Saturday, April 8, 2017

Technology (Atos service)

In 2004, the BBC contracted out its former BBC Technology division to the German engineering and electronics company Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS), outsourcing its IT, telephony and broadcast technology systems.[40] When Atos Origin acquired the SIS division from Siemens in December 2010 for €850 million (£720m),[92] the BBC support contract also passed to Atos, and in July 2011, the BBC announced to staff that its technology support would become an Atos service.[41] Siemens staff working on the BBC contract were transferred to Atos and BBC technology systems (including the BBC website) are now managed by Atos. In 2011, the BBC's Chief Financial Officer Zarin Patel stated to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee that, following criticism of the BBC's management of major IT projects with Siemens (such as the Digital Media Initiative), the BBC partnership with Atos would be instrumental in achieving cost savings of around £64 million as part of the BBC's "Delivering Quality First" programme.[93] In 2012, the BBC's Chief Technology Officer, John Linwood, expressed confidence in service improvements to the BBC's technology provision brought about by Atos. He also stated that supplier accountability had been strengthened following some high-profile technology failures which had taken place during the partnership with Siemens.[94]

Services

Weekly reach of the BBC's domestic services from 2011 to 2012[95][96] Reach is the number of people who use the service at any point for more than 15 minutes in a week.[96]

Television

Main article: BBC Television
The BBC operates several television channels in the UK of which BBC One and BBC Two are the flagship television channels. In addition to these two flagship channels, the BBC operates several digital only stations: BBC Four, BBC News, BBC Parliament, and two children's channels, CBBC and CBeebies. Digital television is now in widespread use in the UK, with analogue transmission completely phased out by December 2012.[97] It also operates the internet television service BBC Three, which ceased broadcasting as a linear television channel in February 2016.
Weekly reach of the BBC's domestic television channels 2011–12[96]
BBC One is a regionalised TV service which provides opt-outs throughout the day for local news and other local programming. These variations are more pronounced in the BBC 'Nations', i.e. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, where the presentation is mostly carried out locally on BBC One and Two, and where programme schedules can vary largely from that of the network. BBC Two variations exist in the Nations; however, English regions today rarely have the option to 'opt out' as regional programming now only exists on BBC One. BBC Two was also the first channel to be transmitted on 625 lines in 1964, then carry a small-scale regular colour service from 1967. BBC One would follow in November 1969.
A new Scottish Gaelic television channel, BBC Alba, was launched in September 2008. It is also the first multi-genre channel to come entirely from Scotland with almost all of its programmes made in Scotland. The service was initially only available via satellite but since June 2011 has been available to viewers in Scotland on Freeview and cable television.[98]
The BBC currently operates HD simulcasts of all its nationwide channels with the exception of BBC Parliament. Until 26 March 2013, a separate channel called BBC HD was available, in place of BBC Two HD. It launched on 9 June 2006, following a 12-month trial of the broadcasts. It became a proper channel in 2007, and screened HD programmes as simulcasts of the main network, or as repeats. The corporation has been producing programmes in the format for many years, and stated that it hoped to produce 100% of new programmes in HDTV by 2010.[99] On 3 November 2010, a high-definition simulcast of BBC One was launched, entitled BBC One HD, and BBC Two HD launched on 26 March 2013, replacing BBC HD.
In the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the BBC channels are available in a number of ways. In these countries digital and cable operators carry a range of BBC channels. These include BBC One, BBC Two and BBC World News, although viewers in the Republic of Ireland may receive BBC services via 'overspill' from transmitters in Northern Ireland or Wales, or via 'deflectors' – transmitters in the Republic which rebroadcast broadcasts from the UK,[100] received off-air, or from digital satellite.
Since 1975, the BBC has also provided its TV programmes to the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), allowing members of UK military serving abroad to watch them on four dedicated TV channels. From 27 March 2013, BFBS will carry versions of BBC One and BBC Two, which will include children's programming from CBBC, as well as carrying programming from BBC Three on a new channel called BFBS Extra.
Since 2008, all the BBC channels are available to watch online through the BBC iPlayer service. This online streaming ability came about following experiments with live streaming, involving streaming certain channels in the UK.[101]
In February 2014, Director-General Tony Hall announced that the corporation needed to save £100 million. In March 2014, the BBC confirmed plans for BBC Three to become an internet-only channel.[102]

