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Message started by Forum Admin on May 24th, 2004, 9:54pm

Title: TV News is 50
Post by Forum Admin on May 24th, 2004, 9:54pm

BBC Television News will be 50 years old on July 5, 2004.

The BBC Web site now offers video of the original broadcast, News and Newsreel, which went out at 7.30 pm.  There is also a brief report of the in-fighting and politics within the Corporation over the new bulletin.

Click here, then click on "1950s", then click on the image of Richard Baker behind the microphone.

Title: Re: TV News is 50
Post by Forum Admin on May 25th, 2004, 8:53am

This is the Press Release put out by the BBC about the "birthday":

BBC Television News is 50 years old at 7.30pm on 5 July 2004.

Over the past five decades Television News has reported on all the major news stories and pivotal moments from the first man on the moon, the assassination of John F Kennedy and Watergate to famine in Ethiopia, Vietnam and the current conflict in Iraq.

It has been there for moments of great historical change such as the fall of communism and the end of apartheid as well as tragic stories including the death of Princess Diana and 9/11.

An impressive cast of presenters and reporters have become familiar faces over the years including Richard Baker, Kenneth Kendall, Angela Rippon, Jan Leeming, Moira Stewart, Sue Lawley, Debbie Thrower, Robert Dougall and Michael Aspel.

The roll-call continues up to the present with Martyn Lewis, John Tusa, John Humphrys and John Simpson alongside Nicholas Witchell, Kate Adie, Jeremy Bowen, Michael Buerk, Anna Ford, Fiona Bruce, Sian Williams, Sophie Raworth and George Alagiah.

The broadcasting landscape in 1954 consisted solely of BBC ONE and programming started at varying times in the afternoon apart from the occasional special broadcast in the morning.

The first ever Television News bulletin on 5 July 1954 transmitted at 7.30pm after the cricket and before The Royals – a visit to the Royal Agricultural Show, Windsor.

The 22-minute programme started with an announcement by Richard Baker.

Newsreader John Snagge then read the news starting with the first report on truce talks in Indo China.

Baker did not appear in vision because at that time presenters did not appear on screen. Kenneth Kendall was the first presenter to do so in 1955.

Other items on the running order included: French security measures in Tunisia; the resumption of the Petrov Enquiry and the end of rationing.

The news agenda also featured items on Question Time in Parliament; a visit by Princess Margaret to Lancashire; the departure of the Swedish King and Queen after a Royal visit; the United Nations Assembly President in London and mine workers in conference at Blackpool.

Television News, alongside Radio News and Current Affairs, comes under the umbrella of BBC News - the largest broadcast news operation in the world with more than 2,000 journalists and over 40 newsgathering bureaux, most of which are overseas.

Television News is responsible for more than 18,000 hours of programming every year across a range of programmes including the BBC ONE bulletins, Breakfast and Breakfast with Frost, Newsnight, 60 seconds on BBC THREE and the news output on BBC FOUR.

The department is also responsible for the content of the BBC's two continuous news channels, BBC News 24 and BBC World.

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