History of the BBC.

History of the BBC

The British Broadcasting Company was set up by a group of executives from radio manufacturers in December 1922. became general manager of the organization.

In 1927 the government decided to establish the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a broadcasting monopoly operated by a board of governors and director general. The BBC was funded by a licence fee at a rate set by parliament. The fee was paid by all owners of radio sets. The BBC therefore became the world's first public-service broadcasting organization. Unlike in the , advertising on radio was banned.

John Reith was appointed director-general of the BBC. Reith had a mission to educate and improve the audience and under his leadership the BBC developed a reputation for serious programmes. Reith also insisted that all radio announcers wore dinner jackets while they were on the air. In the 1930s the BBC began to introduce more sport and light entertainment on the radio.

The BBC began the world's first regular television service in 1936. This service was halted during the and all BBC's efforts were concentrated on radio broadcasting. In 1940 was appointed as Minister of Information

Writers such as , , , , and were recruited by the BBC and radio was used for internal and external propaganda. This included broadcasting radio programmes to countries under the control of . These radio programmes went out in 40 different languages

The BBC television service was resumed in 1946 and by the early 1950s it became the dominant part of its activities. Its broadcasting monopoly came to an end with the introduction of commercial television under the Independent Television Authority in 1954. This was followed by the introduction of commercial radio stations in 1972.

It has been claimed that BBC is the most universally recognizable set of initials in the world. For example, by the end of the 20th century an estimated 150 million people were listening to BBC World Service radio.

In 2000 the BBC was awarded an annual increase in the licence fee of 1.5% above inflation. This extra money has allowed the BBC to expand into the field of digital television and online education.

The BBC license fee is currently £109 per TV-owning household. This provides 96% of the BBC's annual income of £3.16 billion

1920s

John Reith, the BBC's founding father, looked westwards in the 1920s to America's unregulated, commercial radio, and then east to the fledgling Soviet Union's rigidly controlled state system.

Reith's vision was of an independent British broadcaster able to educate, inform and entertain the whole nation, free from political interference and commercial pressure.

The innovation of a Post Office licence fee of ten shillings (50 pence), of which half went to the BBC, ensured that the BBC was not financially dependent on the Government of the day nor on advertising revenue.

The British Broadcasting Company, as the BBC was originally called, was formed on 18 October 1922 by a group of leading wireless manufacturers including Marconi. Daily broadcasting by the BBC began in Marconi’s London studio, 2LO, in the Strand, on November 14, 1922. This was followed the next day by broadcasts from Birmingham and Manchester.

Reith, a 33-year-old Scottish engineer, was appointed General Manager of the BBC at the end of 1922. Within a year the fledgling BBC had broadcast plays, concerts of popular and classical music, talks and variety programmes. There was some news but in the early days only after 7pm to avoid upsetting the sales of newspapers.

Reith defined the BBC’s role as "to bring the best of everything to the greatest number of homes". He was sufficiently visionary to see immediately the potential of broadcasting.

"Listening in" to the wireless in the United Kingdom quickly became a social and cultural phenomenon as the BBC in London and regional stations around the country gave birth to a new form of mass communication.

The Big Ben time signals and the Greenwich "pips" entered the national psyche in 1924.

The monarch could speak to his people as never before. King George V was first heard on radio during a broadcast from the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. The speech was relayed on loudspeakers outside major department stores and the crowds were so large that they stopped the traffic in the road.

At home, people first listened in on primitive "crystal" sets with the help of a cat's whisker (a fine wire) that was moved until it made best contact with a crystal. The radio signal could then be picked up on earphones. More advanced valve sets followed. By the Thirties there were mains power sets contained in the familiar Bakelite cases.

The opening of the first long-wave high-power transmitter at Daventry in 1925 made it possible for nearly all of Britain to hear the BBC. By 1926 there were two and a quarter million licences, far more than anyone anticipated. That figure increased to eight and a half million by 1938. By that time 98% of the country's population could listen in to the BBC's radio services.

The General Strike of 1926 brought the BBC its first serious confrontation with the Government over editorial independence. With no regular newspapers being published, the country turned, not for the last occasion in times of national turmoil, to the BBC. Winston Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, favoured the BBC being taken over by the government, but this was resisted by the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin and Reith. Although the BBC’s coverage of the strike was cautious and far from comprehensive, historians consider that it was reasonably fair.

In 1927 the British Broadcasting Company became the British Broadcasting Corporation when it was granted its first Royal Charter and John Reith was knighted.

The Charter defined the BBC’s objectives, powers and obligations. The current Royal Charter, the seventh since 1927, runs until 2006. Under the Charter, the BBC is answerable to the BBC Board of Governors who are appointed to act as trustees for the public interest and to ensure that the organisation is properly accountable while maintaining its independence. They are mainly concerned with broad issues of policy while the Director-General and senior staff are responsible for detailed fulfilment of that policy. The Governors are appointed by the Queen in Council (the Privy Council) on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

The Licence and Agreement is the second constitutional document governing the BBC’s activities. Under the Royal Charter, the BBC has to obtain this Licence from the relevant Minister with responsibility for broadcasting matters. Originally this was the Postmaster General and later the Home Secretary. Today it is the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

1930s

It is said that there are only six jokes in the world, and I can assure
you that we can only broadcast three of them..."
John Watt, the BBC's Head of Variety in the 30's

In 1932 the BBC left Savoy Hill, its first headquarters, for Broadcasting House in Portland Place. This impressive art deco building quickly became a London landmark and was described as “a new Tower of London”. Its shape was even compared to a luxury liner and today it is a listed building.

Broadcasts in the Thirties covered a wide area from news, talks and plays to music, sport and children’s programmes. The BBC had already become a major patron of the arts, commissioning music and drama. Gustav Holst was the first composer commissioned by the BBC. His The Morning of the Year was completed in 1927, the year when the BBC broadcast its first Promenade Concert. Henry Wood inaugurated the Proms in 1895 and the BBC took them over when they ran into financial problems. The BBC Symphony Orchestra was established and first broadcast under Dr Adrian Boult in 1930.

