The British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service
broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London,
England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company,
it evolved into its current state with its current name on New Year's Day 1927.
The oldest and largest local and global broadcaster by stature and by number of
employees, the BBC employs over 21,000 staff in total, of whom approximately
17,200 are in public-sector broadcasting.
The BBC was established under a royal
charter, and operates under an 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 or to use the BBC's
streaming service, iPlayer. The fee is
set by the British government, agreed by Parliament, and is 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.
Some of the BBC's revenue comes
from its commercial subsidiary BBC Studios (formerly BBC
Worldwide), which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and also
distributes the BBC's international 24-hour English-language news services BBC
News, and from BBC.com, provided by BBC Global
News Ltd. In 2009, the company was awarded the Queen's Award for
Enterprise in recognition of its international achievements in business.
History
Britain's first live public
broadcast was made from the factory of Marconi Company in Chelmsford in
June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mail's Alfred
Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian soprano Dame
Nellie Melba. The Melba broadcast caught the people's imagination and marked a
turning point in the British public's attitude to radio. However, this
public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were
held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late
1920, the pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the
licensing authority, the General Post Office (GPO), was sufficient to
lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts.
But by 1922, the GPO had
received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests and
moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies
with over 3,000 members. Anxious
to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the United States, the GPO
proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly
owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufacturers, to be known
as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd, which was formed on 18 October
1922. John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its general
manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official
broadcast. L. Stanton Jefferies was its first director of music. The
company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving
sets from approved domestic manufacturers. To this day, the BBC aims to
follow the Reithian directive to "inform, educate and entertain".
BBC Board of Directors
| Name | Role | Appointed | Term Ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samir Shah | Chairman | January 2024 | 2028 |
| Tim Davie | Director-General | September 2020 | Ongoing |
| Charlotte Moore | Chief Content Officer | June 2020 | Ongoing |
| Leigh Tavaziva | Chief Operating Officer | April 2023 | Ongoing |
| June Sarpong | Director of Creative Diversity | October 2019 | Ongoing |
| Tom Fussell | CEO, BBC Studios | October 2021 | Ongoing |
| Alan Dickson | Group Finance and Strategy Director | August 2019 | Ongoing |
🌍 BBC Global Office Locations
| Region | City | Address | Functions |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | London | Portland Place, London W1A 1AA | BBC News, Radio, World Service, TV |
| United Kingdom | Salford | Dock House, Salford M50 2EQ | BBC North, Sport, Breakfast, CBBC |
| United Kingdom | Cardiff | Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT | BBC Wales, S4C |
| United Kingdom | Glasgow | 40 Pacific Quay, Glasgow G51 1DA | BBC Scotland, TV, Radio |
| United Kingdom | Bristol | Bridgewater House, Counterslip, Bristol BS1 6BX | Natural History, Factual |
| Europe | Amsterdam | Capital C, Weesperplein 4B, 1018 XA | Regional Office |
| Europe | Cologne | Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring 17-21, 50672 Köln | Regional Office |
| Europe | Paris | 28 cours Albert 1er, 75008 Paris | Regional Office |
| Americas | New York | 1120 Avenue of the Americas, NY 10036 | Newsgathering |
| Americas | Toronto | 145 King St W, Suite 740, Toronto | Regional Office |
| Americas | São Paulo | Rua Ferreira de Araujo, 741, SP | Regional Reporting |
| Asia-Pacific | Singapore | 18 Robinson Road, #13-01 | Regional Office |
| Asia-Pacific | Delhi | 6th Floor, H T House, New Delhi | Newsgathering, Monitoring |
| Asia-Pacific | Mumbai | Windsor Off CST Road, Santacruz | Regional Reporting |
| Asia-Pacific | Sydney | 35-51 Mitchell Street, McMahons Point | Regional Office |
| Africa | Johannesburg | 263 Oak Avenue, Ferndale, Randburg | Newsgathering |
| Africa | Accra | BBC Ghana Office | BBC World Service |
| International | Istanbul | BBC Türkçe Office | Newsgathering |
| International | Islamabad | House No. 10, Street 13, F-8/3 | BBC Urdu |
| International | Tehran | Closed since 2010 | BBC Persian (now from London) |
| International | Addis Ababa | BBC Ethiopia Office | World Service |
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