Timeline of BBC Television News

This is a timeline of the history of BBC Television News.

1930s
  • 1936
    • 2 November – The BBC opens the world's first regular high-definition television service, from Alexandra Palace. Television news coverage consists of cinema newsreels from British Movietone News and sound-only news bulletins from BBC Radio.
  • 1937
  • 1938
    • No events.
  • 1939
    • 1 September – The BBC Television Service is suspended, owing to the imminent outbreak of the Second World War.

1940s
  • 1940 to 1945
    • No events due to television being closed for the duration of the Second World War.
  • 1946
    • 7 June – BBC Television broadcasts resume.
    • BBC Radio bulletins start being simulcast on television, with a still picture of Big Ben.[1]
  • 1947
  • 1948
    • 5 January – The first edition of Television Newsreel is broadcast. The weeknight programme, broadcast at 7.30 pm, runs for fifteen minutes.
  • 1949
    • No events.

1950s
  • 1950
  • 1951
  • 1952
    • 11 November – The first edition of Panorama is presented by Daily Mail reporter Pat Murphy. Panorama is the world's longest-running current affairs programme and retains a peak-time slot to this day.
  • 1953
    • 2 June – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey is televised by the BBC and watched live by an estimated audience of 20 million people in the United Kingdom.
  • 1954
  • 1955
  • 1956
    • No events.
  • 1957
    • 18 February. The first episode of Tonight is broadcast.
    • 30 August – BBC Scotland launches a weekday five-minute news bulletin and a Saturday teatime sports round-up. They launch one day before the start of broadcasting by Scottish television which provided its own regional news service from the outset.
    • September – The first broadcasts of regional news bulletins on the BBC take place and bulletins also start being broadcast in Wales and Northern Ireland.
    • 30 September – Regional television news bulletins for the north of England begin from Piccadilly's studio N in Manchester.[3]
  • 1958
    • No events
  • 1959

1960s
  • 1960
    • No events.
  • 1961
  • 1962
    • 17 September – BBC Wales launches Wales Today. The programme is seen by viewers in both Wales and the west of England until February 1964 when the BBC Wales and BBC West regions are created.
  • 1963
  • 1964
    • 20 April – BBC2 beings broadcasting and BBC News launches a new news programme for the channel called Newsroom.
    • 26 April – Another new news programme for BBC2 is launched. Called News Review, the programme is a summary of the week's news with subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
  • 1965
    • 18 June – The last edition of Tonight broadcasts on BBC1 for the final time.[4]
  • 1966
  • 1967
    • No events.
  • 1968
    • 7 March – Newsroom on BBC2 becomes the first UK news programme to be transmitted in colour.[6]
    • 25 March – BBC regional television from Leeds begins and the first edition of Look North is broadcast. Previously, the Yorkshire area had been part of a wider North region based in Manchester.
    • 1 April – The first edition of BBC Scotland's Reporting Scotland is broadcast.
  • 1969

1970s
  • 1971
    • No events.
  • 1972
    • 4 April – The first edition of Newsround is broadcast.
    • 29 December – The final edition of BBC2's news programme Newsroom is broadcast. It is replaced by a five-minute news summary
  • 1973
    • 2 January – A new late evening extended news bulletin News Extra begins broadcasting on BBC2.
  • 1974
    • 7 January – A two-minute mid-afternoon regional news summary is broadcast on BBC1 for the first time. It is transmitted immediately before the start of the afternoon's children's programmes.
    • 23 September – Teletext service Ceefax goes live.
  • 1975
    • 1 September –
      • Tonight returns to BBC1 after thirteen years off air. The new programme airs as a late evening news and analysis programme.[8]
      • BBC2's late evening news bulletin is renamed Newsnight.
  • 1976
    • 17 September – The original incarnation of Newsnight is broadcast for the final time. It is replaced three days later with a shorter bulletin called Late Night News on 2.
  • 1977
    • No events.
  • 1978
    • No events.
  • 1979
    • 5 July – The final edition of Tonight is broadcast on BBC1.[9]
    • 25 September – The first edition of Question Time is broadcast on BBC1.

