BBC One

### Former mames

BBC Television Service(2 November 1936 – 8 October 1960) BBC TV(8 October 1960 – 20 April 1964)BBC1(20 April 1964 – 4 October 1997)

## Terrestrial

### Freeview/YouView

Channel 1 (Standard Definition feed)Channel 101 (High Definition feed)

### TalkTalk

Unknown

**BBC One** is a British free-to-air television network owned and operated by the BBC, which operates a public television service. It is the corporation's flagship network, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, including BBC News television bulletins, primetime drama and entertainment, and some sports events.

It was launched on 2 November 1936, as the **BBC Television Service**, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution. It was renamed **BBC TV** in 1960, and used this name until the launch of the second BBC channel, BBC2, in 1964. The main channel then became known as **BBC1.** The current spelling of **BBC One** was adopted in 1997.

The channel's annual budget for 2012–2013 was £1.14 billion. It is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBC's other domestic television stations, and shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising. The television channel was noted to have the highest reach share of any broadcaster in the United Kingdom as at 2019, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership, ITV. In 2013, a major global study for the BBC by the Populus polling organisation found BBC One to be rated the highest quality TV channel in the world, with BBC Two coming in third place.

## History

The BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. The BBC Television Service officially began regular broadcasts on 2 November 1936 from a converted wing of the Alexandra Palace in London.

On 1 September 1939, two days before Britain declared waron Germany, the station was taken off air with little warning, with the last programme to be shown being a Mickey Mouse cartoon (the 1933 short Mickey's Gala Premier); the government was concerned that the VHF transmissions would act as a beacon to enemy aircraft that could bomb London.

BBC Television returned on 7 June 1946 at 15:00. Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement, saying, "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?" The same Mickey Mouse cartoon that was shown in 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later.

### Creation of BBC One

The BBC held a statutory monopoly on television broadcasting in the United Kingdom until the first Independent Television station began to broadcast on 22 September 1955, when ITV started broadcasting. The competition quickly forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a large reduction in its audience.

The 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and that ITV lacked any serious programming. It therefore decided that Britain's third television station should be awarded to the BBC.

The station, renamed BBC TV in 1960, became BBC1 when BBC2 was launched on 20 April 1964 transmitting an incompatible 625-line image on UHF. The only way to receive all channels was to use a complex "dual-standard" 405- and 625-line, VHF and UHF, receiver, with both a VHF and a UHF aerial. Old 405-line-only sets became obsolete in 1985, when transmission in the standard ended, although standards converters have become available for enthusiasts who collect and restore such TVs.

BBC1 was based at the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, Londonbetween 1960 and 2013. Television News continued to use Alexandra Palace as its base—by early 1968 it had even converted one of its studios to colour—before moving to new purpose-built facilities at Television Centre on 20 September 1969.

In the weeks leading up to 15 November 1969, BBC1 unofficially transmitted the occasional programme in its new colour system, to test it. At midnight on 15 November, simultaneously with ITV and two years after BBC2, BBC1 officially began 625-line PAL colour programming on UHF with a broadcast of a concert by Petula Clark. Colour transmissions could be received (in monochrome) on monochrome 625-line sets until the end of analogue broadcasting (and indeed can still be received if such a set is connected to a digital television adapter tuned to the SDTV version of the channel.)

In terms of audience share, the most successful period for BBC1 was under Bryan Cowgill between 1973 and 1977, when the channel achieved an average audience share of 45%. This period is still regarded by many as a golden age of the BBC's output, with the BBC achieving a very high standard across its entire range of series, serials, plays, light entertainment and documentaries.[*original research?*]

On 30 December 1980, the BBC announced their intention to introduce a new breakfast television service to compete with TV-am. The BBC stated it would start broadcasting before TV-am, but made it clear their hands were tied until November 1981 when the new licence fee income became available, to help finance extending broadcast hours, with the hope of starting in 1982. On 17 January 1983, the first edition of *Breakfast Time* was shown on BBC1, becoming the first UK wide breakfast television service and continued to lead in the ratings until 1984.

### Micheal Grade era (1984-87)

In 1984, Bill Cotton become managing director of Television at the BBC, and set about overhauling BBC1, which had been slated with poor home grown shows, its heavy reliance on US imports, with *Dallas* and *The Thorn Birds* being BBC1's highest rated programmes and ratings being over 20% behind ITV. Cotton recruited Michael Grade to become Controller of BBC1 from 1 September 1984the first time the corporation had recruited someone outside of the BBC, replacing Alan Hart, who had been criticised[*by whom?*] for his lack of knowledge in general entertainment, as he was head of BBC Sport prior to 1981.[*citation needed*]

The first major overhaul was to axe the unpopular *Sixty Minutes* current affairs programme: this was a replacement for the news and magazine show *Nationwide*. Its replacement was the *BBC Six O'Clock News*, a straight news programme in a bid to shore up its failing early evening slot. It was believed the BBC were planning to cut short the evening news and move more light entertainment programming in from the 18:20 slot, but this was dismissed. The Miss Great Britain contest was dropped, being described as verging on the too offensive after the January 1985 contest, with *World's Strongest Man* and *International Superstar* also being cancelled.

BBC1 was relaunched on 18 February 1985 with a new look, new programming including *Wogan*, *EastEnders* and a revised schedule to help streamline and maintain viewers throughout the course of the evening. Grade started to gear most programmes to either on the hour or half past the hour, while *Panorama* and *Omnibus* were both moved after the *Nine O'Clock News*. Grade was also determined to end the dated and inept BBC1 scheduling which was hampering the network and holding back good programmes. Grade stated "When I took over BBC1, I discovered there were wonderful things, it was just a case of where to put them." *Wogan* had been scheduled for a 10 pm slot, but Grade moved it to a 7 pm slot as he believed the show had potential.

From February to August 1985, a high number of American mini-series were broadcast while filming took place of a number of new home grown programmes, including *'Allo 'Allo!*, *In Sickness and in Health*, and *Open All Hours*. Further improvement came about when the corporation strengthened its drama output costing £30 million, with eight new series, including *Howards' Way*, *All Creatures Great and Small*, *Hold the Back Page*, and *Bluebill*, along with the return of *Bergerac* and *Big Deal*. The increase in the drama department was achieved by switching the money away from the administrative service over a three-year period, after BBC1 was criticised for failing in matching ITV's output in drama. *EastEnders* was moved to a 19:30 slot, where it managed to soar to 20 million, helping the BBC1 audience share increase to nearly 50% for the first time since 1982.

On 27 February 1985, *Doctor Who* was placed on an 18-month hiatus. The BBC originally planned to axe the series as they wished to spend its budgets on new programming for the channel, but was forced to back down from public pressure and Doctor Who returned in September 1986. At the time Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell were blamed for the decision (Grade was the target of death threats) but it was later revealed that the decision was taken due to the series running out of creative inspiration, making it impossible to find anyone (at the time) who knew what to do with the series.

On 9 September 1985, the long-standing children's programming block was overhauled and rebranded as *Children's BBC*, which gave it dedicated idents for the first time and had a live in-vision presenter, similar to rival ITV's Children's ITV block which had been running since January 1983. Previously the BBC had broadcast children's programming using BBC1's team of regular duty announcers. The launch presenter for this block, and thus the first Children's BBC presenter of the current format, was Phillip Schofield.