The service was launched in 1999 as BBC Text.

A digital text service had been available since the launch of digital terrestrial television in November 1998, but the BBC Text service was not publicly launched until November 1999, due to a lack of availability of compatible set-top boxes.

BBC Text was considerably more advanced than Ceefax, in that it offered a richer visual interface, with the possibility of photographic images and designed graphics ( as opposed to Ceefax graphics which were composed of simple blocks of colour ).

BBC Text also enabled channel association, the ability for the user to retain their selected television channel visible in one section of the screen whilst viewing the text service, in contrast to Ceefax, which could only be viewed as a full-screen display, or as a semitransparent overlay ( i. e. opaque blocks of colour on top of the television channel, with the black background now transparent ; not ' translucent blocks of colour with a translucent black background ') above the television picture.

BBC Text pioneered an early form of " on-demand " interactive television, called Enhanced TV.

It was recorded for a BBC Maida Vale session on 19 May 1971 for the Sounds of the Seventies show, a bootleg version of the session can be found on The Text of Festival.

BBC News 24 was originally available only to analogue cable television subscribers.

Jenny Abramsky had originally planned to have a television version of the informal news radio channel BBC Radio 5 Live, or a TV version of Radio 4 News FM both of which she had run.

Five months after the release of Tommy, The Kinks released another concept album, Arthur ( Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire ) ( September 1969 ), written by Ray Davies ; though considered by some a rock opera, it was originally conceived as the score for a proposed but never realised BBC television drama.

* Dylan Thomas: Under Milk Wood and other plays ( Naxos Audiobooks NA288712 – 2008 ) ( originally BBC – 1954 )

A version of " Two Tribes " was originally recorded for a BBC John Peel session in October 1982.

The Tube is a television documentary originally made by ITV in 2002 in October 2011 the director of BBC Two announced announced a " new " TV series called ' The Tube ' which looks into the life of those who work and travel on London Underground.

The series, originally shown on BBC One, is now available on DVD and is regularly repeated in the United Kingdom on Gold.

Pobol y Cwm was originally transmitted on BBC Wales television between 1974 and 1982.

The distinctive accompanying sound effect – a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise – was originally created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Brian Hodgson.

The programmes were originally broadcast by the BBC from 1969 – 1972.

The BBC originally wanted him to do a programme on India but the Indian high commission in London refused him a visa.

* In the 2012 BBC Comedy series " Citizen Khan " the main character, Mr Khan, ignored a ' n email from a fellow Mosque member, originally from Africa, informing Mosque members about a charity fundraiser thinking it was the Nigerian email scam.

* The Dales, a BBC radio soap opera originally called Mrs Dale's Diary

On 14 July 2007 BBC Radio 7 broadcast an adaptation by John Foley originally aired on the BBC World Service, starring Bob Peck as Inspector Goole, John Woodvine as Arthur Birling and Maggie Steed as Sybil Birling.

A radio parody of The Lion in Winter entitled The Leopard in Autumn by Neil Anthony was originally broadcast in BBC Radio 4 in 2001 and 2002 and subsequently re-broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2011.

Rambling Syd Rumpo was a folk singer character, played by the English comedian and actor, Kenneth Williams, originally in the 1960s BBC Radio comedy series, Round the Horne.

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, one of the sound effects units of the BBC, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music for radio, and was originally closed in March 1998, although much of its traditional work had already been outsourced by 1995.

Webcast: The webcast version ( originally broadcast via BBCi's " Red Button ") remains available from the BBC Doctor Who " classic series " website, and an expanded audio-only version is available for purchase on CD from Big Finish.

* It emerged in September 2010 that more than 60 recordings of BBC and ITV drama productions originally sent for broadcast in the United States by the PBS station WNET in New Jersey had been found at the Library of Congress.

The BBC play Bar Mitzvah Boy is a British television play, written by Jack Rosenthal and originally transmitted in the Play for Today anthology series on BBC1.

Konnie Huq and Matt Cooke from BBC TV present the Your News programme from Neasden: news. bbc. co. uk ( originally broadcast on 27 September 2008 ).

The channel launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 17: 30 as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic television channels, becoming the first competitor to Sky News, which had been running since 1989.

This is part of the creative futures plan, launched in 2006, to bring all BBC News output under the single brand name.

An international version of the countdown was launched on BBC World News on 5 September 2005 featuring more international content and similar music.

With what can crudely be summed up as a clash of ideologies between an expansion of ITV's commercial ethos and a public service approach more akin to the BBC, it was ultimately something of a compromise that eventually led to the formation of Channel 4 as launched in 1982.

The first was in Gloucester in 1950 and the process gathered pace over the next few years, especially after a second television channel, ITV, was launched in 1955 to compete with BBC.

* 1945 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.

On 28 July 2008, the beta of the new BBC Music site was launched, which publishes a page for each MusicBrainz artist.

In 1992 the BBC launched Eldorado to alternate with EastEnders.

In 2002, as the ratings continued to fall for Scottish serial High Road ( formerly Take The High Road ), BBC Scotland launched River City, which proved popular and effectively replaced High Road when it was cancelled in 2003.

* 1967 – BBC Light Programme, Third Programme and Home Service are replaced with BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 Respectively, BBC Radio 1 is also launched with Tony Blackburn presenting the first show.

* July 29 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.

* September 30 – BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 are all launched.

* November 8 – The BBC's first local radio station ( BBC Radio Leicester ) is launched.

When UHF television allowed a greater number of television stations to broadcast, the BBC launched a second network, BBC Two ( and the original service was later renamed BBC One ).

In recent years, video content has also been used by the World Service ; 16 language services now show video reports in that language on the service's website and two services now have dedicated television channels-BBC Arabic launched in 2008 and BBC Persian launched in 2009.