a member of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is a former member for England of the OFCOM Content Board and chair of its Broadcast Review Committee...
, Anthony Fry, David Liddiment
David Liddiment
David Liddiment is a non-executive director of the independent production company All3Media, the largest independent production house in the UK...
and Mehmuda Mian.
Executive Board
The Executive Board is responsible for operational management and delivery of services within a framework set by the BBC Trust, and is headed by the Director-General, Mark ThompsonMark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...
. The Executive Board consists of both Executive and Non-Executive directors, with non-executive directors being sourced from other companies and corporations and being appointed by the BBC Trust
BBC Trust
The BBC Trust is the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and aims to act in the best interests of licence fee payers....
. The executive board is made up of the Director General, Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...
, as well as the head of each of the main BBC departments, with the exception of the BBC North Group. These at present are George Entwistle, Director of BBC Vision; Tim Davie
Tim Davie
Tim Davie is the BBC's Director of Audio and Music. He joined the BBC in April 2005.In his current role, he sits on the BBC's Executive Board with overall responsibility for all of the BBC's national radio networks and the corporation's music output across all media...
, Director of BBC Audio & Music; Ralph Rivera, Director of Future Media; Zarin Patel
Zarin Patel
Zarin Patel is the BBC's Chief Financial Officer. She took up the post on 1 December 2004 following the promotion of John Smith to Chief Operating Officer. She was previously Head of Revenue Management, the department within the BBC responsible for collecting the Television licence, a job she had...
, Chief Financial Officer; Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer and Helen Boaden
Helen Boaden
Helen Boaden is the director of BBC News, part of the world’s biggest broadcast news operation . Boaden controls much of the BBC's domestic news output along with current affairs, including programmes such as Newsnight and Panorama.-Education:Boaden attended Colchester County High School for Girls...
, Director of News.
In addition to these members, there are also five non-executive directors, these are currently Marcus Agius
Marcus Agius
Marcus Ambrose Paul Agius is a British financier and businessman, currently the Chairman of Barclays. He has also been appointed the senior non-executive director on the BBC's new executive board.-Biography:...
, the senior non-executive director and Chairman of Barclays; Robert Webb QC, the chairman of BBC Worldwide Ltd, former General Counsel and part of British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
; Dr Mike Lynch
Michael Richard Lynch
Dr Michael Richard Lynch OBE, FREng is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Autonomy Corporation. His entrepreneurship is associated with Silicon Fen. He is a leader in the area of computer understanding of unstructured information, an area which is becoming known as meaning-based computing...
OBE, the co-founder and Chief Executive of Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy is a multinational enterprise software company with joint headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and San Francisco, USA and a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard. The company uses a combination of technologies born out of research at the University of Cambridge...
; Val Gooding
Val Gooding
Val Gooding CBE was Chief Executive of Bupa, from 1998 to May 2008. She was awarded the CBE for services to business in 2002. She has been credited various entrepreneur awards since her Executiveship. Fortune magazine calls her one of the most successful women...
, the former Chief Executive of BUPA and Simon Burke
Simon Burke
Simon Burke is an Australian actor. Burke began his acting career as a 13 year-old in the Australian film, The Devil's Playground for which he was awarded Best Actor at the 1976 Australian Film Institute Awards....
the non-Executive Director.
Corporate structure
The Corporation is headed by Director General's office, which has overall control of the management and running of the BBC. Below this is the BBC Direction Group, which deals with inter departmental issues and any other tasks which the Executive board has delegated to it. Below the BBC Decision Group are the following seven departments covering all the BBC's output:- BBC VisionBBC VisionBBC Vision is a department of the BBC which incorporates the programme production, commissioning and broadcast operations including BBC Television...
is in charge of BBC TelevisionBBC TelevisionBBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
, of commissioning and producing television programming, of operations such as the BBC Natural History UnitBBC Natural History UnitThe BBC Natural History Unit is a department of the BBC dedicated to making television and radio programmes with a natural history or wildlife theme, especially nature documentaries...
and also includes the BBC ArchivesBBC ArchivesThe BBC Archives are collections documenting the BBC's broadcasting history.- Overview :The archives contain 1 million hours of media material dating back to the 1890s, with early material on wax cylinder. With other materials such as photos and written documents the archive contains 11 million...
. - BBC Audio & Music is in charge of BBC RadioBBC RadioBBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
and music content across the BBC, including the Music are of BBC Online, music programmes on BBC Television, events such as the BBC Proms and the numerous orchestrasBBC Orchestras and SingersBBC Orchestras and Singers refers collectively to a number of orchestras, choirs and other musical ensembles, maintained by the BBC.-Current list of ensembles:* BBC Concert Orchestra* BBC National Orchestra of Wales* BBC Philharmonic...
such as the BBC PhilharmonicBBC PhilharmonicThe BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
. - BBC Future Media is in charge of all digital output, such as BBC Online, the BBC iPlayerBBC iPlayerBBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
, BBC Red Button service and developing new technologies through BBC Research. - BBC Operations includes the former BBC People department in charge of employees welfare, the Technologies department, previously part of BBC Future Media, and BBC Marketing, Communications and Audience. The department as a whole looks after the employees, the upkeep of the buildings, strategy, policy, property, legal affairs, marketing and the normal day to day functioning of the company.
- BBC Finance & Business manage the corporations expenses, long term business plans and licence fee collection. They also assign budgets to the different departments.
- BBC News Group operate the entire BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
operation, including the national, regional and international operations. They are in charge of all Television, Radio and Online bulletins in all operations. They are in charge of BBC ScotlandBBC ScotlandBBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
, BBC Northern IrelandBBC Northern IrelandBBC Northern Ireland is the main public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland.The organisation is one of the three national regions of the BBC, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales. Based at Broadcasting House, Belfast, it provides television, radio, online and interactive television content...
, BBC Cymru Wales and the BBC English RegionsBBC English RegionsBBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland....
and the BBC Global News division. - The BBC NorthBBC NorthBBC North is a brand used by the BBC to mean any of the following.*The large BBC North region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968....
group includes all departments moving to MediaCityUK. It has organised the move, and contains departments such as BBC SportBBC SportBBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
, BBC Children'sCBBCCBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
, BBC Radio 5 LiveBBC Radio 5 LiveBBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
as well as some sections of BBC LearningBBC LearningBBC Learning can refer to the following:* A department within the BBC , part of BBC Vision* The portal website created by BBC Learning* A website created by BBC Worldwide-BBC Worldwide:...
. Many of the departments in this section belong to other departments too, such as BBC Radio 5 LiveBBC Radio 5 LiveBBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
which is also part of BBC Audio & Music.