1980s
  • 1980
    • 28 January – Newsnight is launched.
    • March – The very first in-vision Ceefax transmissions are broadcast.
  • 1981
    • 29 July – The Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer is produced by BBC Television & Radio with an audience of 750 million viewers and listeners in over 60 countries.
    • 4 September – The final edition of the Midday News is broadcast.
    • 7 September – News After Noon is launched as a 30-minute lunchtime news programme, replacing the much shorter Midday News.
  • 1982
    • BBC News provides extensive coverage of the Falklands War with newsflashes supplemented by additional and extended news bulletins, including weekend editions of Newsnight.
    • 1 November – The first edition of Welsh-language news bulletin Newyddion is broadcast on the first night of broadcasting of Wales' new fourth channel S4C.
  • 1983
    • 17 January – Breakfast Time, the UK's first national breakfast television service, is launched. News bulletins and summaries are broadcast every 30 minutes.
    • 5 August – The final edition of Nationwide is broadcast.
    • 24 October – Sixty Minutes launches as the new evening news programme to replace Nationwide.
  • 1984
    • 27 July – The final edition of Sixty Minutes is broadcast.
    • 30 July – BBC1's teatime news programme reverts to its original name of Evening News and to its original broadcast time of 5.40 pm. The regional news programmes follow, broadcasting for 20 minutes from 5.55 pm. This is a stop-gap measure and continues for five weeks.
    • 3 September – BBC1's teatime news hour is relaunched and now runs from 6 pm until 7 pm. A new 30-minute long news programme the Six O'Clock News is launched and this is followed by a longer regional news magazine, which is expanded to 25 minutes.
    • 18 November – The BBC launches its first Sunday lunchtime political interview show, called This Week, Next Week.
    • December – BBC1 stops broadcasting a late night news summary.
  • 1985
    • 23 January – Television coverage of proceedings in the House of Lords begins.[10]
    • 30 August – The weekday lunchtime Financial Report, broadcast on BBC1 in London and the south east, is broadcast for the final time ahead of the launch of a lunchtime regional news bulletin for viewers in the BBC South East region.
    • 2 September – A regional news bulletin following the Nine O'Clock News is launched.
    • 22 December – Having been broadcast every Sunday teatime since the launch of BBC2 in 1964, News Review is broadcast for the final time.
  • 1986
    • 4 January – The first edition of NewsView is broadcast on BBC2. The new Saturday early evening programme lasts 40 minutes and combines the day's news with a look back at the week's news.
    • 9 June – BBC Television broadcasts its first Parliamentary review programme when the first edition of The Lords This Week is broadcast on BBC2.
    • 17 October – BBC2 broadcasts a teatime news summary with subtitles for the last time. For the past three years this bulletin, which had been broadcast at around 5.25 pm, had been the first programme of the day (apart from educational programmes and sports coverage).
    • 24 October – Ahead of the launch of the BBC's new daytime service, News After Noon is broadcast for the final time.
    • 27 October –
      • BBC1 starts a full daytime television service. Among the new programmes is a new lunchtime news bulletin – the One O'Clock News. The programme continues to this day.
      • The weekday mid-afternoon regional news summary moves to BBC2.
    • 10 November – Breakfast Time is relaunched with a more formal news and current affairs format.
    • 8 December – Six weeks after launching its daytime service, BBC TV starts broadcasting hourly news summaries. Morning bulletins are shown on BBC1 and early afternoon summaries (at 2 pm, 3 pm and 3:50 pm) are shown on BBC2. Each bulletin is followed by a weather forecast.
  • 1987
    • No events.
  • 1988
    • 18 September – On the Record replaces This Week Next Week as BBC1's Sunday lunchtime political discussion programme.
    • 31 October – For the first time, Newsnight is given a fixed starting time, of 10.30 pm.
  • 1989

