Official website The BBC World Service, the world's largest, broadcasts radio and television, and in 29 languages to many parts of the world on and platforms,,,,, and relays. It was announced in November 2015 that the BBC World Service will start broadcasting in and in Nigeria, which will bring the total number of broadcast languages to 31. In November 2016 the BBC announced again that it would start broadcasting in additional languages including and, in its biggest expansion since the 1940s. In 2015 World Service reached an average of 210 million people a week (via TV, radio and online). The English-language service broadcasts 24 hours a day. The World Service is funded by the United Kingdom's, limited advertising and the profits of Ltd.
Oct 24, 2013 This is London. The BBC World Service signature tune on the English service, as used for years at Bush House as the up-to-the-hour music. We called it.
The service is also guaranteed £289 million (allocated over a five-year period ending in 2020) from the UK government. The World Service was funded for decades by through the of the until 1 April 2014. As of 2017 the Director of the BBC World Service Group is.
The controller of BBC World Service, English, is. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • History [ ] The BBC World Service began in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service, broadcasting on and aimed principally at across the. In his first, King stated that the service was intended for 'men and women, so cut off by the snow, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them.' First hopes for the Empire Service were low. The, Sir (later Lord Reith) said in the opening programme: 'Don't expect too much in the early days; for some time we shall transmit comparatively simple programmes, to give the best chance of intelligible reception and provide evidence as to the type of material most suitable for the service in each zone. The programmes will neither be very interesting nor very good.' This address was read out five times as it was broadcast live to different parts of the world.
On 3 January 1938, the first foreign-language service was launched in. Programmes in German started on 29 March 1938, and by the end of 1942 broadcasts were being made in all major European languages. As a result, the Empire Service was renamed the BBC Overseas Service in November 1939, and a dedicated BBC European Service was added in 1941. These were financed not from the domestic but from government (from the Foreign Office budget), and known administratively as the External Services of the BBC. [ ] The External Services broadcast propaganda during the Second World War. Its French service also sent coded messages to the. Broadcast many news bulletins on the Eastern Service during World War II.
By the end of the 1940s the number of broadcast languages had expanded and reception had improved, following the opening of a relay in modern-day and of the,, in 1957. On 1 May 1965 the service took its current name of BBC World Service and expanded its reach with the opening of the in 1966, serving African audiences with a stronger signal and better reception, and the later relay on the Island of.
In August 1985, the service went off air for the first time, when workers went on strike in protest at the 's decision to ban a documentary featuring an interview with of. In recent years, financial pressures have decreased the number and type of services offered by the BBC. In countries with wide access to Internet services, there is less need for a radio station. Broadcasts in German ended in March 1999, after research showed that the majority of German listeners tuned into the English service. Broadcasts in,, French,, Italian, Japanese and were stopped for similar reasons. On 25 October 2005, it was announced that broadcasts in,,,, Hungarian,, Polish,, and would end by March 2006, to finance the launch in 2007 of TV news services in and. Additionally, broadcasts ceased on 1 August 2008.
In January 2011, the closure of the Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa, Serbian, and English for the Caribbean services was announced. This reflected the financial situation the Corporation faced following transfer of responsibility for the Service from the Foreign Office, so that it would in future have been funded from within licence fee income.
The Russian, Ukrainian, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish, Vietnamese, Azeri, and Spanish for Cuba services ceased radio broadcasting, and the Hindi, Indonesian, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Swahili, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi services ceased shortwave transmissions. The British government announced that the three countries had wide access to international information, and so broadcasts in the local languages had become unnecessary. 650 jobs went as part of the 16% budget cut.
In March 2011, published details of an agreement between, the BBC's broadcasting development charity, and the US State Department, in which the latter would provide a 'low six-figure' sum to develop technology to stop jamming, and to educate people on how to avoid state censorship. This led to allegations that these measures would encourage a pro-American bias within the Service and help America win the '. Operation [ ]. In London was home to the World Service between 1941 and 2012. At its launch, the Service was located along with most radio output in Broadcasting House. However, following the explosion of a nearby on 8 December 1940, it relocated to premises away from the likely target of Broadcasting House. The Overseas service relocated to while the European service moved temporarily to the emergency broadcasting facilities.