Genome Project

Main article: BBC Genome Project
In December 2012, the BBC completed a digitisation exercise, scanning the listings of all BBC programmes from an entire run of about 4,500 copies of the Radio Times magazine from the first, 1923, issue to 2009 (later listings already being held electronically), the 'BBC Genome project', with a view to creating an online database of its programme output.[103] An earlier ten months of listings are to be obtained from other sources.[103] They identified around five million programmes, involving 8.5 million actors, presenters, writers and technical staff.[103] The Genome project was opened to public access on 15 October 2014, with corrections to OCR errors and changes to advertised schedules being crowdsourced.[104]

Radio

Weekly reach of the BBC's national radio stations, both on analogue and digital.[96]
Main articles: BBC Radio and BBC Local Radio
The BBC has ten radio stations serving the whole of the UK, a further six stations in the "national regions" (Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), and 40 other local stations serving defined areas of England. Of the ten national stations, five are major stations and are available on FM and/or AM as well as on DAB and online. These are BBC Radio 1, offering new music and popular styles and being notable for its chart show; BBC Radio 2, playing Adult contemporary, country and soul music amongst many other genres; BBC Radio 3, presenting classical and jazz music together with some spoken-word programming of a cultural nature in the evenings; BBC Radio 4, focusing on current affairs, factual and other speech-based programming, including drama and comedy; and BBC Radio 5 Live, broadcasting 24-hour news, sport and talk programmes.
In addition to these five stations, the BBC also runs a further five stations that broadcast on DAB and online only. These stations supplement and expand on the big five stations, and were launched in 2002. BBC Radio 1Xtra sisters Radio 1, and broadcasts new black music and urban tracks. BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra sisters 5 Live and offers extra sport analysis, including broadcasting sports that previously were not covered. BBC Radio 6 Music offers alternative music genres and is notable as a platform for new artists.
BBC Radio 7, later renamed BBC Radio 4 Extra, provided archive drama, comedy and children's programming. Following the change to Radio 4 Extra, the service has dropped a defined children's strand in favour of family-friendly drama and comedy. In addition, new programmes to complement Radio 4 programmes were introduced such as Ambridge Extra, and Desert Island Discs revisited. The final station is the BBC Asian Network, providing music, talk and news to this section of the community. This station evolved out of Local radio stations serving certain areas, and as such this station is available on Medium Wave frequency in some areas of the Midlands.
As well as the national stations, the BBC also provides 40 BBC Local Radio stations in England and the Channel Islands, each named for and covering a particular city and its surrounding area (e.g. BBC Radio Bristol), county or region (e.g. BBC Three Counties Radio), or geographical area (e.g. BBC Radio Solent covering the central south coast). A further six stations broadcast in what the BBC terms "the national regions": Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. These are BBC Radio Wales (in English), BBC Radio Cymru (in Welsh), BBC Radio Scotland (in English), BBC Radio nan Gaidheal (in Scottish Gaelic), BBC Radio Ulster, and BBC Radio Foyle, the latter being an opt-out station from Radio Ulster for the north-west of Northern Ireland.
The BBC's UK national channels are also broadcast in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man (although these Crown dependencies are outside the UK), and in the former there are two local stations – BBC Guernsey and BBC Radio Jersey. There is no BBC local radio station, however, in the Isle of Man, partly because the island has long been served by the popular independent commercial station, Manx Radio, which predates the existence of BBC Local Radio. BBC services in the dependencies are financed from television licence fees which are set at the same level as those payable in the UK, although collected locally. This is the subject of some controversy in the Isle of Man since, as well as having no BBC Local Radio service, the island also lacks a local television news service analogous to that provided by BBC Channel Islands.[105]
BBC World Service - Jonathan Dimbleby broadcasting from Budapest
For a worldwide audience, the BBC World Service provides news, current affairs and information in 28 languages, including English, around the world and is available in over 150 capital cities. It is broadcast worldwide on shortwave radio, DAB and online and has an estimated weekly audience of 192 million, and its websites have an audience of 38 million people per week.[106] Since 2005, it is also available on DAB in the UK, a step not taken before, due to the way it is funded. The service is funded by a Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid, administered by the Foreign Office; however, following the Government's spending review in 2011, this funding will cease, and it will be funded for the first time through the Licence fee.[107][108] In recent years, some services of the World Service have been reduced; the Thai service ended in 2006,[109] as did the Eastern European languages, with resources diverted instead into the new BBC Arabic Television.[110]
Historically, the BBC was the only legal radio broadcaster based in the UK mainland until 1967, when University Radio York (URY), then under the name Radio York, was launched as the first, and now oldest, legal independent radio station in the country. However, the BBC did not enjoy a complete monopoly before this as several Continental stations, such as Radio Luxembourg, had broadcast programmes in English to Britain since the 1930s and the Isle of Man-based Manx Radio began in 1964. Today, despite the advent of commercial radio, BBC radio stations remain among the most listened to in the country, with Radio 2 having the largest audience share (up to 16.8% in 2011–12) and Radios 1 and 4 ranked second and third in terms of weekly reach.[111]
BBC programming is also available to other services and in other countries. Since 1943, the BBC has provided radio programming to the British Forces Broadcasting Service, which broadcasts in countries where British troops are stationed. BBC Radio 1 is also carried in the United States and Canada on Sirius XM Radio (online streaming only).
The BBC is a patron of The Radio Academy.[112]
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Expenditure

