BBC

This article is about the British Broadcasting Corporation. For the limited company operating between 1922 and 1926 also abbreviated BBC, see British Broadcasting Company. For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation).

British Broadcasting Corporation

Logo used since 20 January 2021.
Company type	Statutory corporation with a Royal charter
Industry	Mass media
Predecessor	British Broadcasting Company
Founded	18 October 1922 (1922-10-18) (as British Broadcasting Company) 1 January 1927 (1927-01-01) (as British Broadcasting Corporation)
Founder	John Reith
Headquarters	Broadcasting House London, W1 United Kingdom
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Sir David Clementi (Chairman) Tim Davie (Director-General) Anne Bulford (Deputy Director-General)
Products	Broadcasting Radio Web portals
Services	Television Radio Online
Revenue	£4.954 billion (2016/17)
Operating income	£−39.3 million (2016/17)
Net income	£−129.1 million (2016/17)
Total assets	£308.6 million (2016/17)
Owner	Public owned
Number of employees	20,916 (2015/16)
Divisions	Content Radio & Education Nations and Regions News and Current Affairs Weather Sport Design & Engineering Monitoring Archives
Subsidiaries	BBC Studios BBC Films BBC Studioworks
Website	www.bbc.co.uk bbc.com (Outside UK)

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London, and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.

The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. 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 receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has also funded the BBC World Service (launched in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service), which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic and Persian.

Around a quarter of BBC's revenue comes from its commercial subsidiary BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and also distributes the BBC's international 24-hour English-language news services BBC World News, and from BBC.com, provided by BBC Global News Ltd. In 2009, the company was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in recognition of its international achievements.

From its inception, through the Second World War (where its broadcasts helped to unite the nation), to the 21st century, the BBC has played a prominent role in British life and culture. It is also known colloquially as "The Beeb", "Auntie", or a combination of both (as "Auntie Beeb" or "Auntie B").

History

Further information: Timeline of the BBC

The birth of British broadcasting, 1920 to 1922

Britain's first live public broadcast was made from the factory of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company in Chelmsford in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mail'ss Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The Melba broadcast caught the people's imagination and marked a turning point in the British public's attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office (GPO), was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts.

But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3,000 members. Anxious to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the United States, the GPO proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufactures, to be known as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. L. Stanton Jefferies was its first Director of Music. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved domestic manufacturers. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform, educate and entertain".

Governance and corporate structure

The BBC is a statutory corporation, independent from direct government intervention, with its activities being overseen from April 2017 by the BBC Board and regulated by Ofcom. The Chairman is Sir David Clementi.

Charter

The BBC operates under a Royal Charter. The current Charter came into effect on 1 January 2017 and runs until 31 December 2026. The 2017 charter abolished the BBC Trust and replaced it with external regulation by Ofcom, with governance by the BBC 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 the BBC is allowed to broadcast.

Operational divisions

The Corporation has the following in-house divisions covering the BBC's output and operations:

• Content, headed by Charlotte Moore is in charge of the corporation's television channels including the commissioning of programming.
• Radio and Education headed by James Purnell is in charge of BBC Radio and music content across the BBC under the BBC Music brand, including music programmes on BBC Television, events such as the BBC Proms and the numerous orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, as well as the children's channel CBBC.
• News and Current Affairs headed by Fran Unsworth operates the BBC News operation, including the national, regional and international output on television, radio and online, as well as the output of the BBC Global News division. It is also in charge of the corporation's Current Affairs programming and have some responsibility for sports output.
• The Deputy Director General Group headed by Anne Bulford, contains Design & Engineering, which is in charge of all digital output, such as BBC Online, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button service and developing new technologies through BBC Research & Development. The division also includes other pan-BBC functions including Finance, HR, Strategy, Security and Property.
• Nations and Regions, headed by Ken MacQuarrie is responsible for the Corporation's divisions in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the English Regions.

Commercial divisions

Through its BBC Commercial division, the BBC also operates a number of wholly owned commercial divisions:

• BBC Studios, headed by Tim Davie, is the former in-house television production; Entertainment, Music & Events, Factual and Scripted (drama and comedy). Following a merger with BBC Worldwide in April 2018, it also operates international channels and sells programmes and merchandise in the UK and abroad to gain additional income that is returned to BBC programmes. It is kept separate from the corporation due to its commercial nature.
• BBC World News department is in charge of the production and distribution of its commercial global television channel. It works closely with the BBC News group, but is not governed by it, and shares the corporation's facilities and staff. It also works with BBC Studios, the channel's distributor.
• BBC Studioworks is also separate and officially owns and operates some of the BBC's studio facilities, such as the BBC Elstree Centre, leasing them out to productions from within and outside of the corporation.

