BBC

British public service broadcaster

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 2021
Type	Statutory corporation with a royal charter
Industry	Mass media
Predecessor	British Broadcasting Company
Founded	18 October 1922; 100 years ago (1922-10-18) (as British Broadcasting Company) 1 January 1927; 96 years ago (1927-01-01) (as British Broadcasting Corporation)
Founder	HM Government
Headquarters	Broadcasting House London, England, UK
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Richard Sharp (Chairman) Tim Davie (Director-General)
Products	Broadcasting Web portals
Services	Television Radio Online
Revenue	£5.064 billion (2021)[1]
Operating income	£290 million (2021)[1]
Net income	£227 million (2021)[1]
Total assets	£2.11 billion (2021)[1]
Owner	Public
Number of employees	22,219 (2021)[1]
Divisions	BBC Television BBC Studios BBC Sport BBC Radio BBC News BBC Online BBC Sounds BBC Weather BBC Music BBC English Regions BBC Scotland BBC Cymru Wales BBC Northern Ireland BBC North BBC Bitesize
Website	www.bbc.com

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom, based at Broadcasting House in London, England. It is the world's oldest national broadcaster, and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, employing over 22,000 staff in total, of whom approximately 19,000 are in public-sector broadcasting.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

The BBC is established under a

royal charter^[6] and operates under its agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.^[7] Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee^[8] which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts or watch using iPlayer.^[9] The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament,^[10] and is 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 the BBC's revenue comes from its commercial subsidiary

Queen's Award for Enterprise in recognition of its international achievements.^[11]

From its inception, through the

Second World War (where its broadcasts helped to unite the nation), to the popularisation of television in the post-WW2 era and the internet in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the BBC has played a prominent role in British life and culture.^[12] It is colloquially known as the Beeb, Auntie, or a combination of both (Auntie Beeb).^[13][14]

History

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of the BBC.

The birth of British broadcasting, 1920 to 1922

Britain's first live public broadcast was made from the factory of

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.^[15] 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.^[16]

But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests[17] and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3,000 members.^[18] 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 manufacturers, to be known as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd, which was formed on 18 October 1922.^[19] John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its general manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast.^[20] L. Stanton Jefferies was its first director of music.^[21] The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved domestic manufacturers.^[22] To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform, educate and entertain".^[23]

From private company towards public service corporation, 1923 to 1926

The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate. Set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets.^[24] By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee.^[25] The Committee recommended a short term reorganisation of licence fees with improved enforcement in order to address the BBC's immediate financial distress, and an increased share of the licence revenue split between it and the GPO. This was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee to fund broadcasts.^[25] The BBC's broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, as was the prohibition on advertising. To avoid competition with newspapers, Fleet Street persuaded the government to ban news bulletins before 7 pm and the BBC was required to source all news from external wire services.^[25]

Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee. By now, the BBC, under Reith's leadership, had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified (monopoly) broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss-making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a public service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the

1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production, and with restrictions on news bulletins waived, the BBC suddenly became the primary source of news for the duration of the crisis.^[26]

The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position. On the one hand Reith was acutely aware that the government might exercise its right to commandeer the BBC at any time as a mouthpiece of the government if the BBC were to step out of line, but on the other he was anxious to maintain public trust by appearing to be acting independently. The government was divided on how to handle the BBC, but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PM's own. Although Winston Churchill in particular wanted to commandeer the BBC to use it "to the best possible advantage", Reith wrote that Stanley Baldwin's government wanted to be able to say "that they did not commandeer [the BBC], but they know that they can trust us not to be really impartial".^[27] Thus the BBC was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the government's objectives largely in a manner of its own choosing. The resulting coverage of both striker and government viewpoints impressed millions of listeners who were unaware that the PM had broadcast to the nation from Reith's home, using one of Reith's sound bites inserted at the last moment, or that the BBC had banned broadcasts from the Labour Party and delayed a peace appeal by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Supporters of the strike nicknamed the BBC the BFC for British Falsehood Company. Reith personally announced the end of the strike which he marked by reciting from Blake's "Jerusalem" signifying that England had been saved.^[28]

