History The early years:
The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from 2LO on 14 November 1922. Televised bulletins came later on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. However Gaumont British and Movie tone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936 -with the BBC producing its own filmed equivalent
Television Newsreel programmed from January 1948. A weekly Children's Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950 broadcasting to around 350,000 receivers.
The public's interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programmed in the UK - overtaking radio's audience of 12 million for the first time - and those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission, and then on to other UK transmitters opened in time for the event. In coronation year there were around two million TV Licenses held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year and four and a half million by 1955.
1950s
Television news, although physically separate from its radio counterpart, was still firmly under its control - with correspondents providing reports for both outlets - and that first bulletin, shown in 1954 on the then BBC television service and presented by Richard Baker, involved his providing narration off-screen while stills were shown - and this was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a recorded commentary by John Snagged (and on other occasions by Andrew Timothy).
It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with their facial movements could distract the viewer from the story in question. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later, in 1955 - Kenneth Kendall (the first to appear in vision), Robert Doug all and Richard Baker - just three weeks before ITN's launch date of 21 September 1955.
Mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises - mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, west London - taking Current Affairs (then known as Talks Department) with it, and it was from here that the first Panorama was transmitted on 11 November 1953, with Richard Dimple by taking over as anchor in 1955. On 18 February 1957 the topical early-evening programmed Tonight hosted by Cliff Michel more and designed to fill the airtime provided by the abolition of the Toddlers' Truce, was broadcast from Marconi's Viking Studio in St Mary Abbott's Place, Kensington - with the programmed moving into a Lime Grove studio in 1960 where it already maintained its production office.
Later in 1957, on 28 October in central London, radio launched its morning programmed today on the Home Service.
In 1958 Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs, and set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under Greene's predecessor Tahu Hole. The solution proposed was that the head of television news should take control (away from radio), and that the television service should have a proper newsroom of its own, with an editor-of-the-day.
1960s
On 1 January 1960, Greene became Director General and under him big changes were afoot not only for BBC Television, but also for BBC Television News - a separate news department, formed in 1955 as a response to the founding of ITN - the aim was to make BBC reporting a little more like ITN, which had been praised by Greene's study group.
A newsroom was created at Alexandra Palace, television reporters recruited, and given the opportunity to write and voice their own scripts - without the "impossible burden" of having to cover stories for radio too.
In 1987, almost thirty years later, John Birth resurrected the practice of correspondents working for both TV and radio with the introduction of bi-media journalism, and 2008 saw tri-media introduced across TV, radio and online.
Also in 1960, Nan Winton, the first female BBC network newsreader, appeared in vision on 20 June, and 19 September saw the start of the radio news and current affairs programmed The Ten O'clock News. Greene was a great innovator and (on a lighter note) asked Ned Sherri, the then producer of Tonight to "prick the pomposity of public figures" with a weekly television show. So on 24 November 1962 That Was The Week That Was, hosted by David Frost, was born at Lime Grove Studios and is mentioned here because (of Greene's actions) it was a product of Current Affairs department rather than Light Entertainment.
BBC 2 started transmission on 20 April 1964, and with it came a new news programmed for that channel - Newsroom.
Newsroom launched in 1964 - in 1968 it became the UK's first color television news programmed.
The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from 2LO on 14 November 1922. Televised bulletins came later on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. However Gaumont British and Movie tone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936 -with the BBC producing its own filmed equivalent
Television Newsreel programmed from January 1948. A weekly Children's Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950 broadcasting to around 350,000 receivers.
The public's interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programmed in the UK - overtaking radio's audience of 12 million for the first time - and those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission, and then on to other UK transmitters opened in time for the event. In coronation year there were around two million TV Licenses held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year and four and a half million by 1955.
1950s
Television news, although physically separate from its radio counterpart, was still firmly under its control - with correspondents providing reports for both outlets - and that first bulletin, shown in 1954 on the then BBC television service and presented by Richard Baker, involved his providing narration off-screen while stills were shown - and this was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a recorded commentary by John Snagged (and on other occasions by Andrew Timothy).
It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with their facial movements could distract the viewer from the story in question. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later, in 1955 - Kenneth Kendall (the first to appear in vision), Robert Doug all and Richard Baker - just three weeks before ITN's launch date of 21 September 1955.
Mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises - mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, west London - taking Current Affairs (then known as Talks Department) with it, and it was from here that the first Panorama was transmitted on 11 November 1953, with Richard Dimple by taking over as anchor in 1955. On 18 February 1957 the topical early-evening programmed Tonight hosted by Cliff Michel more and designed to fill the airtime provided by the abolition of the Toddlers' Truce, was broadcast from Marconi's Viking Studio in St Mary Abbott's Place, Kensington - with the programmed moving into a Lime Grove studio in 1960 where it already maintained its production office.
Later in 1957, on 28 October in central London, radio launched its morning programmed today on the Home Service.
In 1958 Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs, and set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under Greene's predecessor Tahu Hole. The solution proposed was that the head of television news should take control (away from radio), and that the television service should have a proper newsroom of its own, with an editor-of-the-day.
1960s
On 1 January 1960, Greene became Director General and under him big changes were afoot not only for BBC Television, but also for BBC Television News - a separate news department, formed in 1955 as a response to the founding of ITN - the aim was to make BBC reporting a little more like ITN, which had been praised by Greene's study group.
A newsroom was created at Alexandra Palace, television reporters recruited, and given the opportunity to write and voice their own scripts - without the "impossible burden" of having to cover stories for radio too.
In 1987, almost thirty years later, John Birth resurrected the practice of correspondents working for both TV and radio with the introduction of bi-media journalism, and 2008 saw tri-media introduced across TV, radio and online.
Also in 1960, Nan Winton, the first female BBC network newsreader, appeared in vision on 20 June, and 19 September saw the start of the radio news and current affairs programmed The Ten O'clock News. Greene was a great innovator and (on a lighter note) asked Ned Sherri, the then producer of Tonight to "prick the pomposity of public figures" with a weekly television show. So on 24 November 1962 That Was The Week That Was, hosted by David Frost, was born at Lime Grove Studios and is mentioned here because (of Greene's actions) it was a product of Current Affairs department rather than Light Entertainment.
BBC 2 started transmission on 20 April 1964, and with it came a new news programmed for that channel - Newsroom.
Newsroom launched in 1964 - in 1968 it became the UK's first color television news programmed.