:''For the BBC television network, see
BBC World.''
The 'BBC World Service' is one of the most widely recognised
international broadcasters of
shortwave radio programming, transmitting in 33 languages to many parts of the world, and available on the internet both live and as podcasts. The
English language service broadcasts 24 hours a day. In May 2007 the BBC reported that the World Service's average weekly audience had reached 183 million people, beating the previous record of 163 million listeners set the previous year.
[1] Unlike the
BBC's main radio and television services, which are primarily funded by a
licence fee which is compulsory for every household in the United Kingdom which uses a television set, the World Service is funded by the
British Government through the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
[2] The current head of the World Service is Nigel Chapman.
History
The BBC began the first broadcasts of the service, then known as the 'BBC Empire Service', in 1932 in
shortwave form.
[3] These transmissions were aimed principally at white listeners, particularly in countries such as
Australia and
New Zealand, to support a sense of unity within the
British Empire and provide a link home to Britain herself. However, the Service proved to be highly popular with native populations also; it was often the only reliable and swift source of international news/current affairs available.
On 3 January 1938 the first foreign language service, Arabic, was launched. German programmes commenced shortly before the start of the
Second World War and by the end of 1942 broadcasts were being made in all major European languages.
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 on 29 March, 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.
The service has been located at
Bush House since a landmine damaged the studios at original home
Broadcasting House on 8 December 1940. The 'European Service' was first to relocate, followed by the rest of the 'Overseas Service' in 1958. As part of a larger changes in terms of the use of BBC properties, it is planned that the World Service will return to Broadcasting House in 2008 when the BBC's lease on Bush House expires and new facilities at Broadcasting House become available.
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.
As part of a restructuring process, ten foreign language services were closed down in March 2006 to create enough financial services to fund a new
BBC Arabic Television service for the
Middle East.
Polish was one of those that closed.
[4]
Aim
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".
[5]
The UK Government spent
£225 million on the World Service in 2005. This 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 Parliament, 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 War from April to June 1982, and its coverage of the handover of Britain's former colony of
Hong Kong in 1997.
The BBC World Service is widely respected in parts of the world where the media is not free. 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 during the
Cold War, becoming a widely respected broadcaster behind the
Iron Curtain throughout the
Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe. However, former Soviet dissidents such as
Vladimir Bukovsky, Russian opposition's presidential candidate to replace Vladimir Putin, and KGB defector
Oleg Gordievsky have criticized the BBC Russian service for soft-pedaling the death of
Alexander Litvinenko. An article in ''
The Economist'' suggested that the BBC's desire to continue to use local transmitters in the Russian Federation may be cause.
[6]
The World Service, through "
Learning English", a constituent part of its large website, devotes significant resources to helping
people learn English.
Statistics and languages
The following audience estimates are from research conducted in 2004 by independent market research agencies on behalf of the BBC:
| Language | 2004 | 2006 |
|---|
| English | 39 million | 44 million |
| Persian | 20.4 million | 22 million |
| Hindi | 16.1 million | 21 million |
| Urdu | 10.4 million | 12 million |
| Arabic | 12.4 million | 16 million |
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,
[7] 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 in to 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,
[4] Slovak,
Slovene and
Thai language radio services would end by March 2006 in order to finance the launch of an
Arabic and
Persian language TV news channel in 2007.
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 advice to evacuate
Jordan during the
Black September incidents of September 1970.
BBC World Service is available as a Free to Air channel on
WorldSpace satellite radio. Both a live stream and an archive of previous programmes are available worldwide on the
Internet.
Europe
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. 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.
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. The service is carried in the
Republic of Ireland on
UPC Ireland.
[9]
Similar to other big cities, the BBC World Service is available on FM Radio (90.40 MHz) to increase the numbers of listeners.
North America
According to the BBC, "changing listening habits" led the World Service to end shortwave radio transmission directed to
North America and
Australasia on
July 1 2001.
[10] A
shortwave listener coalition formed to oppose the change.
[11] Currently, both
XM Radio and
Sirius Satellite Radio rebroadcast the World Service over commercial
satellite radio to
Canada and the
United States,
[12] and public radio stations often carry World Service news broadcasts over AM and FM radio.