While the BBC tends to characterise its coverage of the general strike by emphasising the positive impression created by its balanced coverage of the views of government and strikers, Jean Seaton, Professor of Media History and the Official BBC Historian, has characterised the episode as the invention of "modern propaganda in its British form".^[26] Reith argued that trust gained by 'authentic impartial news' could then be used. Impartial news was not necessarily an end in itself.^[29]

The BBC did well out of the crisis, which cemented a national audience for its broadcasting, and it was followed by the Government's acceptance of the recommendation made by the Crawford Committee (1925–26) that the British Broadcasting Company be replaced by a non-commercial, Crown-chartered organisation: the British Broadcasting Corporation.

1927 to 1939

The Radio Times

masthead from 25 December 1931, including the BBC motto "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation"

Television pioneer John Logie Baird (seen here in 1917) televised the BBC's first drama, The Man with the Flower in His Mouth, on 14 July 1930, and the first live outside broadcast, The Derby, on 2 June 1931.^[30][31]

The British Broadcasting Corporation came into existence on 1 January 1927, and Reith – newly knighted – was appointed its first Director General. To represent its purpose and (stated) values, the new corporation adopted the coat of arms, including the motto "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation".^[32]

British radio audiences had little choice apart from the upscale programming of the BBC. Reith, an intensely moralistic executive, was in full charge. His goal was to broadcast "All that is best in every department of human knowledge, endeavour and achievement.... The preservation of a high moral tone is obviously of paramount importance."^[33] Reith succeeded in building a high wall against an American-style free-for-all in radio in which the goal was to attract the largest audiences and thereby secure the greatest advertising revenue. There was no paid advertising on the BBC; all the revenue came from a tax on receiving sets. Highbrow audiences, however, greatly enjoyed it.^[34] At a time when American, Australian and Canadian stations were drawing huge audiences cheering for their local teams with the broadcast of baseball, rugby and hockey, the BBC emphasised service for a national rather than a regional audience. Boat races were well covered along with tennis and horse racing, but the BBC was reluctant to spend its severely limited air time on long football or cricket games, regardless of their popularity.^[35]

The BBC's radio studio in Birmingham, from the BBC Hand Book 1928, which described it as "Europe's largest studio".

Prohibition in America, vulgar and doubtful matter and political allusions.^[37] The BBC excluded popular foreign music and musicians from its broadcasts, while promoting British alternatives.^[39] On 5 March 1928, Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, maintained the censorship of editorial opinions on public policy, but allowed the BBC to address matters of religious, political or industrial controversy.^[40] The resulting political "talk series", designed to inform England on political issues, were criticised by members of parliament, including Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and Sir Austen Chamberlain. Those who opposed these chats claimed that they silence the opinions of those in Parliament who are not nominated by Party Leaders or Party Whips, thus stifling independent, non-official views.^[40] In October 1932, the policemen of the Metropolitan Police Federation marched in protest at a proposed pay cut. Fearing dissent within the police force and public support for the movement, the BBC censored its coverage of the events, only broadcasting official statements from the government.^[40]

Throughout the 1930s, political broadcasts had been closely monitored by the BBC.

The Foreign Office of Britain, first suspended this series and ultimately cancelled it without the notice of the public.^[41][40] Less radical politicians faced similar censorship. In 1938, Winston Churchill proposed a series of talks regarding British domestic and foreign politics and affairs but was similarly censored.^[41] The censorship of political discourse by the BBC was a precursor to the total shutdown of political debate that manifested over the BBC's wartime airwaves.^[41] The Foreign Office maintained that the public should not be aware of their role in the censorship.^[40] From 1935 to 1939, the BBC also attempted to unite the British Empire's radio waves, sending staff to Egypt, Palestine, Newfoundland, Jamaica, India, Canada and South Africa.^[42] Reith personally visited South Africa, lobbying for state-run radio programmes which was accepted by South African Parliament in 1936.^[42] A similar programme was adopted in Canada. Through collaboration with these state-run broadcasting centres, Reith left a legacy of cultural influence across the empire of Great Britain with his departure from the corporation in 1938.^[42]