All aspects of the BBC fall into one or more of the above departments, with the following exceptions:
- The BBC TrustBBC TrustThe BBC Trust is the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and aims to act in the best interests of licence fee payers....
is separate from departments as it is part of their operation to monitor the operations and departments of the corporation. The other three departments are stand-alone, due to their commercial nature. - BBC WorldwideBBC WorldwideBBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
Ltd. operates international channels and exploits programme brands to gain addition income for BBC programmes. The BBC World News department is distributed by BBC Worldwide, but still separate. It has close links with the BBC News group, but is not governed by it. - BBC Studios and Post ProductionBBC Studios and Post ProductionBBC Studios and Post Production is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, providing TV studios and post production services to the media industry....
is also separate and officially owns and operates some of the BBC's facilities, such as BBC Television CentreBBC Television CentreBBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
.
Finance
The BBC has the second largest budget of any UK broadcaster with an operating expenditure of £4.26 billion in 2009/10 compared to £5.9 billion for British Sky BroadcastingBritish Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
, £1.9 billion for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
and £214 million in 2007 for GCap Media
GCap Media
GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. On 31 March 2008 the company agreed a takeover by...
(the largest commercial radio broadcaster).
Revenue
The principal means of funding the BBC is through the television licence, costing £145.50 per year per household (as of April 2010). Such a licence is required to receive broadcast television across Britain, however no licence is required to own a television used for other means, or for sound only radio sets (though a separate licence for these was also required for non-TV households until 1971). The cost of a television licence is set by the government and enforced by the criminal law. A discount is available for households with only black-and-white television sets. A 50% discount is also offered to registered blind.The revenue is collected privately and is paid into the central government Consolidated Fund
Consolidated Fund
Consolidated Fund or the Consolidated Revenue Fund is the term used for the main bank account of the government in many of the countries in the Commonwealth of Nations.-Establishment:...
, a process defined in the Communications Act 2003
Communications Act 2003
The Communications Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It gave regulation body Ofcom its full powers. Among other measures, it introduced legal recognition of Community Radio and paved the way for full-time Community Radio services in the UK; as well as controversially...
. This TV Licensing collection is currently carried out by Capita, an outside agency. Funds are then allocated by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Treasury and approved by Parliament via legislation. Additional revenues are paid by the Department for Work and Pensions to compensate for subsidised licences for eligible over 75 year-olds.
Income from commercial enterprises and from overseas sales of its catalogue of programmes has substantially increased over recent years, with BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
contributing some £145 million to the BBC's core public service business.
According to the BBC's 2009–2010 Annual Report its income can be broken down, as follows:
- £3,446.8 million in licence fees collected from householders;
- £888.3 million from BBC Commercial Businesses;
- £293 million from government grants;
- £112.9 million from other income, such as providing content to overseas broadcasters and concert ticket sales;
The licence fee has, however, attracted criticism. It has been argued that in an age of multi stream, multi-channel availability, an obligation to pay a licence fee is no longer appropriate. The BBC's use of private sector company Capita Group
Capita Group
The Capita Group Plc , commonly known as Capita Group or Capita, is a business process outsourcing and recruitment company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest business process outsourcing company in the UK, with an overall market share of 27% in 2009, and has clients in...
to send letters to premises not paying the licence fee has been criticised, especially as there have been cases where such letters have been sent to premises which are up to date with their payments, or do not require a TV licence.
The BBC uses an advertising campaign to inform customers of the requirement to pay the licence fee. These letters and adverts have been criticised by Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MPs Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
and Ann Widdecombe
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010. She was a social conservative and a member of...
, for having a threatening nature and language used to scare evaders into paying. Audio clips and television broadcasts are used to inform listeners of the BBC's comprehensive database. There are a number of pressure groups campaigning on the issue of the licence fee.
Expenditure
The following expenditure figures are from 2010/2011 and show expenditure per service, and major department.| Service | Total Cost (£ Pound sterling The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence... million) |
|---|---|
| BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution... Including Regions |
1,402.9 |
| BBC Two BBC Two BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio... |
528.3 |
| BBC Three BBC Three BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent... |
110.1 |
| BBC Four BBC Four BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable.... |
67.1 |
| CBBC CBBC CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14... and CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both... |
139 |
| BBC News and BBC Parliament BBC Parliament BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament... |
69.1 |
| BBC HD BBC HD BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007... |
11.8 |
| BBC Alba BBC Alba BBC Gàidhlig is the department of BBC Scotland that produces Scottish Gaelic language programming. This includes TV programmes for BBC Alba and BBC Two Scotland, the BBC Radio nan Gàidheal radio station and the BBC Alba website.-Television:... |
7.6 |
| BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock... and 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a digital radio station in the United Kingdom from the BBC specialising in new black music, sometimes referred to as urban music. Launched at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been codenamed Network X during the consulation period and is the sister station to BBC Radio 1... |
59.1 |
| BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres... |
59.2 |
| BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation... |
50.7 |
| BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the... and Radio 4 Extra |
128 |
| BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries... and 5 Live Sports Extra |
77.8 |
| BBC 6 Music BBC 6 Music BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years.... |
10.8 |
| BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham, Leicester and London... |
12.6 |
| Nations & Local Radio | 240.7 |
| BBC Online | 194.2 |
| Total | 3,169 |
| Department | Total cost (£ Pound sterling The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence... million) |
|---|---|
| Television BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television... , including regions and productions for S4C S4C S4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fifth oldest British television channel .The channel - initially broadcast on... |
2,368.1 |
| Radio BBC Radio BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company... |
638.9 |
| BBC Online | 194.2 |
| BBC Red Button | 39.5 |
| BBC Orchestras and Singers BBC Orchestras and Singers BBC Orchestras and Singers refers collectively to a number of orchestras, choirs and other musical ensembles, maintained by the BBC.-Current list of ensembles:* BBC Concert Orchestra* BBC National Orchestra of Wales* BBC Philharmonic... |
24.1 |
| Development | 32.9 |
| Digital Switchover | 80.3 |
| Licence Fee Collection | 123.6 |
| Restructuring | 29.6 |
| Total | 3,531.2 |
Headquarters and regional offices
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...
in Portland Place
Portland Place
Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London, England.-History and topography:The street was laid out by the brothers Robert and James Adam for the Duke of Portland in the late 18th century and originally ran north from the gardens of a detached mansion called Foley House...
