BBC World Service

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Image:BBC World Service.png

The BBC World Service is one of the most widely recognised international broadcasters of radio programming, transmitting in 33 languages to around 150 million people throughout the world. The English service broadcasts 24 hours a day. Unlike the BBC's main radio and television services, which are primarily funded by a licence fee, the World Service is funded by the British Government through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[1]

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Mission

According to the World Service, its aim is to "be the world's best-known and most-respected voice in international broadcasting, thereby bringing benefit to Britain".[2]

The UK Government spent £259 million on the World Service in 2005. This huge spending of the British taxpayers' money by the Government was justified by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1985. According to Hansard, the journal of the British Parliment, in an answer to a question in the House of Commons Mrs Thatcher said: "The World Service earns every penny we put into it, by promoting our world-view and policy, It has done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future".

The BBC is a Crown Corporation of the British Government, but operates independently of the government. There is no direct control of the BBC by the British Government. The World Service does, however, promote the British point of view and foreign policy. Examples of this are the coverage of the Suez Crisis in July, 1956, its coverage of the Falklands Islands War from April to June, 1982, and its coverage of the handover of Britain's former colony of Hong Kong Kong in 1997.

The BBC World Service is widely respected in parts of world where the media is not free.Template:Fact With the BBC’s powerful transmitters broadcasting in the local language, the BBC World Service can be the only source of reliable news not manipulated by the local government. This is the strategy that the BBC adopted successfully, to become a widely respected broadcaster in the Third World and during the Cold War amongst the former countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The BBC plans to scrap its hugely popular Polish service in order to enhance funding to its Middle Eastern service. An editorial in the British Daily Telegraph Newspaper said the move reflects the need for the British government to spread its point of view in this region.

More recently the BBC World Service has been accused of giving wide coverage to the viewpoint of the British and United States governments on the invasion of Iraq. This was in contrast to the BBC’s domestic service broadcasts to British viewers, which were critical of the British invasion of Iraq.

With increased competition from television (stations like Al Jazeera and Al Arabya) and an increasing number of radio news broadcasters offering information from different points of view, the BBC has lost listeners in some areas. In the Middle East some criticise the BBC as being too close to British Policy. Others disagree, however, saying it is much fairer than its competitors. In India the BBC is regarded by some as less credible than local broadcasters but still has large audiences, particularly across the north of the country.Template:Fact

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Statistics and languages

The following audience estimates are from research conducted in 2004 by independent market research agencies on behalf of the BBC :

In Africa and the Middle East the service broadcasts to 66 million listeners, of which 18.7 million are in English.

Besides English, the BBC World Service currently broadcasts in Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Burmese, Caribbean English, Cantonese, French, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese for Africa and Brazil, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.

The German broadcasts were stopped in March 1999 after 60 years, as research showed that the majority of German listeners tuned into the English version. Broadcasts in Dutch, Finnish, French for Europe, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese and Malay were stopped for similar reasons.

On 25 October 2005 it was announced that the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai language radio services would end by March 2006 in order to finance the launch of an Arabic language TV news channel in 2007.

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History

The BBC's first shortwave transmissions were broadcast in 1925 from Borough Hill, Daventry. BBC shortwave programming began as BBC Empire Service on December 19, 1932, broadcasting particularly to Australia.

The World Service gained a special position in world broadcasting during the Second World War as it broadcast news to a wide range of audiences. The German Service, created in 1938 and discontinued in 1999, played an important part in the propaganda war against Nazi Germany. The authoritative source on the BBC's German Service is Carl Brinitzer's book "Hier spricht London". Brinitzer, a German lawyer from Hamburg living in exile in London, was a founding member.

Image:Bush house.jpg After a landmine damaged the service's original home Broadcasting House on December 8 1940, the European Service moved to Bush House; the rest of the Overseas Service followed in 1958. When the BBC's lease on Bush House expires in 2008, the World Service plans to move back into Broadcasting House.

In August 1985, the service went off the air for the first time ever. Workers were striking in protest at the British government's decision to ban a documentary featuring an interview with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin.

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Transmission

News and other programming from the BBC World Service is frequently relayed by local stations around the world, and it is regarded by some as the world's premier radio news source. In addition, the World Service provides educational, drama, and sports programming. A special use of the World Service has been emergency messages to British subjects abroad, such as the order to evacuate Jordan during the Black September incidents of September 1970.