Experimental television broadcasts were started in 1929, using an electromechanical 30-line system developed by

an expanded service (now named the BBC Television Service) started from Alexandra Palace in November 1936, alternating between an improved Baird mechanical 240-line system and the all-electronic 405-line Marconi-EMI system which had been developed by an EMI research team led by Sir Isaac Shoenberg.^[44] The superiority of the electronic system saw the mechanical system dropped early the following year, with the Marconi-EMI system the first fully electronic television system in the world to be used in regular broadcasting.^[45]

BBC versus other media

King George V giving the 1934 Royal Christmas Message

on BBC Radio. The annual message typically reflects on the year's major events.

The success of broadcasting provoked animosities between the BBC and well-established media such as theatres, concert halls and the recording industry. By 1929, the BBC complained that the agents of many comedians refused to sign contracts for broadcasting, because they feared it harmed the artist "by making his material stale" and that it "reduces the value of the artist as a visible music-hall performer". On the other hand, the BBC was "keenly interested" in a cooperation with the recording companies who "in recent years ... have not been slow to make records of singers, orchestras, dance bands, etc. who have already proved their power to achieve popularity by wireless." Radio plays were so popular that the BBC had received 6,000 manuscripts by 1929, most of them written for stage and of little value for broadcasting: "Day in and day out, manuscripts come in, and nearly all go out again through the post, with a note saying 'We regret, etc.'"[46] In the 1930s music broadcasts also enjoyed great popularity, for example the friendly and wide-ranging organ broadcasts at St George's Hall, London by Reginald Foort, who held the official role of BBC Staff Theatre Organist from 1936 to 1938.^[47]

Second World War

Statue of George Orwell outside Broadcasting House

, headquarters of the BBC

Television broadcasting was suspended from 1 September 1939 to 7 June 1946, during the

Second World War, and it was left to BBC Radio broadcasters such as Reginald Foort to keep the nation's spirits up. The BBC moved most of its radio operations out of London, initially to Bristol, and then to Bedford. Concerts were broadcast from the Bedford Corn Exchange; the Trinity Chapel in St Paul's Church, Bedford was the studio for the daily service from 1941 to 1945, and, in the darkest days of the war in 1941, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York came to St Paul's to broadcast to the UK and the world on the National Day of Prayer. BBC employees during the war included George Orwell who spent two years with the broadcaster.^[48]

During his role as prime minister during the war, Winston Churchill delivered 33 major wartime speeches by radio, all of which were carried by the BBC within the UK.^[49] On 18 June 1940, French general Charles de Gaulle, in exile in London as the leader of the Free French, made a speech, broadcast by the BBC, urging the French people not to capitulate to the Nazis.^[50] In October 1940, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret made their first radio broadcast for the BBC's Children's Hour, addressing other children who had been evacuated from cities.^[51]

In 1938, John Reith and the

British government, specifically the Ministry of Information which had been set up for WWII, designed a censorship apparatus for the inevitability of war.^[52] Due to the BBC's advancements in shortwave radio technology, the corporation could broadcast across the world during the Second World War.^[53] Within Europe, the BBC European Service would gather intelligence and information regarding the current events of the war in English.^[52][54] Regional BBC workers, based on their regional geo-political climate, would then further censor the material their broadcasts would cover. Nothing was to be added outside the preordained news items.^[52][54] For example, the BBC Polish Service was heavily censored due to fears of jeopardising relations with the Soviet Union. Controversial topics, i.e. the contested Polish and Soviet border, the deportation of Polish citizens, the arrests of Polish Home Army members and the Katyn massacre, were not included in Polish broadcasts.^[55] American radio broadcasts were broadcast across Europe on BBC channels. This material also passed through the BBC's censorship office, which surveilled and edited American coverage of British affairs.^[53] By 1940, across all BBC broadcasts, music by composers from enemy nations was censored. In total, 99 German, 38 Austrian and 38 Italian composers were censored. The BBC argued that like the Italian or German languages, listeners would be irritated by the inclusion of enemy composers.^[56] Any potential broadcasters said to have pacifist, communist or fascist ideologies were not allowed on the BBC's airwaves.^[57] In 1937, a MI5 security officer was given a permanent office within the organisation. This officer would examine the files of potential political subversives and mark the files of those deemed a security risk to the organisation, blacklisting them. This was often done on spurious grounds; even so, the practice would continue and expand during the years of the Cold War.^[58][59]

