Timeline of the BBC World Service


A timeline of notable events relating to the BBC World Service, the world's largest international broadcaster, which began broadcasting in 1932.

1930s

1932

1940s

1940

1950s

1950

1960s

1960

1970s

1970

1980s

1980
  • * 8 May – Programming in French for Canada ends.1981
  • * 15 August – Pashto programming begins.
  • * 31 December – Programming in Italian and Maltese ends.1982
  • * 28 September – Transmissions end from Crowborough following the switching-on of, and final transfer of transmitting operations on 648 kHz MW to, Orfordness. Orfordness was seen as being a better location due to it being on the Suffolk coast, whereas Crowborough was inland. This transmitter change means that the World Service becomes available to UK listeners for the first time, albeit only for people in south east England.1983
  • * No events.1984
  • * No events.1985
  • * August – For the first time in its history the World service is taken off air due to strike action in protest at the British government's decision to ban a documentary featuring an interview with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin.1986
  • * No events.1987
  • * The BBC World Service launches BBC 648 from the Orfordness transmitting station. The service provides a tailor-made service for northern Europe featuring some French and German programming interwoven with the main output in English.1988
  • * For many years, the World Service had been available for part of BBC Radio 4's overnight downtime on that station's long wave frequency. However, by the start of 1988, the World Service is now heard throughout the full overnight period when Radio 4 is not on air. Consequently, for the first time, the World Service is available on long wave across the UK between 12:45am and 5:55am.
  • * Newshour launches.1989
  • * 1 April – The BBC launches BBC TV Europe, a subscription-based pan-European television station.

1990s

1990

2000s

2000
  • * No events.2001
  • * Technology programme Go Digital launches.
  • * 1 July – The World Service ends short wave radio transmission directed to North America and Australasia. It says that "changing listening habits" are the reason for this decision. A shortwave listener coalition formed to oppose the change.2002
  • * August – The first edition of World Book Club is broadcast.2003
  • * No events.2004
  • * December – The final edition of the World Service's magazine BBC On Air is published.2005
  • * 5 October – It is announced that broadcasts in a number of European languages will end by March 2006, to finance the launch in 2007 of TV news services in Arabic and Persian.
  • * 10 October – The BBC's Latin American service is renamed BBC Mundo.
  • * October – The BBC World Service soap opera Westway comes to an end after eight years on air.
  • * 16 December – Kazakh programming ends.
  • * 23 December – Polish programming ends after 66 years and Slovene programming ends after 64 years.
  • * 30 December – Bulgarian programming ends after 65 years.
  • * 31 December – Hungarian and Greek programming end, both after 66 years and Slovak programmes ends after 64 years.2006
  • * 13 January – Thai programming ends for a second time.
  • * 31 January – Croatian programming ends.
  • * 28 February – Czech programming ends.
  • * April – The final edition of Everywoman is broadcast. Archived episodes of the programme have since been made available on the BBC website.
  • * October – The first edition of World Have Your Say is broadcast.2007
  • * No events.2008
  • * 18 February – The World Service ends analogue short wave broadcasting in Europe.
  • * 6 April – Discussion programme The Forum debuts.
  • * 1 August – Romanian broadcasts end after 69 years.
  • * 27 October – A new daily arts magazine programme The Strand is launched.2009
  • * No events.

2010s

2010
  • * September – The BBC announces that Sportsworld at Wimbledon is to be axed as a cost-cutting measure.2011
  • * January – The closure of the Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa, Serbian and English for the Caribbean services is announced. All of these services close over the next three months. This reflected the financial situation the Corporation faced following transfer of responsibility for the Service from the Foreign Office, so that it would in future have been funded from within licence fee income.
  • * 25 March – Europe Today is broadcast for the final time after 20 years on air.
  • * 27 March – These budget cuts also result in the switching off of the Orfordness transmitting station in Suffolk, which had been transmitting the BBC World Service on 648 kHz MW to much of northern Europe since 1982.
  • * 29 March – Technology programme Go Digital is renamed Click.
  • * Also in 2011, the Russian, Ukrainian, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish, Vietnamese, Azeri, and Spanish for Cuba services ceased radio broadcasting, and the Hindi, Indonesian, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Swahili, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi services ceased shortwave transmissions.2012
  • * 12 July – The BBC World Service relocates to Broadcasting House after 70 years at Bush House.
  • * 23 July – Newsday is broadcast for the first time. It replaces The World Today and Network Africa.2013
  • * 29 March – Daily arts magazine programme The Strand ends, with coverage of the arts integrated into Outlook.
  • * 1 April
  • ** World Briefing, the World Service's standard 30-minute news bulletin, is cancelled and replaced by The Newsroom.
  • ** Outlook is extended and now runs for just under an hour.
  • * 28 October – BBC OS launches. The new programme says that it "aims to open up the news process, enabling people to discover the latest on the stories that matter to them."2014
  • * 1 April – The World Service stops being funded by the UK Government grant and is now funded by the television licence fee and the profits of BBC Worldwide Ltd. although the Government is providing limited funding until 2020.
  • * 10 July – Thai programming recommences, but only on social media.2015
  • * 17 January – The first edition of a new cricket show Stumped, timed to coincide with the 2015 Cricket World Cup, is broadcast.2016
  • * November – The BBC announces the largest expansion of foreign language programming since the 1940s.2017
  • * 21 August – The first of the new language services start broadcasting when transmissions in Nigerian Pidgin begin.
  • * 18 September – Programming in Afaan Oromoo and Tigrinya begin.
  • * 26 September – Korean programming begins.
  • * 2 October
  • ** After 73 years off air, Gujarati programming resumes and after 59 years off air, Marathi programming resumes.
  • ** Programming in Punjabi and Telugu begin.2018
  • * 19 February – Programming in Igbo and Yoruba begins.2019
  • * 1 May – Technology programme Click reverts to its original name of Digital Planet.

2020s

2020
  • * No events.2021
  • * No events.2022
  • * Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the BBC begins broadcasting World Service English programming at shortwave frequencies 15735 kHz and 5875 kHz for receivers in Ukraine and parts of Russia.2023
  • * 27 January – The radio service of BBC Arabic ends after 85 years on air.