Timeline of the BBC World Service

Last updated

A timeline of notable events relating to the BBC World Service, the world's largest international broadcaster, which began broadcasting in 1932.

Contents

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC World Service</span> International radio division of the BBC

The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcasts radio news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world on analogue and digital shortwave platforms, internet streaming, podcasting, satellite, DAB, FM and MW relays. In 2015, the World Service reached an average of 210 million people a week. In November 2016, the BBC announced that it would start broadcasting in additional languages including Amharic and Igbo, in its biggest expansion since the 1940s.

International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was the country's sole means of long-distance communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHK World-Japan</span> International service of the Japanese public broadcaster NHK

NHK World-Japan is the international arm of the Japanese state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-service broadcasters, such as the British BBC, France 24, or the German DW. Contents are broadcast through shortwave radio, satellite, and cable operators throughout the world, as well as online and through its mobile apps. NHK World-Japan is also available on DirecTV channels 322 and 2049. It is headquartered in Tokyo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deutsche Welle</span> German public broadcaster

Deutsche Welle, abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service consists of channels in English, German, Spanish, and Arabic. The work of DW is regulated by the Deutsche Welle Act, meaning that content is intended to be independent of government influence. DW is a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Television</span> Television service of the British Broacasting Corporation

BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated public television services in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 1932, although the start of its regular service of television broadcasts is dated to 2 November 1936.

Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service. The broadcasting service was also previously referred to as the Voice of Canada, broadcasting on shortwave from powerful transmitters in Sackville, New Brunswick. "In its heyday", said Radio World magazine, "Radio Canada International was one of the world's most listened-to international shortwave broadcasters". However, as the result of an 80 percent budget cut, shortwave services were terminated in June 2012, and RCI became accessible exclusively via the Internet. It also reduced its services to five languages and ended production of its own news service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio Netherlands Worldwide</span> Public international Dutch radio and television network

Radio Netherlands was a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands from 1947 to 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All India Radio</span> National public radio broadcaster of India

All India Radio (AIR), officially known since 1957 as Akashvani, is the national public radio broadcaster of India and is a division of Prasar Bharati. It was established in 1936.

This is a timeline of the history of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media properties in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio Moscow</span> Russian international broadcasting station

Radio Moscow, also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993. It was reorganized with a new name: Voice of Russia, which has also since been reorganized and renamed Radio Sputnik. At its peak, Radio Moscow broadcast in over 70 languages using transmitters in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Cuba.

The Happy Station Show was one of the world's longest-running international radio programmes, having originated in 1928 on shortwave radio and airing its final edition on 27 December 2020.

United Nations Radio was created on 13 February 1946. In 2017, United Nations Radio and the UN News Centre merged to form UN News, producing daily news and multimedia content in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Hindi. In its new iteration, UN News Audio continues to produce daily news and feature stories about the work of the UN and its member countries in eight languages for more than 2,000 partner radio stations around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC News Russian</span> Russian-language division of the BBC World Service

BBC News Russian – formerly BBC Russian Service – is part of the BBC World Service's foreign language output, one of nearly 40 languages it provides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Alba</span> BBCs Scottish Gaelic language TV channel

BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day with BBC Radio nan Gàidheal simulcasts. The name Alba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. The station is unique in that it is the first channel to be delivered under a BBC licence by a partnership and was also the first multi-genre channel to come entirely from Scotland with almost all of its programmes made in Scotland.

This is a list of events in British radio during 1986.

This is a timeline of the development of radio in London.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Television News.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio News.

This is a timeline of the history of television news in the UK.

References

  1. "Historic moments from the 1930s". BBC World Service. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
  2. "The 1960s". BBC World Service. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  3. Kim Andrew Elliott, 13 February 2011.
  4. Transponder News TeleSat News, 21 July 1996
  5. (in Ukrainian) Бі-Бі-Сі – зрозуміти світ, BBC Ukrainian
  6. "BBC World Service Europe". Archived from the original on 23 January 1998. Retrieved 2013-04-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). BBC. 23 January 1998. Retrieved 17 April 2013. "Unfortunately, the Finnish Service was closed on the 31st December 1997."
  7. BBC's German Service goes off air, BBC News, 27 March 1999.
  8. 75 years BBC World Service – A History.
  9. "Pages 1–136 from BBC AR Cover 03". Archived from the original on 2 February 2007.
  10. "BBC World Service | FAQ". BBC. 10 August 2005. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  11. "Save the BBC World Service in North America and the Pacific! – BBC to Cut Off 1.2 Million Listeners on July 1". Savebbc.org. 6 June 2001. Archived from the original on 30 November 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  12. World Service profile
  13. Glenn Hauser (13 November 2004). "BBC 'On Air' Magazine is Suddenly Axed". Hard Core. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  14. "BBC East Europe voices silenced". BBC News. 21 December 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  15. Michael Church: The needless destruction of a cultural treasure The Independent, 14 October 2005
  16. BBC World Service. "Shortwave changes for Europe February 2008" http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/help/2008/02/080208_sw_changes_euro.shtml
  17. "BBC shuts down Romanian service". bbc.co.uk. BBC. 25 June 2008. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  18. "World Service cuts". London.[ dead link ]
  19. "A fond farewell to BBC Serbian". BBC News. 26 February 2011.
  20. "BBC – New BBC Radio Breakfast show aimed at African audiences – Media Centre". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  21. "BBC - Media Centre - BBC announces development of new weekday international news programme across Radio, TV and Online". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  22. "About Us: BBC World Service". British Foreign & Commonwealth Office. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  23. "BBC Worldwide - Annual Review 2013/14 - Our Business". Archived from the original on 22 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  24. Conlan, Tara (23 November 2015). "BBC World Service to receive £289m from government" via The Guardian.
  25. "BBC launches first social media-only news service – for Thailand" . Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  26. "BBC World Service announces biggest expansion 'since the 1940s'", The BBC,
  27. BBC starts Igbo and Yoruba services in Nigeria
  28. "Millions of Russians turn to BBC News" (Press release). London: BBC. 2 March 2022. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  29. Hsu, Tiffany (3 March 2022). "BBC Revives Shortwave Radio Dispatches in Ukraine and Draws Ire of Russia". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 18 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.