One Hundred Years of the BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which celebrated 100 years of continuous service in 2022, is in some way an emblem of the history of broadcasting in the 20th and 21st centuries. At the same time, it has known how to reinvent itself any number of times, keeping up with the developments in technology. Given the geographical and population scope of the British Empire in the 1920s, and of the Commonwealth after World War II, the BBC has had a remarkable influence, both on models of broadcasting and its technical aspects, as well as on world culture. In some ways the story of the BBC seems straightforward, and its history has been told and critiqued by many academics.[1] But that history opens our eyes to important aspects of  the history of communications  during the 20th century.

The original BBC – the British Broadcasting Company – began on October 18, 1922, as a programming service to create a demand for radio sets manufactured by a consortium of electronics companies. Much as in the United States, the company needed to create a demand for a product and so it developed the kind of programming content to motivate people to buy the sets or kits manufactured and sold by its partners. However, within just a few years the British company took on a new name – the British Broadcasting Corporation – This  received a royal charter as a public service corporation in 1927, together with  a new purpose. In this new  form the BBC continued to produce programming, but aimed to serve the British public with a kind of radio programming different from that of other nations.[2] Its charter gave it the sole right  to produce radio programming in the United Kingdom.

The journalist David Prosser argues that this idea originated with the Marconi company (a member of the consortium of manufacturers) and not the government, rejecting the received view that “The Post Office deployed misleading ideas about the development of commercial broadcasting in America and cemented the case for public funding and a ban on advertising.”[3] Prosser instead has found evidence in the minutes of a meeting at the Marconi company that “shows that ideas about public service broadcasting predate John Reith’s arrival by several months. This meeting laid the foundations of broadcasting in Britain, envisaging a single broadcaster,  operating at arms-length from government, providing a ‘public service’ with national content shared between regional stations, funded by a license fee.”

The corporation soon found its way under the leadership of John Reith (later Lord Reith), the first general manager of the BBC, who forcefully defended the purpose of broadcasting as intended to uplift the listeners. “Our responsibility,” he wrote in 1924, “is to carry into the greatest possible number of homes everything that is best in every department of human knowledge … and to avoid the things which are, or may be, hurtful.”[4] Reith set out a plan whereby radio would simultaneously entertain and uplift the audience. Part of the original plan avoided set program hours so people would not know what type of program they would hear when they tuned in to the BBC. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s programming consisted of various examples  of classical music, drama, talks, and news. During his tenure as director (he left the BBC in 1938) Reith defended the monopoly on programming and its consequent independence from popular pressures.

The BBC pioneered the public service model of broadcasting. It stood apart from commercial radio and television, the influence of advertisers, and the influence of government. UNESCO defines it as “made, financed and controlled by the public, for the public. It is neither commercial nor state-owned, free from political interference and pressure from commercial forces.”[5] Some countries completely fund public service broadcasting and the broadcaster remains an arm of the government; some rely on  tax revenue. The BBC, however, has always remained independent of the British government, though it depends on the government to authorize license fees, which make up its budget. Its particular model of public service broadcasting came out of the vision and tenacity of Lord Reith.

Paying the bills

The BBC developed as an institution free from audience and commercial pressures. In the U.S., meanwhile, the costs of programming and transmitting fell to the sponsors of the programs who developed popular content to maximize audience size and commercial revenue.

The BBC’s funding came from the audience by a different path. “The BBC’s revenue model is much the same as in 1923, when the Wireless Telegraphy Act introduced a fee of ten shillings a year (roughly £21, or USD25, in today’s money) for homes with radio sets. Today the license fee is £159, payable by any household that watches live TV or uses iPlayer, the BBC’s on-demand streaming service. The near-universal charge has been justified by near-universal consumption. Every week 90 percent of British adults tune in to the BBC’s eight national TV channels, 50-plus radio stations and sprawling website.”[6]

