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BBC(bbc)
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a national publicly-funded broadcaster based in the United Kingdom , which also has some international services. It is frequently heralded as the most widelyrespected broadcaster in the world. Sometimes affectionately known to local consumers as the "Beeb" or "Auntie", the BBC was formany years the only television and radio provider in the United Kingdom. Its motto is Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation. Before the introduction of Independent Television in 1955 and subsequently Independent Radio in 1973 , it held a monopoly on broadcasting. More recent de-regulation of the British television broadcasting marketproduced analogue cable television and satellite broadcasting and later digital satellite , digital cable and digital terrestrial television (DTT) . Today the BBC broadcasts in almost every mediumincluding these and the Internet .
HistoryPrior to the establishment of the BBC a number of private companies had been making experimental radio broadcasts in the UK.The Post Office (under the WirelessTelegraphy Act 1904 ) was responsible for the issuing of broadcasting licences, but in 1919 it stopped issuing new licences due to the large number of complaints of interference to military communicationsfrom the Armed Forces . As the number ofradio receiving sets increased during the early 1920s the Post Office came under extremepressure to allow national radio broadcasting. A committee of radio manufacturers spent several months discussing variousproposals and the result was the establishment of the BBC. The BBC was founded as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922 by a consortiumincluding Marconi , GEC , British Thomson Houston,Metropolitan Vickers, Western Electric and the Radio Communication Company. The initial remit of the company was to establish anationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service. On November 14 , 1922 , the first BBC station 2LO began broadcasting on mediumwave , from the roof of Selfridges department store in Oxford Street , London . The following day 5IT in Birmingham , and 2ZY in Manchester went on the air. It took on its current form in 1927 when it was granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation. The form is that of an autonomous corporation run by a board ofgovernors appointed by the incumbent government for a term of four years (formerly five years). General management of theorganisation is in the hands of a Director-General appointed by the governors. Timeline of major eventsMain article: Timeline of the BBC
Recent eventsUnencrypted satellite transmissionsIn March 2003 the BBC announced that from theend of May 2003 (subsequently deferred to July 14) it intended to transmit all eight of itsdomestic television channels (including the 15 regional variations of BBC One) unencrypted from the Astra 2D satellite. This move was estimated to save the BBC £85 million over the next 5 years. While the "footprint" of the Astra 2D satellite was smaller than that of Astra 2A, from which it was previously broadcastencrypted, it meant that viewers with appropriate equipment were able to receive BBC channels "free-to-air" over much of WesternEurope. Consequently, some rights issues have needed to be resolved with programme providers such as Hollywood studios andsporting organisations, who have expressed concern about the unencrypted signal leaking out. "Sexing up" and the Hutton InquiryIn July 2003, BBC Radio 4's Today programme broadcast anews item quoting a government official suggesting that the Government had "sexed up" the British Government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction , against thewishes of the Intelligence services. The journalist involved later claimed in a newspaper article that Alistair Campbell , who was then the Prime Minister's Director ofCommunications and Strategy, was responsible. The British Government strongly denied the claims, which prompted an investigationby Parliament . The situation severely damaged the BBC's relationship with thegovernment. A Ministry of Defence scientist, Dr David Kelly , was then named as the alleged source of the news item in another leakednews briefing. The subsequent suicide of Dr Kelly resulted in an escalation of the conflict between the government and the BBC,during which both sides received severe criticism for their roles in the matter. The report of the Hutton Inquiry into Dr Kelly's death was extremelycritical of the BBC journalist, Andrew Gilligan , and the managementprocesses of the Corporation. In the aftermath both the Chairman of the BBC Gavyn Davies and the Director-General Greg Dyke resigned,followed by Gilligan himself. Some reports say that this may have actually improved some people's opinion of the BBC, especially abroad, as the BBC hadpreviously been criticised for being too friendly with the British Government. Charter renewalThe BBC's Royal Charter is currently under review. Although it iswidely expected to be renewed in 2006, some proposals have suggested dramatic changes. ManagementThe BBC is a nominally autonomous corporation, independent from direct government intervention. It is run by an appointed Board of Governors . General management ofthe organisation is in the hands of a Director-General appointed by the governors. The current governors, as of June 22 , 2004 ,are:
The current Director-General is Mark Thompson . On his first day in therole he announced a shake-up of senior management, including the replacement of the Executive Committee, formed by directors ofdivisions within the BBC, with a streamlined nine-member Executive Board consisting of:
Political controversy and neutralityThe autonomous nature of the board of governors gives it a high degree of independence from government control. On a fewoccasions, some have seen a tension between the BBC's commitment to neutrality and a habit of 'breaking' controversial storieswhich could be viewed as critical of government policy. The BBC is regularly accused by the government of the day of bias in favour of the opposition and, by the opposition, of biasin favour of the government. At some times, both of these accusations have been made at once by politicians from each side. Inspite of these criticisms, the BBC is widely regarded by the British public as a trusted and politically neutral news source. TheBBC is considered an important guarantor of British democracy ; it has areputation for priding itself on its neutrality. The reporting of news by other sources is frequently compared against the BBC,with the result that other news corporations cannot promote extreme views. The publication in January 2004 of the Hutton Report dented thisreputation in the eyes of some observers. This report criticised the standards of journalism at the BBC, and led to theresignations of Director-General Greg Dyke , Chairman of Governors Gavyn Davies , and the reporter at the centre of the storm, Andrew Gilligan . The reputation of the BBC remained high with the British public, even after the report criticized some of its processes overcoverage of statements made to Gilligan by scientist and former UN arms inspector David Kelly concerning claims made in Prime Minister Tony Blair 'sgovernment dossier on Weapons of MassDestruction in Iraq . Despite criticising failures of the BBC's editorial policy,management, the Director-General and the Governors, the report was branded a Whitewash by some for failing to address the issue of the validity of claims made by the government within thedossier. This issue was not deemed to be within the remit of Lord Hutton's investigation. Nevertheless, some argued that LordHutton failed to take account of the imperfections inherent in journalism, while giving the Government the benefit of the doubtover its own conduct. A second inquiry by Lord Butler did review the intelligence on weapons of mass distruction and the production of the dossier.Amongst other things, the Butler Report concluded that "the fact that thereference [to the 45 minute claim] in the classified assessment was repeated in the dossier later led to suspicions that it hadbeen included because of its eye-catching character". Andrew Gilligan claims that this has vindicated his original story that the dossier had been "sexed up". Lord Hutton himself is said to be surprised at what he apparently views as an over-reaction to and misinterpretation of hiscriticisms of the BBC. FundingThe Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1904 instituted government regulation of radio broadcasting and reception under the authorityof the Postmaster General . A licence scheme wasintroduced whereby anyone wishing to purchase or construct radio equipment was required to obtain a licence from the Post Office.With the founding of the BBC, the radio licence fees became its principal means of funding. The household radio licence waseventually abolished in 1971 but a licence is still required for television reception. Today each household (with exemptions for the elderly and others, paid for by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) orbusiness in the UK using a television or other equipment to receive broadcasts has to buy an annual television licence . The licence fees are set by the government butcollected by independent contractors, Capita and AMV. The fees are to ensure that the BBC is sufficiently funded to provide forthe British public high quality and diverse media content designed to " educate, inform and entertain " as per the remit of its charter. Because of this unique fundingmethod, BBC radio and television outputhas been free of the constraints of commercial advertisers; programme makers are, in theory, answerable only to the licencepayer, but pressure from political parties via appointments to the board of governors and by threats over changes to the amountof the licence fee as well as competition with commercial television channels for audience share are still significant factors inthe corporation's output. The BBC has also for many years received funding from British Government departments for certainsections of its output. For instance the World Service , which, asits name suggests, is broadcast around the world, is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office . In recent years the BBC has also received large amounts ofrevenue from its commercial wing, particularly by exploiting its massive back catalogue of programmes. The 2003 Annualreport gave revenue sources in millionsof:
DivisionsRadioThe BBC was originally set up to provide a radio service for the British public. Radiomade up the bulk of its output prior to the introduction and widespread adoption of the BBC's television service; this can be seen today in the title of the BBC's listings magazine, Radio Times . Radio still makes up a large part of the corporation's output. The first two radio services to broadcast were the Home Service (originally the National Programme) and the World Service(originally the General Overseas Service). These were followed by the Light Programme (using the transmitters vacated by thewartime Forces Programme), and the Third Programme. A contemporarymusic station, BBC Radio 1 , was launched in 1967 in response to pirate radio stations (most of which closed on or before the introduction of newlegislation on 15 August 1967 ), and thepresent numbered names were adopted on the same day, 30 September , 1967.Radio 1 was accompanied by Radio 2 (broadcasting easy listening, folk, jazzand light entertainment – formerly the Light Programme), Radio 3 (thenew name for the Third Programme) and Radio 4 (formerly the Home Service).BBC Radio 5 was launched on 27 August 1990 ,and was later renamed BBC Radio Five Live . The BBC today runs ten national domestic radio stations, five of which are only available in a digital format: via DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting – i.e. Digital Radio), the Internet or the different forms ofDigital Television in the UK. The five new stations are: 6Music (broadcasting rock, funk, punk and reggae), BBC 7 (comedy, drama, books, science fiction, fantasy and children's programmes), The Asian Network , 1Xtra and Five Live Sports Extra . Each of the national BBC radio stations caters for a different audience. For example, BBC Radio 1 broadcasts contemporarypopular music aimed at a young target audience, whereas BBC Radio Five Live broadcasts news and sport (including live coverage ofsports fixtures). The BBC also runs regional radio stations throughout the UK, for example BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Devon. These stationsfocus on regional issues to a greater extent than their national counterparts, organising live phone-in debates about theseissues, as well as lighter talk shows with music from different decades of the 20th Century. Compared to many advertising-fundedIndependent Local Radio (ILR) stations, which often broadcast contemporary popular music, BBC Local Radio stations offer a more "serious" alternative. The BBC World Service is also available on the mainstreamdigital broadcasting platforms in the UK, as well as the Internet and shortwave radio, both of which can be received in many places across the globe. It is a major source of news and information programming,and is funded by the British Foreign Office. All of the national BBC radio stations, as well as the BBC World Service, are available over the Internet in the RealAudio streaming format. The BBC has alsorecently experimented with the free , open source Ogg Vorbis streaming audio format. A most famous BBC radio programme is the soap The Archers . TheBBC is also famous for its comedy output – in particular The GoonShow . BBC Radio also broadcasts an enormous amount of original radiodrama , and has given many dramatists their writing start. TelevisionWhat is now known as BBC One was the world's first regular television service. It began broadcasting from Alexandra Palace in London on November 2 , 1936 , to just a few hundred viewers in the immediate area. Itwas reaching an estimated 25,000-40,000 homes before the outbreak of the Second World War caused the service to be suspended. The VHF broadcasts would have provided an ideal radio beacon for German bombers homing in on London, and the engineers and technicians ofthe service would be needed for the war effort, in particular the RADAR programme. In1946 TV transmissions resumed from Alexandra Palace. The BBC Television Service was renamed BBC1 (now BBC One) in 1964, after thelaunch of BBC2 (now BBC Two). BBC One shows popular programming, including drama, comedies, documentaries, game shows and soap operas , covering awide range of genres and regularly competes with ITV to become the channel with the highestratings for that week. BBC One is the home to the BBC's main news bulletins, currently being shown at 1pm, 6pm and 10pm. BBC Two was the third television station ( ITV was the second) for the UK; its remit is to provide more niche programming. The channel was due to launch on 20 April 1964 , but was put off the air by a massivepower failure that affected much of London, caused by a fire at Battersea Power Station . A videotape made on the opening night was rediscovered in 2003 by a BBCtechnician. In the end the launch went ahead the following night, hosted by an announcer holding a candle. BBC2 (as it wasoriginally spelled) was the first British channel to use UHF and 625-line pictures, giving higher definition than the existing VHF 405-line system. In December of 1967 it became the first regulartelevision channel in Europe to broadcast in colour, using the German PAL system that isstill in use today although being gradually superseded by digital systems. ( BBC One and ITV began 625-line colour broadcasts simultaneously in late 1969). Unlike itscontemporaries, BBC Two does not have the usual soap opera or standard news programming, but rather a breadth of programming that is eclectic, fun and diverse (althoughif a programme has high audience viewing figures, it is often repositioned onto BBC One). Well known BBC Two programmes include Newsnight . Regional variations also occur within the BBC One and BBC Two schedules. England's BBC One output is split up into regions(such as South West and East), which exist mainly to produce local news programming, but also occasionally opt out of the networkto show programmes of local importance (such as major local events). The other parts of the United Kingdom ( Wales and Scotland , and the province of Northern Ireland ) have been granted more autonomy from the English network;for example, programmes are mostly introduced by local announcers, rather than by those in London. BBC