BBC World News - History

History

The channel originally launched as BBC World Service Television, though unlike BBC World Service radio which has always been government funded, the British government refused to extend the Foreign Office grant-in-aid. It was launched on 11 March 1991, after two weeks of real time pilots, initially as a half-hour bulletin once a day at 19:00 GMT. The programme editor was Johan "John" Ramsland from World Service Radio News with John Exelby from domestic BBC TV News as his managing editor. The original picture editing team consisted of Bob Scholes, Peter Hodge and Mike Casey.

On 26 January 1995, BBC World Service Television split into two stations: BBC Prime – an encrypted entertainment channel requiring subscription, and the free to air BBC World -concentrating on news and current affairs. Since 1995, the service has gone through several branding changes. From 1995 to 1997, the channel used relatively few graphics to display the name of the channel, with the actual news studio modelled on that used for BBC News in the United Kingdom.

As part of the major relaunch of the image of the BBC, including a new logo for the corporation on 4 October 1997, the channel received its first main refresh on 9 November 1997, the day BBC News 24 was launched. Various fictional flags with some real ones were used. The idents were computer generated and developed by the Lambie-Nairn design agency.

Another large relaunch for BBC World took place on 3 April 2000, which was to bring it inline with UK news channel which was relaunched in 1999. The new uniform look was made up of red and cream designed by Lambie-Nairn, with music based on a style described as 'drums and beeps' composed by David Lowe, a departure from the general orchestral versions of other news programmes.

In 2003 a second makeover, using the same 'drums and beeps' style music but new graphics took place, although on a much smaller scale to that of 1999. The music was changed slightly while the main colour scheme became black and red, with studios using a frosted glass, white and red design for colourings. Later in 2004, the channel's slogan became Putting News First, replacing Demand a Broader View.

In 2008 the channel was renamed BBC World News. New graphics were produced by the Lambie-Nairn design agency, accompanied with reworked music from David Lowe.