The license fees raise almost 75 percent of the BBC budget, with the rest coming from program sales abroad and commercial activities, such as  BBC Studios and BBC Studioworks. The model, however, faces pressure from two quarters. The government, particularly when the Conservatives are in power, has disliked the funding model because it dislikes monopolies and it also dislikes criticism on the news channels of government activities. Though independent of the government, the BBC still faces pressure from it as the government can “wield a significant amount of indirect control over the BBC: the government [determines] the amount of the license fee, and the Prime Minister [appoints] the Board of Governors.”[7] In addition the original BBC charter specified that the government could take over the broadcasting in times of emergency. That has never happened but the very possibility leads BBC administrators to cooperate with government requests. And the government can adjust its monopoly. Despite the high levels of popularity of the BBC during and after World War II, Conservative politicians and the advertising industry pushed through the 1954 Television Act to establish a second service, the Independent Television Authority, to allow more “consumer choice.”

The second pressure on the BBC funding model comes from increased competition from streaming services, to the point that “One in five 16- to 34-year-olds consume no BBC content at all in a typical week.”[8] The next charter renewal is due  in 2027 and the government will undertake a broad funding review before then.

The BBC may well continue to seek other sources of revenue, perhaps imitating some of the models used by other public service broadcasters like Finland and Sweden (involving  a level of income tax whereby taxpayers select services to fund) or Germany (a property charge). It may also explore an added subscription service (like Netflix) for special programming. It could also expand its sales. For almost 50 years the BBC has sold programs originally created for its own broadcasting to other parts of the world and used this income to supplement its budget. In fact, in the United States the BBC is probably best known for its cultural programming, which U.S. broadcasters eagerly purchase.

Radio programming inventions

People sometimes forget that the advent of new technology involves a whole constellation of inventions. When the original British Broadcasting Company formed to provide programming in order to sell radio sets, it also had, in some sense, to invent programming. With a new medium such as radio, performers and programmers had no specific model to follow. Some programming, as in the United States, simply took performers from orchestras, concert halls, music halls, and vaudeville performances (on the entertainment side) or from public debates, lecture halls, classrooms, and museums (on the educational side) or news readers (from journalism), and had them do on the radio what they were doing in other venues. The BBC’s mix of cultural programming, commentary, education, and entertainment grew gradually over the years. Because the BBC did not depend on pleasing its audiences, its programmers could try out a number of formats. For example, in 1924 the London service for one afternoon and evening included a concert, a women’s hour, children’s stories, news, a light orchestra program, a sports report on the Olympic games, and dance music.[9]

Because of its role as the sole broadcaster throughout Great Britain, the BBC played a significant role in the nation. With so many people listening to the same shows, a national identity developed around those shows, announcers, and the characters in various entertainments. In fact, at some point even the death of a character in a fictional program could become national news.

The period of maximum influence for the BBC probably came during the Second World War. The BBC became the voice of the nation and its broadcasts of the speeches of Winston Churchill, for example, created a national consensus which carried through the war. Over time, programming evolved, particularly in the years of the Second World War. News became more important, along with government speeches. Light entertainment became more common during that time. “In 1940 the BBC introduced the Forces Programme, originally intended to entertain the British Expeditionary Force in France. It featured a much narrower mix of items than the Home Service, focusing largely on ‘light’ programs such as dance music, variety and short talks.”[10] These eventually became so popular that the BBC eventually added a second service, the “Light Programme” to its traditional “Home Service” after the war.[11]

The post-war reorganization saw the BBC offer multiple services: the Light Programme, the Home Service (following its traditional programming principles), regional networks, and a Third Service, catering to “cultural elites and minority interests.”[12] Again, as an example of one kind of programming, the morning Home Service for January 12, 1948, included a general weather forecast, news, program parade, morning music, “Lift Up Your Hearts,” Victor Silvester, Marjorie Few, Lewis Carroll, “Dulcet Strings,” and “For the schools” (a news service for children, followed by “Singing Together,” “How Things Began” [history], Intermediate French, and “Bible Talks for Sixth Forms: The meaning of the Epistle to the Romans”), and Twenty Questions.[13]

The various BBC services were separated into different channels which in the 1970s became today’s Radio 2 (the Light Programme), Radio 3 (the Third Service), Radio 4 (the Home Service), and so on.

