Television
In 2008, the BBC announced the launch of the BBC Persian Television, which is based in BBC Broadcasting House: as BBC's Press Office website states
BBC World Service is to launch a television news and information service in the Persian language for Iran. BBC Persian television was launched in January 2009 and is based in London. It complements the BBC's existing Persian-language radio and online services. It is initially broadcast for eight hours a day, seven days a week, from 17.00 to 01.00 hours – peak viewing time in Iran. It is freely available to anyone with a satellite dish in the region.BBC proposals for the service were drawn up by senior BBC management. These were approved by the then BBC Governors – the body that oversaw the BBC and ensures the BBC's independence from the UK Government. They were then submitted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for their consent as the BBC is obliged to do under the agreement with the FCO.
The operating cost of £15m a year will be funded by the UK Government. Funding for the new service was announced by then UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in a speech in October 2006. The funding was confirmed by the next Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling in October 2007. Some 140 staff are employed of which about 40 are support personnel.
Read more about this topic: BBC Persian
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“Photographs may be more memorable than moving images because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow. Television is a stream of underselected images, each of which cancels its predecessor. Each still photograph is a privileged moment, turned into a slim object that one can keep and look at again.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)