BBC Prime

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BBC Prime is the BBC's general entertainment TV channel in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It was launched in January, 1995, and began broadcasts in Africa in March, 1999. A version of the channel was launched in Asia on December 1st, 2004. It broadcasts via satellite and cable, for 18 hours a day, with the remaining six hours being used for educational programmes for BBC Learning.

BBC Prime is funded by subscription available either as part of a satellite package or as a stand-alone channel. As it also carries advertisements, it is not available in the United Kingdom, as under the terms of the BBC's Charter, its domestic services cannot show advertising.

When it first launched, BBC Prime also carried programming from the former ITV company Thames Television, as BBC Worldwide had a joint venture, known as European Channel Management, with Thames' parent comany, Pearson. This venture was later dissolved, and programmes like The Bill were no longer carried.

Owing to rights issues, much of the programming on BBC Prime is from the Corporation's archive.

Logo 1995-97

The channel's emphasis on archive programming, caused considerable annoyance to many British expatriate viewers, who had much preferred the mix of BBC One and Two previously offered by BBC TV Europe and BBC World Service Television.

Consequently, many people in mainland Europe bought viewing cards to receive full broadcasts of BBC One and Two from the UK, which prompted GBC in Gibraltar to end terrestrial retransmission of BBC Prime in 1999. Even after the BBC switched to broadcasting unencrypted on a satellite with a much weaker signal, many people in Spain and elsewhere could still receive these signals, particularly those who already had large satellite dishes.

BBC Prime is broadcast alongside BBC One and Two in the Netherlands, which have long been available on cable television, together with BBC World. It is also available on digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the Netherlands, as well as the Faroe Islands and Malta. In February 2006, BBC Worldwide secured a slot for the channel in the Swedish DTT network.

The BBC argues that most of BBC Prime's viewers are not British, and often may not have English as a first language, hence the availability of subtitles in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Italian, Hebrew and Serbian.

Similarly, some programmes on BBC Prime in Africa are different from the European service, as many have already been licensed to South African broadcasters, and the service does not show BBC Learning.

In Asia the programming is completely different to take account of time zones and cultural differences, with subtitles in local languages like Chinese, Thai, and Korean. BBC Prime's Asian service is available in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, and South Korea, but will become available on cable and satellite services in other countries in the region, including the Philippines and Taiwan.

Among the more contemporary BBC programmes shown on BBC Prime are Top of the Pops and EastEnders, the latter of which debuted in Asia in January 2006.

A similar channel, called BBC Japan, launched in Japan on December 1st, 2004, but ceased broadcasting on April 30, 2006, owing to problems with its local distributor.

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