Later 20th century

Produced between 1934 and 1959, the BBC-Marconi Type A microphone has been described as an iconic symbol of the BBC alongside the channel's most famous emblem, the rotating globe, which was introduced in 1963.^[60]

There was a widely reported urban myth that, upon resumption of the BBC television service after the war, announcer Leslie Mitchell 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 ... ?"^[61] The European Broadcasting Union was formed on 12 February 1950, in Torquay with the BBC among the 23 founding broadcasting organisations.^[62]

Competition to the BBC was introduced in 1955, with the commercial and independently operated television network of

VHF

transmissions of BBC1 (and ITV) were continued for compatibility with older television receivers until 1985.

BBC Television Centre at White City

, West London, which opened in 1960 and closed in 2013

England fans in Manchester during a 2006 FIFA World Cup game shown on the BBC Big Screen

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.^[82]

Unlike the other departments of the BBC, the BBC World Service was funded by the

BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow

, which was opened in 2007

A strike in 2005 by more than 11,000 BBC workers, over a proposal to cut 4,000 jobs, and to privatise parts of the BBC, disrupted much of the BBC's regular programming.^[83][84]

In 2006,

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

The new extension to the BBC's Broadcasting House

, completed in 2012

In 2016, the BBC Director General Tony Hall announced a savings target of £800 million per year by 2021, which is about 23% of annual licence fee revenue. Having to take on the £700 million cost for free TV licences for the over-75 pensioners, and rapid inflation in drama and sport coverage costs, was given as the reason. Duplication of management and content spending would be reduced, and there would be a review of BBC News.^[96][97] In 2020, the BBC announced a BBC News savings target of £80 million per year by 2022, involving about 520 staff reductions. The BBC's director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth said there would be further moves toward digital broadcasting, in part to attract back a youth audience, and more pooling of reporters to stop separate teams covering the same news.^[98][99] In 2020, the BBC reported a £119 million deficit because of delays to cost reduction plans, and the forthcoming ending of the remaining £253 million funding towards pensioner licence fees would increase financial pressures.^[100]

In January 2021, it was reported that former banker Richard Sharp would succeed David Clementi, as chairman, when he stepped down in February.^[101]

In 2023, BBC's offices in New Delhi were searched by officials from the Income Tax Department. The move comes after BBC released a documentary on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The documentary investigated Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, which resulted in more than 1,000 casualties. The Indian Government banned viewing of the documentary in India and restricted clips of the documentary on social media.^[102]

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.^[103][104] The chairman is Richard Sharp.^[105]

Charter

The BBC operates under a

The BBC Board was formed in April 2017. It replaced the previous governing body, the BBC Trust, which in itself had replaced the Board of Governors in 2007. The Board 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. Regulation of the BBC is now the responsibility of Ofcom. The board consists of the following members.^[108][109]

Executive committee

The executive committee is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the broadcaster. Consisting of senior managers of the BBC, the committee meets once per month and is responsible for operational management and delivery of services within a framework set by the board, and is chaired by the director-general, currently Tim Davie, who is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief.^[110]

Operational divisions

The corporation has the following in-house divisions covering the BBC's output and operations:^[111][112]

• Content, headed by Charlotte Moore is in charge of the corporation's television channels including the commissioning of programming.
• Nations and Regions, headed by Rhodri Talfan Davies is responsible for the corporation's divisions in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the English Regions.