Education was an important priority for Reith and school broadcasts were heard in over 8,000 schools by the late Thirties. Outside broadcasts covered sports ranging from football and cricket to rugby and the Boat Race.

Variety, as light entertainment was called, had millions of listeners. Band Waggon with Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch and ITMA with Tommy Handley had a huge following, but good taste and decency became an issue early on for the BBC. Comedians overstepped the mark at their peril and detailed guidelines were given to artists and producers to ensure that there were no jokes about religion, drunkenness and many other sensitive subjects.

In 1932 the BBC broadened its horizons with the opening of the Empire Service, the forerunner of BBC World Service. The first foreign-language service was Arabic, introduced in 1938. On the eve of the Second World War, the BBC launched services to Europe in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and English. On Christmas Day 1932, King George V gave the first broadcast to the Empire by any monarch. It was scripted by the famous author Rudyard Kipling

Television arrives

"A mighty maze of mystic magic rays is all about us in the blue..."
Singer Adele Dixon at the opening of the BBC Television Service
at Alexandra Palace, London, November 2, 1936

John Logie Baird had given the first public demonstration of low-definition television back in 1925. There had been experimental transmissions from a studio in Broadcasting House since 1932.

On 2 November 1936 the BBC opened the world’s first regular service of high-definition television from Alexandra Palace in North London, known affectionately as Ally Pally.

Not many people could pick up the "flickering" rays of the first programmes on their 10-inch televisions. The transmissions reached only the 20,000 homes with a television within a 35-mile range of Alexandra Palace. The first sets cost about £100, the same price as a small car.

Sir John Reith, who was to resign from the BBC in 1938, had little enthusiasm for the new medium. "To Alexandra Palace for the television opening," he noted in his diary, "I had declined to be televised or take part …" Later he described television as "an awful snare".

Like radio, the world’s first regular high- definition television service developed rapidly between 1936 and 1939. An impressive number of Outside Broadcasts were made. Viewers were able to watch King George VI’s Coronation Procession (May 12, 1937), see Wimbledon (June 1937) and the FA Cup Final (April 30, 1938).

But these broadcasts were only possible from places near London and when there were sufficient resources. When the 1938 Boat Race was televised, only the finish could be shown. For most of the race viewers saw the Alexandra Palace announcer moving models along a model of the course.

But viewers were able to watch a wide variety of programmes, including plays, newsreels, concerts, opera, ballet, cabaret and children’s cartoons.

Leslie Mitchell, Jasmine Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell were the first three BBC Television service presenters. It was said that the cameramen would put gauze over their camera lenses to soften the beautiful Miss Bligh’s looks if she had been to a party the previous night. Pre-war television actors were paid less than their radio counterparts. One argument for this was that radio had a bigger audience and that television only showed the actors in miniature.

On September 30, 1938 Richard Dimbleby, father of David and Jonathan, was at Heston Airport to report for both radio and television on Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's return after his historic Munich meeting with Hitler.

On 1 September 1939, two days before war broke out, a Mickey Mouse cartoon was being shown when the television service was suddenly blacked out for defence reasons. It was feared that the transmitters could have provided navigational aid for enemy aircraft.

That same Mickey Mouse cartoon was shown on June 7 1946 when BBC television re-opened. The Victory Parade was televised the next day.

1940s

"I’d rather face German guns than hear any more organ music …"
a listener complains about the BBC’s early war programmes

With the television service closed for the duration, it was radio’s war and the BBC nearly lost it in the opening skirmishes.

Listeners wrote in to complain about the new Home Service, which had replaced the National and Regional programme services. There was criticism of too many organ recitals and public announcements. But the BBC had some secret weapons waiting in the wings. Colonel (‘I don’t mind if I do’) Chinstrap and Mrs (‘Can I do yer now, sir?’) Mopp were just of the two famous characters in Tommy Handley’s It’s That Man Again (ITMA) team. The comedian attracted 16 million ...

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Vera Lynn’s programme Sincerely Yours (dismissed by the BBC Board of Governors with the words: "Popularity noted, but deplored.") won her the title of "Forces’ Sweetheart”.

In 1940 the Forces Programme was launched for the troops assembling in France. The lighter touch of this new programme was a great success with both the Forces and audiences at home. After the war it was replaced by the Light Programme which was modelled on the Forces Programme.

Distinguished correspondents, including Richard Dimbleby, Frank Gillard, Godfrey Talbot and Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, helped to attract millions of listeners every night with War Report, which was heard at the end of the main evening news.

Churchill, who had no love for the BBC in the Thirties when he was virtually boycotted, found that the BBC did have its uses. Many of his inspirational wartime speeches were broadcast on radio, including "This was their finest hour…" in the summer of 1940.

The BBC emerged from the war with an enhanced reputation for honesty and accuracy in its news broadcasts. Half the nation regularly listened to the 9 o’clock news every evening. For listeners in the occupied countries the BBC’s wartime radio services were a lifeline. The Ici Londres broadcasts proved vital in passing messages to the French Resistance. General de Gaulle’s broadcasts from London were an important factor in encouraging the resistance movement.

By the end of the war, the BBC was broadcasting in 40 languages. Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s master of propaganda, was said to have admitted that BBC Radio had won the "intellectual invasion" of Europe.

The Forties was a rich period for new styles of radio. This is when Workers’ Playtime, Music While You Work and Desert Island Discs were first broadcast and became firm favourites. The Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 and Bertrand Russell gave the first series.

The post-war period saw a significant expansion of radio with the launch of the Third Programme in 1946. The new cultural network offered concerts, opera, drama, talks and features. When the Third Programme opened, Sir William Haley, the Director-General, said: “Its whole content will be directed to an audience that is not of one class but that is perceptive and intelligent”. In the austerity of postwar Britain, listeners enthusiastically welcomed having access to the great classical repertoire in music, drama, literature as well as talks by leading academics, philosophers and authors.

1950s

"I don't mind giving a reasonable amount. But a pint?
That’s very nearly an armful …" comedian Tony Hancock in The Blood Donor

In 1950 there were 12 million radio-only licences and only 350,000 combined radio and TV licences. The budget for BBC Television was a fraction of the Radio budget.

