BBC News (international TV channel)

This article is about the English-language audio-visual international news and current affairs operations of the BBC. For the BBC's corporate division administering it, as well as the audio-only branding of the same, see BBC World Service.
This article is about the BBC's TV news channel available internationally. For the BBC's TV news channel available only in the UK, see BBC News (TV channel).

BBC News
Logo used since 2023
CountryUnited Kingdom
Broadcast areaWorldwide (except the UK)
NetworkBBC News
HeadquartersBroadcasting House
Programming
Language(s)English
Picture format1080i HDTV
(downscaled to 16:9 576i/480i for the SDTV feeds; Latin American sub-feed downscaled to letterboxed 4:3 480i)
Ownership
OwnerBBC Studios (BBC Global News Ltd)
Sister channelsSee list
History
Launched16 January 1995; 29 years ago (1995-01-16)
Former namesBBC World (1995–2008)
BBC World News (2008–2023)
Links
WebsiteBBC World News
Availability
Terrestrial
Boxer TV Access (Sweden)Channel 27
RiksTV (Norway)Channel 55
Digital terrestrial television (Andorra)Channel 20
ERT (Greece)Channel 48
Channel 56 (HD)
GOtv (Sub-Saharan Africa)Channel 41
Digital terrestrial television (Mauritius)Channel 2
Nexmedia (Indonesia)Channel 703
Foxtel (Australia)
Fetch TV (Australia)		Channel 606
Channel 174
DStv (Sub-Saharan Africa)Channel 400
Zuku TV (Kenya)Channel 510

BBC News (known as BBC World News until 2023) is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, and other factual programmes; it broadcasts from studios in London, Washington, D.C., and Singapore. As of April 2023, the channel largely operates as an international feed of the BBC News channel in the UK, sharing the majority of its schedule.

Launched on 11 March 1991 as BBC World Service Television outside Europe, its name was changed to BBC World on 16 January 1995 and to BBC World News on 21 April 2008 and again to BBC News (International) on 3 April 2023 after its consolidation with the domestic BBC News Channel. According to the BBC, the combined seven channels of the Global News operations have the largest audience market share among all its rivals, with an estimated 99 million viewers weekly in 2016–2017, part of the estimated 121 million weekly audience of all its operations.[1]

Unlike the BBC's domestic channels, it is funded by subscription and advertising revenues, and not by the United Kingdom television licence.[2] As such, the channel is not broadcast in the UK directly, although selected programmes and bulletins have been carried on the domestic BBC News channel (especially during overnight hours), and vice versa (including domestic programmes such as Click and HARDtalk, and during breaking news and special events in the UK).

In April 2023, the BBC began to further consolidate the programming and talent of the two channels as part of a corporation-wide streamlining of operations, with both channels now using the BBC News branding. The international feed remains an advertising-supported service, but the two services are structured to use a common schedule with domestic opt-outs for UK-specific news coverage and programmes.

  1. ^ "BBC's global audience rises to 372m" (Press release). BBC. 25 May 2017. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  2. ^ "About BBC World News TV". BBC News. 12 February 2021.