Commercial divisions

The BBC also operates a number of wholly owned commercial divisions:

• BBC Studios 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.^[113]

MI5 vetting policy

From as early as the 1930s until the 1990s, MI5, the British domestic intelligence service, engaged in vetting of applicants for BBC positions, a policy designed to keep out persons deemed subversive.^[114][115] In 1933, BBC executive Colonel Alan Dawnay began to meet the head of MI5, Sir Vernon Kell, to informally trade information; from 1935, a formal arrangement was made wherein job applicants would be secretly vetted by MI5 for their political views (without their knowledge).^[114] The BBC took up a policy of denying any suggestion of such a relationship by the press (the existence of MI5 itself was not officially acknowledged until the Security Service Act 1989).^[114]

This relationship garnered wider public attention after an article by

The principal means of funding the BBC is through the television licence, costing £154.50 per year per household since April 2019.^[120] 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,^[121] 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.^[122]

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 for 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,^[123] 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.^[124] 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.^[125] According to TV Licensing, 216,900 people in the UK were caught watching TV without a licence in 2018/19.^[126] Licence fee evasion makes up around one-tenth of all cases prosecuted in magistrates' courts, representing 0.3% of court time.^[127]

Income from commercial enterprises and from overseas sales of its catalogue of programmes has substantially increased over recent years,^[128] with BBC Worldwide contributing some £243 million to the BBC's core public service business.^[129]

According to the BBC's 2018/19 Annual Report, its total income was £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,^[129] 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

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.^[131][132] Audio clips and television broadcasts are used to inform listeners of the BBC's comprehensive database.^[133] There are a number of pressure groups campaigning on the issue of the licence fee.^[134]

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.^[135]

Headquarters and regional offices

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, central 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.^[136]

Until it closed at the end of March 2013,

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".[138] The BBC News Channel and BBC World News relocated to the premises in early 2013.^[139] 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^[140] designed by Sir Richard MacCormac of MJP Architects. This move concentrated the BBC's London operations, allowing them to sell Television Centre.^[141]

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

Weekly reach of the BBC's domestic services from 2011 to 2012^[149][150] Reach is the number of people who use the service at any point for more than 15 minutes in a week.^[150]

Weekly reach of the BBC's domestic television channels 2011–12^[153]

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.^[154]

Filming an episode of BBC One's Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch

as Sherlock Holmes pictured) in July 2011

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,[157] received off-air, or from digital satellite.

Since 1975, the BBC has also provided its TV programmes to the

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.^[158] 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.^[159]

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.^[160] An earlier ten months of listings are to be obtained from other sources.^[160] They identified around five million programmes, involving 8.5 million actors, presenters, writers and technical staff.^[160] The Genome project was opened to public access on 15 October 2014, with corrections to OCR errors and changes to advertised schedules being crowdsourced.^[161]

Radio

Weekly reach of the BBC's national radio stations, on both analogue and digital. (2012)^[150]

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

BBC World Service, with Jonathan Dimbleby

broadcasting from Budapest

The BBC is a patron of The Radio Academy.^[169]

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,[170] 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 and as a result, has launched the service on BBC Mobile, making it accessible to mobile phones and PDAs, as well as developing alerts by email, on 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.^[171] On 7 July 2005, the day that there were a series of coordinated bomb blasts on London's public transport system, the

The BBC's online presence includes a comprehensive

2008 advertisement for BBC iPlayer

at Old Street, London

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.^[178]

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.^[179] 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.^[180] 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.^[181][182]

On 26 February 2010,

The BBC Big Band

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.^[191] The book contained 542 popular hymns.

Ceefax

The BBC provided the world's first teletext service called

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.^[193][194] 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 2021^[update], BritBox is available in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, and, more recently, South Africa, with the potential availability for new markets in the future.^{[193][195][196][197][198]}

Commercial activities

BBC Studios is headquartered at Television Centre

(BBC Television's former headquarters) in west London

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 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.^[199] As officially surveyed, it is available to more than 294 million households, significantly more than CNN's estimated 200 million.^[199] In addition to these international channels, BBC Studios also owns the

.

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

2 Entertain

brand. Archive programming and classical music recordings are sold under the brand BBC Legends.

Cultural significance

Blue plaque at Alexandra Palace, commemorating the launch of the world's first high-definition television service, BBC Television

, in 1936

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".

URY obtained its first licence).^[204]

BBC Natural History Unit, the largest wildlife documentary production house in the world.^[205]