BBC News (also referred to as the BBC News Channel) is the BBC's 24-hour rolling news television network in the United Kingdom. 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. Since then, with several relaunches, an increase in funding and resources from the BBC and improvements in digital television technology, the channel has been able to diversify content, with two minute looped bulletins available to view via BBC Red Button, BBC News Online and the BBC's mobile website, alongside individual weather and sport bulletins.
In May 2007, the channel became available for UK viewers to view through the BBC News website through a live stream. In April 2008, the channel was renamed "BBC News" as part of a £550,000 rebranding of the BBC's news output, complete with a new studio and presentation. Its sister services, BBC World was also renamed as "BBC World News" while the national news bulletins became BBC News at One, BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten.
News broadcasting is the broadcasting of various news events and other information via television, radio or internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network. It may also include additional material such as sports coverage, weather forecasts, traffic reports, commentary and other material that the broadcaster feels is relevant to their audience.
Television news refers to disseminating current events via the medium of television. A "news bulletin" or a "newscast" are television programs lasting from seconds to hours that provide updates on world, national, regional or local news events. Television news is very image-based, showing video of many of the events that are reported. Television channels may provide news bulletins as part of a regularly scheduled news program. Less often, television shows may be interrupted or replaced by breaking news ("news flashes") to provide news updates on current events of great importance or sudden events of great importance.
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 44 foreign news bureaux and has correspondents in almost all of the world's 240 countries. Since 2004, the Director of BBC News has been Helen Boaden.
The department's annual budget is £350 million; it has 3,500 staff, 2,000 of whom are journalists. Through the BBC English Regions, BBC News has regional centres across England as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. All regions and nations produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes.
Radio and television operations are broadcast from BBC Television Centre in West London, though are due to move to the newly refurbished Broadcasting House in central London by 2013. Television Centre houses all domestic, global, and online news divisions within one main newsroom. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London.
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond ( /ˈsæmənd/; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Gordon. From 1987 to 2010 he served as Member of Parliament for Banff and Buchan in the UK House of Commons. Salmond previously held the position of leader of the SNP from September 1990 until he stepped down in September 2000.
Originally from Linlithgow, West Lothian, Salmond is a graduate of the University of St Andrews, where he achieved a Joint Honours MA in Economics and History. After earning his degree he began his career in the Government Economic Service (GES), and later joined the Royal Bank of Scotland as an energy economist where he wrote and broadcast extensively for both domestic and international media outlets.
Following the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, he was elected MSP for Banff and Buchan, thus simultaneously representing the area as both Member of Parliament (MP) and MSP. Salmond resigned as SNP leader in 2000 and did not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament. He did however retain his Westminster seat in the 2001 general election. Salmond was once again elected SNP leader in 2004 and the following year held his Banff and Buchan seat in the 2005 general election. In 2006 he announced his intention to contest the Gordon constituency in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, an election in which Salmond defeated the incumbent MSP and in which nationally, the SNP emerged as the largest single party. Salmond was voted First Minister by the Scottish Parliament on 16 May 2007.
Matthew Amroliwala (born 1962) is a BBC newsreader who presents on the BBC News Channel each weekday from 11am - 2pm alongside Jane Hill. He is an occasional relief presenter of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One and appears in the revamped Crimewatch programme on BBC One, with Kirsty Young.
He was born Mehrwan F. Amroliwala in Leeds, the son of a Royal Air Force officer, and he is a Zoroastrian. He was educated at The King's School, Ely and then at St Chad's College, Durham University. He graduated in 1984 having read Law and Politics.
He was married in London, in June 1999, and has four children: Milo, Louis, Mary and Mabel.
After a career as a chartered accountant he joined the BBC and in 1990 became a BBC network television correspondent. In 1997 he joined the BBC News Channel as a presenter of the channel's evening programmes, and from the beginning of 2001 he has presented the late afternoon news programme, first with Jane Hill and then with Maxine Mawhinney. In April 2006 he was reunited with Hill, and they now present together from 11am-2pm on weekdays.