What is the BBC?
I’ve lived in the UK off-and-on a few times in my life and I’ve never really given the BBC much thought. I mean, it’s the BBC. It’s a television station (and these days, it’s actually two television stations: BBC1 and BBC2). I sort of figured, it’s like our PBS, right?
Answer: sort of. The BBC (which stands for British Broadcasting Corporation) is public-service-minded like our PBS. Its mission is to “enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.” But it’s not publicly funded by the government or by donations, like our PBS. It’s funded by a television license that every household in the UK must pay every year.
To make sure it is fulfilling its mission, the BBC is overseen by the BBC Trust, a group of 12 trustees (“The Trust”) and 60 staffers (“The Trust Unit”). The Trustees each serve a four-year term and are publicly appointed by the Government (“the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport”). These days, as the BBC is facing more and more competition from channels such as Sky and ITV, after the 1980s forced a deregulation of the industry, the BBC Trust has become more and more strict about budget, faculty, facilities, and more.
There is also BBC Radio, Internet, News, World Service, etc.
Read on:
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
good to know!