1990s
  • 1990
    • 14 January – Following the start of television coverage of the House of Commons, the BBC launches a regional politics programme. It forms part of a new Sunday lunchtime Westminster Hour.
    • 15 October – As part of a relaunch of its weekday morning output, the new service includes hourly regional news summaries, broadcast after the on-the-hour news bulletins.
  • 1991
    • 7 January – The BBC East Midlands region is created and the first edition of East Midlands Today is broadcast.
    • 16 January – 2 March – BBC News provides extensive coverage of the Gulf War. In addition to extended news bulletins, a daytime news and analysis programme War in the Gulf is broadcast, presented by David Dimbleby although as the War progresses, War in the Gulf is scaled back to allow BBC1 to resume its regular daytime schedule.
    • NewsView is broadcast on BBC Two for the final time, bringing to an end the weekly news review with on-screen subtitles that BBC Two had broadcast since the channel first went on air in 1964. BBC Two replaces the programme with a standard 15-minute news and sport bulletin.
    • 15 April – The World Service Television News service is launched. Unlike World Service radio which is funded by direct grant from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, WSTV is commercially funded and carries advertising, which means that it cannot be broadcast in the UK.
    • 21 September – The BBC launches a five-minute long weekend breakfast news bulletin.[11]
  • 1992
    • No events.
  • 1993
    • 3 January – The debut of Breakfast with Frost, a Sunday morning current affairs programme on BBC1 presented by David Frost.[12]
    • 13 April – For the first time all BBC News programmes have the same look following a relaunch of all of the main news bulletins.
  • 1994
    • 19 September – The BBC launches a weekday lunchtime business, personal finance and consumer news programme. Called Working Lunch, the programme is broadcast on BBC2 for 42 weeks each year.
  • 1995
  • 1996
    • No events.
  • 1997
    • 31 August – BBC1 continues to air through the whole night, simulcasting with BBC World News, to bring news updates of Diana, Princess of Wales's car accident. At 6 am, a rolling news programme is shown on both BBC1 and BBC2 until BBC2 breaks away at 3 pm to provide alternative programming. BBC1 continues to provide coverage until closedown when it once again hands over to BBC World. During the following week, BBC1 broadcasts extended news coverage of the events following Princess Diana's death.
    • 6 September – The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales is broadcast on BBC Radio & Television and aired to over 200 countries worldwide. Nearly 3 billion viewers and listeners watch the ceremonies.
    • 4 November – BBC News Online launches.[13] This follows specially created websites covering the 1997 general election, and the death of Princess Diana.
    • 9 November – BBC News 24, the Corporation's UK television news service, launches at 17.30.
  • 1998
    • 23 September – Following its purchase of the cable-only Parliamentary Channel, the BBC launches BBC Parliament on digital satellite and analogue cable with an audio feed of the channel on DAB.[14]
    • 20 October – A new late night programme review of the day's events in Westminster, Despatch Box, is launched. It replaces The Midnight Hour.
    • 15 November –
      • The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK. Consequently BBC News 24 is now available to all digital viewers for the first time.
      • The first edition of UK Today is broadcast. It airs as a replacement for the regional news bulletins because English variations on satellite were not possible due to a single broadcast feed being able to cover the entirety of England (in reality it could cover much of north and western Europe) and also because the regional broadcasting centres had not been upgraded to digital which meant they were unable to opt out of the network. Therefore, in the initial months of digital television in the UK, BBC regional news was only available to analogue viewers.
  • 1999

2000s
  • 2000
    • 15 September – The final edition of Breakfast News is broadcast.
    • 2 October –
      • The first edition of BBC Breakfast is broadcast, the new morning show on BBC One and News 24 from 6:00–9:30. (9:00 on BBC News 24).
      • BBC News starts broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen.
    • 13 October – Final edition of the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC One.
    • 16 October – The BBC Ten O'Clock News launches on BBC One amid controversy, having been moved from 9 pm to cash in on the axing of ITN's News at Ten the previous year.
    • 16 October – Oxfordshire, once part of the South East, becomes part of South Today.
  • 2001
    • 16 July – The first edition of 60 Seconds is broadcast on BBC Choice. The bulletin is broadcast on the hour each evening between 7 pm and midnight.
    • 3 September – As part of a major reorganisation of the BBC's south east region, Kent and Sussex get their own news programme, South East Today, replacing Newsroom South East.
    • 11 September – Viewers around the world witness a terrorist attack on the United States, and the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City, live on television. BBC1 abandons regular programming to provide up to date coverage of unfolding events.
    • 1 October – BBC London is launched, replacing Newsroom South East.[18]
  • 2002
    • 11 February – As part of the launch of the CBBC Newsround is expanded and several editions are broadcast on the new channel.
    • 30 October – BBC Parliament launches on digital terrestrial television, having previously only been available as an audio-only service. However capacity limitations mean that the picture is squeezed into just one quarter of the screen.
    • 11 November – The first edition of a new East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire edition of BBC Look North is broadcast, while the Leeds-based Look North programme now covers West, North and South Yorkshire and the North Midlands.
    • 20 December – The final editions of Westminster Live and Despatch Box are broadcast.
  • 2003
    • 8 January – As a result of the review of the BBC's political output,[19] coverage of politics on BBC Television is relaunched resulting in the first editions of Daily Politics and its Sunday companion programme the Politics Show.[20]
    • 16 January – BBC One broadcasts the first edition of This Week.
    • 7 March – The launch of BBC Three results in the start of a new news bulletin for the channel, called The 7 O'Clock News.
    • 20 March – As the 2003 invasion of Iraq begins many broadcasters abandon regular programming to provide up to date coverage of unfolding events.
    • UK Today ends after all of the BBC's regional centres are upgraded for digital broadcasting. However it wasn't until May until all 17 regional services became available on satellite due to the BBC broadcasting all seventeen different feeds on 17 different channels on satellite. The intervening two months see satellite viewers received the BBC South East programme with four other regions available via an interactive service.
    • 8 December – BBC News 24 is relaunched with a new set and titles, as well as a new Breaking News sting. Networked news on BBC One and Two remains with the same titles though the set was redesigned in a similar style to that of the new News 24.
  • 2004
    • 16 February – Network news titles are relaunched in the style of BBC News 24, introduced two months earlier.
  • 2005
  • 2006
    • 31 May – The World on BBC Four is replaced by an edition of World News Today
    • 13 November – BBC Parliament broadcasts in full screen format for the first time on the Freeview service, having previously only been available in quarter screen format.[24] The BBC eventually found the bandwidth to make the channel full-screen after receiving "thousands of angry and perplexed e-mails and letters",[25] not to mention questions asked by MPs in the Houses of Parliament itself
  • 2007
    • 22 January – BBC News 24 is relaunched with new titles and new Astons.
    • May – A pilot of a new 8 pm BBC News Summary begins in the East Midlands prior to being rolled out across the UK. The summary consists of a national bulletin followed by a regional summary.
    • 9 September – The BBC One Sunday morning political programme Sunday AM is renamed The Andrew Marr Show when it returns after its summer break.[26][27]
  • 2008
  • 2009

