20 years for BBC World News
In 1991, BBC World Service Television started broadcasting to Europe. 20 years later BBC World News now reaches some 300 million households.
- Published by David Knox
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Today marks 20 years since BBC World News’ first broadcast.
In 1991, the channel started broadcasting to Europe as BBC World Service Television. By 1995 it was available across all major continents as BBC World. In 2008 it rebranded as BBC World News and is now available in close to 300 million households.
Nik Gowing, the longest-serving presenter on the channel, said: “The world is such a different place to the one we often struggled to cover both editorially and technologically in 1991; the latest upheavals in Egypt, Libya and across the Middle East are the latest examples of the dramatic pace at which huge stories now develop, and the swift impact they have globally.
“We give our large audience an international perspective with the analysis they want. Above all, the new go-anywhere digital technologies and social media have created the exciting ability to bring them the news from almost anywhere and, in most cases, instantaneously.”
Next year BBC World News moves into a new state-of-the-art newsroom at Broadcasting House in central London in 2012.
The channel has been on the Foxtel platform since 1995.
8 Responses
Yes, BBC radio is excellent.
I’ve watched BBC World since about 1995 and have always thought that some British news might actually appeal to their viewers. There is so much focus on problems in the middle east that when watching BBC world news it seems like it is the only place where news is happening (apart from the occasional tsunami/earthquake). I know a lot of Australian viewers want Sky News UK in full screen so there must be some demand for British news.
bbc radio is fantastic
I hate to say it but I’m watching ABC News 24 and they’ve got a repeat of 7.30 (Report) Victoria on. Another reason I’d like a 24 hour news service that covers things over 24 hours when things go wrong i.e. BBC World News on a separate free-to-air channel. As there’s sixteen channels and no live news. 🙁
Within another 20 years those peanuts at Foxtel might move it from channel 649 up closer to all the rest of the news channels.
@A. I haven’t checked lately but in NZ it used to be broadcast on TVNZ’s TV One during their downtime (1am to 6am) which I suppose would be great if you’re a night owl. There are web feeds out there if you want to see it without pay TV tho.
Congratulations to the BBC. I’ve read it’s on free-to-air TV in New Zealand so I’m wondering how many years would it take for it to end up on our free-to-air. If only the government would fund SBS to have it on one of it’s SD channels. It would then mean people with access to SD only had a trusted English speaking international news service. Not to mention it’s better funded than the ABC and I’d like to see it so there’s an Australian and international news services. Pay TV is not an option unless it became free TV.
They spent most of those 20 years beaming into Australia via a fuzzy American feed, in letterbox-and-crop 14:9 format via NTSC. Thankfully they sorted all that out a few years ago, and finally got a widescreen feed here 10 years after they got it one the UK with the domestic sister service “BBC News 24”.