Finances

The BBC has the second largest budget of any UK-based broadcaster with an operating expenditure of £4.722 billion in 2013/14 compared with £6.471 billion for British Sky Broadcasting in 2013/14 and £1.843 billion for ITV in the calendar year 2013.

Revenue

See also: Television licence and Television licensing in the United Kingdom

The principal means of funding the BBC is through the television licence, costing £154.50 per year per household since April 2019. Such a licence is required to legally receive broadcast television across the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. 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 people who are registered blind or severely visually impaired, and the licence is completely free for any household containing anyone aged 75 or over. However, from August 2020, the licence fee will only be waived if over 75 and receiving pension credit.

The BBC pursues its licence fee collection and enforcement under the trading name "TV Licensing". The revenue is collected privately by Capita, an outside agency, and is paid into the central government Consolidated Fund, a process defined in the Communications Act 2003. 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.

The licence fee is classified as a tax, and its evasion is a criminal offence. Since 1991, collection and enforcement of the licence fee has been the responsibility of the BBC in its role as TV Licensing Authority. The BBC carries out surveillance (mostly using subcontractors) on properties (under the auspices of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) and may conduct searches of a property using a search warrant. According to TV Licensing, 216,900 people in the UK were caught watching TV without a licence in 2018/19. Licence fee evasion makes up around one-tenth of all cases prosecuted in magistrates' courts, representing 0.3% of court time.

Income from commercial enterprises and from overseas sales of its catalogue of programmes has substantially increased over recent years, with BBC Worldwide contributing some £243 million to the BBC's core public service business.

According to the BBC's 2018/19 Annual Report, its total income was £4.8 billion (£4,889 billion) a decrease from £5,062 billion in 2017/18 - partly owing to a 3.7% phased reduction in government funding for free over-75s TV licences, which can be broken down as follows:

• £3.690 billion in licence fees collected from householders;
• £1.199 billion from the BBC's commercial businesses and government grants some of which will cease in 2020

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 advertising campaigns to inform customers of the requirement to pay the licence fee. Past campaigns have been criticised by Conservative MP Boris Johnson and former MP 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.

The majority of the BBC's commercial output comes from its commercial arm BBC Worldwide who sell programmes abroad and exploit key brands for merchandise. Of their 2012/13 sales, 27% were centred on the five key "superbrands" of Doctor Who, Top Gear, Strictly Come Dancing (known as Dancing with the Stars internationally), the BBC's archive of natural history programming (collected under the umbrella of BBC Earth) and the (now sold) travel guide brand Lonely Planet.

Expenditure

The following expenditure figures are from 2012/13 and show the expenditure of each service they are obliged to provide:

Department	Total cost (£million)
Television including BBC Red Button	2,471.5
Radio	669.5
BBC Online	176.6
Licence fee collection	111.1
Orchestras and performing groups	29.2
S4C	30
Digital switchover	56.9
Restructuring	23.1
Property	181.6
Technology	175.1
BBC Trust	11.9
Libraries, learning support and community events	33.6
Other, including training, marketing, finance and policy	925.9
Total	4,896

A significantly large portion of the BBC's income is spent on the corporation's Television and Radio services with each service having a different budget based upon their content.

Service	Total cost 2012/13 (£million)	Difference from 2011/12 (£million)
BBC One including regions	1,463.2	+125.6
BBC Two	543.1	+6
BBC Three	121.7	+8.8
BBC Four	70.2	+2.4
CBBC	108.7	+1.4
CBeebies	43	+0.6
BBC News	61.5	+4
BBC Parliament	10.5	+1.2
BBC Alba	7.8	−0.2
BBC Red Button	41.8	+4.6
Total	2,471.5	+136.6

Service	Total cost 2012/13 (£million)	Difference from 2011/12 (£million)
BBC Radio 1	54.2	+3.6
BBC Radio 1Xtra	11.8	+0.7
BBC Radio 2	62.1	+1.6
BBC Radio 3	54.3	+1.8
BBC Radio 4	122.1	+6.2
BBC Radio 4 Extra	7.2	−1
BBC Radio 5 Live	76	+6.7
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra	5.6	+0.3
BBC Radio 6 Music	11.5	−0.2
BBC Asian Network	13	Template:Fsp0
BBC Local Radio	152.5	+6
BBC Radio Scotland	32.7	+0.6
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal	6.3	+0.3
BBC Radio Wales	18.8	+1.1
BBC Radio Cymru	17.6	+1.7
BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle	23.8	Template:Fsp0
Total	669.5	+29.4

Headquarters and regional offices

Main article: List of BBC properties

Further information: Broadcasting House, Broadcasting House (Belfast), Broadcasting House (Cardiff), and BBC Television Centre

The headquarters of the BBC at Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London. This section of the building is called Old Broadcasting House.

Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London, is the official headquarters of the BBC. It is home to six of the ten BBC national radio networks, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1xtra, BBC Asian Network, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio 4 Extra. It is also the home of BBC News, which relocated to the building from BBC Television Centre in 2013. 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 was completed in 2012.

Until it closed at the end of March 2013, BBC Television was 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 relocated 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". The BBC News Channel and BBC World News relocated to the premises in early 2013. Broadcasting House is now also home to most of the BBC's national radio stations, and the BBC World Service. The major part of this plan involved the demolition of the two post-war extensions to the building and construction of an extension designed by Sir Richard MacCormac of MJP Architects. This move concentrated the BBC's London operations, allowing them to sell Television Centre.

In addition to the scheme above, the BBC is in the process of making and producing more programmes outside London, involving production centres such as Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle and, most notably, in Greater Manchester as part of the "BBC North Project" scheme where several major departments, including BBC North West, BBC Manchester, BBC Sport, BBC Children's, CBeebies, Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Breakfast, BBC Learning and the BBC Philharmonic have all moved from their previous locations in either London or New Broadcasting House, Manchester to the new 200-acre (80ha) MediaCityUK production facilities in Salford, that form part of the large BBC North Group division and 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 important 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. 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.

Previously, the largest hub of BBC programming from the regions is BBC North West. 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 merged and expanded under the BBC North project, which involved the region moving from New Broadcasting House, Manchester, to MediaCityUK. BBC Midlands, based at The Mailbox in Birmingham, also produces drama and contains the headquarters for the English regions and the BBC's daytime output. Other production centres include Broadcasting House Bristol, home of BBC West and famously the BBC Natural History Unit and to a lesser extent, Quarry Hill in Leeds, home of BBC Yorkshire. There are also many smaller local and regional studios throughout the UK, operating the BBC regional television services and the BBC Local Radio stations.

The BBC also operates several news gathering centres in various locations around the world, which provide news coverage of that region to the national and international news operations.

Services

Weekly reach of the BBC's domestic services from 2011 to 2012 Reach is the number of people who use the service at any point for more than 15 minutes in a week.

Television

Main article: BBC Television

The BBC operates several television channels in the UK. BBC One and BBC Two are the flagship television channels; others are BBC Four, BBC News, BBC Parliament, and two children's channels, CBBC and CBeebies. Digital television is now entrenched in the UK, with analogue transmission completely phased out as of December 2012. It also operates the internet television service BBC Three, which ceased broadcasting as a linear television channel in February 2016.

Weekly reach of the BBC's domestic television channels 2011–12

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 greatly from that of the network. BBC Two variations exist in the Nations; however, English regions today rarely have the option to opt out as regional programming now only exists on BBC One. 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.

Filming an episode of BBC One’s Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes pictured) in July 2011

The BBC currently operates HD simulcasts of all its nationwide channels with the exception of BBC Parliament. Until 26 March 2013, a separate channel called BBC HD was available, in place of BBC Two HD. It launched on 9 June 2006, following a 12-month trial of the broadcasts. It became a proper channel in 2007, and screened HD programmes as simulcasts of the main network, or as repeats. The corporation has been producing programmes in the format for many years, and stated that it hoped 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, and BBC Two HD launched on 26 March 2013, replacing BBC HD. Scotland’s new television channel, BBC Scotland, launched in February 2019.

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, BBC Four 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 them on four dedicated TV channels. From 27 March 2013, BFBS will carry versions of BBC One and BBC Two, which will include children's programming from CBBC, as well as carrying programming from BBC Three on a new channel called BFBS Extra.

Since 2008, all the BBC channels are available to watch online through the BBC iPlayer service. This online streaming ability came about following experiments with live streaming, involving streaming certain channels in the UK. In February 2014, Director-General Tony Hall announced that the corporation needed to save £100 million. In March 2014, the BBC confirmed plans for BBC Three to become an internet-only channel.

Genome Project

Main article: BBC Genome Project

In December 2012, the BBC completed a digitisation exercise, scanning the listings of all BBC programmes from an entire run of about 4,500 copies of the Radio Times magazine from the first, 1923, issue to 2009 (later listings already being held electronically), the "BBC Genome project", with a view to creating an online database of its programme output. An earlier ten months of listings are to be obtained from other sources. They identified around five million programmes, involving 8.5 million actors, presenters, writers and technical staff. The Genome project was opened to public access on 15 October 2014, with corrections to OCR errors and changes to advertised schedules being crowdsourced.

