. for other uses see bbc disambiguation . british broadcasting corporation logo used since 4 october 1997 type statutory corporation with a royal charter industry mass media predecessor british broadcasting company founded 1 january 1922 ; 94 years ago 1922 01 01 founder john reith headquarters broadcasting house london united kingdom area served worldwide key people rona fairhead chairman bbc trust lord hall of birkenhead director general products broadcasting radio web portals services television radio online revenue 5.166 billion 2013 14 1 owner hm government number of employees 20 951 2014 15 2 website www.bbc.co.uk united kingdom www.bbc.com rest of the world the british broadcasting corporation bbc is a british public service broadcaster . it is headquartered at broadcasting house in london and is the world s oldest national broadcasting organisation 3 and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees with over 20 950 staff in total of whom 16 672 are in public sector broadcasting ; 2 4 5 6 7 including part time flexible as well as fixed contract staff the total number is 35 402 . 8 the bbc is established under a royal charter 9 and operates under its agreement with the secretary of state for culture media and sport . 10 its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee 11 which is charged to all british households companies and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts . 12 the fee is set by the british government agreed by parliament 13 and used to fund the bbc s extensive radio tv and online services covering the nations and regions of the uk . from 1 april 2014 it also funds the bbc world service launched in 1932 which provides comprehensive tv radio and online services in arabic and persian and broadcasts in 28 languages . around a quarter of bbc revenues come from its commercial arm bbc worldwide ltd which sells bbc programmes and services internationally and also distributes the bbc s international 24 hour english language news services bbc world news and bbc.com provided by bbc global news ltd. contents 1 history 1.1 the birth of british broadcasting 1920 to 1922 1.2 from private company to public service corporation and business 1923 to 1926 1.3 1926 to 1939 1.4 bbc versus other media 1.5 1939 to 2000 1.6 2000 to 2011 1.7 2011 to present 2 governance and corporate structure 2.1 charter 2.2 bbc trust 2.3 executive board 2.4 management board 2.5 operational divisions 3 finances 3.1 revenue 3.2 expenditure 4 headquarters and regional offices 5 technology atos service 6 services 6.1 television 6.1.1 genome project 6.2 radio 6.3 news 6.4 internet 6.5 interactive television 6.6 music 6.7 other 6.8 ceefax 7 commercial activities 8 cultural significance 8.1 attitudes toward the bbc in popular culture 9 criticism and controversies 10 logos and symbols of the bbc 11 see also 12 references 12.1 citations 12.2 sources 13 external links history edit further information timeline of the bbc the birth of british broadcasting 1920 to 1922 edit britain s first live public broadcast from the marconi factory in chelmsford took place in june 1920 . it was sponsored by the daily mail s lord northcliffe and featured the famous australian soprano dame nellie melba . the melba broadcast caught the people s imagination and marked a turning point in the british public s attitude to radio 14 however this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications . by late 1920 pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority the general post office gpo was sufficient to lead to a ban on further chelmsford broadcasts . 15 but by 1922 the gpo had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests 16 and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3 000 members . 17 anxious to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the united states the gpo proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufactures to be known as the british broadcasting company ltd. john reith a scottish calvinist was appointed its general manager in december 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast . 18 the company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of bbc wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers . from private company to public service corporation and business 1923 to 1926 edit the financial arrangements soon proved inadequate . set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets . 19 by mid 1923 discussions between the gpo and the bbc had become deadlocked and the postmaster general commissioned a review of broadcasting by the sykes committee . the committee recommended a short term reorganisation of licence fees with improved enforcement in order to address the bbc s immediate financial distress and an increased share of the licence revenue split between it and the gpo . this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired . the bbc s broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence as was the prohibition on advertising . the bbc was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19 00 and required to source all news from external wire services . mid 1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration this time by the crawford committee . by now the bbc under reith s leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified monopoly broadcasting service but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion . wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with reith keen that the bbc be seen as a public service rather than a commercial enterprise . the recommendations of the crawford committee were published in march the following year and were still under consideration by the gpo when the 1926 general strike broke out in may . the strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the bbc suddenly became the primary source of news for the duration of the crisis . 