BBC

Official logo used since 29 September 2019

The **British Broadcasting Corporation** (**BBC**) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in London and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.

The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and BBC Hub on-demand and catch-up. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has also funded the BBC World Service (launched in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service), which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic and Persian.

Around a quarter of BBC revenues come from its commercial arm BBC Studios, which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and also distributes the BBC's international 24-hour English-language news services BBC World News, and from BBC.com, provided by BBC Global News Ltd.

## Governance and corporate structure

The BBC is a statutory corporation, independent from direct government intervention, with its activities being overseen from April 2017 by the BBC Board and regulated by Ofcom. The Chairman is Sir David Clementi.

### Charter

The BBC operates under a Royal Charter. The current Charter came into effect on 1 January 2017 and runs until 31 December 2026. The 2017 charter abolished the BBC Trust and replaced it with external regulation by Ofcom, with governance by the BBC Board.

Under the Royal Charter, the BBC must obtain a licence from the Home Secretary. This licence is accompanied by an agreement which sets the terms and conditions under which the BBC is allowed to broadcast.

### BBC Board

*Main article: BBC Board*
The BBC Board was formed in April 2017. It replaced the previous governing body, the BBC Trust, which in itself had replaced the Board of Governors in 2007. The Board sets the strategy for the corporation, assesses the performance of the BBC Executive Board in delivering the BBC's services, and appoints the Director-General. Regulation of the BBC is now the responsibility of Ofcom. The Board consists of the following members.

### Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the broadcaster. Consisting of senior managers of the BBC, the Committee meets once per month and is responsible for operational management and delivery of services within a framework set by the Board, and is chaired by the Director-General, currently Tony Hall.

The Director-General is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief.

 Valerie Hughes D'Aeth | Director of HR

### Operational divisions

The Corporation has the following in-house divisions covering the BBC's output and operations:

* **Content**, headed by Charlotte Moore is in charge of the corporation's television channels including the commissioning of programming.
* **Radio and Education** headed by James Purnell is in charge of BBC Radio and music content across the BBC under the BBC Music brand, including music programmes on BBC Television, events such as the BBC Proms and the numerous orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, as well as Children's BBC.
* **News and Current Affairs** headed by Fran Unsworth operates the BBC News operation, including the national, regional and international output on television, radio and online, as well as the output of the BBC Global News division. It is also in charge of the corporation's Current Affairs programming and have some responsibility for sports output.
* The **Deputy Director General Group** headed by Anne Bulford, contains Design & Engineering, which is in charge of all digital output, such as BBC Online, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button service and developing new technologies through BBC Research & Development. The division also includes other pan-BBC functions including Finance, HR, Strategy, Security and Property.
* **Nations and Regions**, headed by Ken MacQuarrie is responsible for the Corporation's divisions in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the English Regions.

### Commercial divisions

The BBC also operates a number of wholly owned commercial divisions:

* **BBC Studios** Ltd, headed by Tim Davie, is the former in-house television production; Entertainment, Music & Events, Factual and Scripted (drama and comedy). Following a merger with BBC Worldwide in April 2018, it also operates international channels and sells programmes and merchandise in the UK and abroad to gain additional income that is returned to BBC programmes. It is kept separate from the corporation due to its commercial nature.
* **BBC World News** department is in charge of the production and distribution of its commercial global television channel. It works closely with the BBC News group, but is not governed by it, and shares the corporation's facilities and staff. It also works with BBC Studios, the channel's distributor.
* **BBC Studioworks** is also separate and officially owns and operates some of the BBC's studio facilities, such as the BBC Elstree Centre, leasing them out to productions from within and outside of the corporation.

## External links

Template:Members of the European Broadcasting Union
Template:Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom
Template:Media in the United Kingdom