The European services moved permanently into towards the end of 1940, completing the move in 1941, with the Overseas services joining them in 1958. Bush House subsequently became the home of the BBC World Service and the building itself has gained a global reputation with the audience of the service. However, the building was vacated in 2012 as a result of the Broadcasting House changes and the end of the building's lease that year; the first service to move was the Burmese Service on 11 March 2012 and the final broadcast from Bush House was a news bulletin broadcast at 11.00 on 12 July 2012.
The BBC World Service encompasses an English 24-hour global radio network and separate services in 27 other languages. News and information is available in these languages on the, with many having feeds and specific versions for use on mobile devices, and some also offer email notification of stories. In addition to the English service, 18 of the language services broadcast a radio service using the, or bands. These are also available to listen live or can be listened to later (usually for seven days) over the Internet and, in the case of seven language services, can be downloaded as. News is also available from the BBC News 'app', which is available from both iTunes and the Google Play Store. In recent years, video content has also been used by the World Service: 16 language services show video reports on the website, and the Arabic and Persian services have their own television channels.
TV is also used to broadcast the radio service, with local cable and satellite operators providing the English network (and occasionally some local language services) free to air. The English service is also available on in the UK and Europe. Traditionally, the Service relied on shortwave broadcasts, because of their ability to overcome barriers of censorship, distance, and spectrum scarcity. The BBC has maintained a worldwide network of since the 1940s, mainly in former British colonies. These cross-border broadcasts have also been used in special circumstances for emergency messages to abroad, such as the advice to evacuate during the incidents of September 1970.
These facilities were privatised in 1997 as Merlin Communications, and later acquired and operated as part of a wider network for multiple broadcasters by (now part of ). It is also common for BBC programmes to air on or transmitters, while their programming is relayed by a station located inside the UK.
However, since the 1980s, has made it possible for local stations to relay BBC programmes. The World Service aims to be 'the world's best-known and most-respected voice in international broadcasting, thereby bringing benefit to the UK, the BBC, and to audiences around the world', while retaining a 'balanced British view' of international developments. Like the rest of the BBC, the World Service is a of the UK Government. For the financial year 2011-12, it received £255.2 million. In addition to broadcasting, the Service also devotes resources to the programme. Criticism and controversy [ ] In 2011, a BBC Kyrgyz service newsreader and producer Arslan Koichiev resigned from his BBC post after revelations and claims of involvement in the. He had been based in London, but often traveled to Kyrgyzstan and used BBC resources to agitate against President, appearing on a Kyrgyz radio station under a pseudonym with a disguised voice.
One of the leaders of the revolution, Aliyasbek Alymkulov, named the producer as his mentor and claimed that they had discussed preparations for the revolution. According to independent news agency 'Mr Alymkulov claimed that Koichiev arranged secret meetings 'through the BBC' and organized the march at the presidential palace on the 7th of April, 2010' Languages [ ]. See also:,,,,,,,,,,,, and This table lists the various language services operated by the BBC World Service with start and closure dates, where known/applicable. Steve Titherington - BBC World Questions broadcasting from Budapest The World Service in English mainly broadcasts news and analysis.
The mainstays of the current schedule are,, and The Newsroom. There are daily science programmes: Health Check, the technology programme and.
At weekends, some of the schedule is taken up by, which often includes live commentary of football matches. Other weekend sport shows include The Sports Hour and, a cricket programme co-produced with and the. On Sundays the international, interdisciplinary discussion programme is broadcast. Is a human interest programme presented by and Jo Fidgen, which was first broadcast in July 1966 and presented for more than thirty years. Regular music programmes were reintroduced with the autumn schedule in 2015. Many programmes, particularly speech-based ones, are also available as podcasts. Previous radio programming in English [ ].
This section needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2017) () Previous broadcasts include popular music programmes presented by and classical music programmes presented. There have also been religious programmes, of mostly Anglican celebration and often from the Church of, weekly drama, English-language lessons, and comedy including. Other notable previous programmes include by, which was broadcast for over fifty years; Off the Shelf with its daily reading from a novel, biography or history book; A Jolly Good Show, a music request programme presented by; Waveguide, a radio reception guide; and The Merchant Navy Programme, a show for seafarers presented by Malcolm Billings.