2010s
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
    • 15 January – The Sunday Politics is broadcast for the first time.
    • 7 March – Brighton moves from South region, to South-East region, after the Meridian digital switch-over.
    • 23 October – The BBC's teletext service Ceefax is switched off following all regions switching to digital broadcasting. The very last Pages from Ceefax transmission had taken place two days earlier.
    • 21 December – Newsround is broadcast on BBC One for the final time due to the decision to end the BBC One afternoon block of children's programmes.
  • 2013
    • 5 April – BBC Monitoring moves to Licence Fee funding.
    • 10 December – The BBC News Channel starts broadcasting in high definition.[31]
  • 2014
  • 2015
    • 7 April – BBC News launches a new two-hour weekday current affairs programme called The Victoria Derbyshire Show. The programme is broadcast on both BBC Two and the BBC News Channel;[34]
    • 1 June – BBC ‘World News programmes Outside Source and Business Live make their debut on the BBC News Channel. They appear as a result of cutbacks which also sees the overnight simulcast of BBC World News beginning an hour earlier, at midnight.
  • 2016
  • 2017
    • No events.
  • 2018
    • 30 May – The final 8 pm BBC News Summary is broadcast.
    • 24 July – The final edition of Daily Politics (and Sunday spin-off The Sunday Politics) is broadcast, ending a fifteen-year run as BBC News' flagship weekday politics show.[36][37]
    • 3 September – The first edition of Politics Live is broadcast.
  • 2019
    • 4 March – The Monday to Thursday editions of BBC News at Ten are cut from 45 minutes to 35 minutes. The reduction affects editions of the national and local news bulletins airing in that timeslot, as well as the post-bulletin weather forecast, and is done to make way for a new BBC Three strand of programming, as well as avoiding a clash with the start of BBC Two's Newsnight.[38]
    • 18 July – BBC One broadcasts the final edition of This Week after sixteen years on air. A special live audience edition of the programme marks its finale.[39]
    • 18 November – The BBC announces plans to close its red button text service by the end of 30 January 2020.[40]

2020s
  • 2020
    • 29 January – The BBC announces that it has suspended its plan to switch-off the BBC Red Button service, one day before the service was due to have started being phased out. The announcement comes following a petition, organised by the National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK),[41] which was submitted to the BBC and Downing Street.[42] following protests.[42]
    • 17 March – The final edition of The Victoria Derbyshire Show is broadcast to focus on coverage of the Coronavirus pandemic. The programme had been due to come off air later in 2020 due to funding cuts.[43][44]
    • July – The teatime edition of Newsround is axed, having been on air since 1972. It ended following the BBC concluding that children no longer turn on traditional television channels when they return home from school and instead the BBC would focus on the morning edition which will be aimed at schools, where it is often used by teachers in classrooms.[45]
    • August – The additional simulcasts between the BBC News Channel and BBC World News are made permanent. Consequently, the two channels now simulcast between each day 10:00 to 12:00 and on weekdays 19:00 to 06:00, with opt-outs for BBC News at Ten and for half an hour at 20:30, and between 21:00 to 06:00, apart from the evening BBC One bulletin, at the weekend.[46]