, London, is the official headquarters of the BBC. It is home to three of the ten BBC national radio networks, BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, and BBC Radio 4 Extra. On the front of the building are statues of Prospero
Prospero
Prospero is the protagonist in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.- The Tempest :Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, who was put to sea on "a rotten carcass of a butt [boat]" to die by his usurping brother, Antonio, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda survived,...
and Ariel
Ariel (The Tempest)
Ariel is a spirit who appears in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Ariel is bound to serve the magician Prospero, who rescued him from the tree in which he was imprisoned by Sycorax, the witch who previously inhabited the island. Prospero greets disobedience with a reminder that he saved...
, characters from William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's play The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
, sculpted by Eric Gill
Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement...
. Renovation of Broadcasting House began in 2002 and is scheduled for completion in 2012.
BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
and BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
are currently based at BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
a purpose built television facility and the second built in the country located in White City, London
White City, London
White City is a district in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, to the north of Shepherd's Bush. Today, White City is home to the BBC Television Centre and BBC White City, and Loftus Road stadium, the home of football club Queens Park Rangers FC....
. This facility has been host to a number of famous guests and programmes through the years, and its name and image is familiar with many British citizens. Nearby, the BBC White City
BBC White City
BBC White City refers both to a collection of BBC buildings at Wood Lane, White City in west London, and an office building opened in 1990 within that collection of buildings...
complex contains numerous programme offices, housed in Centre House, the Media Centre and Broadcast Centre. It is in this area around Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....
that the majority of BBC employees work.
As part of a major reorganisation of BBC property, the entire BBC News operation is expected to relocate from the News Centre at BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
to the refurbished Broadcasting House to create what is being described as "one of the world's largest live broadcast centres". Following completion Broadcasting House will also be home to most of the BBC's national radio stations, and the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
. The major part of this plan involves the demolition of the two post-war extensions to the building and construction of an extension designed by Sir Richard MacCormac. This move will concentrate the BBC's London operations, allowing them to sell Television Centre, which is expected to be completed by 2015.
In addition to the scheme above, the BBC is in the process of making and producing more programmes outside of London. This involves producing more programmes at production centres such as Belfast
Broadcasting House (Belfast)
Broadcasting House, Belfast is the headquarters building from which BBC Northern Ireland operates many of its broadcasting services. The building is located on Ormeau Avenue in Belfast city centre, at the junction with Bedford Street...
, Glasgow and, most notably, Manchester. As part of the scheme, BBC North West
BBC North West
BBC North West is the BBC English Region serving Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Walsden in West Yorkshire, the Isle of Man , north-west Derbyshire, the Yorkshire Dales including Settle and Ribblesdale, and southern Cumbria.BBC North West television output is also broadcast in...
is moving from New Broadcasting House
New Broadcasting House
New Broadcasting House is the home of the BBC on Oxford Road in Manchester city centre. The studios house BBC Manchester, BBC North, BBC North West, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Religion and Ethics department...
, Oxford Road, to MediaCityUK in Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
. Joining them are the BBC Sports, BBC Children's
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
, Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
, BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items...
and BBC Philharmonic
BBC Philharmonic
The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
departments and services from London. MediaCityUK will therefore become the biggest staffing operation outside London.
As well as the two main sites in London (Broadcasting House and White City), there are seven other major BBC production centres in the UK, mainly specialising in different productions. Broadcasting House Cardiff
Broadcasting House (Cardiff)
Broadcasting House Cardiff is the purpose-built headquarters for BBC Cymru Wales' radio, television and online services, situated in north Cardiff...
, has been home to BBC Cymru Wales, which specialises in drama production. Open since October 2011, and containing 7 new studios, Roath Lock is notable as the home of productions such as Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and Casualty (TV series)
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
. Broadcasting House Belfast
Broadcasting House (Belfast)
Broadcasting House, Belfast is the headquarters building from which BBC Northern Ireland operates many of its broadcasting services. The building is located on Ormeau Avenue in Belfast city centre, at the junction with Bedford Street...
, home to BBC Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland is the main public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland.The organisation is one of the three national regions of the BBC, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales. Based at Broadcasting House, Belfast, it provides television, radio, online and interactive television content...
, specialises in original drama and comedy, and has taken part in many co-productions with independent companies and notably with RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
in the Republic of Ireland. BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
, based in Pacific Quay, Glasgow is a large producer of programmes for the network, including several quiz shows. In England, the larger regions also produce some programming.
The largest 'hub' of BBC programming from the regions
BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland....
is BBC North West
BBC North West
BBC North West is the BBC English Region serving Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Walsden in West Yorkshire, the Isle of Man , north-west Derbyshire, the Yorkshire Dales including Settle and Ribblesdale, and southern Cumbria.BBC North West television output is also broadcast in...
from New Broadcasting House
New Broadcasting House
New Broadcasting House is the home of the BBC on Oxford Road in Manchester city centre. The studios house BBC Manchester, BBC North, BBC North West, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Religion and Ethics department...
, Manchester. At present they produce all Religious and Ethical programmes on the BBC, as well as other programmes such as A Question of Sport
A Question of Sport
A Question of Sport is a long-running BBC quiz show which started on 2 December 1968 and continues to this day. It is currently recorded at The Studios, MediaCityUK...
, however this is to be expanded as part of the BBC North
BBC North
BBC North is a brand used by the BBC to mean any of the following.*The large BBC North region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968....
project involving the region moving to MediaCityUK. BBC Midlands, based at The Mailbox
The Mailbox
The Mailbox is an upmarket development of offices, designer shops, restaurants, bars and luxury city-centre apartments in the City Centre and on the boundary of the City Centre Core in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It includes a mini supermarket and three art galleries: the Artlounge, Castle...
in Birmingham, also produces drama and contains the headquarters for the English regions
BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland....
. Other production centres include Quarry Hill
Quarry Hill, Leeds
Quarry Hill is an area of central Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is surrounded by the Leeds Inner Ring Road to the east and north. The Leeds - York / Hull railway runs just south of the district into the city centre...
in Leeds, home of BBC Yorkshire
BBC Yorkshire
BBC Yorkshire is one of the English regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Hull.-Television:...
, Broadcasting House Bristol, home of BBC West
BBC West
BBC West is the BBC English Region serving Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.-Television:...
and famously the BBC Natural History Unit
BBC Natural History Unit
The BBC Natural History Unit is a department of the BBC dedicated to making television and radio programmes with a natural history or wildlife theme, especially nature documentaries...
. Another production centre is Broadcasting House, Southampton which is home to BBC South
BBC South
BBC South is the BBC English Region serving West Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, western Berkshire, Oxfordshire, south east Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight.-Television:...
. This centre has only recently began producing network productions.
There are also many smaller local and regional studios throughout the UK.