Since the late 1990s, the station has focussed more on news, with bulletins added every half-hour following the outbreak of the. News [ ] News is at the core of the. A five-minute bulletin is generally transmitted at one minute past the hour, with a two-minute summary on the half-hour.
Sometimes these are separate from other programming, or alternatively made integral to the programme (such as with The Newsroom, or ). As part of the BBC's policy for breaking news, the Service is the first to receive a full report for foreign news. The station also publishes a Global News podcast twice a day (once on weekends), of around 30 minutes. The podcast is comparable to an edition of The Newsroom but without the five-minute reading of the news. Between 2007 and 2015 it was downloaded more than 300 million times.
The BBC World Service in English employs a team of seven announcers and newsreaders. • Gareth Barlow • Charles Carroll • • Rosemary Crick • Justine Greene • Nick Kelly • • Fiona MacDonald • Eileen McKue • • • John Shea • Debbie Russ Availability [ ] Africa [ ] The BBC World Service website lists more than 80 FM stations in Africa which broadcast BBC content. The BBC World Service broadcasts a few hours in the morning and evening on shortwave to Africa from Ascension Island, South Africa, the UK, Madagascar and the UAE. Broadcasts have traditionally come from the UK, Cyprus, the large BBC Atlantic Relay Station on, and the smaller Relay Station and Indian Ocean Relay Station on.
A large part of the English schedule is taken up by specialist programming from and for Africa, for example Focus on Africa and Africa, Have Your Say. In the 1990s, the BBC added FM facilities in many African capital cities. Americas [ ] BBC World Service is available by subscription to service in the United States. Its Canadian affiliate, does the same in Canada. More than 300 stations across the US carry World Service news broadcasts —mostly during the overnight and early-morning hours— over and radio, distributed by (APM)..
The BBC and (PRI) co-produce the programme with Radio, and the BBC was previously involved with morning news programme based at in New York City. BBC World Service programming also airs as part of 's schedule in Canada. BBC shortwave broadcasts to this region were traditionally enhanced by the Atlantic Relay Station and the Caribbean Relay Company, a station in run jointly with. In addition, an exchange agreement with gave access to their station in. However, 'changing listening habits' led the World Service to end shortwave radio transmission directed to North America and on 1 July 2001.
A formed to oppose the change. The BBC broadcasts to Central America and South America in several languages. It is possible to receive the shortwave radio broadcasts from eastern North America, but the BBC does not guarantee reception in this area. It has ended its specialist programming to the but continues to provide a stream of World Service programming to the. Asia [ ] For several decades, the World Service's largest audiences have been in Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. Transmission facilities in the UK and Cyprus were supplemented by the former BBC Eastern Relay Station in and the Far Eastern Relay Station in Singapore, formerly in Malaysia. The East Asian Relay Station moved to in 1997 when Hong Kong was to Chinese sovereignty.
Together, these facilities have given the BBC World Service an easily accessible signal in regions where shortwave listening has traditionally been popular. The English shortwave frequencies of 6.195 (41m band), 9.74 (31m band), 15.31/15.36 (19m band) and 17.76/17.79 (16m band) MHz are widely known. The largest audiences are in English,,,,,,, and other major languages of South Asia, where BBC broadcasters are household names. The service is the de facto national broadcaster of, along with its Iranian audience. The World Service is available up to eighteen hours a day in English across most parts of Asia, and in Arabic for the Middle East. With the addition of relays in Afghanistan and Iraq these services are accessible in most of the Middle and Near East in the evening.
In Singapore, the BBC World Service in English is essentially treated as a domestic broadcaster, easily available 24/7 through long-term agreement with. For many years broadcast BBC World Service 24/7 but as of 4 September 2017 only broadcasts the station at night. In the, broadcasts the BBC World Service in English from 12:00–05:00 (). Although this region has seen the launch of the only two foreign language television channels, several other services have had their radio services closed as a result of budget cuts and redirection of resources. Japan and Korea have little tradition of World Service listening, although during the 1970s to 1980s, shortwave listening was popular in Japan. In those two countries, the BBC World Service was only available via shortwave and the Internet. As of September 2007, a satellite transmission (subscription required) became available by Skylife (Channel 791) in South Korea.