The BBC World Service has been distributed in the United States to public radio stations since the mid 1980s by its distribution partner,
Public Radio International. In addition, the BBC and PRI also co-produce the program
The World with WGBH Radio Boston.
It is also possible to receive the Caribbean and
Western African shortwave radio broadcasts from eastern North America, but the BBC does not guarantee reception in this area.
[13]
Asia
In China, the World Service can be received on shortwave. In Hong Kong,
RTHK relays the World Service on AM radio. In Singapore and Mongolia,
BBC Radio relays the World Service on FM radio.
Australia
The BBC World Service is available as part of the subscription Digital Air package (available from
Foxtel and
Austar) in Australia.
ABC NewsRadio and various community stations also broadcast many programmes. It is also available free-to-air via satellite service
Optus Aurora.
UK
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.
The World Service's output has recently been made more widely available in the UK — the service is now carried on
DAB,
Freeview,
Virgin Media and
Sky Digital, as well as being available on 648kHz in many parts of the UK.
Falkland Islands
It has recently ended its specialist programming to the
Falkland Islands but continues to provide a stream of World Service programming to the Falkland Islands Radio Service.
[14]
Interval signals
The
interval signal of the BBC World Service in English is the
Bow Bells, a recording made in 1926. Introduced as a symbol of hope during the
Second World War, it is still used preceding many (though not all) English language broadcasts today. Though for a few years in the 1970s,
Oranges and Lemons was used as the interval, the Bow Bells were soon reintroduced.
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, you are with the BBC" or "With world news every half hour, this is the BBC". In recent months, Lillibulero has been shortened by extra trailers. It has been suggested (by World Service staff) that the reduction in the use of Lillibulero is firstly because of its background as a Protestant marching song in
Northern Ireland and secondly as, in modern branding terms, it is somewhat out of step with a modern, global news organisation.
However when asked why the BBC chose this Protestant ascendancy tune, they would usually respond that (i) the decision was made by the transmission engineers, who found it particularly audible through short wave mush, and anyway they (the BBC) knew it as a tune for the old English song "There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket, 20 times as high as the moon".
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.
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'').
BBC breaking news policy
BBC policy for breaking news
[15] has a priority list. With domestic news, the correspondent first records a "generic minute" summary (for use by all stations and channels) and then priority is to report on
Radio 5 Live, then on
BBC News 24 and onto any other programmes that are on air. For foreign news, first a "generic minute" is recorded, then reports are to
World Service radio, then the reporter talks to any other programmes that are on air.
Range of languages
History of BBC World Service Language Broadcasting Services (''sorted by Language'')
[16].
Sources
★ History of International Broadcasting (IEEE), Volume I. (James Woods, BSEE)
★ http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/languages/
★ http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/audio.shtml
See also
★
BBC World Service Television
★
BBC Russian Service
★
BBC Arabic
References
1. BBC's global news audiences reach record 233m
2. BBC World Service (BBCWS), The UK's Voice around the World
3. Analysis: BBC's voice in Europe Jan Repa, BBC News Online: 25 October 2005
4. BBC East Europe voices silenced BBC News Online: 21 December 2005
5. Annual Review 2004/2005
6. The BBC's alleged kowtow. ''Economist.com'' Jul 19th 2007. http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9500528
7. BBCHindi.com BBC Hindi.com
8. BBC East Europe voices silenced BBC News Online: 21 December 2005
9. BBC Launches DRM Service In Europe
10. Pages 1-136 from BBC AR Cover 03
11. http://www.savebbc.org/press/6_june_2001.html
12. http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/screen/press_release_1999_07_26.html
13. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/010119_namerica.shtml
14. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/02_february/23/falklands.shtml
15. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/review_report_research/impartiality_business/f2_news_submission.txt
16. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/audio.shtml
External links
★
BBC World Service at
bbc.co.uk
★
BBC World Service - Languages at
bbc.co.uk
★
BBC World Service key facts from the BBC Press Office
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中国
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Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
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