Services
Television
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
and BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
are the BBC's flagship television channels. Several digital
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
only stations are also broadcast: BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
, BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
, BBC News, BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament...
, and two children's channels, CBBC
CBBC Channel
CBBC is a BBC television channel aimed at 6 to 12 year olds. It complements the CBBC programming that continues to air on BBC One and BBC Two. Launched on 11 February 2002, it broadcasts from 7am to 7pm on Freeview, cable, IPTV and digital satellite, occupying the same bandwidth as, but a different...
and CBeebies
CBeebies
CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...
. Digital television is now in widespread use in the UK, with analogue transmission being phased out by December 2012.
BBC One is a regionalised TV service which provides opt-outs throughout the day for local news and other local programming. These variations are more pronounced in the BBC 'Nations', i.e. Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland is the main public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland.The organisation is one of the three national regions of the BBC, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales. Based at Broadcasting House, Belfast, it provides television, radio, online and interactive television content...
, Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
and Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
, where the presentation is mostly carried out locally on BBC One and Two, and where programme schedules can vary largely from that of the network. BBC Two variations exist in the Nations, however regions today rarely have the option to 'opt out' as regional programming now only exists on BBC One, and regional opt outs are not possible in the regions that have already undertaken the switch to digital television. BBC Two was also the first channel to be transmitted on 625 lines in 1964, then carry a small-scale regular colour service from 1967. BBC One would follow in November 1969.
A new Scottish Gaelic television channel, BBC Alba, was launched in September 2008. It is also the first multi-genre channel to come entirely from Scotland with almost all of its programmes made in Scotland. The service was initially only available via satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
but since June 2011 has been available to viewers in Scotland on Freeview and cable television.
The BBC also has a HD
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
channel, BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
, that launched on 9 June 2006 following a 12 month trial of the broadcasts. It became a proper channel in 2007, and screens HD programmes as simulcasts of the main network, or as repeats. The corporation has been producing programmes in the format for many years, and states that it hopes to produce 100% of new programmes in HDTV by 2010. On 3 November 2010, a high-definition simulcast of BBC One was launched, entitled BBC One HD.
In the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the BBC channels are available in a number of ways. In these countries digital and cable operators carry a range of BBC channels these include BBC One, BBC Two and BBC World News, although viewers in the Republic of Ireland may receive BBC services via 'overspill' from transmitters in Northern Ireland or Wales, or via 'deflectors' – transmitters in the Republic which rebroadcast broadcasts from the UK, received off-air, or from digital satellite.
Since 1975, the BBC has also provided its TV programmes to the British Forces Broadcasting Service
British Forces Broadcasting Service
The British Forces Broadcasting Service provides radio and television programmes for HM Forces, and their dependents, in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kosovo, the Middle East, Northern Ireland and Tristan da Cunha as well as a live satellite...
(BFBS), allowing members of UK military serving abroad to watch and listen to them on two dedicated TV channels.
Since 2008, all the BBC channels are available to watch online, either through the channel website, or through the BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
service. This online streaming ability came about following experiments with live streaming, involving streaming certain channels in the UK.
Radio
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
, DAB
Digital radio in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the roll-out of digital radio is proceeding since test transmissions were started by the BBC in 1990. The UK currently has the world's biggest digital radio network, with 103 transmitters, two national DAB ensembles and 48 local and regional DAB ensembles...
and online. These are BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, offering new music and popular styles and being notable for its chart show; BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, playing Adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music....
, country and soul music amongst many other genres; BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, playing classical and jazz music and home to the BBC Proms; BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, offering current affairs, factual, drama and comedy speech programmes and BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
, broadcasting 24 hour news, sport and talk programmes.
In addition to these five stations, the BBC also runs five additional stations that broadcast on DAB and online only. These stations supplement and expand on the big five stations, and were launched in 2002. BBC Radio 1Xtra
BBC Radio 1Xtra
BBC Radio 1Xtra is a digital radio station in the United Kingdom from the BBC specialising in new black music, sometimes referred to as urban music. Launched at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been codenamed Network X during the consulation period and is the sister station to BBC Radio 1...
sisters Radio 1, and broadcasts new black music and urban tracks. BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra sisters 5 Live and offers extra sport analysis, including broadcasting sports that previously were not covered. BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
offers alternative music genres and is notable as a platform for new artists.
BBC Radio 7, later renamed BBC Radio 4 Extra, provided archive drama, comedy and children's programming. Following the change to Radio 4 Extra, the service has dropped a defined children's strand in favour of family-friendly drama and comedy. In addition, new programmes to complement Radio 4 programmes were introduced such as Ambridge Extra
Ambridge Extra
Ambridge Extra is an extension of the long-running radio drama The Archers. It began in 2011 and will run for at least two series. The show features a number of new or previously silent and minor characters from the main series, in particular focussing on younger characters...
, and Desert Island Discs revisited. The final station is the BBC Asian Network
BBC Asian Network
BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham, Leicester and London...
, providing music, talk and news to this section of the community. This station evolved out of Local radio stations serving certain areas, and as such this station is available on Medium Wave frequency in some areas of the Midlands.
As well as the national stations, the BBC also provides regional stations. In the 'Nations', six stations serve large areas of these regions. In Scotland, these are BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is BBC Scotland's national English-language radio network. It broadcasts a wide variety of programming, including news, sport, light entertainment, music, the arts, comedy, drama, history and lifestyle...
and BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal is a British radio station, broadcasting in Scottish Gaelic. It is operated by the BBC as part of its portfolio of television and radio services broadcasting to Scotland....
, the latter providing programmes in Scots Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
; in Wales these are BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales is the BBC's national radio station broadcasting to Wales in the English language. Operated by BBC Wales, it began broadcasting on 12 November 1978 following the demise of the old "Radio 4 Wales" when BBC Radio 4 became a national network and moved from medium wave to long wave...
and BBC Radio Cymru
BBC Radio Cymru
BBC Radio Cymru is BBC Cymru's Welsh-language radio station, broadcasting throughout Wales from studios in Cardiff, Bangor, and Aberystwyth on FM since 1977. At the time of its launch it was one of the few FM-only radio services in the UK...
, the latter providing programming in Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
and in Northern Ireland there is BBC Radio Ulster
BBC Radio Ulster
BBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
with an opt out for the North West called BBC Radio Foyle
BBC Radio Foyle
BBC Radio Foyle is a BBC Northern Ireland local radio station, serving County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. It is named after the River Foyle which flows through the city where the station is based. The station broadcasts from BBC's Northland Road studios on 93.1 FM and 792 MW in Derry, County...