The World Service uses a mediumwave transmitter at Orford Ness to provide coverage to Europe, including on the frequency 648 kHz (which can be heard in the south-east of England). Shortwave transmitters are located in the United Kingdom (at Rampisham, Woofferton and Skelton), Antigua, Ascension Island, United States, Singapore, Cyprus, and other locations. In addition, the World Service provides specialist programming to the Caribbean and the Falkland Islands. Since the 1990s the World Service has also increasingly used satellite broadcasting as a means to deliver its signals to its overseas transmitters and to home dish owners in several countries. Because shortwave transmissions were not meeting BBC quality standards, transmissions directed to North America, where the Internet had rendered shortwave radio nearly archaic, came to an end on July 1 2001. Users in this region are expected to use satellite radio or online streams. (It is important to note that since the World Service uses a VOA transmitter for its Caribbean broadcasts, it is still very easy to receive in this way from the eastern North America. During the day, it is possible to receive the transmission for the Middle East in Eastern North America as well. Alternatively, NPR members often carry World Service news broadcasts, and shortwave transmissions to other regions can sometimes be heard). After the British domestic radio station BBC Radio 4 ceases broadcasting at 1am British time, the World Service is broadcast on all Radio 4 frequencies overnight, including 198 kHz longwave which can be heard in parts of continental Europe.

Image:Bbcworldservicetroops.jpg

In 1991 BBC World Service Television launched on satellite, split in 1995 into commercial stations BBC World and BBC Prime.

The World Service's output has recently been made more widely available in the UK — the service is now carried on DAB, Freeview and Sky Digital, as well as being available on 648MW in many parts of the UK. Both a live stream and an archive of previous programmes are available worldwide on the Internet.

In 2005 the BBC World Service commenced regular transmissions via the DRM format to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and adjacent areas on 1296kHz and DRM shortwave frequencies across Europe [3]

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Interval signals

The interval signal of the BBC World Service in English is the Bow Bells, a recording made in 1926 (though only in use from the early 1940s), though this isn't used on all frequencies - some are silent until the start of broadcasts. Though for a few years in the 1970s, Oranges and Lemons was used as the interval.

January 1941 saw the beginning of the Morse code letter "V" as an interval signal. The interval signal had several variations including timpani, the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (which coincide with the letter "V"), and electronic tones which are still in use today for some Western European services.

The World Service's classic signature tune Lillibullero is broadcast just before the top of many hours, followed by the Greenwich Time Signal (five short and one long pips) and the hourly news. Modern trailers featuring a variety of international broadcasting centres sometimes replace Lillibullero entirely on themed weeks. Until fairly recently, the hourly sequence was preceded by the announcement "This is London" — it is now followed by a more promotional "Wherever you are, however you listen, this is the BBC" or "With world news every half hour, this is the BBC". In recent months, Lillibulero has been shortened by extra trailers. In other languages, the interval signal is three notes, pitched B-B-C. The exception is the non-English services to Europe, which have an interval signal of four notes, B-B-B-E, in the rhythm of the Morse code letter "V". GMT is announced on the hour on the English service, e. g. "13 hours Greenwich Mean Time" is said at 1300 GMT. 0000 GMT is announced as "midnight Greenwich Mean Time". Sometimes, however, "Greenwich Mean Time" is abbreviated to GMT when the hour is announced.

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News

The core feature of much World Service scheduling is the news. This is almost always transmitted at one minute past the hour, where there is a five minute long bulletin, and on the half hour where there is a two minute summary. Sometimes these bulletins are separated from the programmes being transmitted, whilst at other times they are integral to the programme (such as with World Briefing, Newshour or The World Today).

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Foreign Language Broadcasting

Template:Not verified

History of BBC World Service Language Broadcasting Services (sorted by Language)

Language Start Date Stop Date Restart Date
Arabic 1936 - -
Chinese-Cantonese 1968 (not verified) - -
Chinese-Mandarin 1968 (not verified) - -
Czech 1942 (see Slovak) 25 March 2005 -
Danish 1942 4 March 1961 -
Dutch 1942 4 March 1961 -
English 25 December 1936 - -
English (Caribbean) 25 December 1976 - -
Finnish December 1942 29 January 1955 -
French 25 December 1940 - -
German 1939 25 March 1999 -

Hindi Langauage 11 May 1940

Hungarian January 1941 25 March 2005 -
Japanese 1948 25 March 1992 -
Italian January 1941 4 March 1961 -
Malay 1956 (Malaya Crisis) 4 March 1980 -
Norwegian 1941 4 March 1961 -
Polish January 1941 25 November 2005 -
Portuguese-Brasil 6 July 1941 25 March 1991 2004
Russian January 1941 - -
Slovak January 1941 25 March 1991 -
Spanish 6 July 1936 - -
Swedish 1941 4 March 1961 -
Ukrainian September 1952 - -
Vietnamese 6 January 1952 - -
Welsh (to Patagonia) 1946 1947 (1946 exclusive?) -


Sources

For a comparasion of BBCWS to other broadcasters see
Image:Estimated-program-hrs-per-week external-broadcasters.png

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External links


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