BBC World Service

The ***BBC World Service***, the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasts radio and television news, speech and discussions in around 30 languages to many parts of the world on analogue and digital shortwave platforms, Internet streaming, podcasting, satellite, DAB, FM and MW relays. The English-language service broadcasts 24 hours a day.

### Radio

#### December 19, 1932: BBC Empire Service

The BBC World Service began as the BBC Empire Service, broadcasting on shortwave and aimed principally at English speakers across the British Empire. In his first Christmas Message, King George V stated that the service was intended for "men and women, so cut off by the snow, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them." The Director General, Sir John Reith (later Lord Reith) said in the opening programme: "Don't expect too much in the early days; for some time we shall transmit comparatively simple programmes, to give the best chance of intelligible reception and provide evidence as to the type of material most suitable for the service in each zone. The programmes will neither be very interesting nor very good." This address was read out five times as it was broadcast live to different parts of the world.

#### November, 1939: BBC Overseas Service

On January 3, 1938, the first foreign-language service was launched in Arabic. Programmes in German began on March 29, 1938 and, by the end of 1942, broadcasts were being made in all major European languages. As a result, the Empire Service was renamed the BBC Overseas Service in November 1939, and a dedicated BBC European Service was added in 1941. These were financed not from the domestic licence fee but from government grant-in-aid (from the Foreign Office budget), and known administratively as the External Services of the BBC.

The External Services broadcast propaganda during the Second World War. Its French service Radio Londres also sent coded messages to the French Resistance. George Orwell broadcast many news bulletins on the Eastern Service during World War II. By the end of the 1940s the number of broadcast languages had expanded and reception had improved, following the opening of a relay in modern-day Malaysia and of the Limassol relay, Cyprus, in 1957.

#### May 1, 1965: BBC World Service

The service took its current name of BBC World Service and expanded its reach with the opening of the Ascension Island relay in 1966, serving African audiences with a stronger signal and better reception, and the later relay on the Island of Masirah.

In August 1985, the service went off air for the first time, when workers went on strike in protest at the British government's decision to ban a documentary featuring an interview with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin.

In recent years, financial pressures have decreased the number and type of services offered by the BBC. In countries with wide access to Internet services, there is less need for a radio station. Broadcasts in German ended in March 1999, after research showed that the majority of German listeners tuned into the English service. Broadcasts in Dutch, Finnish, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese and Malay were stopped for similar reasons.

### Television

#### June 4, 1987: BBC 1/2 Mix

Initially, two regional telecommunications companies in Denmark, KTAS (Københavns Telefon A/S) and JTAS (Jydsk Telefon A/S) contacted the BBC with a view to retransmit both BBC1 and 2 on their cable networks in Denmark, offering the BBC payment to cover the costs of the satellite slots. The BBC's commercial division, BBC Enterprises, looked into the proposal but found it would be impossible to secure rights for this. This led the BBC to instead create a separate new channel for Denmark, known as BBC 1/2 Mix. This later expanded to Norway in late 1987 and Sweden in early 1988.

#### April 1, 1989: BBC TV Europe

BBC 1/2 Mix was re-branded as ***BBC TV Europe*** and was a BBC subscription-funded television service established in 1987, serving continental Europe, initially Scandinavia. It was available on satellite and cable.

The channel broadcast a mix of the programmes shown on BBC1 and BBC2 in the United Kingdom, as well as the BBC's domestic BBC Six O'Clock News bulletin, together with the regional news service from London. BBC1 programming took priority: when a programme on BBC1 could not be shown on the channel for rights reasons, it was replaced with a programme shown on BBC2.

The channel was managed and operated by the BBC, but jointly marketed by the two Danish telecommunications companies, KTAS and JTAS. However, they were not able to make a profit from the channel, and sold their interest in it to the BBC, who renamed it BBC TV Europe and took full control of its operations and commercialisation, making it available to the whole of Western and Northern Europe (excluding the UK), and also making it officially available for individual viewers who wished to receive it directly via satellite by means of subscription. In 1990, a second service for non-UK viewers entitled Enterprise Channel was launched to complement the main BBC TV Europe service, but by the end of that year it had been folded back into the existing network

#### March 11, 1991: BBC World Service Television

***BBC World Service Television***, often abbreviated to WSTV (World Service Television), was the name of two BBC international satellite television channels between 1991 and 1995. It was the BBC's first foray into worldwide television broadcasting. In Europe, it was the successor to BBC TV Europe.

Unlike the BBC World Service at the time, it was not funded by the British government with a grant-in-aid. Instead, it was funded either by subscription or by commercial advertising, with advertisements that were inserted locally by the cable or satellite providers. In the years that followed, where not broadcast via a particular local provider, the BBC would insert news headlines, trailers for their own programming, and other updates to fill the gaps, these being known as "break fillers".

BBC World Service Television officially closed on January 26, 1995 when it split into BBC World and BBC Prime.

#### October 14, 1991: Asia Service

A 24-hour news and information service was also launched for Asia on STAR TV, and also available from Turkey to South Korea on AsiaSat. Competing against CNN International, it showed current affairs and documentary programming from BBC One and BBC Two in addition to BBC World Service News. This was the precursor to BBC World News.

#### January 16, 1995: BBC World

BBC World (renamed ***BBC World News*** in 2008) was 24-hour English free-to-air terrestrial international news channel: news bulletins, information, business and financial news magazines and current affairs programmes, officially launched at 19:00 GMT.

#### January 30, 1995: BBC Prime

***BBC Prime*** (replaced by BBC Entertainment in 2009) was a 24-hour English cable lifestyle, variety and entertainment channel: variety, culture, leisure, lifestyle, art and light entertainment programmes, officially launched at 19:00 GMT at BBC Television Centre in White City.

The channel broadcast drama, comedy and lifestyle programmes which it repeated on a monthly basis. It allocated six hours per day to educational programmes from BBC Learning (shown in the European small hours); this practice was abandoned in August 2006 "with the intention of improving the relevance and appeal of the channel to the widest audience". It also included a special children's strand, using the CBBC brand and idents, by the name of CBBC on BBC Prime, or CBBC Prime.

When it first launched, BBC Prime also carried programming from the former ITV company Thames Television, since BBC Worldwide had a joint venture with Thames's parent company, Pearson and Cox Communications, known as European Channel Management. However, this was dissolved in 1998. Owing to rights issues, much of the programming on BBC Prime was from the Corporation's archive.