The following expenditure figures are from 2012/13[83] and show the expenditure of each service they are obliged to provide:
BBC Expenditures 2012-2013.png
Department Total cost (£million)
Television including BBC Red Button 2,471.5
Radio 669.5
BBC Online 176.6
Licence Fee Collection 111.1
Orchestras and Performing Groups 29.2
S4C 30
Digital switchover 56.9
Restructuring 23.1
Property 181.6
Technology 175.1
BBC Trust 11.9
Libraries, Learning support and Community events 33.6
Other, including training, marketing, finance and policy 925.9
Total 4,896
A significantly large portion of the BBC's income is spent on the corporation's Television and Radio services with each service having a different budget based upon their content.[83]
BBC Television Expenditure 2012-2013.png
Service 2012/13 total cost
(£million)		 Comparison with
2011/12 (£million)
BBC One Including Regions 1,463.2 + 125.6
BBC Two 543.1 + 6
BBC Three 121.7 + 8.8
BBC Four 70.2 + 2.4
CBBC 108.7 + 1.4
CBeebies 43 + 0.6
BBC News 61.5 + 4
BBC Parliament 10.5 + 1.2
BBC Alba 7.8 – 0.2
BBC Red Button 41.8 + 4.6
Total 2,471.5 + 136.6
BBC Radio Expenditures 2012-2013.png
Service 2012/13 total cost
(£million)		 Comparison with
2011/12 (£million)
BBC Radio 1 54.2 + 3.6
BBC Radio 1Xtra 11.8 + 0.7
BBC Radio 2 62.1 + 1.6
BBC Radio 3 54.3 + 1.8
BBC Radio 4 122.1 + 6.2
BBC Radio 4 Extra 7.2 – 1
BBC Radio 5 Live 76 + 6.7
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra 5.6 + 0.3
BBC Radio 6 Music 11.5 – 0.2
BBC Asian Network 13 0
BBC Local Radio 152.5 + 6
BBC Radio Scotland 32.7 + 0.6
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal 6.3 + 0.3
BBC Radio Wales 18.8 + 1.1
BBC Radio Cymru 17.6 + 1.7
BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle 23.8 0
Total 669.5 + 29.4