Radio

Weekly reach of the BBC's national radio stations, both on analogue and digital.

Main articles: BBC Radio and BBC Local Radio

The BBC has ten radio stations serving the whole of the UK, a further seven stations in the "national regions" (Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), and 39 other local stations serving defined areas of England. Of the ten national stations, five are major stations and are available on FM and/or AM as well as on 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, presenting classical and jazz music together with some spoken-word programming of a cultural nature in the evenings; BBC Radio 4, focusing on current affairs, factual and other speech-based programming, including drama and comedy; and BBC Radio 5 Live, broadcasting 24-hour news, sport and talk programmes.

Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman being interviewed on BBC Radio in October 1954

In addition to these five stations, the BBC runs a further five 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 Radio 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 40 BBC Local Radio stations in England and the Channel Islands, each named for and covering a particular city and its surrounding area (e.g. BBC Radio Bristol), county or region (e.g. BBC Three Counties Radio), or geographical area (e.g. BBC Radio Solent covering the central south coast). A further six stations broadcast in what the BBC terms "the national regions": Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. These are BBC Radio Wales (in English), BBC Radio Cymru (in Welsh), BBC Radio Scotland (in English), BBC Radio nan Gaidheal (in Scottish Gaelic), BBC Radio Ulster, and BBC Radio Foyle, the latter being an opt-out station from Radio Ulster for the north-west of Northern Ireland.

The BBC's UK national channels are also broadcast in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man (although these Crown dependencies are outside the UK), and in the former there are two local stations – BBC Guernsey and BBC Radio Jersey. There is no BBC local radio station, however, in the Isle of Man, partly because the island has long been served by the popular independent commercial station, Manx Radio, which predates the existence of BBC Local Radio. BBC services in the dependencies are financed from television licence fees which are set at the same level as those payable in the UK, although collected locally. This is the subject of some controversy in the Isle of Man since, as well as having no BBC Local Radio service, the island also lacks a local television news service analogous to that provided by BBC Channel Islands.

BBC World Service, with Jonathan Dimbleby broadcasting from Budapest

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 192 million, and its websites have an audience of 38 million people per week. 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 Government's 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, had broadcast programmes in English to Britain since the 1930s and the Isle of Man-based Manx Radio began in 1964. Today, despite the advent of commercial radio, BBC radio stations remain among the most listened to in the country, with Radio 2 having the largest audience share (up to 16.8% in 2011–12) and Radios 1 and 4 ranked second and third in terms of weekly reach.

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 Sirius XM Radio (online streaming only).

The BBC is a patron of The Radio Academy.

News

Main article: BBC News

The new newsroom in Broadcasting House, central London, officially opened by the Queen in 2013

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 Parliament and BBC World News. In addition to this, news stories are available on the BBC Red Button service 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 incidents such as the 7 July 2005 London bombings or royal events, 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 terabytes 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.

Internet

Main article: BBC Online

The BBC's online presence includes a comprehensive news website and archive. The BBC's first official online service was the BBC Networking Club, which was launched on 11 May 1994. The service was subsequently relaunched as BBC Online in 1997, 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. In 2017 "BBC Online" was among the ten most cited sources in the English Wikipedia. According to Alexa's TrafficRank system, in September 2019 BBC Online was ranked 114 in the world, and 6 in the United Kingdom.

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".

In the first quarter of 2020 the website of BBC was one of the most popular and reliable sources in Wikipedia.

Interactive television

Main article: BBC Red Button

BBC Red Button is the brand name for the BBC's interactive 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.

Music

The BBC Big Band

The BBC employs 5 staff orchestras, a professional choir, and supports two amateur choruses, based in BBC venues across the UK; the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus based in London, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow, the BBC Philharmonic in Salford, the BBC Concert Orchestra based in Watford, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC National Chorus of Wales in Cardiff. It also buys a selected number of broadcasts from the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast and the BBC Big Band.

The BBC Proms have been produced by the BBC every year since 1927, stepping in to fund the popular classical music festival when music publishers Chappell and Co withdrew their support. In 1930, the newly-formed BBC Symphony Orchestra gave all 49 Proms, and have performed at every Last Night of the Proms since then. Nowadays, the BBC's orchestras and choirs are the backbone of the Proms, giving around 40%–50% of all performances each season.

Many famous musicians of every genre have played at the BBC, such as The Beatles (Live at the BBC is one of their many albums). The BBC is also responsible for the broadcast of Glastonbury Festival, Reading Festival and United Kingdom coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest, a show with which the broadcaster has been associated for over 60 years. The BBC also operates the division of BBC Audiobooks sometimes found in association with Chivers Audiobooks.

