The BBC

British Radio and Television

In 1936 the government established the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to provide a public service in radio. Since then the BBC has been most affected by the invention of television, which changed the entertainment habits of the nation, and the establishment of independent and commercial radio and television, which removed the BBC’s broadcasting monopoly. In spite of its much reduced evening audience, BBC radio still provides an important service. Its five radio stations provide non-stop pop music, light entertainment, minority interests (e.g. classical music, arts programmes and academic material, cricket commentating in the summer months), news and comment and discussion programmes, sport and education.

Radio 1 began in 1967. Devoted almost entirely to pop music, its birth was a signal that popular youth culture could no longer be ignored by the country's established institutions. Radio 2 also broadcasts popular music but less contemporary than that on Radio 1. At the time of writing it is the Britain’s most popular radio station. Radio 3 is devoted to classical music. Radio 4 broadcasts a variety of programmes, from plays and comedy shows to consumer advice programmes and in-depth news coverage. It has a small but dedicated following. Radio 5 is largely given over to sports coverage and news. Because of all the sport, it is sometimes referred to as 'Radio Bloke'. ('Bloke' is an informal word for a man which emphasizes male interests).

Just as the British Parliament has the reputation for being 'the mother of parliaments', so the BBC might be said to be 'the mother of information services'. Its reputation for impartiality and objectivity in news reporting is, at least when compared to news broadcasting in many other counties, largely justified. In fact, the BBC is rather proud of the fact that it gets complaints from both sides of the political divide, because this testifies not only to its impartiality bur also to its independence.

Interestingly, though, this independence is as much the result of habit and common agreement as it is the result of its legal status. It is true that it depends neither on advertising nor (directly) on the government for its income. It gets this from the licence fee which everybody who uses a television set has to pay. However, the government decides how much this fee is going to be, appoints its board of governors and its director-general, has the right to veto any BBC programme before it has been transmitted and even has the right to take away the BBC's licence to broadcast. In theory, therefore, it would be easy for a government to influence what the BBC does.

Nevertheless, the BBC has established its effective independence and its reputation for impartiality. It has always been identified with the principles of democracy and free speech. In this way the BBC's fame became international. Today, the World Service still broadcasts around the globe, in English and several other languages. The strength of the BBC external services has been the provision of relatively objective and impartial news and comment tolisteners in countries where local censorship exists. The BBC also runs ten national radio stations inside Britain and several local ones (BBC Radio).

Дата добавления: 2014-12-16