In November 2016, the BBC World Service announced it plans to start broadcasts in Korean. BBC Korean, a radio and web service, started on 25 September 2017. Further information: and The Soviet Union, Iran, and /Burma have all the BBC in the past. Was heavily jammed by the People's Republic of China until short wave transmissions for that service ceased but China continues to jam transmissions in and has since started to jam transmissions in English throughout Asia. Europe [ ] The BBC World Service is broadcast in Berlin on 94.8 MHz.
FM relays are also available in Ceske Budjovice, Karlovy Vary, Plzen Usti nad Labem, Zlin and Prague in the Czech Republic, Riga, Tirana and Vilnius. A BBC World Service channel is available on in Brussels and Flanders and Amsterdam, the Hague, Utrecht and Rotterdam. Following a national reorganisation of DAB multiplexes in October 2017, the station is available on DAB+ across the whole of. The World Service employed a at to provide English-language coverage to Europe, including on the 648 (which could be heard in parts of the south-east of England). Transmissions on this frequency were stopped on 27 March 2011, as a consequence of the budgetary constraints imposed on the BBC World Service in the 2010 budget review. A second channel (1296 kHz) traditionally broadcast in various Central European languages, but in 2005 it began regular English-language transmissions via the (DRM) format. This is a digital shortwave technology that VT expects to become the standard for cross-border transmissions in developed countries.
In the 1990s, the BBC purchased and constructed large medium wave and FM networks in the former Soviet bloc, particularly the Czech (BBC Czech Section), Slovak Republics (BBC Slovak Section), Poland () (where it was a national network) and Russia (). It had built up a strong audience during the Cold War, whilst economic restructuring made it difficult for these governments to refuse Western investment. Many of these facilities have now returned to domestic control, as economic and political conditions have changed. On Monday 18 February 2008, the BBC World Service stopped analogue shortwave transmissions to Europe.
The notice stated, 'Increasing numbers of people around the world are choosing to listen to radio on a range of other platforms including FM, satellite and online, with fewer listening on shortwave.' It is sometimes possible to pick up the BBC World Service in Europe on SW frequencies targeted at North Africa. The BBC's powerful 198 kHz LW, which broadcasts the domestic to Britain during the day (and carries the World Service during the night) can also be heard in nearby parts of Europe, including the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of France, Germany and Scandinavia.
In Malta, BBC News bulletins are carried by a number of radio stations, including Radju Malta and Magic 91.7 owned by national broadcaster PBS Ltd. These are broadcast at various points in the day and supplement news bulletins broadcast in Maltese from the PBS Newsroom. Former BBC shortwave transmitters are located in the United Kingdom at, and. The former is in. Pacific [ ] The World Service is available as part of the Digital Air package (available from and ) in Australia.,, and various stations also broadcast many programmes. Many of these stations broadcast a straight feed during the midnight to dawn period.
It is also available via the, which is encrypted but available without subscription. In Sydney, Australia a transmission of the service can be received at 152.025 MHz. It is also available on the on 4 (Except during and special events). 2MBS-FM 102.5, a classical music station in Sydney, also carries the BBC World Service news programmes at 7 and 8a.m. Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 Usb Driver Windows Xp. On weekdays, during its 'Music for a New Day' breakfast programme.
Shortwave relays from Singapore (see Asia, above) continue, but historic relays via and were wound down in the late 1990s. BBC World Service relays on now carry the BBC Radio news programmes.
In the Pacific and New Zealand, the Auckland Radio Trust operates a BBC World Service network as a non-profit donation-funded public broadcaster. It broadcasts on 810 kHz in, 107.0 MHz in and, 107.3 MHz in the, 88.2 MHz in and, 100.0 MHz in and, 101.1 MHz in, 107.6 MHz in, 105.9 MHz in, 99.0 MHz in and, and 100.1 MHz in. The station also broadcasts local content. In New Zealand, and members of the carry some BBC World Service programmes.
The BBC World Service was previously available on 1233 kHz in Wellington between 1990–1994, and again from 1996–1997. UK [ ] The BBC World Service is broadcast on,, and platforms. It is also broadcast overnight on the frequencies of following the latter's closedown at 0100 British time. The BBC World Service does not receive funding for broadcasts to the UK.