. Furthermore, there are 40 BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio is the BBC's regional radio service for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 40 stations. They cover a variety of areas with some serving a city and surrounding areas, for example BBC Radio Manchester; a county, for example BBC Radio Norfolk; an administrative region for...
stations in England and the Channel Islands, usually covering specific cities and their surrounding areas (Such as BBC Radio Bristol
BBC Radio Bristol
BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC Local Radio service for the English city of Bristol and the surrounding former Avon area. Launched in September 1970, it broadcasts from Broadcasting House in Bristol on FM frequencies 94.9 MHz , 104.6 MHz , 103.6 MHz , on AM 1548 kHz and on DAB.The...
), for counties, or regions (Such as BBC Three Counties Radio
BBC Three Counties Radio
BBC Three Counties Radio is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire...
), or geographic features (Such as BBC Radio Solent
BBC Radio Solent
BBC Radio Solent is the BBC Local Radio service for the Isle of Wight and the English counties of Hampshire and Dorset. Its studios are located in Southampton, in the same purpose-built office block in Havelock Road as the BBC South Today news studios, and there are district offices in Portsmouth,...
covering the South Coast).
As part of BBC Local Radio, the BBC also serves the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
, which strictly speaking are not part of the United Kingdom, through its TV News service and BBC Guernsey and BBC Radio Jersey
BBC Radio Jersey
BBC Radio Jersey is the BBC Local Radio service for Jersey, Channel Islands. It broadcasts from its studios at 18-21 Parade Road in Saint Helier on 88.8 FM, 1026 AM as well as online at Jersey....
. These services are funded from locally collected licence fees. However, despite this, the BBC does not offer Local Radio for the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
, primarily because the island has been served by the popular and long lasting independent commercial station, Manx Radio
Manx Radio
Manx Radio is the national commercial radio station for the Isle of Man.The station began broadcasting on 29 June 1964, almost ten years before commercial radio was licensed in the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man, having its own government and laws, was not subject to the rules prohibiting...
.
For a worldwide audience, the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
provides news, current affairs and information in 28 languages, including English, around the world and is available in over 150 capital cities. It is broadcast worldwide on shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
radio, DAB and online and has an estimated weekly audience of 180 million listeners. Since 2005, it is also available on DAB in the UK, a step not taken before, due to the way it is funded. The service is funded by a Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid, administered by the Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
, however following the Governments spending review in 2011, this funding will cease, and it will be funded for the first time through the Licence fee. In recent years, some services of the World Service have been reduced; the Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
service ended in 2006 as did the Eastern European languages, with resources diverted instead into the new BBC Arabic Television
BBC Arabic Television
BBC Arabic Television is a news and information television channel broadcast to the Middle East by the BBC. It was launched at 0956 GMT on 11 March 2008. The service was announced in October 2005 and was to start broadcasting in Autumn 2007, but was delayed...
.
Historically, the BBC was the only legal radio broadcaster based in the UK mainland until 1967, when University Radio York (URY)
Ury
Ury may refer to:Places:*Ury House, Scotland, an historic mansion on a very large estate*Ury, Seine-et-Marne, a commune in FranceAcronym:*University Radio York, a student radio station at the University of YorkPeople:...
, then under the name Radio York, was launched as the first, and now oldest, legal independent radio station in the country. However, the BBC did not enjoy a complete monopoly before this as several Continental stations, such as Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
, broadcast programmes in English to Britain since the 1930s and the Isle of Man based Manx Radio
Manx Radio
Manx Radio is the national commercial radio station for the Isle of Man.The station began broadcasting on 29 June 1964, almost ten years before commercial radio was licensed in the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man, having its own government and laws, was not subject to the rules prohibiting...
began in 1964. Today, the BBC still has some of the most popular Radio stations, with BBC Radio 2 being the most popular of the network and the most popular in the country, with 12.9 million weekly listeners in 2006.
BBC Programming is also available to other services and in other countries. Since 1943, the BBC has provided radio programming to the British Forces Broadcasting Service
British Forces Broadcasting Service
The British Forces Broadcasting Service provides radio and television programmes for HM Forces, and their dependents, in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kosovo, the Middle East, Northern Ireland and Tristan da Cunha as well as a live satellite...
, which broadcasts in countries where British troops are stationed. BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
is also carried in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
and Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
.
The BBC is a patron of The Radio Academy
Radio Academy
The Radio Academy is a registered charity that is dedicated to 'the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production'....
.
News
BBC News is the largest broadcast news gathering operation in the world, providing services to BBC domestic radio as well as television networks such as the BBC News, BBC ParliamentBBC Parliament
BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament...
and BBC World News. In addition to this, news stories are available on the BBC Red Button service, Ceefax
Ceefax
Ceefax is the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and will run until April 2012 for Pages from Ceefax, while the actual interactive service will run until 24 October 2012, in-line with the digital switchover.-History:During the late 60s, engineer...
and BBC News Online
BBC News Online
BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. The website is the most popular news website in the United Kingdom and forms a major part of BBC Online ....
. In addition to this, the BBC has been developing new ways to access BBC News, as a result has launched the service on BBC Mobile, making it accessible to mobile phones and PDAs, as well as developing alerts by e-mail, digital television, and on computers through a desktop alert.
Ratings figures suggest that during major crises such as the 7 July 2005 London bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
or a Royal Event, the UK audience overwhelmingly turns to the BBC's coverage as opposed to its commercial rivals.
On 7 July 2005, the day that there were a series of coordinated bomb blasts on London's public transport system, the BBC Online website recorded an all time bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
peak of 11 Gb
Gigabit
The gigabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix giga is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 109 , and therefore...
/s at 12:00 on 7 July. BBC News received some 1 billion total hits on the day of the event (including all images, text and HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
), serving some 5.5 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
s of data. At peak times during the day there were 40,000 page requests per second for the BBC News website. The previous day's announcement of the 2012 Olympics being awarded to London caused a peak of around 5 Gbit/s. The previous all time high at BBC Online was caused by the announcement of the Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
verdict, which used 7.2 Gbit/s.
Internet
The BBC's online presence includes a comprehensive news websiteBBC News Online
BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. The website is the most popular news website in the United Kingdom and forms a major part of BBC Online ....
and archive. It was launched as BBC Online, before being renamed BBCi, then bbc.co.uk, before it was rebranded back as BBC Online. The website is funded by the Licence fee, but uses GeoIP
Geo targeting
Geo targeting in geomarketing and internet marketing is the method of determining the geolocation of a website visitor and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location, such as country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code, organization, IP address, ISP or other...
technology, allowing advertisements to be carried on the site when viewed outside of the UK. The BBC claims the site to be "Europe's most popular content-based site" and states that 13.2 million people in the UK visit the site's more than two million pages each day. According to Alexa's
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
TrafficRank system, in July 2008 BBC Online was the 27th most popular English Language website in the world, and the 46th most popular overall.
