British Broadcasting Corporation.

BBC

1.     Describe the history of the BBC- when it was founded and how it started?

The BBC is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world. Its mission is to enrich people's lives with programmes that inform, educate and entertain and is a 'public corporation ‘neither a private corporation nor a government department. The high ideal is that it is held in trust for the public of the UK by the BBC Trust and it is owned by the UK taxpayers. The government funds the BBC by charging all UK television viewers a license fee. Mark Thompson is currently the director general and other key people are George Entwistle director of BBC Vision, Tim Davie director of BBC Audio & Music, Ralph Rivera director of Future Media, Zarin Patel chief financial officer, Caroline Thomson Chief Operating Officer and Helen Boaden director of News.

2.     Explain how the BBC is funded and operates?

The BBC has the second largest budget of any UK broadcaster with an operating expenditure of £4.26 billion in 2010 compared to £5.9 billion for British Sky Broadcasting. All BBC funding is through the television license, costing £145.50 per year per household. Such a license is required to receive broadcast television across Britain however a discount is available for households with only black and white television and 50% discount is also offered to registered blind. Additional revenues are paid by the Department for Work and Pensions to compensate for subsidized licenses for eligible over 75 year-olds.

BBC income can be broken down as follows:

·      £3.4 billion in licence fees collected from householders.

·       £888.3 million from BBC Commercial Businesses.

·       £293 million from government grants.

·       £112.9 million from other income, such as providing content to overseas broadcasters and concert ticket sales.