BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament is British public television network owned by British Broadcasting Corporation. The channel broadcasts reports from the European Parliament and the annual conferences of the main political parties and the Trades Union Congress.

History

Before being taken over by BBC, the channel was known as The Parliamentary Channel, operated by United Artists Cable and funded by a consortium of British cable operators. The Parliamentary Channel launched as a cable-exclusive channel on 13 January 1992. The channel was purchased by BBC in 1998, retitled BBC Parliament and relaunched on 23 September 1998. It now broadcasts on cable, satellite, and Freeview.

The channel ran as an audio service via DAB from launch until 14 November 2000.

Due to capacity limitations on the digital terrestrial television platform, now known as Freeview, from launch until 30 October 2002, the channel ran as "audio only". Then on Freeview from October 2002 until 13 November 2006 the channel was only able to broadcast a quarter-screen picture. After receiving "thousands of angry and perplexed emails and letters", not to mention questions asked by MPs in the House itself, BBC eventually found the bandwidth to make the channel full-screen.

Until 2008, BBC Parliament was unique amongst BBC channels in being broadcast using non-BBC facilities, with ITV's Millbank Studios in Westminster supplying the engineering and playout facilities. Production, editorial and journalism were, however, maintained by BBC.

The channel's current identity went live on Monday 10 October 2016 with refreshed music and idents based on clock workings, with colours and images derived from the flags and assemblies of the British home countries and the European Parliament.

The previous idents, also based on a Big Ben clock motif ran from 2009–2016. This replaced the channel's previous identity which was first introduced in 2002.

BBC Parliament was taken off the air during the 2012 Summer Olympics on Freeview in post-digital switchover areas to enable BBC Three to broadcast 24 hours a day. BBC had done the same during the 2008 Summer Olympics as it used the space to provide an additional BBC Red Button option for Freeview users.

BBC Parliament is the only BBC channel which does not broadcast in HD (apart from the BBC Red Button). This has been the case since 10 December 2013 when BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC News, CBBC, and CBeebies began high-definition simulcasts.

On 5 September 2016, BBC Two began broadcasting BBC Parliament during BBC Two's overnight downtime. However this was short-lived and has subsequently been discontinued.

On 14 October 2016, the channel received a new look and new idents, its first revamp since 2009.