The British Broadcasting Corporation

Abstract

THE present British Broadcasting Corporation was granted its first charter of incorporation on December 20, 1926, and a supplemental charter on August 14, 1931. The special Committee, which was set up by the Post master-General, has recently conducted an inquiry into the broadcasting service and has recommended that the service should continue to be developed and exploited to the best advantage and in the national interest. This action is very desirable on account of the widespread interest in broadcasting, as illustrated by the fact that more than seven and a half million persons in Great Britain and Northern Ireland now have licences to instal apparatus for the reception of broadcast programmes. Accordingly, the British Broadcasting Corporation will continue in being under a new charter which came into operation on January 1, 1937, the draft of which has recently been published by H.M. Stationery Office as Cmd. 5329 (4d. net). In this paper, the objects of the Corporation are described in some detail; briefly, they may be summarized as the development, exploitation and maintenance of a public utility service for broadcasting to the public by means of wireless telephony and television any matter of interest, which may be permitted within the terms of the licence and agreement between H.M. Postmaster-General and the B.B.C. The draft of this licence is also included in the White Paper referred to above. The charter outlines the organization of the Corporation by means of a chairman, vice-chairman and body of governors, and the chief executive officer of the Corporation is the direct or-general. The Corporation is authorized and empowered to receive and administer the funds granted annually by the legislative for the objects in view, and provision is made for the submission of an annual report and statement of accounts. To the lay mind, it is satisfactory to note from this paper that the broadcasting service in Great Britain will continue to maintain its unrivalled reputation, controlled and yet not hampered by Government administration, free to develop and exploit to the full the technique of broadcasting by both sound and vision.