In response to the popular and commercial pressures mentioned above, the government allowed the creation of a competitor, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, to provide other kinds of services. It continues to this day in Independent Television (ITV). External pressures also led to a greater variety of options for British listeners. In the 1960s several pirate radio operations began in order to broadcast rock music. A more serious threat emerged from satellite television where private companies offered a range of services in competition with the BBC. All of this led to a greater variety of programming options and an opening of the market for broadcast reception throughout the United Kingdom.

“The BBC was slow to adopt what became a winning format, the radio serial or soap opera. That form began in the United States and from there came to the UK. The first soap ever created by the BBC was called Front Line Family and it was first broadcast in 1941. It did not initially air in Britain at all but in North America. This was because it was part of a public relations effort aimed at encouraging U.S. participation in WW2 by giving audiences there the dramatized flavor of ‘a middle class English family standing up to the shocks of war’.”[14]

The show’s popularity with overseas British listeners brought it to the Light Programme. Over time the BBC introduced other radio serials, Mrs Dale’s Diary (1948–1969) and its longest running show, The Archers (1950-present). The Archers served as both entertainment and development communication; it was “used to promote modern farming methods and took advice from the then Ministry of Agriculture. For a time it was 60 percent entertainment, 30 percent information and 10 percent education.”[15]

The war period also saw the introduction of audience research, which, like the radio serials, began outside of the UK as a way to evaluate the effectiveness of government propaganda and the World Service.[16] The post-war years saw a growing concern for audiences at home. However, the development of the different services and a need to provide programming for a more diverse population, growing with immigration from the Commonwealth countries, led to a need to know its audiences. Among other things the diversity affected religious broadcasting: the “thought for the day” and Sunday choral services allowed for representatives of different religious groups, including non-Christians.

The BBC World Service and news

News had a place from the beginning of BBC programming in 1922, despite opposition from newspapers, who feared the competition. Again, like so much else, World War II transformed the BBC news services. “The war … revolutionized the BBC’s presentation of the news. Reporters in the field provided thrilling descriptions of the fighting, supplemented by recorded material from the war zone. The vividness and immediacy of the BBC’s news coverage allowed Britons to connect their own sacrifices on the Home Front to the military effort against Germany.”[17]

The war also led to the development of the World Service. Well known throughout the world, the BBC news World Service has become a most highly trusted source of information, not only in Britain and the Commonwealth but throughout the world. That service, transmitted in multiple languages, grew out of propaganda broadcasts through which the British Foreign Office sought to tell Britain’s story. The BBC began German broadcasts in the late 1930s, not strictly as a propaganda effort, but as a way of providing news to those in Germany. During the war the BBC also developed a Portuguese service as well as French and Persian news services to connect with allies or neutral countries. Over the years, typically in response to foreign policy requests, the BBC has developed a Turkish service, an Afghani service, a Romanian service, and an Arabic service. Today the World Service broadcasts in 40 languages, based on criteria such as “availability of funding, the demographics of the target audience, the local need for news and information in the region where the language is spoken and the strategic importance of that region for Britain.”[18] The BBC also provides online access.

The service has changed over the years, with some language groups dropped and others added, according to need.[19] Unlike its other activities, the World Service receives government funding, not license fee funding, from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government.[20]

Technical innovations

The BBC has remained at the forefront of communication technology development. In 1923 and 1924 it established 10 broadcast stations and 10 relay stations to broadcast a single national service across the country; later it added other regional stations for different services. Separately, it set up shortwave broadcasting channels for its World Service during and after World War II.