But a single event transformed the popularity of television. This was the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953 in Westminster Abbey.

Permission had never been given before for television cameras in the Abbey. Some even felt it was wrong for people to watch such a solemn occasion while drinking tea in their front rooms. An estimated 20 million TV viewers saw the young Queen crowned, most of them outside their own homes. This was a turning point and the first time that a television audience exceeded the size of a radio audience. By 1954 there were well over three million combined sound and vision licences.

The television age had arrived and in 1955 the Queen broadcast her Christmas Message on television for the first time.

The mid-Fifties introduced some major TV names of the future, including David Attenborough (Zoo Quest 1954), Eamonn Andrews (This Is Your Life 1955) and Jack Warner (Dixon of Dock Green 1955). Drama successes like The Quatermass Experiment and the controversial adaptation of Nineteen Eighty Four became talking points all over the country.

In September 1955 the BBC’s broadcasting monopoly came to an end when ITV was launched. The impact of competition had an instant impact on BBC Television and its share of the audience fell as low as 28% in 1957.

But the launch of many innovative programmes at the end of the Fifties reversed this decline. They included Panorama (1953), The Brains Trust (1955), Grandstand with David Coleman (1958), The Sky At Night with Patrick Moore (1957)and Monitor with Huw Weldon in 1958. A raft of new programmes like the Benny Hill Show, Your Life in Their Hands, Juke Box Jury and Whicker’s World attracted large audiences and increased the BBC’s share of television viewing.

Radio had some of its biggest stars in the Fifties, including Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine (The Goon Show), Kenneth Williams and Kenneth Horne (Beyond Our Ken), Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels (Life with the Lyons) and Jimmy Edwards, June Whitfield and Dick Bentley in Take It From Here, the programme which introduced two young comedy writers, Frank Muir and Denis Norden. The enormously popular Hancock’s Half-Hour started on radio in 1954 and two years later Tony Hancock’s innovative style was the first comedy to be transferred from radio to television.

The Archers, one of radio’s greatest successes, dates back to 1951. The radio drama and features departments regularly produced highly creative programmes, including Under Milk Wood(1954).

In the late Fifties, television introduced a series of successful children’s programmes, including Blue Peter, Pinky and Perky and Lenny the Lion. The period also marked the end of the "Toddlers’ Truce". This break in television broadcasts between 6 and 7pm was originally introduced to give parents time to get their children to bed. It ended in 1957 with the arrival of Tonight, the first topical programme to be broadcast on television every weekday. In the same year Today began on the Home Service.

1960s

They think it’s all over … it is now."
Football commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme coined the phrase
in the 1966 World Cup

In January 1960 Sir Hugh Greene became Director-General and he encouraged programme-makers to reflect the social changes and attitudes of the Sixties.

After the arrival of That Was The Week That Was in 1962 with David Frost the British Establishment would never be seen in the same light.

More anarchic stars were waiting in the wings.

A new radio programme, I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again (1965) introduced John Cleese (Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969)) and the future Goodies, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Radio comedy flourished with new programmes like Round the Horne, I’m Sorry I’ll Read that Again and Just a Minute.

Viewers enjoyed the portrayal of a new breed of gritty policemen in Z Cars (1962), wept at the plight of the homeless in the Wednesday Play, Cathy Come Home (1966) and were riveted by The Forsyte Saga (1967).

Dr Who (1963), Top of the Pops (1964), Horizon (1964), Tomorrow’s World (1965) and Dr Kildare all attracted large audiences.

Landmark documentary successes ranged from Sir Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation (1969) to the memorable 26-part series on The Great War (1964). Omnibus set a new standard for television arts programmes while Masterclass successfully showed an innovative way of covering music on television.

The nation laughed with Steptoe and Son (1962), Not Only … But Also (1965) with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Till Death Us Do Part (1966), Morecambe and Wise and Dad’s Army (1968). This was the decade of The Forsyte Saga (1967), Dr Finlay’s Casebook (1962) and Maigret (1960). Notable long-running programmes like Match of the Day, Man Alive, Nationwide and Animal Magic all began in the Sixties.

This was also a decade of expansion for television and radio. BBC Television Centre in West London opened in June 1960. In 1964 BBC2 was launched with the remit of offering an alternative and more experimental style of television broadcasting.

Radio 1 began in 1967 following the banning of the pirate radio stations. The Light, Third and Home services were renamed Radios 2, 3 and 4. The start of World at One in 1965 and PM in 1967 marked the strengthening of agenda-setting news and current affairs programmes.

From the late Sixties Radio listeners were able to enjoy more programmes broadcast in the superior sound of FM stereo. In November 1967 the first BBC local radio station opened in Leicester and within a few years there were 20 local stations.

This was an era of momentous technical breakthroughs. A spellbound nation watched pictures from America via Telstar (1962) and live pictures of the first moon landing (1969). Colour television broadcasts began on BBC2 in 1967, followed by BBC1 in 1969. Colour pictures of the Mexico Olympic Games were beamed by satellite in 1968. Within ten years there were 12 million colour licences.

The Sixties was also the decade when the monarchy first went public on television in The Royal Family (1969), when England won the World Cup (1966) and when Mary Whitehouse became a household name with her “Clean Up TV” campaign.

1970s

"Egg mayonnaise, a prawn Goebbels and
a Hermann Goering …"
Basil always had the best to offer his German customers in Fawlty Towers

In 1972 CEEFAX teletext was introduced and ingeniously used the television screen to offer viewers up-to-the-minute news and information. Subtitling of programmes on CEEFAX began in 1979.

The depth and variety of the television schedules continued to surprise and delight. Documentary highlights included The British Empire, Dr. Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man, Sir David Attenborough’s Life On Earth and Alistair Cooke’s America. The Family, a powerful fly-on-the-wall series in 1974, could claim to be the first “reality TV” programme that pre-dated later examples of the genre by years.

