BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel, with an estimated 99 million viewers weekly in 2015/16, part of the estimated 265 million users of the BBC's four main international news services. Launched on 11 March 1991 as BBC World Service Television outside Europe, its name was changed to BBC World on 16 January 1995 and to BBC World News on 21 April 2008. It broadcasts news bulletins, documentaries, lifestyle programmes and interview shows. Unlike the BBC's domestic channels, BBC World News is owned and operated by BBC Global News Ltd., part of the BBC's commercial group of companies, and is funded by subscription and advertising revenues, and not by the United Kingdom television licence. It is not owned by BBC Studios.
Video BBC World News
History
The channel originally started as BBC World Service Television and was a commercial operation. The British government refused to fund to the new television service using grant-in-aid. (BBC World Service radio was funded by a grant-in-aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office until 2014.) The channel started broadcasting on 11 March 1991, after two weeks of real-time pilots, initially as a half-hour bulletin once a day at 19:00 GMT.
In 1995, BBC World Service Television was split into two services:
- BBC World started broadcasting on Monday, 16 January 1995 at 19:00 GMT and became a 24-hour English free-to-air international news channel.
- BBC Prime started broadcasting on Monday, 30 January 1995 at 19:00 GMT and became the BBC's light entertainment channel, later renamed BBC Entertainment.
BBC World's on-air design was changed significantly on 3 April 2000, bringing it closer to the look of its sister channel in the UK which was then known as BBC News 24, the on-air look of which had been redesigned in 1999. The look of both channels was made up of red and cream and designed by Lambie-Nairn, with music based on a style described as 'drums and beeps' composed by David Lowe, a departure from the general orchestral nature of music used by other news programmes.
On 8 December 2003 a second makeover, using the same 'drums and beeps' style music but new graphics took place, although on a much smaller scale to that of 2000. The music was changed slightly while the main colour scheme became black and red, with studios using frosted glass and white and red colours. Later in 2004, the channel's slogan became Putting News First, replacing Demand a Broader View.
The channel's present name -BBC World News- was introduced on 21 April 2008 as part of a £550,000 rebranding of the BBC's overall news output and visual identity. BBC World News later moved to the renovated studio vacated by BBC News 24 (now the BBC News Channel). New graphics were produced by the Lambie-Nairn design agency and music reworked by David Lowe.
Move to Broadcasting House
BBC World News relocated to Broadcasting House from its previous home at Television Centre on 14 January 2013. This was part of the move of BBC News and other audio and vision departments of the BBC into one building in Central London. Broadcasting House was refurbished at a cost of £1 billion. A new newsroom and several state-of-the-art studios were built.
Maps BBC World News
Broadcasting
Live news output originates from studios B and C in Broadcasting House with some recorded programming from Broadcasting House studio A and the BBC Millbank studio. The BBC World News newsroom is now part of the new consolidated BBC Newsroom in Broadcasting House along with BBC World Service and UK domestic news services.
Previously, the channel was broadcast in 4:3, with the news output fitted into a 14:9 frame for both digital and analogue broadcasting, resulting in black bands at the top and bottom of the screen. On 13 January 2009 at 09:57 GMT, BBC World News switched its broadcast to 16:9 format, initially in Europe on Astra 1L satellite, and Eutelsat Hot Bird 6 satellite to other broadcast feeds in the Asian region from 20 January 2009.
High-definition
As a result of the move to Broadcasting House, BBC World News gained high-definition studios and equipment to be able to broadcast in high-definition. On 5 August 2013, BBC World News was offered as a High Definition (HD) feed across the Middle East when it launched its international HD channel on Arabsat. Arabsat was the BBC's first distribution partner in the Middle East to offer the channel in HD. On 1 April 2015 BBC World News in English started broadcasting in high definition from the 11.229 GHz/V transponder on Astra 1KR at the 19.2°E orbital position, available free-to-air to viewers with 60 cm dishes across Europe and coastal North Africa.
Worldwide
BBC World News claims to be watched by a weekly audience of 74 million in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. BBC World News is most commonly watched as a free-to-air (FTA) channel. The channel is available in Europe and many parts of the world via satellite (FTA) or cable platforms.
In the United States, the channel is available through providers such as Cablevision, Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-verse. As of 2014, U.S. distribution and advertising sales for the channel are handled by AMC Networks, who are the minority partner for the BBC's entertainment channel BBC America.