The centre of the website is the Homepage, which features a modular layout. Users can choose which modules, and which information, is displayed on their homepage, allowing the user to customise it. This system was first launched in December 2007, becoming permanent in February 2008, and has undergone a few aesthetical changes since then. The Homepage then has links to other micro-sites, such as BBC News Online
BBC News Online
BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. The website is the most popular news website in the United Kingdom and forms a major part of BBC Online ....
, Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
, Weather
BBC Weather
BBC Weather is the BBC's department in charge of preparing and broadcasting weather forecasts and is now part of BBC News. The broadcast meteorologists are employed by the Met Office...
, TV and Radio. As part of the site, every programme on BBC Television or Radio is given its own page, with bigger programmes getting their own micro-site, and as a result it is often common for viewers and listeners to be told website addresses
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
(URLs) for the programme website.
Another large part of the site also allows users to watch and listen to most Television and Radio output live and for seven days after broadcast using the BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
platform, which launched on 27 July 2007, and initially used peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
and DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
technology to deliver both radio and TV content of the last seven days for offline use for up to 30 days, since then video is now streamed directly. Also, through participation in the Creative Archive Licence group, bbc.co.uk allowed legal downloads of selected archive material via the internet.
The BBC has often included learning as part of its online service, running services such as BBC Jam
BBC Jam
BBC Jam was an online educational service launched by the BBC in January 2006, and suspended on 20 March 2007. The service was available free across the United Kingdom offering multi-media educational resources...
, Learning Zone Class Clips
BBC Learning Zone
The BBC Learning Zone is an educational strand run by the BBC as an overnight service on BBC Two. It shows programming aimed at students in Primary, Secondary and Higher Education and to adult learners...
and also runs services such as BBC WebWise
BBC WebWise
BBC WebWise is the BBC's guide to the internet for computer novices. Created in 1998, it consists of a series of articles and videos as well as a computing course accredited by examining body OCR. It also incorporates elements of another BBC website, BBC raw computers...
and First Click which are designed to teach people how to use the internet. BBC Jam
BBC Jam
BBC Jam was an online educational service launched by the BBC in January 2006, and suspended on 20 March 2007. The service was available free across the United Kingdom offering multi-media educational resources...
was a free online service, delivered through broadband and narrowband connections, providing high-quality interactive resources designed to stimulate learning at home and at school. Initial content was made available in January 2006 however BBC Jam was suspended on 20 March 2007 due to allegations made to the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
that it was damaging the interests of the commercial sector of the industry.
In recent years some major on-line companies and politicians have complained that BBC Online receives too much funding from the television licence, meaning that other websites are unable to compete with the vast amount of advertising-free on-line content available on BBC Online. Some have proposed that the amount of licence fee money spent on BBC Online should be reduced—either being replaced with funding from advertisements or subscriptions, or a reduction in the amount of content available on the site. In response to this the BBC carried out an investigation, and has now set in motion a plan to change the way it provides its online services. BBC Online will now attempt to fill in gaps in the market, and will guide users to other websites for currently existing market provision. (For example, instead of providing local events information and timetables, users will be guided to outside websites already providing that information.)
Part of this plan included the BBC closing some of its websites, and rediverting money to redevelop other parts.
On 26 February 2010 The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
claimed that Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...
, Director General of the BBC, proposed that the BBC's web output should be cut by 50%, with online staff numbers and budgets reduced by 25% in a bid to scale back BBC operations and allow commercial rivals more room. On 2 March 2010, the BBC reported that it will cut its website spending by 25% and close BBC 6 Music and Asian Network, as part of Mark Thompson's plans to make " a smaller, fitter BBC for the digital age".
Interactive television
BBC Red Button is the brand name for the BBC's interactiveInteractive television
Interactive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...
digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
services, which are available through Freeview (digital terrestrial), as well as Freesat
Freesat
Freesat is a free-to-air digital satellite television joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc, serving the United Kingdom. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008...
, Sky (satellite), and Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
(cable). Unlike Ceefax
Ceefax
Ceefax is the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and will run until April 2012 for Pages from Ceefax, while the actual interactive service will run until 24 October 2012, in-line with the digital switchover.-History:During the late 60s, engineer...
, the service's analogue counterpart, BBC Red Button is able to display full-colour graphics, photographs, and video, as well as programmes and can be accessed from any BBC channel. The service carries News, Weather and Sport 24 hours a day, but also provides extra features related to programmes specific at that time. Examples include viewers to play along at home to gameshows, to give, voice and vote on opinions to issues, as used alongside programmes such as Question Time
Question Time
Question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers , which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be cancelled in exceptional circumstances...
. At some points in the year, when multiple sporting events occur, some coverage of less mainstream sports or games are frequently placed on the Red Button for viewers to watch. Frequently, other features are added unrelated to programmes being broadcast at that time, such as the broadcast of the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
animated episode Dreamland
Dreamland (Doctor Who)
Dreamland is the second animated Doctor Who serial to air on television...
in November 2009.
Commercial services
BBC WorldwideBBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC responsible for the commercial exploitation of BBC programmes and other properties, including a number of television stations throughout the world. It was formed following the restructuring of its predecessor, BBC Enterprises, in 1995.
The company owns and administers a number of commercial stations around the world operating in a number of territories and on a number of different platforms. The channel BBC Entertainment
BBC Entertainment
BBC Entertainment is an international television channel showcasing comedy, drama, light entertainment and children's programming from the BBC and other UK production houses...
shows current and archive entertainment programming to viewers in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with the BBC Worldwide channels BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
and BBC Canada
BBC Canada
BBC Canada is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel. It presents programming primarily from the BBC. BBC Canada is a joint venture between Shaw Media and BBC Worldwide.-Programming:Main article: List of programs broadcast by BBC Canada...
(Joint venture with Knowledge Network Corporation) showing similar programming in the North America region and UKTV in the Australasia region. The company also airs two channels aimed at children, an international CBeebies
CBeebies
CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...
channel and BBC Kids
BBC Kids
BBC Kids is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel owned by Knowledge Network Corporation and BBC Worldwide. It's a commercial-free channel that airs programming aimed at youth ranging from pre-schoolers to teens.-Overview:...
