BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation, known as the BBC, was first formed as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd in 1922, the year in which it transmitted its first series of experimental broadcasts including news summaries.http://news.bbc.co.uk/aboutbbcnews/spl/hi/history/noflash/html/intro_noflash.stm Initially funded as a private enterprise by grouping several telecommunications companies, including General Electric, it became the first national broadcasting service in the world.http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/purpose/what.shtml

In 1927 the British Broadcasting Company Ltd was dissolved as a private company and assumed operations as a non-commercial venture under Royal Charter, changing its name to the British Broadcasting Corporation.http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/innovation/index.shtml

The BBC realized its first television broadcast in 1929 utilizing a mechanically scanned, 30-line television camera. A regular broadcasting schedule of television programming began in 1930. By 1939, the BBC had an estimated audience of 40,000 households for its television broadcast. Shortly after the start of World War II, television broadcasts were suspended, although its radio broadcast continued. Television broadcasts did not resume until 1946. In 2008, the BBC started streaming all of its national television channels on its website to users in the United kingdom.http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/11_november/19/simulcast.shtml

The BBC obtains its operational funding through a combination of the UK television licensing fee, government grants, re-transmission contracts and commercial operations.

Currently, the BBC operates eight television channels and ten radio stations on a national level in the United kingdom, in conjunction with forty local radio stations. Through its BBC World Service unit, the BBC broadcasts news and select programming to a worldwide audience in 32 languages via television, radio and internet transmission.http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/purpose/what.shtml

In 2008, the Arabic service of the BBC, one of the 32 languages in which the BBC broadcasts through its BBC World Service, became the first non-English language broadcast by the BBC to be transmitted in a tri-media format. Tri-media refers to transmission of its news and analysis in the television, radio and internet formats.http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/innovation/2000s_printable.shtml

• October 18, 1922: BBC founded
• January 1, 1927: Granted Royal Charter
• January 3, 1928: First foreign language broadcast
• September 30, 1967: BBC Radio 1 launched
• November 8, 1967: BBC local radio starts
• June 1, 1999: BBC Knowledge starts broadcasting on digital services
• May 27, 2006: BBC's first scheduled HDTV broadcast on BBC HD
• December 25, 2007: BBC iPlayer online service launched