BBC World Service

**BBC World Service** is British international radio station owned by British Broadcasting Corporation. The station broadcasts news, speech, discussions.

## History

**BBC World Service** began in 1932 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." First hopes for the **Empire Service** were low. 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.

On 3 January 1938, the first foreign-language service was launched in **Arabic**. Programmes in **German** started on 29 March 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. On 1 May 1965 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.

On 25 October 2005, it was announced that broadcasts in **Bulgarian**, **Croatian**, **Czech**, **Dekanian**, **Greek**, **Hungarian**, **Kazakh**, **Polish**, **Slovak**, **Slovene** and **Thai** would end by March 2006, to finance the launch in 2007 of TV news services in **Arabic** and **Persian**. Additionally**, Romanian** broadcasts ceased on 1 August 2008.

In January 2011, the closure of the **Albanian**, **Macedonian**, **Portuguese for Africa**, **Serbian**, and **English** for the **Caribbean** services was announced. This reflected the financial situation the Corporation faced following transfer of responsibility for the Service from the Foreign Office, so that it would in future have be funded from within licence fee income. The **Russian**, **Ukrainian**, **Mandarin Chinese**, **Turkish**, **Vietnamese**, **Azeri**, and **Spanish for Cuba** services ceased radio broadcasting, and the **Hindi**, **Indonesian**, **Kyrgyz**, **Nepali**, **Swahili**, **Kinyarwanda** and **Kirundi** services ceased shortwave transmissions. The **British** government announced that the three **Balkan** countries had wide access to international information, and so broadcasts in the local languages had become unnecessary. 650 jobs went as part of the 16% budget cut.

In March 2011, **The Guardian** published details of an agreement between **BBC Media Action**, the BBC's broadcasting development charity, and the US State Department, in which the latter would provide a "low six-figure" sum to develop technology to stop jamming, and to educate people on how to avoid state censorship. This led to allegations that these measures would encourage a pro-American bias within the Service and help America win the 'information war'.

## Programmings

* ***Newsday***
* ***World Update***
* ***Newshour***
* ***The Newsroom***
* ***Health Check***
* ***Click***
* ***Science in Action***
* ***Sportsworld***
* ***The Sports Hour***
* ***Stumped***
* ***The Forum***
* ***Outlook***
* ***Trending***

## Logos

Fifth logo (1991-1997)Sixth logo (1997-2002)Seventh logo (2002-2011)Current logo (2011-present)
## External links

* Official website

* National stations
* Regional stations
* Local stations

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