The BBC - statistics & facts

Published by
A. Guttmann,
Feb 11, 2022
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), based in London, is the leading public service broadcaster in the United Kingdom. The corporation is located in the Broadcasting House, which was officially opened in May 1932, however, the first radio broadcast from the building was made two months earlier. In August that same year, the first TV broadcast took place. BBC funding derives mainly from television license fees – in 2021, the annual income of the BBC amounted to a little over five billion British pounds, of which more than 3.7 billion pounds came from license fee income. However, the future of public broadcasting is uncertain. In early 2022, the government decided to freeze the TV license fee until 2024 in favor of supporting the public struggling with rising costs of living. Additionally, there is an ongoing public debate about ending the funding for public broadcasting entirely, where one side claims this is a tax of the past, while others value BBC’s portfolio of services. It remains to be seen precisely how the future of public service broadcasting funding will appear.

BBC’s TV broadcasting segment

Television services accounts for the highest shares of BBC's annual spending. The BBC operates a number of national television services in the United Kingdom, among them flagship TV channel BBC One, the children's channels CBBC and CBeebies, and BBC News – one of the UK's most used news sources. Looking at audience share, the BBC places at the top of the list of leading TV broadcasters in the UK, ahead of fellow public-service broadcaster Channel 4, commercial television rival ITV, and Sky.

BBC’s radio broadcasting segment

In addition to its TV division, the BBC also runs national UK radio stations, as well as multiple regional and local radio services. BBC Radio 4 has always taken up the largest share of the corporation’s spending on radio programming, while Radio 5 live and Radio 2 follow suit. In general, the share of all BBC radio stations in the total listening time in the UK is just under 50 percent, with BBC Radio 2 being the leading UK station with the most listeners nationwide.

This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.

Interesting statistics

In the following 5 chapters, you will quickly find the 32 most important statistics relating to "The BBC".

Statistics on the topic
Annual income of the BBC
5,33bn GBP
License fee income of the BBC
3.8b GBP
BBC digital media spend
247m GBP

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