See also

References
  1. Crisell, Andrew (1997). An Introductory History of British Broadcasting. Routledge. pp. 15, 26–27, 92. ISBN 0-415-12802-1.
  2. 1950s British TV Milestones Whirligig 50s British TV
  3. "CHAPTER FOUR – BBC MANCHESTER – A HISTORY" (PDF). BBC Trust. p. 26. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  4. "Tonight – BBC One London – 18 June 1965 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  5. "The Money Programme – BBC Two England – 5 April 1966 – BBC Genome". BBC. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  6. History of the BBC – key dates page 5 BBC Heritage 1960s.
  7. "About the Ten O'Clock News". BBC News. 17 January 2003. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
  8. BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 1 September 1975
  9. BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 5 July 1979
  10. BC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 23 January 1985
  11. BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 21 September 1991
  12. "Breakfast with Frost – BBC One London – 3 January 1993". BBC Genome. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  13. How the BBC News website has changed over the past 20 years
  14. "BBC Parliament • September 1998 – October 2002". Thetvroom.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  15. "Newsnight Scotland". BBC News. 4 October 1999. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  16. Williams, Craig (25 January 2005). "Devolution and Newsnight Scotland". BBC News. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  17. "BBC's all-star millennium bash". BBC News. BBC. 2 December 1999. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  18. Welsh, James (24 September 2001). "Countdown to launch of new BBC London services". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  19. Deans, Jason (23 December 2004). "BBC appoints new head of newsgathering". The Guardian. London.
  20. Cozens, Claire; Deans, Jason (20 September 2002). "The BBC: A new manifesto for viewers". The Guardian. London.
  21. "Breakfast with Frost – BBC One London – 29 May 2005". BBC Genome. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  22. "Sunday AM – BBC One – 11 September 2005". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  23. BBC Three drops nightly news show BBC News, 21 October 2005
  24. "BBC Parliament goes full screen". BBC News. 13 November 2006. Retrieved 1 May 2009.
  25. "BBC NEWS – The Editors". Retrieved 1 May 2009.
  26. "The Andrew Marr Show: Labour focus on action". BBC News. BBC. 9 September 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  27. Jones, Barney (26 September 2007). "The Editors: What's in a name?". BBC. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  28. "BBC Arabic-language television channel to be launched 11 March". Arab Media & Society. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  29. "BBC Awaits response to Persian TV". BBC. 14 January 2009. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  30. "BBC's Working Lunch show to end". BBC News. 23 April 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  31. "BBC to launch five new subscription-free HD channels on Tuesday 10 December". BBC. 9 December 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  32. Miller, Phil (6 February 2014). "Newsnight Scotland to be axed ahead of referendum". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  33. Carrell, Severin (21 June 2016). "BBC to scrap flagship current affairs show Scotland 2016". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  34. Plunkett, John (8 July 2014). "5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire to join BBC News Channel". The Guardian.
  35. Carrell, Severin (21 June 2016). "BBC to scrap flagship current affairs show Scotland 2016". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  36. "Goodbye to the Daily Politics after 15 years". BBC News.
  37. "BBC – BBC announces changes to political programming – Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk.
  38. Tobitt, Charlotte (13 February 2019). "BBC to shorten News at Ten by 10 minutes to introduce 'youth programming' slot". Press Gazette. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  39. "Thursday 18 July: Join This Week for audience programme". BBC News. BBC. 20 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  40. Upcoming changes to BBC interactive services on TV
  41. "Save the BBC Red Button Teletext Service!". NFBUK. 22 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  42. "BBC suspends Red Button text switch-off". BBC News. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  43. "Victoria Derbyshire Show to come off air". BBC News. 22 January 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  44. "BBC News to close 450 posts as part of £80m savings drive". BBC News. BBC. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  45. "BBC axes evening edition of Newsround after 48 years". The Guardian. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  46. https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/news-modernisation-update
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