BBC One

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BBC One <tr><th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">Image:New BBC One Logo 2006.PNG</th></tr> <tr><th>Launched</th><td>November 2 1936</td></tr><tr><th>Owned by</th><td>BBC</td></tr><tr><th>Audience share</th><td>22.2% (October '06, Source:[1])</td></tr><tr><th>Formerly called</th><td>The BBC Television Service (until April 1964)</td></tr><tr><th>Website</th><td>www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #BFDFFF; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2">Availability </th></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #d0e5f5;" align="center" colspan="2">Terrestrial</th></tr><tr><th>UK analogue</th><td>normally tuned to 1</td></tr><tr><th>Freeview</th><td>Channel 1</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #d0e5f5;" align="center" colspan="2">Satellite</th></tr><tr><th>Sky Digital</th><td>Channel 101</td></tr><tr><th>Sky Digital (ROI)</th><td>Channel 143</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #d0e5f5;" align="center" colspan="2">Cable</th></tr><tr><th>NTL:Telewest</th><td>Channel 101</td></tr><tr><th>NTL Ireland</th><td>Channel 108</td></tr>

BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the primary channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. On November 2, 1936, BBC Television Service inaugurated the world's first regular, public, high-definition television broadcasting system, although the BBC had been broadcasting television in a variety of formats since 1929.<ref>Burns, R.W. (1998). Television: An International History of the Formative Years. London: The Institution of Electrical Engineers, ix. ISBN 0-852-96914-7. "High-definition" in this context meaning an image of 240 or more lines.</ref>

The station held a monopoly on television broadcasting in the United Kingdom until the first ITV station was launched in 1955. The BBC remains one of the principal television channels in the United Kingdom and offers a broad mix of news, current affairs, comedy, drama, games and quizzes, chat shows, children's, arts, as well as some educational and religious programmes.

1 History
2 Programming
3 On-screen identity & logos
4 Network variations
5 Channel Controllers
6 References
7 External links
8 See also

[edit] History

The transmission mast above the BBC wing of Alexandra Palace, home of BBC One from 1936 until the early 1950s, photographed in 2001.

Baird Television Ltd. made Britain's first television broadcast on September 30, 1929 from its studio in Long Acre, London via the BBC's London transmitter, using the electromechanical system pioneered by John Logie Baird. This system used a vertically-scanned image of 30 lines — just enough resolution for a close-up of one person, and with a bandwidth low enough to use existing radio transmitters. Simultaneous transmission of sound and picture was achieved on March 30, 1930, by using the BBC's new twin transmitter at Brookmans Park. By late 1930, thirty minutes of morning programmes were broadcast Monday to Friday, and thirty minutes of evening programmes were broadcast at midnight on Tuesdays and Fridays after BBC radio went off the air. Baird broadcasts via the BBC continued until June 1932.

The BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London on August 22, 1932. The studio moved to expanded quarters at 16 Portland Place, London, in February 1934, and continued broadcasting the 30-line images, carried by telephone line to the medium wave transmitter at Brookmans Park, until September 11, 1935, by which time advances in all-electronic television systems made the electromechanical broadcasts obsolete.

After a series of test transmissions and special broadcasts that began in August, regular BBC television broadcasts officially resumed on November 2, 1936, from a converted wing of Alexandra Palace in London, housing two studios, various scenery stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms, offices, and even the transmitter itself, now broadcasting on the VHF band. BBC television initially used two systems, on alternate weeks: the 240-line Baird system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system, each making the BBC the world's first regular high-definition television service. The two systems were to run on a trial basis for six months. However, the Baird system, which used a mechanical camera for filmed programming and Farnsworth image dissector cameras for live programming, proved too cumbersome and visually inferior, and was dropped in February 1937.