Elizabeth R, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, I Claudius, Pennies from Heaven, Last of the Summer Wine, The Glittering Prizes and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy reflected the high standards and variety of television drama. It earned the description of “The Theatre in the Living Room” when the televising of all of Shakespeare’s plays began in 1978 with Romeo and Juliet.

This was a vintage period for outstanding new comedy with The Two Ronnies (1971), Are You Being Served? (1973), It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Porridge (1974), The Good Life and Fawlty Towers (1975), The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) and Not the Nine O’Clock News (1979).

Mastermind, The Generation Game, That’s Life, Jim’ll Fix It all started in the early Seventies and later in the decade came Antiques Roadshow, Young Musician of the Year, Top Gear, One Man and His Dog and Question Time.

BBC Radio faced competition for the first time when the first commercial stations, LBC and Capital, opened in London in 1973 New BBC radio programmes included PM, The World Tonight, Week Ending, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, Kaleidoscope, Science Now, Quote … Unquote, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The News Quiz, The Food Programme, The News Huddlines and Just A Minute. The introduction of phone-in programmes had a mixed reception, but many listeners welcomed the opportunity to put questions directly to politicians and celebrities in live programmes like Radio 4’s It’s Your Line.

The Long March of Everyman (1971) was one of the most ambitious series of radio features ever broadcast.

The Seventies was also marked by controversies with politicians criticising programmes, especially Yesterday’s Men (1971) and The Question of Ulster (1972). Labour was angered by the first and the Conservative government was equally angered by the second and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the BBC to scrap the programme.

1980s

‘I counted them out and I counted them all back …’
Brian Hanrahan told Britain that all the Harriers were safely back aboard their aircraft carrier
after a raid during the Falklands War

Brian Hanrahan’s famous words from the Falklands brought comfort to many back in Britain as the audiences for both television and radio turned – as they traditionally do in times of national trouble – to the BBC.

This was a challenging decade for BBC correspondents who reported in depth on dramatic and often dangerous events from Northern Ireland, Tiananmen Square, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

In Ethiopia Michael Buerk alerted the world to a famine of biblical proportions. It led to Bob Geldof’s Live Aid phenomenon in 1985 which raised more than £60 million.

This was the decade of the miners’ strike (1984), the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer (1981), the arrival of EastEnders (February 1985) and Neighbours (October 1986). Frank Bough and Selina Scott launched breakfast television (January 1983).

Television coverage of the House of Lords began with a six-month experiment in 1985 and four years’ later cameras were allowed in the House of Commons for an experimental period. In 1990 the Commons voted in favour of allowing the cameras to stay.

The BBC launched RDS (Radio Data System) on FM in 1988, bringing automatic tuning, programme identification and travel news to car radios.

Important new television programmes included Newsnight (1980), Rough Justice, Timewatch (1982), Crimewatch (1984) and Watchdog (1985). In 1985 the BBC responded to Granada’s Coronation Street with EastEnders. This quickly became the most watched BBC programme on television. A new venture for the BBC, breakfast television, began in 1983 and this was followed three years later by daytime television.

New drama included Bergerac and Tenko (1981), Alan Bleasdale’s The Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), Miss Marple (1984), Edge of Darkness and Howards’ Way (1985), Casualty (1986) and Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective (1986). Keeping the country laughing were Yes Minister (1980), Only Fools and Horses, Bread (1986) and Hi-de-Hi! (1981), Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder (1983), Alas, Smith and Jones, ‘Allo ‘Allo (1984) and Birds of a Feather (1989).

Radio highlights ranged from the dramatisation of Lord of the Rings to In the Psychiatrist’s Chair.

Video recorders arrived in the Eighties. At the start of the decade just 5% of households had a video: by the early Nineties that figure had increased to 64%.

BBC Television and Radio faced the challenge of growing competition in this period. Channel 4 went on air in 1982, more commercial radio stations opened and satellite television services began. The BBC and the IBA agreed to the Government’s proposal for a 25% quota of independent programming in 1987.

Hard-hitting dramas such as Tumbledown and The Monocled Mutineer led to criticism of the BBC in some quarters. But in 1985 there was one of the most serious crises in the BBC’s history since the General Strike over plans to broadcast a documentary on BBC One in the Real Lives series called At the Edge of the Union.

The programme focused on two men at opposite ends of the political spectrum in Northern Ireland. The Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, concerned that the programme could “boost the morale of terrorists”, requested the BBC Chairman to stop the broadcast. The Governors, quite exceptionally, viewed the programme before the planned transmission and agreed to postpone the broadcast until small changes were made. It was finally broadcast in October 1985.

The end of the decade saw the BBC bring together all its commercial activities under a single organisation, BBC Enterprises Ltd. This was the forerunner of BBC Worldwide which, by selling BBC programmes around the world as well as videos, records, books and magazines, returns significant funds back to the BBC to invest in new programmes.

1990s

"Every householder will be a major consumer of BBC services in the
digital age. The BBC will still be watched and heard more than any other
single broadcaster in the UK…"
John Birt, Former BBC Director-General

The Nineties was a decade of innovation and transformation for the BBC.

The arrival of the digital technology and the Internet during the decade marked a new era for broadcasting. The BBC has been broadcasting in analogue since it began in 1922. Today the television and radio airwaves have become increasingly crowded. But digital technology uses the airwaves far more efficiently by compressing the signal. For the viewer, digital television offers more channels, the innovation of interactivity and superior wide-screen pictures. For the listener, digital radio provides interference-free broadcasting with CD-quality sound, extra programme services, data and even graphics.

The BBC’s investment in digital broadcasting in the Nineties set the foundations for the time when the new technology becomes a mass medium. Nearly half the homes in Britain already have access to digital television. With careful planning of new services and new alliances, the BBC has been in the forefront of the digital revolution, just as it was in the early days of broadcasting in the Twenties.

Internal change
The late Eighties and Nineties were periods of continuous upheaval in broadcasting. The combination of a rapidly expanding broadcast market and a decline in the level of the licence fee in real terms which squeezed the BBC’s income inevitably led to a period of great change.