, a joint venture with Knowledge Network Corporation, which airs programmes under the CBeebies and BBC K brands. The company also runs the channels BBC Knowledge
BBC Knowledge (Worldwide)
BBC Knowledge is an international television channel showcasing factual and non-fiction entertainment programming from the BBC and independent UK production houses. Wholly owned by BBC Worldwide, it is not related to the previous channel known as BBC Knowledge, an early digital channel which closed...
, broadcasting factual and learning programmes, and BBC Lifestyle
BBC Lifestyle
BBC Lifestyle is an international television channel. The channel provides six key programming strands: Food, Home & Design, Fashion & Style, Health, Parenting, and Personal Development.-Launch dates:...
, broadcasting programmes based on themes of Food, Style and Wellbeing. In addition to this, BBC Worldwide runs an internation version of the channel BBC HD
BBC HD Scandinavia
BBC HD Scandinavia is a television channel broadcasting high-definition programming to Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark. The channel is also included in HD Cable Platform Teledünya in Turkey....
, and provides HD simulcasts of the channels BBC Knowledge and BBC America.
BBC Worldwide also distributes the 24-hour international news channel BBC World News. The station is separate from BBC Worldwide to maintain the station's neutral point of view, but is distributed by BBC Worldwide. The channel itself is the oldest surviving entity of its kind, and has bases and correspondents in over 200 countries. As officially surveyed it is available to more than 274 million households, significantly more than CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's estimated 200 million.
In addition to these international channels, BBC Worldwide also owns, together with Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
, the UKTV
UKTV
UKTV is a digital cable and satellite television network, formed through a joint venture between BBC Worldwide, a commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Scripps Networks Interactive, spun off from The E.W Scripps Company in 2008...
network of ten channels. These channels contain BBC archive programming to be rebroadcast on their respective channels: Alibi, drama; Blighty, British-oriented; Dave (slogan: "The Home of Witty Banter"); Eden, nature; GOLD, comedy; Good Food, cookery; Home, home and garden; Really
Really (TV channel)
Really is a digital television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom as part of the UKTV family of channels. The channel launched on 19 May 2009 as the UKTV's channel for female lifestyle programming and is available on satellite through Sky, cable services primarily through Virgin Media and...
, female programming; Watch
Watch (TV channel)
Watch is a general entertainment channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as part of the UKTV network. The channel launched on 7 October 2008 on satellite through Sky and on cable primarily through Virgin Media.-History:...
, entertainment and Yesterday, history programming.
In addition to these channels, many BBC programmes are sold via BBC Worldwide to foreign television stations with comedy, documentaries and historical drama
Costume drama
A costume drama or period drama is a period piece in which elaborate costumes, sets and properties are featured in order to capture the ambiance of a particular era.The term is usually used in the context of film and television...
productions being most popular. In addition, BBC television news appears nightly on many Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
stations in the United States, as do reruns of BBC programmes such as EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, and in New Zealand on TV One.
In addition to programming, BBC Worldwide produces material to accompany programmes. The company maintained the publishing arm of the BBC, and is currently the third-largest publisher of consumer magazines in the United Kingdom. BBC Magazines
BBC Magazines
BBC Magazines is the magazine publishing division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation.A list of the published magazines and the age groups they are targeted towards follows:-Adult:*BBC History*BBC Music...
, formerly known as BBC Publications, publishes the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
as well as a number of magazines that support BBC programming such as BBC Top Gear
Top Gear (magazine)
Top Gear is an automobile magazine published by BBC Worldwide, and named after the BBC's Top Gear television show. It was first published in October 1993 and is published monthly at a price of £3.95. The major presenters of the television series—Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson—are...
, BBC Good Food, BBC Sky at Night
The Sky at Night
The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show has had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first airing on 24 April 1957, making it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history.The...
, BBC History
BBC History (magazine)
BBC History is a magazine devoted to history enthusiasts of all levels of knowledge and interest. Being a British publication, the magazine focuses particularly on British history, but its remit is worldwide...
, BBC Wildlife
BBC Wildlife
BBC Wildlife is a British glossy, all-colour, monthly magazine about wildlife, founded by BBC Worldwide and published through the BBC Magazines Bristol division, also trading as Bristol Magazines Ltd....
and BBC Music
BBC music magazine
BBC Music Magazine is a magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom by BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC. Reflecting the broadcast output of BBC Radio 3, the magazine is devoted primarily to classical music, though with sections on jazz and world music. Each edition comes...
. This department included independent magazine publisher Origin Publishing, which BBC Worldwide owned between 2004 and 2006.
BBC Worldwide also publishes books, to accompany programmes such as Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
under the BBC Books
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
brand, and also owns the biggest travel guidebook and digital media publisher in the world, Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
. Soundtrack albums, talking books and sections of radio broadcasts are also sold under the brand BBC Records
BBC Records
BBC Records is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation founded in the 1960s to exploit the corporation's audio archive for both educational and commercial purposes....
, with DVD's also being sold and licensed in large quantities to consumers both in the UK and abroad under the 2 Entertain
2 Entertain
2 Entertain is a British video and music publisher, formed by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004....
brand. Archive programming and classical music recordings are sold under the brand BBC Legends.
Music
The BBC employs staff orchestras, a choir, and supports two amateur choruses, based in BBC venues across the UK; the BBC Symphony OrchestraBBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
, the BBC Singers
BBC Singers
The BBC Singers are the professional chamber choir of the BBC. As one of six BBC Performing Groups, the 24-voiced choir has been in existence for more than 80 years. The BBC Singers have commissioned and premiered works by the leading composers of the past century, including Benjamin Britten, Sir...
, BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Chorus
The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras....
and BBC Big Band
BBC Big Band
The BBC Big Band, originally known as the BBC Radio Big Band is a British big band run under the auspices of the BBC. Widely regarded as the UK’s leading and most versatile jazz orchestra, the band broadcasts exclusivley on BBC Radio, particularly on BBC Radio 2's long running series Big Band Special...
based in London, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is a broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow, Scotland. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation , it is the oldest full-time professional orchestra in Scotland...
in Glasgow, the BBC Philharmonic
BBC Philharmonic
The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
in Manchester, the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
based in Watford and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is a Welsh symphony orchestra and one of the BBC's five professional orchestras. The BBC NOW is the only professional symphony orchestra organisation in Wales, occupying a dual role as both a broadcasting orchestra and national orchestra.The BBC NOW has its...
in Cardiff. It also buys a selected number of broadcasts from the Ulster Orchestra
Ulster Orchestra
The Ulster Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Belfast, the only full-time professional orchestra in Northern Ireland. The orchestra plays the majority of its concerts in Belfast's Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall...
in Belfast. Many famous musicians of every genre have played at the BBC, such as The Beatles (The Beatles Live at the BBC is one of their many albums). The BBC is also responsible for the United Kingdom coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
, a show with which the broadcaster has been associated for over 50 years.