One and BBC Two schedulesin these areas can vary immensely from BBC One and BBC Two in England. Programmes, such as the politically fuelled Give My HeadPeace (produced by BBC Northern Ireland) and the soap opera River City (produced by BBCScotland), have been created specifically to cater for people in these areas, who may have found programmes created for Englishaudiences irrelevant. BBC Wales also produces a large amount of Welshlanguage programming for S4C , particularly news, sport and other programmes, especiallythe soap opera Pobol y Cwm ('People of the Valley'). However, the BBC produces many programmes shown across the UK, such as The Good Life , One Foot in theGrave , Harry Enfield and Chums and EastEnders . The regions also produce a number of programmes that are shown across the UK, such as BBCScotland's comedy series Chewin' the Fat, and BBC Northern Ireland's talk show Patrick Kielty:Almost Live . The BBC is also renowned for its production of costume dramas, such as Jane Austen 's Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and contemporary socialdramas such as Boys from the Blackstuff and Our Friends in the North . Programmeshave also been imported from other countries: notable examples include TheSimpsons from the United States , and Neighbours from Australia . The BBC also introduced Ceefax , the first teletext service, starting in 1974 . This service allows BBC viewers to viewinformation (such as the latest news) on their television. CEEFAX has not made a full transition to digital television, insteadbeing replaced by the new interactive BBCi service. The commercial arm of the BBC, BBC Worldwide , broadcasts televisionstations throughout the world. The cable and satellite stations BBC Prime (in Europe , Africa and the Middle East ), BBC America and BBC Canada broadcast popular BBC programmes such as Ground Force and EastEnders to people outside the UK, as does UK.TV in Australasia . BBC Worldwide also runs a 24-hour news channel, BBC World . In addition, BBC television news appears nightly on many Public Broadcasting System stations in the United States , as do reruns of BBC programmes from Lionheart TV. Since 1975 , the BBC has also provided its TV programmes to the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), allowing members of HM ArmedForces serving all over the world to watch their favourite programmes from home. The BBC Natural History Unit (based in Bristol) is famed throughout the world for producing high quality programmes such as Life On Earth , The Private Life of Plants and The Blue Planet , very often presented by Sir David Attenborough (who was also once controller of BBC2). On 5 July 2004 , the BBC celebrated the 50thAnniversary of its television news bulletins. This event was marked by the release of a DVD ,which shows highlights of the BBC's television coverage of significant events over the last half-century, as well as changes inthe format of the BBC television news; from the newsreel format of the first BBCTelevision News bulletins, to the 24-hour, worldwide news coverage available in 2004 . Aspecial edition of Radio Times has also been produced, as well as a specialsection of the BBC News website. bbc.co.ukThe bbc.co.uk website , formerlyBBCi (and before that BBC Online), includes a comprehensive newswebsite and archive. The website allows the BBC to produce sections which complement the various programmes on television andradio, and it is common for viewers and listeners to be told website addresses for the bbc.co.uk sections relating to that programme. The site also allowsusers to see and hear many of the BBC's television and radio services using streaming media . According to Alexa 's TrafficRanksystem, in June 2004 bbc.co.uk was the 13th most popular EnglishLanguage website in the world. (References: Global Top 500 Sites - Top English Language Sites ) In recent years some major on-line companies and politicians have complained that the bbc.co.uk website receives too muchfunding from the television licence, meaning that other websites are unable to compete with the vast amount of advertising-freeon-line content available on bbc.co.uk. Some have proposed that the amount of licence fee money spent on bbc.co.uk should bereduced - either being replaced with funding from advertisements or subscriptions, or a reduction in the amount of contentavailable on the site. BBCiBBCi is the brand name for the BBC's interactive digital television services. Unlike Ceefax , BBCi is able to display full colour graphics, photographs andvideo, as well as allow the viewer to interact with the programme. Recent examples include the interactive sports coverage for football and rugby football matches and an interactive national IQ test. All of the BBC's digital television stations,with the exception of BBC Parliament on digital satellite , allow access to the BBCi service. However, theamount of content available on the digital television BBCi service does not currently match the amount available on Ceefax, whichis still available on analogue terrestrial television . List of stationsTelevision
RadioSee List of BBC radio stations for a fulllist.
Miscellaneous
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, television, bcb, channel, bbc, broadcasting, bb, digital, bc, world This article is completely or partly from Wikipedia - The Free Online Encyclopedia. Original Article. The text on this site is made available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence. We take no responsibility for the content, accuracy and use of this article. Anoca.org Encyclopedia 0.04s |