Initially, the station's range was officially only within a twenty-five mile (40 km) radius of the Alexandra Palace transmitter—in practice, however, transmissions could be picked up a good deal further away, and on one occasion in 1938 were picked up by engineers at RCA in New York, who were experimenting with a British television set.<ref>They filmed the static-ridden output they saw on their screen, and this poor-quality, mute film footage is the only surviving record of 1930s British television filmed directly from the screen. However, some images of programmes do survive in newsreels, which also contain some footage shot in studios while programmes were being made, giving a feel for what was being done, albeit without directly replicating what was being shown on screen.</ref>

On September 1, 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was unceremoniously taken off air with only two hours' warning at 12:35pm, after the end of the broadcast of the Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Gala Première, various sound and vision test signals, and announcements by presenter Fay Cavendish. It was feared that the VHF transmissions would act as a beacon to enemy aircraft homing in on London. Also, many of the television service's technical staff and engineers would be needed for the war effort, in particular on the RADAR programme. According to figures from England's Radio Manufacturers Association, 18,999 television sets had been manufactured from 1936 to September 1939, when production was halted by the war.

BBC television returned on June 7, 1946 at 3pm. Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement saying, 'Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?' The Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later.<ref>Back after the breakFinlo Roer; BBC News Online, 7 June 2006</ref>

Postwar broadcast coverage extended to Birmingham in 1949 with the opening of the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter, and by the early 1950s the entire country was covered.

Alexandra Palace was the home base of the channel until the early 1950s when the majority of production moved to the Lime Grove Studios, and then in 1960 the headquarters moved to the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, also in London, where the channel is based to this day.

The station was renamed BBC1 when BBC2 was launched in April 1964. On November 15, 1969, simultaneous with ITV and two years after BBC2, the channel began 625-line PAL colour programming. Stereo transmissions began in 1988, and wide-screen programming was introduced on digital platforms in 1998. However, many of these developments took some years to become available on all transmitters.

For the first half-century of its existence, with the exception of films and imported programmes from countries such as the United States and Australia, almost all the channel's output was produced by the BBC's in-house production departments. This changed following the Broadcasting Act 1990, which required that 25% of the BBC's television output be out-sourced to independent production companies. As of 2004 many popular BBC One shows are made for the channel by independents, but the in-house production departments continue to contribute heavily to the schedule.

[edit] Programming

Main article: List of television programmes broadcast by the BBC

BBC One is more mainstream than its sister station BBC Two and generally gets higher ratings, competing with ITV1 as the most-viewed terrestrial channel in the UK. The BBC's main sport and news programmes have their homes here, as does CBBC (the output aimed at younger viewers), mainstream drama and comedy programming, film premieres and documentaries.

Weekday regular news programmes are the One O'Clock News, Six O'Clock News and the Ten O'Clock News. The Six is followed by a half-hour regional news show while the others are followed by ten minute update programmes. The station broadcasts continuously, broadcasting BBC News 24 from the early hours in the morning until 6:00 when BBC Breakfast starts. Daytime programming begins again at 9:15, with the One O'Clock News intervening, and consists of a mix of lifestyle shows and repeats, as well as the first showing of Neighbours. From around 3.30pm until 5.35pm, the channel is used for CBBC. There is a repeat of Neighbours afterwards, just before the Six O'Clock News. Weekend schedules are more flexible.

Programmes generally found to have been popular on other BBC channels tend to be moved to prime time slots on BBC One for either new series or to be repeated. Notable examples have included Match of the Day, Have I Got News For You, and The Kumars at No. 42. Occasionally the opposite may occur where programmes may be moved the other way if they decline in popularity or if their audience is judged to have changed; for example, Top of the Pops switched channels in 2005 after 41 years on BBC One.

[edit] On-screen identity & logos

Main article: BBC television idents

Computer Originated World (COW), BBC1's primary ident from February 1985 to February 1991.

BBC1's primary ident from February 1991 to October 1997.

Image:BBC One Capoeira.jpg

Image:Bbc one 2006.jpg

BBC One's identity has been symbolised by a globe for most of its existence. Originally in 1962 this was represented as a map of the UK shown between programmes, but in 1963 the globe first appeared, changing in style and appearance over the next 39 years.