In southeast England, the station could be picked up reliably on medium wave 648 kHz, which was targeted at mainland Europe. The medium wave service was closed in 2011 as a cost-cutting measure. Presentation [ ]. A previous BBC World Service signature tune and an example of a top-of-the-hour announcement.
The World Service uses several tunes and sounds to represent the station. A previous signature tune of the station was a five note motif, composed by and which comprises a variety of voices declaim 'This is the BBC in.' Before going on to name various cities (e.g., Milan,, ), followed by the station's slogan and the. This was heard throughout the network with a few variations – in the UK the full service name was spoken whereas just the name of the BBC was used outside the UK. The phrase 'This is London' was used previously in place of a station slogan. The tune is another well known signature tune of the network following its broadcast previously as part of the top-of-the-hour sequence.
This piece of music is still heard before certain bulletins and as a shortened version elsewhere, but it is used less often than previously. The use of the tune has gained some controversy because of its background as a marching song in. The BBC World Service announcement and time signal at Midnight GMT, 1 January 2009 In addition to these tunes, the BBC World Service also uses several. The English service uses a recording of the, made in 1926 and used a symbol of hope during the, only replaced for a brief time during the 1970s with the tune to the nursery rhyme. The morse code of the letter ' has also been used as a signal and was introduced in January 1941 and had several variations including, the first four notes of (which coincide with the letter 'V'), and electronic tones which until recently remained in use for some Western European services. In other languages, the interval signal is three notes, pitched B–B-C.
However, these symbols have been used less frequently. The network operates using, regardless of the time zone and time of year, and is announced on the hour on the English service as '13 hours ' (1300 GMT) or 'Midnight Greenwich Mean Time' (0000 GMT). The BBC World Service traditionally broadcasts the chimes of in London at the start of a new year. Magazine publishing [ ] the BBC World Service previously published magazines and programme guides: •: listings • BBC Worldwide: included features of interest to an international audience (included London Calling as an insert) • BBC on Air: mainly listings •: current affairs See also [ ].
You are in: >What is the BBC World Service signature tune? The tune 'Lilliburlero', is generally considered to be the signature tune of BBC World Service.
Preceded by the announcement 'This is London', it is played on the BBC World Service before the five-minute World News bulletins. The current version was arranged by David Arnold, who has composed most of the new themes for the World Service, and has been recorded in digital format to replace the previous version, which was in use for over 30 years. We regret that we are not able to supply copies or audio files of either the new or the old versions of the tune (or of other BBC World Service theme music), but some information about 'Lilliburlero' follows: LILLIBURLERO- A Brief History The tune used as the World Service in English signature for the news since 21st November 1955 is most commonly known as Lilliburlero. It started life as a jig with Irish roots, whose first appearance seems to be in a collection published in London in 1661 entitled 'An Antidote Against Melancholy', where it is set to the words 'There was an old man of Waltham Cross'. It was arranged for polite society by the English composer Henry Purcell in 1689, and has been published in his keyboard work 'Musick's Handmaid'. In 1687, however, the tune was set to different words, at a time when the Roman Catholic King James II was becoming increasingly unpopular.
These were satirical verses with the Irish Gaelic-based word 'Lilliburlero' as a refrain, referring to the appointment to the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland of General Talbot, just created Earl of Tyrconnel. In this guise, the song was subsequently adopted by William of Orange as a marching tune for his Protestant troops. Lilliburlero's military association was rekindled in the Second World War, when it was played on the BBC Home Service programme 'Into Battle' in 1943, and as a result was chosen as the regimental march for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). At the same time it was chosen as the theme tune for our Chinese Service (by the poet and critic William Empson), before being poached by the English network, (then called the General Overseas Service). The version of Lilliburlero now heard replaces the version by BBC music producer David Cox which was in use for 30 years. Download Program At90s2313 With Arduino Mega more. Lilliburlero has always been a controversial tune for the BBC to employ as an anthem.
In 1972, the poet Robert Graves wrote a letter to 'The Times' newspaper complaining about the use of the tune in light of its anti-Catholic connotations. It survives, however, and remains one of the world's most distinctive tunes, recognised everywhere as the signature of BBC World Service. BBC WORLD SERVICE ANNUAL REVIEW PROGRAMME INFO Register for our e-guide to radio programmes. The latest political, social, cultural and sporting developments in Africa. MORE INFORMATION.