BBC News

===Early years===
{{rquote|right|This is London calling – 2LO calling. Here is the first general news bulletin, copyright by [[Reuters]], [[Press Association]], [[Extel|Exchange Telegraph]] and [[Central News Agency (London)|Central News]].|BBC news programme opening during the 1920s{{r|crisell1997}}}}
The [[British Broadcasting Company]] broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station [[2LO]] on 14 November 1922.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Burke|first1=Professor of Cultural History and Fellow of Emmanuel College Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OoxsKnfVzLwC&q=The+British+Broadcasting+Company+broadcast+its+first+radio+bulletin+from+radio+station+2LO+on+14+November+1922&pg=PA132|title=A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet|last2=Briggs|first2=Asa|last3=Burke|first3=Peter|date=29 July 2005|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-3511-8|language=en|access-date=21 October 2020|archive-date=24 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231124132653/https://books.google.com/books?id=OoxsKnfVzLwC&q=The+British+Broadcasting+Company+broadcast+its+first+radio+bulletin+from+radio+station+2LO+on+14+November+1922&pg=PA132#v=snippet&q=The%20British%20Broadcasting%20Company%20broadcast%20its%20first%20radio%20bulletin%20from%20radio%20station%202LO%20on%2014%20November%201922&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Wishing to avoid competition, newspaper publishers persuaded the government to ban the BBC from broadcasting news before 7&nbsp;p.m., and to force it to use [[news agency|wire service]] copy instead of reporting on its own.{{r|crisell1997}} The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, created its own news operation.<ref name=":0" /> However, it could not broadcast news before 6&nbsp;p.m. until [[World War II]].{{r|crisell1997}} In addition to news, Gaumont British and Movietone cinema [[newsreel]]s had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, with the BBC producing its own equivalent ''[[Television Newsreel]]'' programme from January 1948.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Development of Communication Between the Government, the Media and the People in Britain, 1945-51|url=http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1759/1/U192411.pdf|last=Moore|first=Martin|date=October 2004|website=The London School of Economics and Political Science|access-date=31 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601040326/http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1759/1/U192411.pdf|archive-date=1 June 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> A weekly ''Children's Newsreel'' was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/history/history.htm|title=1950s British TV Milestones|access-date=3 April 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070427124228/http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/history/history.htm| archive-date= 27 April 2007 |url-status = live}}</ref> The network began [[simulcasting]] its radio news on television in 1946, with a still picture of [[Big Ben]].<ref name="crisell1997">{{cite book | title=An Introductory History of British Broadcasting | url=https://archive.org/details/introductoryhist00cris | url-access=limited | publisher=Routledge | author=Crisell, Andrew | year=1997 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductoryhist00cris/page/n31 15], 26–27, 92 | isbn=0-415-12802-1}}</ref> Televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within [[Alexandra Palace]] in London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alexandrapalace.com/history.html|title=Alexandra Palace – A History of the Palace|access-date=3 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404014257/http://www.alexandrapalace.com/history.html|archive-date=4 April 2007|url-status = dead}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=July 2014}}

The public's interest in television and live events was stimulated by [[Elizabeth II#Succession|Elizabeth II's]] [[Coronation of the British monarch#History|coronation]] in 1953. It is estimated that up to 27&nbsp;million people<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/landmark.html |title=British TV Landmark Dates |access-date=3 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070506033602/http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/landmark.html |archive-date=6 May 2007 |url-status = dead}}</ref> viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radio's audience of 12&nbsp;million for the first time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.terramedia.co.uk/Chronomedia/years/1953.htm |title=Chronomedia: 1953 |access-date=3 April 2007 |archive-date=25 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070525193855/http://www.terramedia.co.uk/Chronomedia/years/1953.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to [[Alexandra Palace television station|Alexandra Palace]] for transmission, and then on to other UK transmitters opened in time for the event.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thevalvepage.com/tvyears/articals/coronation/arrangements/arrangements.htm |title=1950 |access-date=3 April 2007 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927204504/http://www.thevalvepage.com/tvyears/articals/coronation/arrangements/arrangements.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> That year, there were [[Television licensing in the United Kingdom (historical)#Number of licences issued|around two million TV Licences held in the UK]], rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Owens|first=Edward|title=The Family Firm: monarchy, mass media and the British public, 1932-53|chapter='This time I was THERE taking part'|date=2019|pages=331–372|publisher=University of London Press|jstor=j.ctvkjb3sr.12|isbn=978-1-909646-94-0}}</ref>