Sir Michael Checkland, Director-General from 1987 to 1993 and his successor John Birt (left), later Lord Birt, (1993 to 2000), introduced a raft of new policies, re-structuring and measures – some of them painful -- to increase efficiency, to reduce staff and operating costs and to make the BBC more competitive in the tougher broadcasting environment. These changes were the most radical in the BBC’s history.

Producer Choice was introduced to release more money for programme-making by allowing producers to choose between BBC suppliers and the outside market for their facilities. Although unpopular with many of the staff, it helped to make the BBC’s finances more transparent.

The pace of change increased when John Birt became Director-General. A controversial restructuring split the BBC into two divisions: BBC Broadcast which controlled the commissioning of programmes and BBC Production which made them. All BBC Radio news and current affairs moved from central London to Television Centre in west London and bi-media working was introduced.

Although some of these reforms and new structures were reversed after John Birt left, his strategy for digital broadcasting and the internet laid the foundations for the BBC’s current leading role in the digital revolution.

was renewed in 1996 and in the same year the government announced a new licence fee settlement to last until 2002. This gave the BBC its first increase in real terms for over a decade. Together with a reduction in the costs of running the BBC, this increased efficiency and provided increased income to benefit programmes and services.

Programmes
Despite the unprecedented increase in competition, the BBC successfully maintained its appeal to audiences. As in the 1920s when BBC Radio started covering major national events, the BBC has continued to foster national identity. Television and radio coverage of the VE and VJ Day 50th anniversary commemorations in 1995 were highly acclaimed as were the broadcasts of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996.

Successful drama like Our Friends In The North, Martin Chuzzlewit and Ballykissangel helped to create a shared sense of national enjoyment. Many new series made an instant impact, especially comedy and light entertainment shows such as One Foot in the Grave, Men Behaving Badly,

Absolutely Fabulous, The Vicar of Dibley, The Fast Show, The Mrs Merton Show and Have I Got News For You. Only Fools and Horses secured an audience of 24 million during Christmas 1996 - the largest single programme audience on British television since measurement of individual viewing began over 20 years ago.

The range of film and popular drama in the Nineties included the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit, the Oscar-nominated Enchanted April and Truly Madly Deeply. The high standard of documentaries was maintained with highlights such as The House, The Death of Yugoslavia and Thatcher: The Downing Street Years.

BBC Education makes the widest range of educational programmes in the world and The Learning Zone added to its portfolio of innovative strands of educational programming. Series like The Chronicles Of Narnia, The Borrowers and Just William extended BBC Television’s unique reputation for making quality programmes for children.

Significant technological breakthroughs in television were developed by the BBC in the Nineties. Two of the most important were NICAM stereo sound services and virtual technology with computer-aided graphics. Computer technology transformed Election Night battleground scenarios.

BBC Radio went from strength to strength. Radio 5, the first new network for 23 years, opened in August 1990. It was designed to broadcast a mixture of education, youth and sports programmes, with a selection of World Service output.

When the Gulf War broke out in 1991 Radio 4 split its two frequencies with astonishing speed to enable continuous coverage of the War on FM while scheduled Radio 4 programmes continued to be broadcast on Long Wave. Radio 4 Gulf FM, which was affectionately known as SCUD FM, was on air 17 hours a day from 17 January to 2 March.

The success of Gulf FM made it abundantly clear that there was an urgent need for a continuous news network on radio. Three years later in March 1994 Radio 5 was replaced by Radio Five Live which is devoted to live news and sport. This combination quickly built up a popular following which appealed particularly to a younger audience. Its first audiences reached four million and today it has over six and a quarter million listeners.

The 1990s saw the creation of a new identity for Radio 1. The network was updated to become the UK’s leading contemporary music station. It helped to launch Britpop - giving air time to emerging bands such as Blur, Pulp, and Oasis. The network featured new music, often ignored by other stations - indie, dance, R&B, rap and reggae - with new presenters from the club and dance scene. It also covered landmark events such as Knebworth, the Notting Hill Carnival and the Glastonbury Festival. But the repositioning of Radio 1 in 1993/94 and the departure of older presenters led to a decline in its audiences that took some time to recover.

On Radio 2 Terry Wogan returned to re-occupy the breakfast show seat and achieved record ratings. The network staged original productions of stage musicals such as Anything Goes, Carousel, Gigi and Jesus Christ Superstar, with West End and Broadway stars. It expanded its musical portfolio to encompass more jazz, folk, country, gospel and blues. The programmes marking the anniversary of the end of the Second World War were warmly received. VJ Homage was an acclaimed montage of veterans’ experiences, while War and Peace examined ordinary lives in post-war years.

Radio 3’s position as the nation’s leading classical music patron was again confirmed in the Nineties with over 50% of the network’s output broadcasting live or specially recorded music. The Proms, the world’s greatest music festival, continued to be broadcast in its entirety. Landmark seasons include Fairest Isle - a celebration of British music and culture to mark the 300th anniversary or Purcell’s death - and Sounding the Century, a three-year broadcast festival celebrating the vitality of 20th-century music. In 1996 Radio 3 introduced Through the Night, turning the network into a 24-hour service. Commitment to cultural broadcasting was reflected in outstanding drama productions such as Shakespeare’s King Lear with Sir John Gielgud, Kenneth Branagh in Hamlet, the premiere of Derek Jarman’s Blue and Shaw’s Man and Superman with Ralph Fiennes.

Radio 4 continued through the decade to be the home of intelligent speech radio. Outstanding programmes include Spoonface Steinberg by Lee Hall - a remarkable monologue from a young girl dying from cancer that deeply moved listeners and prompted hundreds of calls to the BBC; This Sceptr’d Isle, a 200-part narration of the history of Britain; a reading of The Bible; and 20:20, John Tusa’s examination of the major themes of the 20th century. Radio 4 broke new ground in comedy with Goodness Gracious Me, the Asian sketch show that later transferred to television, and the blistering satire of Chris Morris and Armando Ianucci in On the Hour. This spawned the chat show host from hell, Alan Partridge (aka Steve Coogan) who later starred in Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Radio 4’s significant schedule changes in 1998 attracted mixed reactions but by the end of 1999 the network’s audience had reached nine million. The consistent quality of BBC programmes was reflected in the number of awards regularly won by radio and television. In 1996 the BBC won 28 of Sony Radio Awards’ prestigious golden awards, 12 of 16 TV BAFTAs and three out of a possible five international Prix Italia awards.