Headquarters and regional offices

Main article: List of BBC properties
Further information: Broadcasting House, Broadcasting House (Belfast), Broadcasting House (Cardiff), BBC Television Centre
The headquarters of the BBC at Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London, England. This section of the building is called 'Old Broadcasting House'.
Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London, is the official headquarters of the BBC. It is home to six of the ten BBC national radio networks, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1xtra, BBC Asian Network, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio 4 Extra. It is also the home of BBC News, which relocated to the building from BBC Television Centre in 2013. On the front of the building are statues of Prospero and Ariel, characters from William Shakespeare's play The Tempest, sculpted by Eric Gill. Renovation of Broadcasting House began in 2002, and was completed in 2013.
Until it closed at the end of March 2013,[84] BBC Television was based at BBC Television Centre, a purpose built television facility and the second built in the country located in White City, London. This facility has been host to a number of famous guests and programmes through the years, and its name and image is familiar with many British citizens. Nearby, the BBC White City complex contains numerous programme offices, housed in Centre House, the Media Centre and Broadcast Centre. It is in this area around Shepherd's Bush that the majority of BBC employees work.
As part of a major reorganisation of BBC property, the entire BBC News operation relocated from the News Centre at BBC Television Centre to the refurbished Broadcasting House to create what is being described as "one of the world's largest live broadcast centres".[85] The BBC News Channel and BBC World News relocated to the premises in early 2013.[86] Broadcasting House is now also home to most of the BBC's national radio stations, and the BBC World Service. The major part of this plan involves the demolition of the two post-war extensions to the building and construction of an extension[87] designed by Sir Richard MacCormac of MJP Architects. This move will concentrate the BBC's London operations, allowing them to sell Television Centre, which is expected to be completed by 2016.[88]
In addition to the scheme above, the BBC is in the process of making and producing more programmes outside London, involving production centres such as Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and, most notably, in Greater Manchester as part of the 'BBC North Project' scheme where several major departments, including BBC North West, BBC Manchester, BBC Sport, BBC Children's, CBeebies, Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Breakfast, BBC Learning and the BBC Philharmonic have all moved from their previous locations in either London or New Broadcasting House, Manchester to the new 200-acre (80ha) MediaCityUK production facilities in Salford, that form part of the large BBC North Group division and will therefore become the biggest staffing operation outside London.[89][90]
As well as the two main sites in London (Broadcasting House and White City), there are seven other important BBC production centres in the UK, mainly specialising in different productions. Broadcasting House Cardiff, has been home to BBC Cymru Wales, which specialises in drama production. Open since October 2011, and containing 7 new studios, Roath Lock[91] is notable as the home of productions such as Doctor Who and Casualty. Broadcasting House Belfast, home to BBC Northern Ireland, specialises in original drama and comedy, and has taken part in many co-productions with independent companies and notably with RTÉ in the Republic of Ireland. BBC Scotland, based in Pacific Quay, Glasgow is a large producer of programmes for the network, including several quiz shows. In England, the larger regions also produce some programming.
Previously, the largest 'hub' of BBC programming from the regions is BBC North West. At present they produce all Religious and Ethical programmes on the BBC, as well as other programmes such as A Question of Sport. However, this is to be merged and expanded under the BBC North project, which involved the region moving from New Broadcasting House, Manchester, to MediaCityUK. BBC Midlands, based at The Mailbox in Birmingham, also produces drama and contains the headquarters for the English regions and the BBC's daytime output. Other production centres include Broadcasting House Bristol, home of BBC West and famously the BBC Natural History Unit and to a lesser extent, Quarry Hill in Leeds, home of BBC Yorkshire. There are also many smaller local and regional studios throughout the UK, operating the BBC regional television services and the BBC Local Radio stations.
The BBC also operates several news gathering centres in various locations around the world, which provide news coverage of that region to the national and international news operations.
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Management Board

Ambox current red.svg
The management board is responsible for managing pan-BBC issues delegated to it from the executive board and ensures that the corporation meets its strategic objectives, the board meets three times per month. Current members include:[63]

