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BBC One is the primary television channel of the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It was launched on
2 November 1936 as the
BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular, public
television service with a high level of
image resolution. It was later renamed
BBC TV until the launch of sister channel
BBC Two in 1964. The channel has an annual budget of
£840 million. Along with the BBC's other domestic
television stations, it's funded entirely by the television
licence fee, and therefore shows uninterrupted programming with no commercial advertising.
History
The early years
Baird Television made Britain's first television broadcast on
30 September 1929 from its studio in
Long Acre, London via the BBC's London
transmitter, using the
electromechanical system pioneered by
John Logie Baird. This system used a vertically-scanned image of 30 lines — just enough resolution for a close-up of one person, and with a
bandwidth low enough to use existing radio transmitters. Simultaneous transmission of sound and picture was achieved on
30 March 1930, by using the BBC's new twin transmitter at
Brookmans Park. By late 1930, thirty minutes of morning programmes were broadcast Monday to Friday, and thirty minutes of evening programmes were broadcast at midnight on Tuesdays and Fridays after BBC radio went off the air. Baird broadcasts via the BBC continued until June 1932.
The BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of
Broadcasting House, London on
22 August 1932. The studio moved to expanded quarters at 16
Portland Place, London, in February 1934, and continued broadcasting the 30-line images, carried by telephone line to the
medium wave transmitter at
Brookmans Park, until
11 September 1935, by which time advances in all-electronic television systems made the electromechanical broadcasts obsolete.
After a series of test transmissions and special broadcasts that began in August, regular BBC television broadcasts officially resumed on
1 October 1936, from a converted wing of
Alexandra Palace in London, housing two studios, various scenery stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms, offices, and even the transmitter itself, now broadcasting on the
VHF band. BBC television initially used two systems, on alternate weeks: the 240-line Baird
intermediate film system, and the
405-line Marconi-EMI system, each making the BBC the world's first regular high-definition television service, alternating on a weekly basis and broadcasting Monday to Saturday from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. to 10.00pm. The two systems were to run on a trial basis for six months; early television sets supported both resolutions. However, the Baird system, which used a mechanical camera for filmed programming and
Farnsworth image dissector cameras for live programming, proved too cumbersome and visually inferior, and was dropped in February 1937.
Initially, the station's range was officially only within a twenty-five mile (40 km) radius of the Alexandra Palace transmitter—in practice, however, transmissions could be picked up a good deal further away, and on one occasion in 1938 were picked up by engineers at
RCA in
New York, who were experimenting with a British television set.
Wartime closure
On
1 September 1939, two days before Britain declared
war on
Germany, the station was unceremoniously taken off air with little warning. It was feared that the VHF transmissions would act as a beacon to enemy aircraft homing in on
London. Also, many of the television service's technical staff and engineers would be needed for the war effort, in particular on the
RADAR programme. The last programme aired was a
Mickey Mouse cartoon,
Mickey's Gala Premiere. According to figures from England's Radio Manufacturers Association, 18,999 television sets had been manufactured from 1936 to September 1939, when production was halted by the war.
Postwar
BBC television returned on
7 June 1946 at 3 p.m.
Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement saying, 'Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?' The Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was
repeated twenty minutes later.
Postwar broadcast coverage extended to
Birmingham in 1949 with the opening of the
Sutton Coldfield transmitting station, and by the early 1950s the entire country was covered.
Alexandra Palace was the home base of the channel until the early 1950s when the majority of production moved to the
Lime Grove Studios, and then in 1960 the headquarters moved to the purpose-built
BBC Television Centre at
White City, also in
London, where the channel is based to this day.
Television News, however, continued to use Alexandra Palace as its headquarters until September 1969, before moving to purpose built facilities at TV Centre.
Competition
The station held a
monopoly on television broadcasting in the
United Kingdom until the first
ITV station was launched in 1955. The competition quickly forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a large drop in audience figures. By the 1980s, the channel had launched the first
breakfast television programmes and returned to its previous form under the controller of the channel at the time,
Michael Grade.
Since the launch of multichannel television, BBC One's share of the viewing has declined, although not as fast as
ITV's leading the channel to once again become the most watched in the last decade.
The station was renamed BBC1 when
BBC2 was launched in April 1964. On
15 November 1969, simultaneous with
ITV and two years after BBC2, the channel began 625-line
PAL colour programming. Stereo audio transmissions began in 1988 (
NICAM), and wide-screen programming was introduced on digital platforms in 1998. However, many of these developments took some years to become available on all transmitters.
The channel has had a diverse range of identities and priorities over the years and was named
Channel Of The Year at the 2007 Broadcast Awards.
The channel was praised by judges who said: "At a time when all major terrestrial broadcasters are facing questions about how fast and far their share of viewing will fall, BBC One has shown it can deliver mass entertainment.."
Peter Fincham, then Controller of BBC One said: "I am really delighted that BBC One did so well at the Broadcast Awards. I'd like to thank the many many people who contributed to a successful year on the channel and these awards reflect the variety and strength of the programming."
