British Broadcasting Corporation

I

Introduction

British Broadcasting Corporation, first and biggest broadcasting organization in the United Kingdom.

The scientific origins of broadcasting are over 100 years old. However, it took 20 years and a world war to develop technologies enabling signals to go to masses of people simultaneously, rather than to individuals, so it was not until the 1920s that the major broadcasting institutions grew up.

Systems of broadcasting reflect local geographic and social conditions. The United States developed a competitive, entertainment-led arrangement, financed from advertising revenue. In the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) a centralized, politically controlled system, financed by the government, was devised. Britain favored a “public service,” with some government control and a mixed program output, financed mainly from a license fee paid by owners of radio receivers.

The BBC, set up in 1922, comprised the radio manufacturers, who were given a broadcasting monopoly. Company profits were limited and strict control was exercised over the operation, especially regarding controversial output. Revenue from the license fees, some of which was kept by the government, was supplemented by royalties on the sale of receivers. John Reith, a Scottish engineer, was appointed the first general manager and became the architect of “public service broadcasting,” in which the profit motive plays no part. Independence from political and business control, provision for minorities, impartiality, and respect for broadcasting as a serious cultural force became its hallmarks.

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Having weathered the political difficulties of Britain’s General Strike in 1926, the company became a corporation in 1927, with a remit to “educate, inform, and entertain” the public. It obtained its authority through a renewable royal charter and with a board of governors, representing the public interest and appointed by the government, which also set the level of the license fee.

Under Reith’s strict control, the BBC rapidly gained a reputation for high standards. Drama, music of all kinds, including the Promenade Concerts (the “Proms”), children’s programs, news and current affairs, and religious programs were soon all obtainable by the great mass of the British public, backed by the Radio Times (from 1923), a highly successful program magazine. Educational broadcasting began in 1924; a regional service, planned from 1926 and started in 1930, offered choice; and experiments with television started in 1929 using the system invented by another Scottish engineer, John Logie Baird. A full television service ran from 1936 to 1939, but Baird’s mechanical system was dropped in favor of a more sophisticated electronic version. One of Reith’s greatest achievements was the start of overseas broadcasts in English, through the creation of the Empire Service, now called the World Service. During the 1930s, described as “The Golden Age of Radio,” the BBC was, however, forced to recognize the power of competition, when the public began listening to lighter fare from commercial stations transmitting from France.

II

The Effects of World War II

In 1939 World War II forced the closure of the television service and, under necessary censorship conditions, BBC Radio sought to provide as accurate a picture as possible of the war’s progress while maintaining the morale of a beleaguered population. A special Forces Programme was created in 1940 and the output lightened in tone with entertainers such as Tommy Handley in his famous “ITMA” program and Vera Lynn, the “Forces’ Sweetheart” singer, and the new “Desert Island Discs” series—still going strong—with its original format of talk and music centered on a celebrity. Serious programming also flourished, with classical music more popular than ever, the “Radio Doctor” giving advice on health and fitness, J. B. Priestley delivering his famous, controversial “Postscripts” to the 9 o’clock evening news, and Mr. Middleton dispensing advice on gardening, especially on growing vegetables. The Empire Service underwent huge change, and expanded from 1938 as foreign language broadcasts began with Arabic, soon joined by most European and East Asian languages.

From 1940 onward the BBC became a source of information and hope to many European resistance movements. The Victory Campaign evoked a huge emotional and practical response with its “V for Victory” slogan. Many Allied leaders, including General de Gaulle, sent messages to their people from the BBC studios in London. As D-Day approached, coded messages were sent to men and women in the “underground” planning to help the Allied invasion, while the German Service, headed by Hugh Greene, later a BBC director general, sent warnings to the German people, whose broadcasting system he helped reorganize after the war.

III

The Post-War Period

The BBC had expanded greatly during the war and the problems of reconstruction were formidable. The television service restarted in 1946 and became a great success, especially following the outside broadcast of the 1947 wedding procession of Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and the Duke of Edinburgh. On radio, the Forces Programme became the Light Programme, and in 1946 the Third Programme was devised to provide serious music and cultural programs. The BBC thus had three distinctive radio channels alongside its regional output from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and its major centers in England. By 1950, 30 hours of television and 260 hours of radio were broadcast each week. As transmitters were built, half the population was soon able to receive television pictures.

Expenditure on television soon seemed set to equal that on radio, and audiences moved increasingly to the new medium; live coverage of the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II was a major turning point. By the time the BBC monopoly was broken by the arrival of Independent Television (ITV) in 1955, over 90 percent of the population had access to television. The age of competition began and the BBC had to fight for survival. At first it failed badly and its share of the audience slumped to 28 percent in 1957.

The fight back by radio, in competition with television, and by BBC TV, in competition with ITV, was initiated by one director general, Sir Ian Jacob, and completed by another, Sir Hugh Greene, who was knighted in 1964. By the end of the 1950s expenditure on BBC television equaled that on radio and, thenceforth, the gap widened dramatically, but the BBC’s audience share took longer to recover. Radio continued to excel in many fields, with “The Goon Show” attracting big audiences and creating new comedy styles, while old favorites such as “The Archers” (which started in 1951 and is still running) continued its early success. On television an adaptation of 1984 by George Orwell created a stir, while “Panorama,” the BBC’s current affairs flagship, “Sportsview,” and “Zoo Quest” by David Attenborough set new standards and attracted large audiences. Children’s television and television for schools also started in the 1950s, a period of expansion and experiment.

