Fiktiv UK - BBC World Service

The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster, owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest of any kind. It broadcasts radio news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world on analogue and digital shortwave platforms, internet streaming, podcasting, satellite, DAB, FM and MW relays. In 2015, The World Service reached an average of 210 million people a week (via TV, radio and online). In November 2016, the BBC announced that it would start broadcasting in additional languages including Amharic and Igbo, in its biggest expansion since the 1940s.

The World Service is funded by the United Kingdom's television licence fee, limited advertising and the profits of BBC Worldwide. The service is also guaranteed £289 million (allocated over a five-year period ending in 2020) from the UK government.

BBC World Service English maintains eight different regional feeds with several program variations, covering, respectively, East and South Africa; West and Central Africa; Europe and Middle East; Americas and Caribbean; East Asia; South Asia; Australasia; United Kingdom. There are also two separate online-only streams with one being more news-oriented, known as News Internet. The service broadcasts 24 hours a day.

In United Kingdom, the BBC World Service is broadcast on DAB, Freeview, Virgin Media and Sky platforms. It is also broadcast overnight on the frequencies of BBC Radio 4 following the latter's closedown at 0100 British time. The BBC World Service does not receive funding for broadcasts to the UK. In southeast England, the station can be picked up reliably on medium wave 648 kHz, which is targeted at mainland Europe.

The Service broadcasts from Broadcasting House in London, which is also headquarters of the Corporation. It is located in the newer parts of the building, which contains radio and television studios for use by the various language services. The building also contains an integrated newsroom used by the international World Service, the international television channel BBC World News, the domestic television and radio BBC News bulletins, BBC News 24 and BBC Online.

The BBC World Service encompasses an English 24-hour global radio network and separate services in 27 other languages. News and information is available in these languages on the BBC website, with many having RSS feeds and specific versions for use on mobile devices, and some also offer email notification of stories. In addition to the English service, 18 of the language services broadcast a radio service using the short wave, AM or FM bands. These are also available to listen live or can be listened to later (usually for seven days) over the Internet and, in the case of seven language services, can be downloaded as podcasts. News is also available from the BBC News 'app', which is available from both iTunes and the Google Play Store. In recent years, video content has also been used by the World Service: 16 language services show video reports on the website, and the Arabic and Persian services have their own television channels. TV is also used to broadcast the radio service, with local cable and satellite operators providing the English network (and occasionally some local language services) free to air. The English service is also available on digital radio in the UK and Europe.

Mainstays of the current BBC World Service in English schedule include the news programmes The World Today, Newshour and World Briefing, and the daily arts and entertainment news programme The Strand, which started in late 2008. There is a daily science programme, including Health Check, Click and Science in Action. At the weekends, much of the schedule is taken up by Sportsworld, which often includes live commentary of Premier League football matches. Other weekend sport shows include The Sports Hour and Stumped, a cricket programme co-produced with All India Radio and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. On Sundays the international, interdisciplinary discussion programme The Forum is broadcast. On weekdays, an hour of the schedule is given over to World Have Your Say which encourages listeners to participate in discussing current events via text message, phone calls, emails, social media and blog postings.

The core feature of much World Service scheduling is the news. This is almost always transmitted at one minute past the hour, where there is a five minute long bulletin, and on the half hour where there is a two minute summary. Sometimes these bulletins are separated from the programmes being transmitted, whilst at other times they are integral to the programme (such as with World Briefing, Newshour or The World Today).

The World Service uses several tunes and sounds to represent the station. The current signature tune of the station is a five note motif, composed by David Arnold and which comprises a variety of voices declaim "This is the BBC in..." before going on to name various cities (e.g. Kampala, Milan, Delhi, Johannesburg), followed by the stations slogan "Wherever you are, you are with the BBC" or "With world news every half hour, this is the BBC" and the Greenwich Time Signal. This is heard throughout the network with a few variations - in the UK the full service name is spoken whereas just the name of the BBC is used outside the UK.

The tune Lillibullero is another well known signature tune of the network following its broadcast previously as part of the top-of-the-hour sequence. This piece of music is still heard before certain bulletins and as a shortened version elsewhere, but it is used less often than previously.

In addition to these tunes, the BBC World Service also uses several interval signals. The English service uses a recording of the Bow Bells, made in 1926 and used a symbol of hope during the Second World War, only replaced for a brief time during the 1970s with the tune to the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons. The morse code of the letter "V" has also been used as a signal and was introduced in January 1941 and had several variations including timpani, the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (which coincide with the letter "V"), and electronic tones which remain in use for some Western European services. In other languages, the interval signal is three notes, pitched B-B-C. However, these symbols have been used less frequently.

The network operates using GMT, regardless of the time zone and time of year, and is announced on the hour on the English service as "13 hours Greenwich Mean Time" (1300 GMT) or "Midnight Greenwich Mean Time" (0000 GMT). At the start of the new year, as part of an annual tradition, the BBC World Service broadcasts the chimes of Big Ben in London.