The BBC worked with various companies to develop the technologies it needed: with Louis Blattner, a tape recording device in 1931; with the Marconi Company, the Type A microphone in 1934; and with John Logie Baird, television in the 1920s and 1930s. One tends to think of the BBC sequentially, putting radio first and television second. However, it simultaneously worked in both radio and television. Within its first 10 years of BBC radio broadcasting, the corporation adopted Baird’s invention of television and became, in 1936, the first regularly scheduled television broadcaster in the world. Even earlier, in 1930, BBC television broadcast Pirandello’s The Man with the Flower in his Mouth, regularly showing programs produced with Baird’s company until 1935.[21]

BBC radio and television produce their own research histories, though they do overlap. With the suspension of television during the Second World War, BBC radio remained the focus of both programming and technical innovation. Even with the restoration of television after the war, BBC radio still maintained its preeminence in the UK since so few could afford television receivers. Its own research center worked on both audio and video technologies, not only microphones, but also loudspeakers for radio studios and, later, stereophonic television and digital television broadcasting. In the broadcast world, it set up remote or outdoor broadcasting vehicles, for radio in 1928 and for television in 1937.

The research center also pioneered conversion equipment to make U.S., European, and world video broadcast standards convertible. In 1974, it developed Ceefax, the first teletext system, a process that includes textual information embedded in the broadcast signal, allowing viewers to display text and interactive television services on their screens. In the Internet age, the BBC research center enabled BBC Education to launch a computer networking/internet service provider in 1994. Somewhat earlier, with Acorn Computers, it created a television series “The Computer Programme,” together with computer kits and lessons in computer programming. Today, it is developing the BBC Public Service Augmented Reality project.[22]

Television

The “modern” history of BBC television more or less coincides with the reign of Queen Elizabeth II; like the queen’s reign, it framed and shaped life in the UK. In doing so, BBC television faced the same challenge as BBC radio: “the issue that concerned British broadcasters from the very beginnings of the BBC: the role of broadcasting in reflecting, defining, and projecting British national identity. How could the BBC best serve the nation? To what extent should the BBC embrace British nationalism? What should Britishness look (or … sound) like? How would the BBC negotiate the multi-national character of the United Kingdom?”[23]

The early television programming reflected that of BBC radio, with news, light and classical entertainment, Shakespeare, concerts, and so on. BBC television began to take on a distinctive identity with its programming in the 1960s and 1970s. With the continued influence of the Reithian model and the freedom from audience and advertising pressures, the BBC produced a level of cultural programming seldom seen in other countries, whose broadcasters aimed for entertainment and audience ratings. The newly established U.S. Corporation for Public Broadcasting, set up to offer alternative programming, eagerly purchased BBC content (it was less expensive than producing its own) to present a range  of cultural programs seldom seen on the existing U.S. broadcasters. Some programs that stood out included Alistair Cooke’s America: A Personal History of the United States, Sir Kenneth Clark’s Civilization, Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man, seemingly sophisticated serial dramas like Upstairs, Downstairs, British detective mysteries, British science fiction like Dr. Who, and British comedy series like Monty Python’s Flying Circus. BBC nature specials, such as those produced by David Attenborough, became famous worldwide , as the BBC willingly took chances on programming less likely to find funding, particularly from its television competitors like ITV. To be sure the BBC produced less stellar material but seldom sold that abroad. What it did sell became a leading export of the BBC, opening up a new income stream and contributing to the spread of “what Britishness looked like.”

‘Radio Times’

The BBC published a weekly magazine, Radio Times, as a program guide, beginning in 1923, because newspapers did not carry radio listings. The magazine also included articles and illustrations along with occasional lists of influential people in broadcasting or leading talent. The magazine covers became more significant over the years, with several “royal specials” featuring the Queen’s Birthday or the Queen’s various jubilees. In the television years, typical covers featured programs like Dr. Who, serial drama, or specials.

Unlike the broadcasts themselves, Radio Times carried advertising, which became a source of funding for the corporation. In recent years, the BBC has released digitized copies of the entire run of Radio Times (over 10 million program listings, with 250,000 playable programs) in a searchable database.[24]

The BBC seeing itself

Not surprisingly, the BBC has created its own resources to celebrate its 100 years.[25] Their website offers multiple ways to explore the corporation and its role in the life of the UK. A timeline guides the visitor through features ranging from the sign on with the first BBC radio station call letters 2LO in the 1920s, the first publication of Radio Times in 1923, all the way up to the five-part series The Green Planet, broadcast as a follow-up to the UK’s hosting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2021.