Operational divisions

The Corporation is headed by the Executive Board, which has overall control of the management and running of the BBC. Below this is the BBC Management board, which deals with inter departmental issues and any other tasks which the Executive board has delegated to it. Below the BBC Management board are the following six major divisions covering all the BBC's output:[64]
  1. The Television division is in charge of the corporation's television channels including the commissioning and production of programming and of operations such as the BBC Natural History Unit and the BBC Archives.
  2. The Radio division is in charge of BBC Radio and music content across the BBC under the BBC Music brand, including music programmes on BBC Television, events such as the BBC Proms and the numerous orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic.
  3. The News Group operate the entire BBC News operation, including the national, regional and international output on television, radio and online. They are in charge of the corporation's divisions in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the English Regions as well as the output of the BBC Global News division. It is also in charge of the corporation's Current Affairs programming and have some responsibility for sports output.
  4. The Design & Engineering division is in charge of all digital output, such as BBC Online, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button service and developing new technologies through BBC Research & Development.[64]
  5. The BBC North Group is the operational division in charge of the divisions operating from the BBC's base at MediaCityUK. It contains departments such as BBC Sport, BBC Children's, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Learning. It also oversees the production of programmes including BBC Breakfast and those programmes made by the BBC Salford network production unit for television and radio. Many of this group's operations overlap with that of other groups, resulting in this group overseeing the day-to-day operations.[64][65]
  6. The Finance and Business division manage the corporations expenses, long term business plans and licence fee collection. They also assign budgets to the different departments.[64]
All aspects of the BBC fall into one or more of the above departments, with the following exceptions:
  • The BBC Trust is separate from departments as it is part of their operation to monitor the operations and departments of the corporation.[64]
  • BBC Worldwide Ltd operates international channels and sells programmes and merchandise in the UK and abroad to gain additional income that is returned to BBC programmes. It is kept separate from the corporation due to its commercial nature.
  • The BBC World News department is in charge of the production and distribution of its commercial global television channel. It works closely with the BBC News group, but is not governed by it, and shares the corporation's facilities and staff. It also works with BBC Worldwide, the channel's distributor.
  • BBC Studios and Post Production is also separate and officially owns and operates some of the BBC's studio facilities, such as the BBC Elstree Centre, leasing them out to productions from within and outside of the corporation.[64]

Finances

The BBC has the second largest budget of any UK-based broadcaster with an operating expenditure of £4.722 billion in 2013/14[66] compared to £6.471 billion for British Sky Broadcasting in 2013/14[67] and £1.843 billion for ITV in the calendar year 2013.[68]

Revenue

See also: Television licence and Television licensing in the United Kingdom
The principal means of funding the BBC is through the television licence, costing £145.50 per year per household since April 2010. Such a licence is required to legally receive broadcast television across the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. No licence is required to own a television used for other means, or for sound only radio sets (though a separate licence for these was also required for non-TV households until 1971). The cost of a television licence is set by the government and enforced by the criminal law. A discount is available for households with only black-and-white television sets. A 50% discount is also offered to people who are registered blind or severely visually impaired,[69] and the licence is completely free for any household containing anyone aged 75 or over. As a result of the UK Government's recent spending review, an agreement has been reached between the government and the corporation in which the current licence fee will remain frozen at the current level until the Royal Charter is renewed at the beginning of 2017.[70]
The revenue is collected privately[clarification needed] and is paid into the central government Consolidated Fund, a process defined in the Communications Act 2003. The BBC pursues its licence fee collection and enforcement under the trading name "TV Licensing". TV Licensing collection is currently carried out by Capita, an outside agency. Funds are then allocated by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Treasury and approved by Parliament via legislation. Additional revenues are paid by the Department for Work and Pensions to compensate for subsidised licences for eligible over-75-year-olds.
The licence fee is classified as a tax,[71] and its evasion is a criminal offence. Since 1991, collection and enforcement of the licence fee has been the responsibility of the BBC in its role as TV Licensing Authority.[72] Thus, the BBC is a major prosecuting authority in England and Wales and an investigating authority in the UK as a whole. The BBC carries out surveillance (mostly using subcontractors) on properties (under the auspices of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) and may conduct searches of a property using a search warrant.[73] According to the BBC, "more than 204,000 people in the UK were caught watching TV without a licence during the first six months of 2012."[74] Licence fee evasion makes up around one tenth of all cases prosecuted in magistrate courts.[75]
Income from commercial enterprises and from overseas sales of its catalogue of programmes has substantially increased over recent years,[76] with BBC Worldwide contributing some £145 million to the BBC's core public service business.
According to the BBC's 2013/14 Annual Report, its total income was £5 billion (£5.066 billion),[1] which can be broken down as follows:
  • £3.726 billion in licence fees collected from householders;
  • £1.023 billion from the BBC's Commercial Businesses;
  • £244.6 million from government grants, of which £238.5 million is from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the BBC World Service;
  • £72.1 million from other income, such as rental collections and royalties from overseas broadcasts of programming.[1]
The licence fee has, however, attracted criticism. It has been argued that in an age of multi stream, multi-channel availability, an obligation to pay a licence fee is no longer appropriate. The BBC's use of private sector company Capita Group to send letters to premises not paying the licence fee has been criticised, especially as there have been cases where such letters have been sent to premises which are up to date with their payments, or do not require a TV licence.[77]
The BBC uses advertising campaigns to inform customers of the requirement to pay the licence fee. Past campaigns have been criticised by Conservative MP Boris Johnson and former MP Ann Widdecombe, for having a threatening nature and language used to scare evaders into paying.[78][79] Audio clips and television broadcasts are used to inform listeners of the BBC's comprehensive database.[80] There are a number of pressure groups campaigning on the issue of the licence fee.[81]
The majority of the BBC's commercial output comes from its commercial arm BBC Worldwide who sell programmes abroad and exploit key brands for merchandise. Of their 2012/13 sales, 27% were centred on the five key 'superbrands' of Doctor Who, Top Gear, Strictly Come Dancing (known as Dancing with the Stars internationally), the BBC's archive of natural history programming (collected under the umbrella of BBC Earth) and the, now sold, travel guide brand Lonely Planet.[82]
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BBC Trust

