International BBC television channels


The BBC is forbidden under its charter to directly undertake any commercial operations on-air within the United Kingdom; however, no such restriction applies to operations in other countries. As a result, the BBC uses its vast television archive to operate a number of commercial television channels outside the United Kingdom through its subsidiary BBC Studios.
Some channels are wholly owned by BBC Studios, while others are joint ventures with other broadcasters.

Wholly owned channels

Other

The domestic BBC channels are not distributed outside of the United Kingdom. However, these channels are widely available on cable and IPTV in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland.

Defunct channels

Former joint ventures

United States

Canada

In Canada, channels are required by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to have a certain quota of original Canadian content. The following BBC channels are operated in conjunction with Corus Entertainment and Knowledge West Communications respectively, with BBC having a 20% stake in each channel.
  • BBC Canada – entertainment channel available in Canada
  • BBC Kids – children's channel available in Canada

History

BBC World Service Television (1991–1994)

BBC World News was officially launched by Actress of the Republic of Indonesia's Djenar Maesa Ayu on 15 November 1991 at 20:00 HKT from the Hong Kong International Airport in Kowloon Bay located of Kowloon Peninsula with 100-original staff members. It showed news programming from BBC1 and BBC2 in addition to BBC World Service News.
Its schedule consists of some locally made programs in Hong Kong as well as news programmes from STAR News, it signed an agreement with CNN International News, allowing its access to that channel's programming. It also relayed Seputar Indonesia news programme from Indonesian free-to-air terrestrial television channel's RCTI which was also available in Hong Kong.
STAR TV, would buy 20 per cent of BBC WSTV, giving it a firmer foothold in Asia.
Following STAR TV acquisition by Rupert Murdoch, BBC WSTV was removed from the satellite beam that broadcast across East Asia on 1 March 1994. However, it was meant to still be on-air in South Asia until 31 March 1996.
In mid-1994, there was a commercial dispute between BBC World Service Television and STAR TV, where the proposed joint venture by the latter was inconclusive and News Corporation didn't pay for the support and services that BBC News provided after over 3 years. As a result, their license for using the name BBC Television would initially expire. At British Broadcasting Corporations request, the deadline was extended twice from 1 February and finally on 30 April 1994. Following that, Rupert Murdoch is asking for a compensation of about HK$102.5 trillion from the said company. This situation is said to benefit new look and rebranded which may become the next service that completely replaces BBC News. The dispute also caused BBC World Service Television to lose its monopoly to broadcast the STAR News.
BBC World Service Television was removed on STAR TV, which led the launch of 2-stations: it screened both English and Chinese movies on "STAR Movies", with both movie premiere satellite channels broadcasting each type of movies, launched on 1 May 1994 at 00:00 HKT such as:
  1. "Fox Movies " – was a 24-hour movie channel based in the Hong Kong. It showed movies made by 20th Century Fox and other distributors.
  2. "STAR Chinese Movies" – is a 24-hour Chinese movie channel based in the Republic of China were still copyrighted from Hong Kong with studio by STAR TV Filmed Entertainment, produced by Fortune STAR Entertainment & distributed by Media Asia Entertainment Group based in Kowloon Peninsula in 1993.

BBC World and BBC Prime

The BBC's international operations initially consisted of a single channel – BBC World Service Television. On Thursday, 26 January 1995 at 19:00 GMT this was split into two television stations:
  • Launched Monday, 16 January 1995 at 19:00 GMT: 24-hour English free-to-air terrestrial international news channel named "BBC World".
  • Launched Monday, 30 January 1995 at 19:00 GMT: 24-hour English subscription lifestyle, variety & entertainment channel named "BBC Prime".
The organisation subsequently launched localised stations focused on a particular area, such as BBC Food and BBC America alongside BBC World and BBC Prime.
In October 2006, BBC Entertainment replaced BBC Prime in Asian markets, and went on to replace it in other territories during the period 2007–2009. Other channels that were rolled out internationally included BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle, and an international version of CBeebies. The aim of the new launches was to simplify and diversify the BBC Worldwide offering in the digital age. These launches absorbed some channels, such as BBC Food, though channels focused on a particular local market continued.

BBC World News

On 21 April 2008, BBC World was renamed BBC World News and new graphics were produced by the Lambie-Nairn design agency, accompanied by reworked music from David Lowe as part of a £550,000 rebranding of the BBC's news output and visual identity.
On 15 November 2010, BBC Worldwide sold 50% of its shares in Animal Planet and Liv to Discovery Communications for $156 million.

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