20 the crisis placed the bbc in a delicate position . on one hand reith was acutely aware that the government might exercise its right to commandeer the bbc at any time as a mouthpiece of the government if the bbc were to step out of line but on the other he was anxious to maintain public trust by appearing to be acting independently . the government was divided on how to handle the bbc but ended up trusting reith whose opposition to the strike mirrored the pm s own . thus the bbc was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the government s objectives largely in a manner of its own choosing . the resulting coverage of both striker and government viewpoints impressed millions of listeners who were unaware that the pm had broadcast to the nation from reith s home using one of reith s sound bites inserted at the last moment or that the bbc had banned broadcasts from the labour party and delayed a peace appeal by the archbishop of canterbury . supporters of the strike nicknamed the bbc the bfc for british falsehood company . reith personally announced the end of the strike which he marked by reciting from blake s jerusalem signifying that england had been saved . the bbc did well out of the crisis which cemented a national audience for its broadcasting and was followed by the government s official acceptance of the crawford committee recommendations transferring the operations of the company to a british broadcasting corporation established by royal charter . reith was knighted and on 1 january 1927 becoming the first director general of the british broadcasting corporation . while the bbc tends to characterise its coverage of the general strike by emphasising the positive impression created by its balanced coverage of the views of government and strikers jean seaton professor of media history and the official bbc historian has characterised the episode as the invention of modern propaganda in its british form . 20 reith argued that trust gained by authentic impartial news could then be used . impartial news was not necessarily an end in itself . 21 to represent its purpose and stated values the corporation adopted the coat of arms including the motto nation shall speak peace unto nation . 22 1926 to 1939 edit british radio audiences had little choice apart from the upscale programming of the bbc . reith an intensely moralistic executive was in full charge . his goal was to broadcast all that is best in every department of human knowledge endeavor and achievement ... . the preservation of a high moral tone is obviously of paramount importance . 23 reith succeeded in building a high wall against an american style free for all in radio in which the goal was to attract the largest audiences and thereby secure the greatest advertising revenue . there was no paid advertising on the bbc ; all the revenue came from a tax on receiving sets . highbrow audiences however greatly enjoyed it . 24 at a time when american australian and canadian stations were drawing huge audiences cheering for their local teams with the broadcast of baseball rugby and hockey the bbc emphasized service for a national rather than a regional audience . boat races were well covered along with tennis and horse racing but bbc was reluctant to spend its severely limited air time on long football or cricket games regardless of their popularity . 25 bbc versus other media edit the success of broadcasting provoked animosities between the bbc and well established media such as theatres concert halls and the recording industry . by 1929 the bbc complained that the agents of many comedians refused to sign contracts for broadcasting because they feared it harmed the artist by making his material stale and that it reduces the value of the artist as a visible music hall performer . on the other hand the bbc was keenly interested in a cooperation with the recording companies who in recent years ... have not been slow to make records of singers orchestras dance bands etc. who have already proved their power to achieve popularity by wireless . radio plays were so popular that the bbc had received 6 000 manuscripts by 1929 most of them written for stage and of little value for broadcasting day in and day out manuscripts come in and nearly all go out again through the post with a note saying we regret etc. 26 in the 1930s music broadcasts also enjoyed great popularity for example the friendly and wide ranging organ broadcasts at st george s hall langham place by reginald foort who held the official role of bbc staff theatre organist from 1936 to 1938 ; foort continued to work for the bbc as a freelance into the 1940s and enjoyed a nationwide following . experimental television broadcasts were started in 1932 using an electromechanical 30 line system developed by john logie baird . limited regular broadcasts using this system began in 1934 and an expanded service now named the bbc television service started from alexandra palace in 1936 alternating between an improved baird mechanical 240 line system and the all electronic 405 line marconi emi system . the superiority of the electronic system saw the mechanical system dropped early the following year . 27 1939 to 2000 edit television broadcasting was suspended from 1 september 1939 to 7 june 1946 during the second world war and it was left to bbc radio broadcasters such as reginald foort to keep the nation s spirits