In 1922, The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was formed. It was organised around the interests of manufacturers and broadcasters, however soon the government stepped in and set up the BBC as a public corporation with its own list of governors, and made it accountable to parliament. It was financed through a licence fee known today as a TV licence; the concept of public service broadcasting was born.
In 1927, the British Broadcasting Corporation was granted Royal Charter of incorporation and ceased to be privately owned.
In 1932, the BBC began experimental television broadcasting. It became a regular service (known as the BBC Television Service). The first BBC broadcast was aired from Broadcasting House: Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra. However from 1st September 1939 to 7th June 1946 during the Second World War, the BBC suspended its television broadcasts. They were later resumed will all their previous programmes.
Competition to the BBC was introduced in 1955 with the commercially and independently operated ITV. BBC Radio One launched; the other BBC radio networks renamed Radios 2, 3 and 4.
DAB radio is a technology for broadcasting of audio using digital radio transmission. The advantages of DAB radio are higher fidelity, more stations and more resistance to noise, co-channel interference and multipath than in analogue FM radio. The first BBC DAB broadcast was aired in 1992.
Radio Caroline was a offshore radio station commenced on Easter Sunday 1964. Unlicensed by any government for the majority of its life, it was labelled as a pirate radio station. It was founded to compete with BBC broadcasting and aired music and more interesting topics that would appeal to teenagers. The British government responded to the presence of Caroline in 1967 by passing the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act which made it an offence to advertise or supply an offshore radio station from the UK. All the offshore stations off the British coast closed, with the exception of Radio Caroline, which moved its supply operation to the Netherlands but was forced of the air later that year.
There are two different main types of funding used to finance radio stations. The first is through a TV Licence (also known as a broadcast receiver licence, as it usually also pays for public radio) is an official licence required for all owners of television (and sometimes also radio) receivers. The television licence was originally known as a radio licence, and was used to fund public radio broadcasting. With the arrival of television, the BBC increased the radio licence fee to cover the additional cost of TV broadcasting, changing the licence's name from "radio licence" to "TV licence" or "receiver licence". Today, public radio broadcasting is funded from the same licence fee that is used for television, although a few still have separate radio licences, or apply a lower or no fee at all for consumers who only have a radio. We have different fees for users with a colour or monochrome TV, and give discounts for elderly and/or disabled consumers. This fee represents 75% of the BBC’s income. As the BBC is publicly funded, it remains completely ad free and non commercial. The fee is £135.50 per year for a colour TV licence. It covers all TV programs being broadcasted. The second type of licence is a commercial licence. It is used by commercial radio stations, goods, services, organizations, ideas, etc. are promoted via the medium of radio. Many commercials are produced by an outside ad agency and, airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for sponsorship of its programming. This is how commercial radio is funded. The types of ads differ to what time of day it is, same as how it’s done on television to attract a target audience, e.g. An advert for a My Chemical Romance gig in Manchester would most probably be aired during a rock show. All music broadcasted also requires a licence; a fee must usually be paid to the record company to broadcast the material. This revenue also covers the radio licence, staff salaries such as DJ’s or presenters, etc.