Programming
BBC One aims to be the UK’s most valued television channel, with the broadest range of quality programmes of
any UK mainstream network. The channel is committed to widening the appeal of all genres by making a range of subjects accessible to a broad audience. BBC One is committed to covering national and international sports events and issues, showcasing landmark programmes and exploring new ways of presenting specialist subjects. |
In
2007, the Top 5 watched programmes, at their peaks, according to
BARB are as follows:
- 1. EastEnders 14,830,000
- 2. Doctor Who 13,310,000
- 3. The Vicar of Dibley 13,080,000
- 4. Concert for Diana 12,220,000
- 5. Strictly Come Dancing 12,090,000
Only 8.9%
News and current affairs
2,508 annual hours of news and weather (293 in peak, 1,049 of
BBC News simulcasts) are provided by regular news programmes are
BBC Breakfast, the
BBC News at One,
BBC News at Six and the
BBC News at Ten (the most-watched UK news programme), each including BBC regional news programmes. All of the three main news bulletins have a lead over their rival programmes on ITV.
BBC One has also taken overnight simulcasts from the
BBC News channel since 1997.
Each year 159 hours of current affairs programmes are broadcast on BBC One, including
Panorama and
Watchdog. Politics is also covered, with programmes such as
Question Time and
This Week.
Crimewatch UK, a special programme appealing for help in unsolved crimes, is also frequently broadcast.
Factual and learning
Whilst nature documentaries such as
Planet Earth are the most familiar part of the 1,880 annual BBC One hours of factual and learning, this also includes lifestyle-format daytime programmes and a number of
reality TV formats and the
One Life strand.
Drama
BBC One is the BBC's home of drama, with 1,036 hours each year. There are four half-hour episodes of
EastEnders each week(with an
omnibus episode at the weekend), plus hospital dramas
Casualty and
Holby City. In recent years the BBC's innovative dramas such as
Spooks,
Judge John Deed,
Hustle and time-travel police drama
Life on Mars and
Ashes to Ashes have defeated
ITV in the ratings. Also included in the twenty weekly hours of new drama is its highly successful programme
Doctor Who.
Children's
Because there are many homes that don't yet have access to digital television channels
CBeebies and
CBBC, BBC One still broadcasts 672 hours of children's programmes each year - over two hours each day - mostly during the late afternoon. It is expected these programmes will migrate to the digital channels by 2013.
Sport
The BBC holds rights to many sporting events, and BBC One broadcasts 670 hours of sport each year. This includes
Premiership football highlights on
Match of the Day, tennis from
Wimbledon, horse racing such as the
Grand National, the
London Marathon, the
Olympic Games,
Rugby League,
Rugby Union,
Snooker tournaments, and international
athletics. It was also confirmed BBC One would have the rights to show Football League, Carling Cup ties and
Formula One motor racing from 2009
Film
British and international films are broadcast for 654 hours each year on BBC One. This is mainly late-night fillers with some box office hits at Christmas and holiday periods.
Entertainment
433 hours of entertainment are broadcast by BBC One each year. This includes game shows like
National Lottery, quiz shows like
Have I Got News for You, several talent shows such as
Strictly Come Dancing and chat shows such as
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
Religion
The annual 92 hours of religion comprises mainly of weekly editions of recorded
Songs of Praise Christian services and Sunday morning Christian
Heaven and Earth with Gloria Hunniford, which ended its nine year run on BBC One on
2 September 2007. It will be replaced by shows produced by two independent production companies. Mentorn Oxford will produce
Heart and Soul, which is described as “a new multifaith programme featuring a panel and a studio audience”, followed by
Life from the Loft which will take the same slot early next year, and will be made by the Leeds-based company True North. In 2005 BBC One was criticised for reducing the amount of religious programming, which was previously at 101 hours per year.
Comedy
BBC One broadcasts many comedy programmes, often screened on Friday nights. These shows include the long running
My Family and highly successful
Little Britain, no longer in production, which was transferred from
BBC Three. One of the most popular BBC comedy shows was
Only Fools and Horses, which until recently was still regularly repeated on the channel.
Music and arts
As the weekly popular music chart programme
Top of the Pops was axed (except for the Christmas Day edition), BBC One now broadcasts only 82 hours of music and arts each year. The majority of this is the
Alan Yentob fronted
Imagine and classical music concerts such as the
BBC Proms.
Daytime
Daytime programming (from 9:15 a.m.) is mainly made up of lifestyle shows such as
Bargain Hunt, but also includes soaps such as
Doctors. From 3:05 p.m. until 5:15 p.m., normal broadcasting is suspended in order for a special CBeebies/CBBC broadcasting strand, with its own visual identity. Historically, BBC One's most popular daytime programme was
Neighbours, with audience figures approaching five million. As of 11 February 2008, BBC One has dropped
Neighbours and the programme is now broadcast on
Five. In its place is the game show
Weakest Link, moved from
BBC Two.
Quotas
28%
Productions
For the first half-century of its existence, with the exception of
films and imported programmes from countries such as the
United States and
Australia, almost all the channel's output was produced by the BBC's in-house production departments. This changed following the
Broadcasting Act 1990, which required that 25% of the BBC's television output be out-sourced to independent production companies. As of 2004 many popular BBC One shows are made for the channel by independents, but the in-house production departments continue to contribute heavily to the schedule.