In the late Nineties there was a revival of costume drama that began

with the adaptation of Middlemarch, culminated in Pride and Prejudice and continued with Our Mutual Friend and Wives and Daughters. Contemporary drama in This Life became cult viewing as it followed a group of young lawyers living together in London. The Fast Show and Harry Enfield and Chums created a host of much-loved characters including Kevin the Teenager.

Innovative comedy like The League of Gentlemen and Goodness Gracious Me attracted new audiences to BBC2. Tweenies, launched in September 1999, quickly became the most successful pre-school programme on television, outstripping even Teletubbies. In a matter of months, BBC Worldwide sold the programme to more than 20 broadcasters all over the world, from Hong Kong and South Africa to France and Australia.

Professor Robert Winston broke new ground with The Human Body series and The Cops brought documentary-style realism to drama. Vanity Fair joined the long list of distinguished costume dramas. Warriors, set during the ethnic conflict in Bosnia, won awards for its detailed treatment of military ethics.

Docu-soaps and make-over programmes like Changing Rooms and Ground Force became increasingly popular. Documentaries reported the state of Britain as it underwent profound political change with moves towards devolution and the arrival of a Labour government after nearly two decades in Opposition. The System examined the social services and Peter Taylor’s Provos and Loyalists revealed the hidden faces of Northern Ireland. The historic elections to elect members to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh National Assembly were covered in depth.

The close of the Millennium brought Walking with Dinosaurs, a landmark series that broke all viewing records for documentaries. It expanded the boundaries of science on television and used the finest computer animation ever broadcast to bring to life the prehistoric world of the dinosaurs. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh, each episode was seen by 13 million people in 1999 and won the BAFTA Award for Innovation.

The Digital Revolution
In the late Nineties the BBC’s new digital services brought exciting opportunities to television and radio. These created a completely new way for the BBC to communicate with its audiences.

Viewers can receive the BBC’s digital services in three different ways: by digital satellite, a standard television aerial (digital terrestrial) and digital cable. All the BBC services are available free to licence-payers. As the multi-channel future develops, the BBC’s digital commitment will continue to reflect its traditional public service values -- quality, diversity, innovation, distinctiveness and connectivity.

The BBC’s digital strategy is based on ensuring that licence-payers are able to enjoy the full benefits and potential of the new technologies with free-to-air channels.

News 24

BBC News 24 was launched in November 1997 as a round-the-clock, 24-hour news channel. It provides a continuous news service available to viewers on all digital platforms. The channel enables the BBC to increase its coverage of regional, national and international news, to make better use of its worldwide team of correspondents and specialist reporters and to cover stories and issues in greater depth. It works closely with the BBC World Service newsroom which offers unique expertise and unrivalled specialist interpretation of events.

The digital news channel also broadcasts specialist half-hour programmes on business, international affairs, arts, entertainment and travel. It currently reaches an audience of nearly four million viewers per week and it is also broadcast on BBC One overnight and on BBC Two early on Saturday mornings.

This dedicated TV news service comes into its own when major news stories break and the majority of viewers consistently turn to the BBC. News 24’s coverage of September 11, which was simultaneously broadcast on BBC ONE, was a memorable landmark. In the week following September 11, News 24’s audience in cable, satellite and terrestrial households reached a record 36 million viewers. Its coverage of the war against terrorism in the following months enhanced its reputation. The BBC’s comprehensive network of correspondents were able to provide extended reportage and in-depth analysis.

BBC Parliament
In 1998, BBC took over responsibility for the coverage of Parliament on a new channel, BBC Parliament. The BBC had already pioneered the experimental televising of the House of Commons in November 1989. Before this, a six-month experiment of the televising of proceedings of the House of Lords had begun in January 1985.

BBC Choice

BBC Choice, the first general channel funded by the licence fee since BBC Two opened in 1964, was launched in September 1998 with a remit to broadcast programmes and genres that complemented and extended those seen on BBC One and BBC Two. For example, viewers watching a classic adaptation on BBC One could then turn to BBC Choice for a documentary about the author. The channel is specifically aimed at 25-34 year olds and focuses on comedy, drama, entertainment and films.

Plans are in hand for the launch of BBC THREE, which will replace BBC Choice ().

Radio

The arrival of digital broadcasting marked the most important advance in radio technology since the launch of FM. The digital signal makes it possible to have near-CD quality sound without interference, text and data and even to have still pictures broadcast alongside the digital signal.

BBC Radio pioneered the world’s first national digital radio service in September 1995 in preparation for the arrival of domestic digital radio receivers. As well as being able to hear Radios 1 to 5 Live in digital format, the BBC piloted other experimental services, including BBC Parliament and BBC 5 Live Sports Plus.

By 1999, despite the lack of reasonably priced digital receivers, the five UK networks, the World Service, the Asian Network and the BBC’s national radio services in Scotland, Wales and Ireland could also be heard on digital satellite and across the web.

2000s

Introduction 2000 - 2002 toptop

The new Millennium began as the old one ended, with a stream of innovative programmes from the BBC. Quality programmes in every genre ensured that BBC retained its position as the most watched broadcaster in multi-channel homes.

2000 Today followed the dawn of the new Millennium around the globe in the most ambitious outside broadcast in the BBC’s history. It was live on air for 28 hours, involved 60 nations and was seen at some point by 30 million people in Britain alone and in over 80 countries around the world.

To mark the religious significance, a millennial Songs of Praise with Bryn Terfel and a congregation of 66,000 from the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was one of the largest live worship events ever broadcast. The major millennial events in the visual arts world were the exhibition Seeing Salvation at the National Gallery, vividly brought to the screen by its director Neil MacGregor, and the opening of the Tate Modern in London.

