British Broadcasting Corporation

It is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, with over 20,000 staff in total, of which 16,672 are in public sector broadcasting

The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts.The British Broadcasting Company started daily transmissions on November 14th 1922, by which time more than one million ten-shilling (50p) licences had been issued. In 1927 the company was restructured as a public corporation -the BBC that we know today- by its founding father, John (later Lord) Reith, but by this time an even newer technology was being developed -television Ram

in

Services and channels

Summary about Ofcom and remit

Ofcom has certain powers to regulate the BBC's licence fee funded television and radio services aimed at audiences in the UK, but not the World Service which is grant-in-aid funded. Ofcom's Broadcasting Code applies in the following areas:

1-Protection of under-18s

2-Harm and Offence

3-Avoidance of inciting crime or disorder

4-Responsible approach to religious content

5-Prohibition of use of images of very brief duration

6-Fairness

7-Privacy.

Public purposes and purpose remitsThe Charter defines the main objective of the BBC as the promotion of six public purposes. These are:

1-Sustaining citizenship and civil society

2-Promoting education and learning

3-Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence

4-Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities

5-Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK

6-In promoting its other purposes, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services and, in addition, taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.

Audience researchDespite the choice of media available to UK licence fee payers today, 97 per cent of UK adults (47 million people) consume at least 15 minutes of a BBC service in an average week, and they spend over 19 hours a week on averagewith the BBC.

According to the quality research As well as measuring how many people consume BBC services, it is important to understand the way in which people feel about the organisation. This is measured on a monthly basis via a bespoke survey run by an independent research agency, Kantar Media. A representative sample of the UK public is asked to give the BBC a score out of 10 (not just for the programmes, but the sort of organisation the BBC is and the way it goes about providing a public broadcasting service). This measure is called the General Impression of the BBC and in January – March 2011 the mean score for the BBC was 7 out of 10. The public’s General Impression of the BBC is at its highest for three years.

Audience participants were generally agreed that although the media does have a responsibility toreflect society accurately in all its diversity this was not just specifically in relation to age. Theirviews applied to the portrayal of society in its totality and so age was viewed as an aspect of thisand typically a relatively unimportant one when compared with ethnicity and gender.

Feedback/reviews

BBC TRUSTLed by the Chairman, the Trust is made up of 12 Trustees with a wide breadth of experience.There are four National Trustees who represent England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and there is also an International Trustee who has specific oversight of the BBC's international public services, including the World Service. All Trustees are appointed by the Queen on advice from Ministers after an open selection process.

Aideen McGinleyTrustee for Ireland

Bill MattewsTrustee for Scotland

Elan Closs StephensTrustee for Wales

Mark DamazerTrustee

Mark FlormanTrustee for England

Nicholas PrettejohnTrustee

Richard AyreTrustee

Rona FairheadChairman

Sir Roger carrVice-Chairman

Sonita AlleyneTrustee

Suzanna TaverneTrustee

Lord WilliamsTrustee

AverageWeeklyReach(%)

AverageWeeklyReach

(millions)

Time Spent(per user)(hh:mm)

BBC One (including BBC One HD)

79.8% 45.6 07:39

BBC Two 56.1% 32.1 03:33

BBC Three 24.1% 13.8 01:43

BBC Three (16-34 year olds) 29.8% 4.4 02:02

BBC Four 11.7% 6.7 01:37

CBeebies 9.2% 5.3 04:09

CBeebies (children 0 -6) 44.9% 2.1 04:54

CBBC 7.3% 4.2 02:51

CBBC (6 -12 years olds) 32.3% 1.5 03:24

BBC News channel (16+) 3min reach

21.9% 10.7 01:54

BBC Parliament (16+) 3min reach

1.2% 0.6 00:41

BBC HD 3.6% 2.1 01:26

January - March 2011

BBC Structure

BBC trust

Royal charter

Executive

Media regulators

The BBC is established under a Royal Charter. The current Charter came into force in 2007 and runs until the end of 2016. It explicitly recognises the BBC's editorial independence and sets out its public purposes.

Under the Charter, the BBC is governed by the BBC Trust, which sets the strategic direction of the BBC and has a clear duty to represent the interests of licence fee payers. The Trust sets purpose remits, issues service licences and holds the Executive Board to account for its performance in delivering BBC services.The Trust works closely with national Audience Councils in order to understand the needs and concerns of audiences.

The Executive Board is responsible for the operational management of the BBC. Directors from across the BBC contribute to the leadership of the organisation as part of the Executive Team.

Government responsibility for broadcasting and creative industries in the UK lies with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.