In addition, BBC World News syndicates its daytime and evening news programmes to public television stations throughout the U.S., originally maintaining a distribution partnership with Garden City, New York-based WLIW that lasted from 1998 until October 2008, when the BBC and WLIW mutually decided not to renew the contract. BBC World News subsequently entered into an agreement with Community Television of Southern California, Inc., in which Los Angeles PBS member station KCET (which was a public independent station from 2011 to 2018) would take over distribution rights to BBC World News America (the KCET agreement has since been extended to encompass a half-hour simulcast of the 90-minute-long midday news bulletin GMT, which airs in the U.S. as a morning show, and a weekly edition of the BBC newsmagazine Newsnight). PBS separately began distributing another program aired by the channel, Beyond 100 Days, as a tape-delayed late night broadcast on January 2, 2018, as an interim replacement for Charlie Rose. Unlike GMT and BBC World News America, Beyond 100 Days is distributed exclusively to PBS member stations as part of the service's base schedule.
Online
BBC World News began streaming its content on YouTube on 16 July 2017. The channel is available in the United States as part of Sling's World News add-on package.
From 2012 until it closed in 2016, BBC World News was available on LiveStation.
United Kingdom
The channel is not officially available as a stand-alone, full-time channel in the United Kingdom because it carries and is funded by advertising (BBC's domestic channels are funded by a television licence fee which households and establishments that want to watch television programmes as they are being broadcast must pay), although it can be easily received due to its 'free-to-air' status on many European satellite systems, including Astra and Hot Bird and is available in selected London hotels. BBC World News can also be viewed in the public areas of Broadcasting House (the lobby and café).
However, some BBC World News programmes are available to UK audiences. There is a simulcast of the 05:00 UK edition of BBC World News on BBC One and the BBC News channel, followed by an edition of World Business Report. This programme was previously branded as 'The World Today'. However, since November 2017 this has been rebranded as The Briefing and Business Briefing.
While international audiences see advertisements during the break, UK viewers see domestic headlines. This simulcast is in addition to overnight simulcasts at the top of the hour from 00.00 to 05.00 UK time on both BBC World News and BBC News Channel and are simply branded as BBC News (except for Newsday which simulcasts at 00.00 UK time weekdays), even if they are produced by BBC World News. The 11:30 UK edition of BBC World News was shown on BBC Two Mon-Fri (but not on Wednesdays when Parliament is sitting and there is Prime Minister's Questions), but was discontinued as of December 2015, having been quietly replaced by the next half-hour of national BBC News (now known as Newsroom Live). This had formed BBC News at 11 on BBC Two, which was made up of half an hour of BBC News and then half an hour of BBC World News. Nowadays, this also happens on rare occasions during big news events and the News Channel presenter will join the BBC World News presenter in Studio C as it used by both channels. This was done for example for coverage of events such as the Glasgow Helicopter Crash, Election of Pope Francis and Boston Marathon Bombings. Previously GMT was shown at 12:30 on the channel.
BBC World News also produces a version of Outside Source at 21:00 Monday-Thursday World News Today at 19:00 Monday-Friday and 21:00 Friday-Sunday UK time. The first half-hour of this programme can be seen in the UK on BBC Four or BBC News Channel on weekends. The edition of the programme replaced The World, which had been broadcast as a simulcast on the channel between 2002 and 2007. Both World and the BBC News Channel have also occasionally had to simulcast the same news programme due to strike action or technical issues; this occurred in 2003 when Television Centre in London was affected by electrical problems.
Programming
Live news programmes:
- BBC World News - international news
- GMT - international news, including business and sport
- Impact - global news as it affects audiences in Asia
- Global - international news and analysis
- Outside Source - discussion and analysis of news topics
- Newsday - live from Singapore and London, news and analysis from both an Asian and global perspective
- BBC World News America - news from America and around the world, live from the BBC's Washington DC bureau
- Focus on Africa - BBC World News' flagship African news programme, with news, business and sport from the continent.
- Beyond 100 Days - Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on international news, with a focus on the UK, Europe and the United States. (Previously branded as 100 Days and 100 Days + .)
- World News Today - A daily news programme with in-depth analysis. Focus on the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Presenters include Karin Giannone, Kasia Madera, Alpa Patel and Philippa Thomas
- The Briefing - Sally Bundock with news, business, and sports from BBC News.
Live business and sport programmes:
- Business Live - broadcast live from London
- World Business Report - business news analysis
- Asia Business Report - business and market news in Asia, live from Singapore
- Sport Today - international sports news and results
Pre-recorded programmes:
- Africa Business Report - weekly
- Click - technology programme aimed at non-technical audiences
- Dateline London - Foreign correspondents based in London discuss the week's international news
- The Travel Show
- HARDtalk - in-depth interviews with famous personalities from all walks of life
- Newsnight - a weekly round up of news and current affairs hosted by Evan Davis
- Our World - documentary series
- Panorama - Current affairs programme, featuring interviews and investigative reports on a wide variety of subjects
- Politics Europe - monthly programme usually broadcast on a Friday which covers political news across Europe, analysing both the situation in Brussels as well as within individual European nations. Filmed in exactly the same format as the BBC Two programme, the Daily Politics, presented by Andrew Neil or Jo Coburn. Also broadcast on BBC Parliament.
