BBC World News is celebrating its silver anniversary. The news channel began 25 years ago today with a single half hour news bulletin as BBC World Service Television.
The brand replaced BBC TV Europe on Monday 11 March, 1991, taking on 700,000 subscribers, predominately in Northern Europe.
The 24 hour news operation began in Asia eight months later. In 1995 it relaunched as BBC World before changing its name to BBC World News in 2008.
BBC Global News Ltd CEO Jim Egan said, “The world has changed dramatically for all of us in the past 25 years and so has the way we get news from the field to our viewers. But our commitment to providing accurate, impartial news of the highest quality to international audiences is unwavering. We’re proud that, in a world of great uncertainty and in a news industry which is every bit as volatile, BBC World News continues to grow and is the most trusted source of global television news available anywhere.”
The growth of multichannel television around the world now puts the channel in 433 million households in 200 countries.
It hasn’t always been plain sailing. China was unhappy with the BBC’s 1989 coverage of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and continued to be troubled by BBC World’s presence on Star TV.
The contract was terminated in 1994 by Star TV’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, but in 2001 the BBC was granted its own licence to broadcast into China.
A special anniversary logo is being screened as part of the anniversary celebrations.