A major reorganization of radio occurred in 1967 with the opening of Radio 1, a response to “pirate radio,” and the renaming of the Light, Third, and Home services as Radios 2, 3, and 4. In the same year, BBC Local Radio started in Leicester and within six years there were 20 such stations, making special programs for local communities, for example, those with large Asian or Afro-Caribbean populations.

The late 1950s and 1960s saw the BBC introduce a remarkable number of technical innovations, including VHF (very high frequency) and stereo radio, efficient video recording, satellite transmissions, color television, and a second television channel, BBC 2. In the same period the BBC’s Television Centre was opened in west London, a Radiophonic Workshop set up, and work began on the teletext system Ceefax, which went public in 1972. These enhanced the quality and range of programs: stereo sound improved music quality; satellites, such as Telstar, enabled intercontinental broadcasts; BBC 2 offered more choice; and color added to the enjoyment of drama, sports, light entertainment, and nature programs. Huge successes such as “The Six Wives of Henry VIII,” “Dad’s Army,” “Civilization,” “Horizon,” and “Omnibus” all belong to this period.

In the 1970s and 1980s popular television audiences often reached 20 million and radio audiences 5 million, but troubles began to loom with a worsening economic climate, partly caused by the oil crisis of 1973. Programs such as “Yesterday’s Men” and “The Question of Ulster” were criticized by politicians, with whom the BBC had to deal over the license fee and other issues. Broadcasting and its effects on vulnerable groups such as children became a subject of heated debate. One outcome was the setting up of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in 1981. BBC broadcasters were taking their social responsibilities seriously with programs for deaf and disabled people joining those for blind people, as well as a multimedia campaign on adult literacy. Programs for the Open University started in 1971. However, entertainment, sports, and news and current affairs were the chief ratings battlegrounds, with the BBC and ITV sharing the television audience roughly fifty-fifty.

The late 1970s was dominated by economics and the issues raised by the work of the Annan Committee on the future of broadcasting. Inflation made the period “increasingly gloomy” for the BBC, in the words of the chairman, Sir Michael Swann. While ITV could control its income partially, the BBC could do little, apart from increasing the relatively small amounts obtained through sales of programs and books. One indirect outcome of the Annan Report was the creation of the advertising-financed Channel 4, designed to be innovative and experimental. This came on the air in 1982, thus completing the television duopoly with the BBC, considered by many as the high-point period of British television.

In a 1978 White Paper the BBC was described as “arguably the single most important cultural organization in the nation.” The Shakespeare Project (the televising of Shakespeare plays backed up by explanatory programs), “Life on Earth,” “Yes Minister,” “The Boys from the Blackstuff,” and “Timewatch” are just some examples of television programs that testify to this.

IV

The 1980s and 1990s

The 1980s and 1990s saw yet more rapid technical change, increased competition, and, for the BBC, an ideological shift in government attitudes: the Conservative government of 1979 to 1990 under Margaret Thatcher challenged the corporation’s basic principles, while satellite and cable transmission opened up the possibility for more channels and, it is hoped, more choice. The BBC was at first invited to develop two direct-broadcasting-by-satellite (DBS) channels, without any government assistance, and a fierce debate developed as to the practicalities. The plan fell through after the expenditure of much effort and money, with the highly competitive, commercial Sky Channel (now British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB) becoming the eventual main provider of satellite television in Britain.

The BBC continued to take the initiative with the start of Breakfast Television in 1983, just ahead of ITV, alongside its by-now-accepted high-level and wide-ranging existing output.

Challenging programs such as “Tumbledown,” reflecting on the Falklands War, and “Real Lives: On the Edge of the Union,” concerning terrorism in Northern Ireland, angered the already hostile government and 1987 became a cataclysmic year for the BBC. Its headquarters in Glasgow were raided by the police concerning another contentious series and the director general, Alasdair Milne, was removed.

In the first half of the 1990s, under a new chairman of governors, Marmaduke Hussey (appointed in 1986), and new directors general Michael Checkland (from 1987) and then, from 1993, John Birt, the BBC underwent a rapid and painful transformation. The staff was radically slimmed down, and new procedures for program-making, such as “producer choice,” a kind of internal market, put in place. Such changes, comparable to those in other public sector institutions, proved highly unpopular, particularly with older staff, many of whom were let go.

The management, however, achieved a renewal of its charter for ten years from 1996. Also, a license fee increase allowed the BBC to enter the new field of digital broadcasting. In spring 1997, partly in order to concentrate resources, the BBC was reorganized into five new bi-media (radio and TV) directorates: BBC Broadcast, BBC News, BBC Production, BBC Resources, and BBC Worldwide. No distinction was made between radio and television within these directorates. A deal regarding a digital television venture between BBC Worldwide and Flextech Television, whereby Flextech takes care of distribution and general management and the BBC retains editorial control, went into effect in 1996. BBC News 24, a 24-hour digital news service, was launched in November 1997. Further digital broadcasting services, BBC Choice and BBC Parliament, began in 1998, with BBC Knowledge being launched the following year. A pilot version of BBC Online, an official BBC Web site, was created toward the end of 1997, and a year later obtained government permission to become the third broadcast medium alongside television and radio.