From 15 November 1969 it became a 'mirror-globe' in several colours and sizes (a globe in front of a curved mirror which reflected a distorted view of the reverse).

On 18 February 1985 the COW (Computer Originated World) debuted. This was a computer-animated globe with the land coloured gold and the sea a transparent blue, giving the impression of a glass globe.

On 16 February 1991, on the same day that BBC Two rebranded, an ethereal crystal-ball-type globe appeared, which was played out on air from laserdisc.

On 4 October 1997, the revolving aspect disappeared as the globe became a red, orange and yellow hot-air balloon, coloured to resemble a globe, flying around various places in the UK. This was the first BBC1 identity to appear in multiple versions; the balloon was seen floating over numerous British landscapes, and in later variations, superimposed on more distant locations including Sydney (during the 2000 Summer Olympics) and even prehistoric Earth (when Walking with Dinosaurs was broadcast). See BBC One Balloon idents.

On 29 March 2002, the globe finally disappeared from television screens, to be replaced by a series of idents consisting of people dancing in various styles (see BBC 'Rhythm & Movement' idents). The Daily Mirror newspaper marked the event with a short article that was headlined "The End Of The World".

On 7 October 2006, at 10:00 BST, the 'Rhythm and Movement' idents and 'red square' logo were replaced, after four-and-a-half years. The new set of idents are based on circles (see BBC 'Circle' idents), such as a wave (see picture to the right). According to the BBC, the circle symbol both represents togetherness and acts a nod to the former globe idents. The current presentation package consists of eight idents, though as with previous styles, more are likely to be added over time. The new logo uses a softer typeface and is written ^BBCone. The first new ident shown was labelled 'Kites'.

A selection of the outgoing 'Rhythm & Movement' idents were shown at 01:10 BST on 7 October on BBC One, as a final farewell (the "last dance") prior to BBC One joining BBC News 24 for the night.

Instead of the globe, a clock was sometimes displayed (usually before the news). This disappeared, along with the balloon, in 2002. The use of on-screen clocks has been largely discontinued in recent years, as the delays introduced by the various forms of modern television transmission (e.g. digital encoding and decoding, transmission delays in sending a signal to a geosynchronous satellite and back to the viewer, etc.) mean that there can be several seconds' variation between analogue terrestrial, digital terrestrial, and digital satellite reception.

For schools programmes, there was a diamond used from the early 1970s until 1977. From 1977 to 1983, the BBC1 'Schools And Colleges' dots were used; every few seconds, a dot would disappear until all 20 dots had gone, and then the programme would start. Schools programmes moved to BBC Two in 1983.

Various special idents have been used over the years at Christmas, with a new one each year except 2003, when that of 2002 was reused.

[edit] Network variations

Image:Bbconescotlandidentnew.jpg

To reflect the countries within the United Kingdom that the channel is available in, BBC One has individual continuity and opt-outs for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The channel's visual identity is largely the same as the national version, save for the inclusion of the country name below the main BBC One logo.

In the English regions<ref>bbc.co.uk/england BBC -Where I Live - England</ref>, the BBC has regional news and current affairs programme opt-outs as well as a limited amount of countinuity for the English regions. During such regional opt-outs, the region name is displayed as with the national variations, in smaller characters beneath the main channel logo. A generic news programme, UK Today, available mainly to digital viewers but also shown in the case of problems with regional news programmes was discontinued in 2002 - the replacement transmission is now BBC London News.

BBC One Scotland has undoubtedly the greatest level of variation from the generic network, owing to BBC Scotland preferring to schedule Scottish programming on the main BBC Scotland channel, rather than on BBC Two^{[citation needed]}. BBC One Scotland variations include the soap opera River City and the football programme Sportscene, the inclusion of which causes network programming to be displaced or replaced.

BBC One Wales was considered a separate channel by the BBC upon its launch in the mid-1960s, appearing as "BBC Wales" (without the "1")<ref>"...a separate service - BBC Wales - available to the greater part of the people in the Principality..." BBC Handbook 1967, p25; British Broadcasting Corporation, London: 1966</ref> .