- Talking Movies - a guide to film, from Hollywood blockbusters to documentaries and world cinema
World News Bulletins
Half-hour BBC World News bulletins are made available to Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States through Los Angeles' KCET, a non-commercial independent public television station which has been separate from PBS since the beginning of 2011 due to a rights fee dispute. 80 to 90% of Americans are able to receive the bulletins, though broadcast times vary between different localities. The programme is broadcast on several PBS stations in markets such as New York City and Washington DC.
On PBS stations, BBC World News is not broadcast with traditional commercials (the breaks are filled with news stories) but omits the Met Office international weather forecast at the end of the programme, replacing it with underwriting announcements. The PBS broadcasts are tape-delayed on some stations.
BBC America airs a 3-hour block of BBC World News programmes from 05:00 to 08:00 on weekdays. Met Office forecasts are removed, and is broadcast with advertisements.
BBC World News bulletins also appear on Hong Kong TVB English Channel instead of an NBC Nightly News simulcast from NBC News via its East Coast Feed at 07:30 Hong Kong Time (18:30 New York City Time), China 24 simulcasting on CGTN at 20:15 Beijing/Hong Kong Time and News at 7:30 at 19:30 Hong Kong Time. In Singapore, the English daily evening-nightly flagship mainly news bulletins appear on: MediaCorp's Channel NewsAsia instead of Singapore Tonight at 22:00 Singapore Standard Time.
Many airlines from across the world also play pre-recorded extracts of the BBC World News, have text headlines from it or have a full bulletin available on the in-flight entertainment systems. Airlines showing BBC World News include Garuda Indonesia, Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, Myanmar Airways International, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, Air Canada and Qantas.
Previous Bulletins
Another BBC World News programme, the hour-long BBC World News America, aired on BBC America at 19:00 Eastern Time. A second broadcast at 22:00 Eastern Time ended in 2010 when BBC America introduced a second feed for the western time zones of the US on 18 February 2011, it was announced that BBC World News America would no longer be brodacast on BBC America and would instead be broadcast only on BBC World and local PBS stations in the United States as a 30-minute program.
The channel also produced short bulletins for public transport services in Singapore and Hong Kong:
- Singapore Mass Rapid Transit service from Marina Bay to Changi International Airport
- Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway service from Chek Lap Kok International Airport-Disneyland Resort Station to Disneyland Resort Line
These broadcasts began with the statement: "Welcome to BBC World News on board the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit and Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway". The short bulletin was updated twice a day, and has since been replaced by a similar programme from MediaCorp's Channel NewsAsia.
Travellers on the Heathrow Express rail service from London Paddington to London Heathrow Airport could watch a specially recorded BBC World News bulletin. The short bulletin was updated twice a day, and was shown in both classes on LCD televisions throughout the train. However, a similar programme from Sky News is now shown instead.
News Presenters
Presenters
Former presenters
Presentation
BBC World News is, for the most part, the same channel all over the world; the commercials are intended to be the only differences. However, there are some regional programming variations. For example, a number of programmes are made exclusively for regional viewings, such as Indian feeds, and The Record Europe, which is only broadcast in Europe. Also, the weather focuses more on the area the viewer is watching from.
On most feeds of BBC World News, when there are no commercials being inserted by the cable or satellite provider similar to other channels, the break filler shows promotions for upcoming programmes on the channel. During BBC News, a news story that has not been promoted airs during what would be the commercial break. This is the case on the broadband versions of BBC World News, and on versions of BBC World News aired in the United States on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations. However, there are some global commercials and sponsorships which air throughout the network.
On 11 September 2007, the break filler was redesigned and now more closely resembles previous versions. The promotional videos now fill the entire screen and are interspersed with news and market updates, schedules, and other information. There is also no longer a unifying music composition. Instead, each 20-second promotional video uses music selected from a handful of themes, which have some unifying musical characteristics. The information screens, such as the 10-second plug for the website or YouTube channel, and the 15-second weather/time/coming up screens each feature their own theme. The colour theme was updated following the relaunch of the channel in April 2008.
Since its inception, and more so since its extensive association with the BBC News channel, the countdown to the hourly news bulletin has been a feature of the channel's presentation, accompanied by music composed by David Lowe. The current style of countdown features reporters and technical staff in many different locations working to bring news stories to air. The countdown can range from 45 seconds to 3 seconds.
Awards
BBC World News was named Best International News Channel at the Association for International Broadcasting Awards in November 2006. It won a Peabody Award in 2007 for White Horse Village and another in 2009 for Where Giving Life is a Death Sentence.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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