The millennial theme was reflected in BBC ONE’s A Child of Our Time where Sir Robert Winston described what the future holds for babies born in January 2000. State of the Planet, a Wildlife special, and Superhuman, a science programme that examined the future of medicine, reflected the challenges of the new century.

The success of Simon Schama’s A History of Britain on BBC TWO revealed the growing appetite for high-quality history programmes. This unique series attracted large, enthusiastic audiences and plaudits from historians. It sparked a new enthusiasm for history, as did Michael Wood’s Conquistadors and What the Romans Did For Us.

The real-life social experiment of Castaway, which followed a group of people who volunteered to spend a year together on the remote Hebridean island of Tarantsay, proved to be compulsive viewing for millions.

In drama, a star-studded cast faithfully recreated Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, an ambitious and challenging dramatisation of a modern cult classic.

The Royle Family proved as popular on BBC1 as it had done on BBC2. Clocking Off and Goodness Gracious Me, transferred from Radio 4, reflected the strength of new styles of comedy. The Weakest Link with Anne Robinson was an instant success and the format was quickly exported to other countries.

The move of the 9pm TV News to 10pm in October 2000 halted the decline in news viewing. The integration of news from the Nations and Regions with UK and international news attracted larger audiences to this bulletin and reflected the BBC’s commitment to provide high-quality news for all communities.

Landmark television programmes in the following year ranged from Blue Planet and Walking with Beasts to Clocking Off and The Office.

The BBC won a total of 162 awards in 2001-2, more than doubling the previous year’s achievement. Successes ranged from a Queen's Award for Enterprise for BBC Worldwide to the Oscar for best supporting actor, won by Jim Broadbent for his performance in the BBC-backed film Iris.

By 2002 Worldwide was returning over £100m to the BBC to invest in programmes. The BBC’s commercial arm achieved record international sales of popular programmes such as Teletubbies, The Weakest Link, Walking with Beasts and The Blue Planet. Teletubbies alone has been sold to 120 countries and translated into 45 languages while 75 countries have bought the successful format of The Weakest Link. Worldwide is now the largest UK-based provider of international television channels. These channels, like BBC World, BBC Prime and BBC America, reach 450 million homes.
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Digital expansion toptop

In September 2001 the BBC’s digital developments took a major step forward following Government approval of a range of new digital television and radio services. The Culture, Media and Sport Secretary gave the green light for the launch of three digital TV channels and five digital radio networks. This expansion of subscription-free TV channels will boost the attraction of digital television, which will eventually lead to the replacement of analogue transmission.

The BBC’s two new children’s services, targeted at different age groups, were the first of the new tranche of digital channels to be launched in February 2002. CBeebies, broadcasting from 6am to 7pm, is aimed at children under five and CBBC, on air

from 7am to 7pm, is for 6-13-year-olds. CBeebies combines new programmes, interactive games and stories with children’s favourites like Bob the Builder, Teletubbies, Tweenies and Bill and Ben. CBBC has drama, factual programmes, news, music and entertainment.

BBC Knowledge, which began in 1999 to bring together education and learning programmes, was replaced in March 2002 by BBC FOUR, a new arts and culture channel. Broadcasting every day from 7pm to 1am, it offers the best of drama, visual arts, documentaries, cinema and world affairs. In its opening weeks, BBC FOUR broadcast in-depth programmes on Goya and Dali, Peter Brook’s Hamlet and a Jeanne Moreau film season.

Plans for replacing BBC Choice with a new BBC THREE channel, aimed at 16-34-year-olds, were considered by the Culture Secretary who requested changes in the original proposition. After the plans for the content of new youth channel were changed to make it more distinctive, BBC THREE was eventually approved and it will be launched in February 2003. Entertainment and drama will be at the heart of the channel but there will also be a significant public service content, with news, current affairs, education, science and arts programmes.
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TV toptop

Digital Television
Viewers can receive all the BBC's eight digital TV channels and extra interactive enhancements in three different ways - via satellite, aerial (terrestrial) or cable. All the BBC channels are available free-to-air on each of the three systems. For full information about the BBC's eight digital TV channels and how to receive digital TV and radio, please visit our BBC digital information .

In June 2002, following the collapse of the ITV Digital terrestrial service, a consortium made up of the BBC, BSkyB and Crown Castle, the transmitter company, was awarded the DTT licence by the Independent Television Commission. Freeview, the new digital network, was launched on October 30th 2002.

There are initially 24 free TV channels available on the Freeview platform, eight from the BBC (plus other interactive and radio services from the BBC). Other channels include UK History, ITV2, Sky News, UK Style Extra and two music channels as well as the existing 5 analogue TV channels. The BBC’s new digital radio services, including World Service, are also available via Freeview, satellite and some cable providers along with additional digital commercial radio stations. Unlike Freeview, cable and satellite operators also offer additional digital pay-TV services and channels on subscription. For full details please visit the BBC digital information .

Interactive television

The BBC’s interactive coverage of Wimbledon in 2001 was a milestone. For the first time viewers were able to choose from a “mosaic” of five simultaneous matches on the screen window. By pressing the “red button”, an interactive icon in the corner of the screen, over four million people could enjoy making their own selection of matches and camera angles from the five courts being televised.

The success of Walking With Beasts, the groundbreaking series about prehistoric creatures, was a landmark for interactive television. The sequel to the very popular Walking with Dinosaurs revealed the exciting new dimension and potential of interactive TV. Viewers were offered on-screen insights into how this complex series was made, four hours of additional content, pop-up windows with additional facts and 700 complementary text boxes and profiles of creatures while the programmes were on air. Over two million people in digital television households used the unique interactive facilities which gave viewers the opportunity to take their own prehistoric safari.

The number of BBC programmes with interactive options which will benefit audiences is increasing all the time. They cover programme genres ranging from education to soap operas. 2002 was an exceptional year for major sporting events. Interactive sports coverage included the Winter Olympics, the FA Cup, Six Nations, the World Cup, Wimbledon, the Open Golf and the Commonwealth Games.