Miscellaneous
The BBC and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office jointly run BBC MonitoringBBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation which monitors, and reports on, mass media worldwide. Based at Caversham Park in Caversham, Reading in southern England, it has a number of overseas bureaux including Moscow, Nairobi, Kiev, Baku, Tashkent, Cairo, Tbilisi, Yerevan...
, which monitors radio, television, the press and the internet worldwide.
In the 1980s, the BBC developed several PCs, most notably the BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
.
Unions
Staff at the BBC are normally represented by BECTU, along with journalistic staff by the NUJNational Union of Journalists
The National Union of Journalists is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists .-Structure:...
and electrical staff by Amicus
Amicus
Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance, the AEEU agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU...
. Union membership is optional, staff are not automatically covered by a union, and is paid for by staff members and not by the BBC.
Cultural significance
Until the development, popularisation, and domination of television, radio was the broadcast medium upon which people in the United Kingdom relied. It "reached into every home in the land, and simultaneously united the nation, an important factor during the Second World War". The BBC introduced the world's first "high-definition" 405-line television service in 1936, and apart from suspending service throughout World War II until 1946, was the only television broadcaster in the UK until 1955. "The BBC's monopoly was broken in 1955, with the introduction of Independent Television (ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
)", This heralded the transformation of television into a popular and dominant medium. Nevertheless, "throughout the 1950s radio still remained the dominant source of broadcast comedy". Further, the BBC was the only legal radio broadcaster until 1968 (when URY
Ury
Ury may refer to:Places:*Ury House, Scotland, an historic mansion on a very large estate*Ury, Seine-et-Marne, a commune in FranceAcronym:*University Radio York, a student radio station at the University of YorkPeople:...
obtained their first licence).
Even since the advent of commercial television and radio, the BBC has remained one of the main elements in British popular culture through its obligation to produce TV and radio programmes for mass audiences. However, the arrival of BBC2 allowed the BBC also to make programmes for minority interests in drama, documentaries, current affairs, entertainment and sport. Examples are cited such as I, Claudius
I, Claudius (TV series)
I, Claudius is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Written by Jack Pulman, it proved one of the corporation's most successful drama serials of all time...
, Civilisation, Tonight
Tonight (1957 TV series)
Tonight was a BBC television current affairs programme presented by Cliff Michelmore and broadcast in Britain live on weekday evenings from February 1957 to 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock and the future Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne...
, Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
, Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and Pot Black
Pot Black
Pot Black was a British series of snooker tournaments televised by BBC, that played a large part in the popularisation of the modern game, from 1969 to 1986. The event was revived in the form of several one-off tournaments throughout the 1990s and up to 2007...
, but other examples can be given in each of these fields as shown by the BBC's entries in the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
's 2000 list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
. The export of BBC programmes through both services like the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
and BBC World News, as well as the channels operated by BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
mean that BBC productions can now be experienced worldwide.
The term BBC English (Received Pronunciation) refers to the former use of Standard English
Standard English
Standard English refers to whatever form of the English language is accepted as a national norm in an Anglophone country...
with this accent. However, the organisation now makes more use of regional accents
Regional accents of English speakers
The regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language. This article provides an overview of the many identifiable variations in pronunciation, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect, of the local variety...
in order to reflect the diversity of the UK, though clarity and fluency are still expected of presenters. From its 'starchy' beginnings, the BBC has also become more inclusive, and now attempts to accommodate the interests of all strata of society and all minorities, because they all pay the licence fee.
Competition from Independent Television
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, Sky
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
and other broadcast television stations, has lessened the BBC's influence, but such public broadcasting remains a major influence on British popular culture.
Attitudes toward the BBC in popular culture
Older domestic UK audiences often refer to the BBC as "the Beeb", a nickname originally dubbed by Peter SellersPeter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
in The Goon Show
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
in the 1950s, when he referred to the "Beeb Beeb Ceeb". It was then borrowed, shortened and popularised by Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett was an English comedian, radio DJ and television entertainer. Born Maurice James Christopher Cole, Everett is best known for his career as a radio DJ and for the Kenny Everett television shows.-Early life:...
. Another nickname, now less commonly used, is "Auntie", said to originate from the old-fashioned "Auntie knows best" attitude (but possibly a sly reference to the "aunties" and "uncles" who were presenters of children's programmes in early days) in the days when John Reith
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom...
, the BBC's first director general, was in charge. The two nicknames have also been used together as "Auntie Beeb", and Auntie has been used in out-take programmes such as Auntie's Bloomers.
See also
- Criticism of the BBCCriticism of the BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation has been criticized for various reasons, by the British government of the day, as well as from other political groups and various media outlets.-Iraq and the Hutton Inquiry :...
- List of television programmes broadcast by the BBC
- Stations of the BBCStations of the BBC-Television:*BBC UK**Free-to-Air ***BBC One***BBC Two**Digital-only ***BBC One HD ***BBC Three***BBC Four***BBC Parliament***BBC News...
- The Green BookThe Green Book (BBC)The Green Book is the common name of the BBC Variety Programmes Policy Guide For Writers and Producers, a booklet of guidelines issued by the British Broadcasting Corporation to its producers and writers of comedy programmes in 1949. It detailed what was then permissible as comedy material...
- List of BBC programmes
General:
- British televisionBritish televisionPublic television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
- Early television stations
- Gaelic broadcasting in ScotlandGaelic broadcasting in ScotlandGaelic broadcasting in Scotland is a developing area of the media in Scotland which deals with broadcasts given in Scottish Gaelic and has important links with the efforts of Gaelic revival in Scotland. As well as being informative, Gaelic broadcasting in Scotland has acquired some symbolic...
- Public service broadcasting in the United KingdomPublic service broadcasting in the United KingdomIn the United Kingdom the term "public service broadcasting" refers to broadcasting intended for the public benefit rather than for purely commercial concerns. The communications regulator Ofcom, requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfil certain requirements as part of their...
Further reading
- Thomas Hajkowski. The BBC and National Identity in Britain, 1922–53 (Manchester University Press, 2010) 252 pages; explores ideas of Britishness conveyed in BBC radio programs, including notions of the empire and monarchy as symbols of unity; also considers regional broadcasting in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
- James, A. Lloyd (1935) The Broadcast Word. London: Kegan Paul
- BBC Annual Reports: 2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2003–2004, 2004–2005, 2006–2007, 2009–2010
External links
(UK only)- The Royal Charter January 2007 by Queen Elizabeth II
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