Main article: BBC Trust
The BBC Trust was formed on 1 January 2007, replacing the Board of Governors as the governing body of the Corporation. The Trust sets the strategy for the corporation, assesses the performance of the BBC Executive Board in delivering the BBC's services, and appoints the Director-General.
BBC Trustees are appointed by the British monarch on advice of government ministers.[58] There are twelve trustees, led by Chairman Rona Fairhead who was appointed on 31 August 2014 and vice-chairman Sir Roger Carr. There are trustees for the four nations of the United Kingdom; England (Mark Florman), Scotland (Bill Matthews), Wales (Elan Closs Stephens) and Northern Ireland (Aideen McGinley). The remaining trustees are Sonita Alleyne, Richard Ayre, Mark Damazer, Nicholas Prettejohn, Suzanna Taverne and Lord Williams.[59]

Executive Board

The Executive Board meets once per month and is responsible for operational management and delivery of services within a framework set by the BBC Trust, and is headed by the Director-General, currently Tony Hall.[60] The Executive Board consists of both Executive and Non-Executive directors, with non-executive directors being sourced from other companies and corporations and being appointed by the BBC Trust.[61] The executive board is made up of the Director General as well as the head of each of the main BBC divisions. These at present are:
The board shares some of its responsibilities to four sub-committees including: Audit, Fair Trading, Nominations and Remuneration.
It is also supported by a number of management groups within the BBC, including the BBC Management Board, the Finance and Business committee, and boards at the Group level, such as Radio and Television. The boards of BBC Worldwide support and BBC Commercial Holdings along with the Executive Board on commercial matters.[62]
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2011 to present

Further cuts were announced on 6 October 2011, so the BBC could reach a total reduction in their budget of 20%, following the licence fee freeze in October 2010, which included cutting staff by 2,000 and sending a further 1,000 to the MediaCityUK development in Salford, with BBC Three moving online only in 2016, the sharing of more programmes between stations and channels, sharing of radio news bulletins, more repeats in schedules, including the whole of BBC Two daytime and for some original programming to be reduced. BBC HD was closed on 26 March 2013, and replaced with an HD simulcast of BBC Two; however, flagship programmes, other channels and full funding for CBBC and CBeebies would be retained.[49][50][51] Numerous BBC facilities have been sold off, including New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in Manchester. Many major departments have been relocated to Broadcasting House and MediaCityUK, particularly since the closure of BBC Television Centre in March 2013. The cuts inspired campaigns, petitions and protests such as SaveBBC3 and SaveOurBBC, which have built a following of hundreds of thousands of individuals concerned about the changes.

Governance and corporate structure

The BBC is a statutory corporation, independent from direct government intervention, with its activities being overseen by the BBC Trust (formerly the Board of Governors).[52] General management of the organisation is in the hands of a Director-General, appointed by the Trust, who is the BBC's Editor-in-Chief and chairs the Executive Board.[53]

