BBC Past and present

BASIC FACTS

BBC is an abbreviation of British Broadcasting Corporation. It is also called

Auntie or The Beeb. The headquarters of BBC is in London, United Kingdom,
in so called Broadcasting House.
Funded according to British law by annual television licence fee. It is semi-
autonomous. The most important authority is the BBC Trust. Key people are Lord
Christopher Patten of Barnes (chairman) and George Entwistle (director general).
It takes care of radio, television, online television, music, publishing and
newspapers.

HISTORY

It was founded in 1922 as British Broadcasting Company Ltd by John Reith.

According to his words, the primary purpose was to inform, educate and
entertain.
1922 first daily transmission, first regular News Bulletin
1923 first outside broadcast, first daily weather forecast, first Radio Times
published
1924 - first use of Big Ben sound, first transmission from USA
1927 BBC estabilished by Royal charter
1932 first Christmas message from monarch
1933 first female announcer
1937 first broadcasting microphone
1938 first emission in foreign language
1945 Womans Hour
1946 first program for children
1954 first daily TV news bulletin
1958 first videorecorder invented
TV series boom Doctor Who, The Forsyte Saga
1967 Radio 1 start, first color TV in UK
1971 partnership with Open University
1985 Live Aid
1994 first National lottery draw
2002 1xtra and Asian network start
Present major financial problems, cancelling programs

STRUCTURE

BBC Vision
In charge of TV, programming and BBC Archives. Its flagship channels are
BBC One and BBC Two. Digital channels only are BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC
News and BBC Parliament. Channels for children are CBBC and CBeebies.
Worldwide channels are BBC America, BBC Canada, BBC Kids, BBC
Entertainment, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Knowledge, UKTV, UK.TV, Animal Planet,
BBC Persia and others. Many of channels have been cancelled recently
because of financial problems
BBC Audio and Music

BBC Audio and music is in charge of BBC Radio, music in TV and orchestras
(p.e. BBC Philharmony). During world wars, there were some programmes for
soldiers, like BBC Light Programme and BBC Force Programmes).
In UK, there are several radio stations - BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio
3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 live Some of them are digital only BBC Radio
1Xtra, BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, BBC Radio 6 Music
and BBC Asian Network. Among other nations, national stations are spread -
BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gidheal, BBC Radio Shetland, BBC Radio
Orkney, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio
Foyle.

BBC Future and Media

This department is in charge of digital output. It consists of BBC Online, BBC

iPlaer, BBC Red Button (new version of teletext) and BBC Research &
Development.

BBC Operations

Makes everything work. Its part, BBC People Department, is taking care of
employees. It also includes Technologies department. Another part of BBC
Operations is BBC Marketing, Communications and Audience.

BBC Finance and Business

Manage the corporations expenses, long term business plans, licence fee
collection and assigns budgets.

BBC News Group

Manages all BBC News, i tis in charge of all television, radio and online news.
BBC English Regions, BBC Global News division

BBC North Group

Sharing some channels with other departments -BBC Sport, BBC Childrens,
BBC Radio 5 live,BBC Learning

BBC English, also called received pronuncion, is a standard form of English. It

has its name because BBC is the only media that uses this standard and
highly formal kind of English. But some subchannels of BBC started using
different pronunciations recently (especially in foreign countries).