Other

The BBC operates other ventures in addition to their broadcasting arm. In addition to broadcasting output on television and radio, some programmes are also displayed on the BBC Big Screens located in several central-city locations. The BBC and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office also jointly run BBC Monitoring, which monitors radio, television, the press and the internet worldwide. The BBC also developed several computers throughout the 1980s, most notably the BBC Micro, which ran alongside the corporation's educational aims and programming.

In 1951, in conjunction with Oxford University Press the BBC published The BBC Hymn Book which was intended to be used by radio listeners to follow hymns being broadcast. The book was published both with and without music, the music edition being entitled The BBC Hymn Book with Music. The book contained 542 popular hymns.

Ceefax

Main article: Ceefax

The BBC provided the world's first teletext service called Ceefax (near-homonymous with "See Facts") on 23 September 1974 until 23 October 2012 on the BBC 1 analogue channel then later on BBC 2. It showed informational pages such as News, Sport and the Weather. on New Year's Eve in 1974, competition from ITV's Oracle tried to compete with Ceefax. Oracle closed on New Year's Eve, 1992. During its lifetime it attracted millions of viewers, right up to 2012, prior to the digital switchover in the United Kingdom. It ceased transmission at 23:32:19 BST on 23 October 2012 after 38 years. Since then, the BBC's Red Button Service has provided a digital-like information system that replaced Ceefax.

BritBox

In 2016, the BBC, in partnership with fellow UK Broadcasters ITV and Channel 4 (who later withdrew from the project), set up 'project kangaroo' to develop an international online streaming service to rival services such as Netflix and Hulu. During the development stages 'Britflix' was touted as a potential name. However, the service eventually launched as BritBox in March 2017. The online platform shows a catalogue of classic BBC and ITV shows, as well as making a number of programmes available shortly after their UK broadcast. As of 2019, BritBox is available in the United States and Canada with the potential availability for new markets in the future, including the UK by late 2019. In October 2019, BritBox was released in its testing phase in the UK.

Commercial activities

Main article: BBC Studios

BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide) 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 Studios channels BBC America and BBC Canada (Joint venture with Corus Entertainment) showing similar programming in the North America region and BBC 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 Studios runs an international version of the channel BBC HD, and provides HD simulcasts of the channels BBC Knowledge and BBC America.

BBC Studios also distributes the 24-hour international news channel BBC World News. The station is separate from BBC Studios to maintain the station's neutral point of view, but is distributed by BBC Studios. The channel itself is the oldest surviving entity of its kind, and has 50 foreign news bureaus and correspondents in nearly all countries in the world. As officially surveyed, it is available to more than 294 million households, significantly more than CNN's estimated 200 million. In addition to these international channels, BBC Studios also owns the UKTV network of seven channels. These channels contain BBC archive programming to be rebroadcast on their respective channels: Alibi, crime dramas; Dave (slogan: "The Home of Witty Banter"); Drama, drama, launched in 2013; Eden, nature; Gold, comedy; W, Entertainment; and Yesterday, history programming.

In addition to these channels, many BBC programmes are sold via BBC Studios to foreign television stations with comedy, documentaries and historical drama productions being the 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 TVNZ 1.

In addition to programming, BBC Studios produces material to accompany programmes. The company maintained the publishing arm of the BBC, BBC Magazines, which published 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. BBC Magazines was sold to Exponent Private Equity in 2011, which merged it with Origin Publishing (previously owned by BBC Worldwide between 2004 and 2006) to form Immediate Media Company.

BBC Studios also publishes books, to accompany programmes such as Doctor Who under the BBC Books brand, a publishing imprint majority owned by Random House. Soundtrack albums, talking books and sections of radio broadcasts are also sold under the brand BBC Records, with DVDs 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.

Logos and symbols of the BBC

Main article: Logo of the BBC

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  BBC's first three-box logo used from 1958 until 1963.

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  BBC's second three-box logo used from 1963 until 1971.

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  BBC's third three-box logo used from 1971 until 1988.

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  BBC's fourth three-box logo used from 1988 until 1997.

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  BBC's fifth three-box logo used from 1997 until 2021.

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  BBC's sixth and current logo used since 2021.

See also

• List of companies based in London
• List of television programmes broadcast by the BBC
• Stations of the BBC
• The Green Book
• British television
• Early television stations
• Gaelic broadcasting in Scotland
• Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom
• Quango, an abbreviation for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation
• British midlands

External links

• Official website
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