Charter

The BBC operates under a Royal Charter.[9] The current Charter came into effect on 1 January 2017 and runs until 31 December 2026.[54] Each successive Royal Charter is reviewed before a new one is granted, i.e. every 10 years.
The 2007 Charter specifies that the mission of the Corporation is to "inform, educate and entertain". It states that the Corporation exists to serve the public interest and to promote its public purposes: sustaining citizenship and civil society, promoting education and learning, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence, representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities, bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.
The 2007 Charter made the largest change in the governance of the Corporation since its inception. It abolished the sometimes controversial governing body, the Board of Governors, replacing it with the sometimes controversial BBC Trust and a formalised Executive Board.
Under the Royal Charter, the BBC must obtain a licence from the Home Secretary.[55] This licence is accompanied by an agreement which sets the terms and conditions under which the BBC is allowed to broadcast.[55] It was under this Licence and Agreement (and the Broadcasting Act 1981) that the Sinn Féin broadcast ban from 1988 to 1994 was implemented.[56][57]
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2000 to 2011

In 2002, several television and radio channels were reorganised. BBC Knowledge was replaced by BBC Four and became the BBC's arts and documentaries channel. CBBC, which had been a programming strand as Children's BBC since 1985, was split into CBBC and CBeebies, for younger children, with both new services getting a digital channel: the CBBC Channel and CBeebies Channel. In addition to the television channels, new digital radio stations were created: 1Xtra, 6 Music and BBC7. BBC 1Xtra was a sister station to Radio 1 and specialised in modern black music, BBC 6 Music specialised in alternative music genres and BBC7 specialised in archive, speech and children's programming.
The following few years resulted in repositioning of some of the channels to conform to a larger brand: in 2003, BBC Choice was replaced by BBC Three, with programming for younger generations and shocking real life documentaries, BBC News 24 became the BBC News Channel in 2008, and BBC Radio 7 became BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2011, with new programmes to supplement those broadcast on Radio 4. In 2008, another channel was launched, BBC Alba, a Scottish Gaelic service.
During this decade, the corporation began to sell off a number of its operational divisions to private owners; BBC Broadcast was spun off as a separate company in 2002,[38] and in 2005. it was sold off to Australian-based Macquarie Capital Alliance Group and Macquarie Bank Limited and rebranded Red Bee Media.[39] The BBC's IT, telephony and broadcast technology were brought together as BBC Technology Ltd in 2001,[38] and the division was later sold to the German engineering and electronics company Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS).[40] SIS was subsequently acquired from Siemens by the French company Atos.[41] Further divestments in this decade included BBC Books (sold to Random House in 2006);[42] BBC Outside Broadcasts Ltd (sold in 2008. to Satellite Information Services);[43] Costumes and Wigs (stock sold in 2008 to Angels The Costumiers);[44] and BBC Magazines (sold to Immediate Media Company in 2011).[45] After the sales of OBs and costumes, the remainder of BBC Resources was reorganised as BBC Studios and Post Production, which continues today as a wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC.
The 2004 Hutton Inquiry and the subsequent Report raised questions about the BBC's journalistic standards and its impartiality. This led to resignations of senior management members at the time including the then Director General, Greg Dyke. In January 2007, the BBC released minutes of the board meeting which led to Greg Dyke's resignation.[46]
Unlike the other departments of the BBC, the BBC World Service was funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, more commonly known as the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom abroad.
BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow, which was opened in 2007.
In 2006, BBC HD launched as an experimental service, and became official in December 2007. The channel broadcast HD simulcasts of programmes on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four as well as repeats of some older programmes in HD. In 2010, an HD simulcast of BBC One launched: BBC One HD. The channel uses HD versions of BBC One's schedule and uses upscaled versions of programmes not currently produced in HD. The BBC HD channel closed in March 2013 and was replaced by BBC2 HD in the same month.
On 18 October 2007, BBC Director General Mark Thompson announced a controversial plan to make major cuts and reduce the size of the BBC as an organisation. The plans included a reduction in posts of 2,500; including 1,800 redundancies, consolidating news operations, reducing programming output by 10% and selling off the flagship Television Centre building in London.[47] These plans have been fiercely opposed by unions, who have threatened a series of strikes; however, the BBC have stated that the cuts are essential to move the organisation forward and concentrate on increasing the quality of programming.
On 20 October 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced that the television licence fee would be frozen at its current level until the end of the current charter in 2016. The same announcement revealed that the BBC would take on the full cost of running the BBC World Service and the BBC Monitoring service from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and partially finance the Welsh broadcaster S4C.[48]
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