Regional variations
To reflect the countries within the United Kingdom that the channel is available in, BBC One has individual continuity and opt-outs for
Scotland,
Wales and
Northern Ireland. The channel's visual identity is largely the same as the version used in England, save for the inclusion of the country name below the main BBC One logo.
In the
English regions, the BBC has and current affairs programme opt-outs as well as a limited amount of continuity for the English regions. During such regional opt-outs, the region name is displayed as with the national variations, in smaller characters beneath the main channel logo. A generic news programme,
UK Today, available mainly to digital viewers but also shown in the case of problems with regional news programmes was discontinued in 2002. This was replaced by transmission of
BBC London News, since digital viewers are now able to receive regional programming.
BBC One Scotland has undoubtedly the greatest level of variation from the generic network, owing to
BBC Scotland scheduling Scottish programming on the main BBC Scotland channel, rather than on
BBC Two.
BBC One Scotland variations include the soap opera
River City and the football programme
Sportscene, the inclusion of which causes network programming to be displaced or replaced.
BBC One Wales was considered a separate channel by the BBC upon its launch in the mid-1960s, appearing as "BBC Wales" (without the "1")
Presentation
BBC One's identity has been symbolised by a globe shown on its
idents for most of its existence. Originally in 1962 this was represented as a map of the UK shown between programmes, but in 1963 the globe first appeared, changing in style and appearance over the next 39 years.
From 15 November 1969 it became a 'mirror-globe' in several colours and sizes (a globe in front of a curved mirror which reflected a distorted view of the reverse).
On 18 February 1985 the COW (Computer Originated World) debuted. This was a computer-animated globe with the land coloured gold and the sea a transparent blue, giving the impression of a glass globe.
On 16 February 1991 on the same day that BBC2 rebranded, an ethereal crystal-ball-type globe appeared, which was played out on air from laserdisc.
On 4 October 1997 the revolving aspect disappeared as the globe became a red, orange and yellow hot-air balloon, coloured to resemble a globe, flying around various places in the UK.
On 29 March 2002 the globe disappeared from television screens, to be replaced by a series of idents consisting of people dancing in various styles (see BBC 'Rhythm & Movement' idents).
On 7 October 2006 at 10:00 BST, the new set of idents based on circles (see BBC One 'Circle' idents) were launched. According to the BBC, the circle symbol both represents togetherness and acts as a nod to the former globe idents.
Impact of Peter Fincham
Since first joining the channel as Controller in 2005 Peter Fincham oversaw the commissioning of several successful BBC One programmes including Robin Hood (2006–present), Jane Eyre (2006) and How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, which was soon followed by related shows Any Dream Will Do and I'd Do Anything because of its success. His first full year in charge of the channel saw a year-on-year growth in the audience share, with a rise from 22.2% in August 2005 up to a 23.6% share in August 2006.
Fincham also directly initiated the creation of both early evening current affairs and lifestyle programme The One Show (2006–present), now to run all but two weeks of the year, and the prime time chat show Davina (2006), the latter being designed as a vehicle for successful Big Brother presenter Davina McCall. However, Davina was a critical and ratings disaster, which Fincham subsequently admitted was personally his fault, although he defended the strategy of experimenting with the BBC One schedule. He then continued with this experimentation with another notable change to the schedule in January 2007, when he moved the current affairs series Panorama back from its Sunday night slot to a prime time Monday evening slot which it had been removed from in 2000, although this decision was most likely in response to a demand from the Board of Governors of the BBC for the channel to show more current affairs programming in prime time.
Fincham's judgement was again called into question, this time by The Daily Telegraph newspaper, for his decision to spend £1.2 million replacing the BBC 'Rhythm & Movement' idents, which had been introduced by his predecessor Lorraine Heggessey several years earlier, with the BBC One 'Circle' idents, a set of eight ten-second films, some of which were shot abroad in locations such as Mexico and Croatia. Fincham later found himself having to publicly defend the £18 million salary that the BBC paid presenter Jonathan Ross in 2006, although Ross's BBC One work - primarily consisting of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross - formed only a small part of his overall BBC commitment.
In May 2007, Fincham took the decision to drop the Australian soap opera Neighbours from BBC One after twenty-one years on the channel, when its producers significantly raised the price they wanted the BBC to pay for it in a bidding war. Fincham commented that it was 'a big loss', but that BBC One wouldn't pay 'the best part of £300 m'. Neighbours left the channel in Spring 2008 to move to Five and is currently the most popular daytime show. Fincham admitted the error, but rejected calls that he should resign from his position as a result. His future was deemed uncertain following critical comments from BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons and he resigned on 5 October 2007.
Subtitles service
The BBC has stated that by April 2008 they aim to have subtitles for viewers with hearing difficulties present on 100% of BBC programming. Currently 95% of BBC One and BBC Two programmes are subtitled. The BBC also offers audio description on some popular BBC One programmes for visually impaired viewers. Currently 8% of the BBC's total television output, which includes BBC One, has audio descriptions. This will increase to 10% by 2008.
Notes and references
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