One click on a digital TV’s handset brings up the BBCi bar on the screen, offering a wide range of on-screen information about programmes and also links to related material available from the BBC on the web, television and radio. Interactive television even enabled viewers to make donations worth £500,000 to Children in Need in 2001.

The BBCi bar also provides fast digital text offering news, weather, sport, listings and a wide variety of interactive features and information. BBC Text was the first digital text service in the UK when it was launched in November 1999. Today its thousands of pages are available to the majority of digital viewers on all three digital platforms.

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Radio toptop

Radio’s celebration of the Millennium covered a wide variety of programmes across all the networks.

The Century Speaks was the largest single project in the history of radio. This vast oral history of the 20th century was broadcast in parallel on BBC national, regional and local radio stations. The programmes involved 6,000 interviews and these represent the largest single oral history collection in Europe. This unique treasure will help future generations to understand the 20th century.

Radio 4’s commitment to intelligent speech was reflected in numerous programmes. A Thousand Years of Spoken English and Melvyn Bragg’s The Routes of English explored the heritage of the language throughout the British Isles and This Sceptr’d Isle told the history of Britain in the 20th century over a period of three months.

In 2001 Radio 4 made radio history by devoting eight hours on Boxing Day to a reading of Harry Potter and he Philosopher’s Stone by Stephen Fry. Audience figures justified this audacious scheduling. Some 3.4 million people tuned in and 385,000 of those stayed to the end. Listeners included 1.5 million children, of whom 400,000 had never before tuned in to Radio 4.

Radio 3 took listeners on a widely acclaimed tour through 2,000 years of Western music in The Unfinished Story. The 250th anniversary of the death of Bach was marked by a celebration of his work throughout the year 2000.

The network broadened its cultural content with the introduction of Late Junction which offered a wide range of music not usually associated with Radio 3. An increase in Radio 3’s regular jazz output with Jazz Legends and Jazz Line-Up was warmly received.

Radio 2 widened its range of music and specialist programmes. This strengthened its appeal and led to a significant increase in the size of its audiences. The mix of new presenters like Steve Wright and Jonathan Ross with established programmes like Wake up to Wogan and The Jimmy Young Show was a successful strategy. Currently the station has nearly 13 million. listeners a week and it is Britain’s most listened to station.

Radio 1’s focus on new artistes, live contemporary music and speech and documentary programmes distinguished it from the commercial music stations. The network welcomed the new Millennium with One World Dance Party, the most ambitious project in the station’s history. This involved live outside broadcasts from over a dozen locations around the world and the UK.

Radio 5 Live’s successful mix of news and sport continued to add listeners. By securing more sporting rights agreements, Five Live increased its access to top events for listeners. The coverage of the Euro 2000 football finals, the Olympic Games and the World Cup boosted the size of its audiences.

By the end of 2001 BBC Radio was attracting record audiences with a share of over 51% of all listening. Radio Five Live’s reach increased by 750,000 during the year to a record figure of 6.2m listeners a week and Radio 4’s reach increased by over a million.

Digital radio
The arrival of five new digital services on BBC Radio in 2002 marked the largest expansion of radio in the BBC’s history. The stations are available on DAB digital radio receivers, digital satellite television and cable as well as on the Internet.

5 Live Sports Extra, launched in February in 2002, provides uninterrupted sports coverage. This is a boon for sports fans, especially when there are clashes of major events where BBC Five Live has the broadcasting rights. 6 Music, the BBC’s first new national music station for 32 years, followed in March. This fills the gap between Radios 1 and 2. Its style and content offer a mix of classic rock music from the past four decades as well as contemporary music. The BBC’s rich archives of live music sessions are an important part of this station’s programmes.

1Xtra, a station for fans of cutting-edge urban music such as rap, hip-hop and R&B, was launched in the summer of 2002. As well as contemporary black music, the station has a dedicated news service and regular speech-based programmes. It is specifically tailored for young multi-ethnic audiences who in the past have been underserved by radio.

The BBC Asian Network, already a successful regional service on FM in the West Midlands and the North, was launched on October 28 2002, and now reaches the national audience on digital radio 24 hours a day. It reflects the interests of diverse Asian communities across the UK and combines news with music.

Network 7, a new speech station, broadcasting classic and contemporary comedy, drama and children's programmes will be launched later in 2002.

Responding to licence-payers’ requests, BBC World Service is broadcast on digital radio.
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BBCi toptop

BBCi on the web, previously known as BBC Online, is the most visited content site in Europe. In May 2002 it reached over 36% all internet users aged over 15 in the UK. This represents a 50% increase over the previous year and reflects the high quality of the million pages of content. Over 660 million page views are logged monthly, putting the BBC domain in the UK’s top ten. BBC News and Sport are the most popular sites, followed by BBC World Service and BBC Radio.

Interactive learning resources on the web are a top priority and the BBC has put together a detailed proposal for a full Digital Curriculum. This resource would deliver, with other providers and the Government, an online interactive service for pupils and teachers right across the UK, covering all the main subjects for children of all ages and abilities.

BBC Online - the early days
The origins of BBC Online date back to early experimental networking in 1989, long before the Web existed.

In 1991 far-sighted BBC researchers registered the address of bbc.co.uk with the academic Name Registration Service. In 1993/94 the BBC Networking Club was set up. Called BBCNC, this website provided internet access for the public and it was also the online information provider for the BBC with a bulletin board called “Auntie”. As the web developed, BBCNC became a web publisher with a handful of sites to satisfy the growing interest for BBC online programme information.

In 1996 BBC radio programmes from different networks were streamed for the first time on the net. In 1997 the General Election, the handover of Hong Kong and the funeral of Princess Diana were all broadcast on BBC internet sites. December 1997 marked the official launch of BBC Online.

Within a short time BBC Online transformed the use of the web for home users. Until the mid-Nineties it had been mainly used by the academic and business worlds as well as by technical specialists. Today the content for BBCi on the web is Increasingly generated by the web-surfing public. It is as much a communication tool as an information service and broadcast platform.

History of the BBC.

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