Following the lead of its wonderful and popular British Museum series, A History of the World in 100 Objects, the site also features 100 objects of the BBC: the first BBC television symbol, the first BBC website (in 1997), a recording system for radio programs (created in 1930), David Bowie’s 1965 audition panel report for a talent competition (the panel was not impressed, calling his group “devoid of personality” and “amateur-sounding” and concluding he would “not improve with practice”), the first Open University Degree Ceremony booklet, Alistair Cooke’s typewriter on which he compiled the scripts for his “Letter from America” series beginning in 1946, and press clippings of advertisements for women announcers (1936).

In a similar vein, the website features 100 faces from the BBC’s photo archives: radio presenters, actors, singers, musicians, members of the royal family, news events, and shows (Princess Elizabeth speaking in South Africa in 1947, the Beatles, Judi Dench in Henry V in 1959, George Orwell as a BBC writer in 1943, Vera Lynn in 1941, the Monty Python team in 1970, and Edward VIII during his abdication address in 1936). Running in a parallel fashion, the site presents 100 Voices of the BBC, an oral history project consisting of various collections of reminiscences of BBC employees, including Entertaining the UK; The BBC and the Cold War; The BBC and World War Two; Pioneering Women; People, Nation, Empire; Radio Reinvented, The Birth of TV, and Elections. The site provides an excellent guide to the BBC and to the history of broadcasting in the 20th century.

DOI: La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 7, no.2 art. 12, 0223: 10.32009/22072446.0223.12

[1] Cf. T. Mills, The BBC: Myth of a public service, New York, Verso Books, 2016; G. Johnston – E. Robertson, BBC World Service: Overseas broadcasting,1932-2018, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019; D. Hendy, The BBC: A century on air, New York, Hachette, 2022; S. J. Potter, This is the BBC: Entertaining the nation, speaking for Britain, 1922-2022, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022.

[2] Cf. T. Hajkowski, The BBC and national identity in Britain, 1922-53, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2010, 10.

[3] D. Prosser, “Marconi proposes: Why it’s time to rethink the birth of the BBC”, in Media History 25 (2019/3) 265.

[4] T. Hajkowski, The BBC and national identity in Britain, 1922–53, op. cit., 10f.

[5]. K. Porter, “What is PSM?”, in Public Media Alliance (www.publicmediaalliance.org/about-us/what-is-psm).

[6] “The BBC: The bill for the box”, in The Economist, August 27, 2022, 43f.

[7] T. Hajkowski, The BBC and national identity in Britain, 1922-53, op. cit., 11.

[8] “The BBC: The bill for the box”, op. cit., 43.

[9] Cf, Radio Times, January 13, 1924, London, BBC.

[10] T. Hajkowski, The BBC and national identity in Britain, 1922-53, op. cit., 12.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Radio Times, January 12, 1948, London, BBC.

[14] A. McNicholas, “Soaps on the BBC: From the Front Lines to the Queen Vic”, in BBC 100, 2022.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Cf. T. Hajkowski, The BBC and national identity in Britain, 1922–53, op. cit., 11.

[17] Ibid.

[18] BBC World Service, “Frequently asked questions […] about BBC World Service”.

[19] Cf. G. Johnston – E. Robertson, BBC World Service: Overseas broadcasting, 1932-2018, op. cit.

[20] Cf. BBC World Service, “Frequently asked questions…”, op. cit.

[21] Cf. “Timeline: 1930: The first television play”, in BBC 100, 2022.

[22] Cf. B. Thompson, “BBC R&D: The secret laboratory”, in BBC 100, 2022.

[23] T. Hajkowski, The BBC and national identity in Britain, 1922-53, op. cit., 2.

[24] Cf. “Radio Times Issues”, in genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/issues

[25] Cf. “100 years of our BBC”, in www.bbc.co.uk/100