BBC TV Europe

BBC TV Europe was a BBC subscription-funded television service founded in 1987 serving continental Europe. It was available on satellite and cable.

The channel broadcast a mix of programmes shown on BBC One and BBC Two in the United Kingdom, as well as the BBC's domestic Six O'Clock News bulletin together with the regional news service from London. When a programme on BBC One could not be shown on the channel for rights reasons, this would be replaced with a programme shown on BBC Two.

In 1991, the channel was replaced by BBC World Service Television, which was itself replaced by BBC World and BBC Prime in 1995.

Baird Television Ltd. made Britain's first television broadcast, on 30 September 1929 from its studio in Long Acre, London via the BBC's London transmitter, using the electromechanical system pioneered by John Logie Baird. This system used a vertically-scanned image of 30 lines — just enough resolution for a close-up of one person, and with a bandwidth low enough to use existing radio transmitters. Simultaneous transmission of sound and picture was achieved on 30 March 1930, by using the BBC's new twin transmitter at Brookmans Park. By late 1930, 30 minutes of morning programmes were broadcast Monday to Friday, and 30 minutes at midnight on Tuesdays and Fridays, after BBC radio went off the air. Baird broadcasts via the BBC continued until June 1932.

The BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. The studio moved to larger quarters in 16 Portland Place, London, in February 1934, and continued broadcasting the 30-line images, carried by telephone line to the medium wave transmitter at Brookmans Park, until 11 September 1935, by which time advances in all-electronic television systems made the electromechanical broadcasts obsolete.

After a series of test transmissions and special broadcasts that began in August, regular BBC television broadcasts officially resumed on 1 October 1936, from a converted wing of Alexandra Palace in London, which housed two studios, various scenery stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms, offices, and the transmitter itself, now broadcasting on the VHF band. BBC television initially used two systems, on alternate weeks: the 240-line Baird intermediate film system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system, each making the BBC the world's first regular high-definition television service, broadcasting Monday to Saturday from 15:00 to 16:00 and 21:00 to 22:00.The two systems were to run on a trial basis for six months; early television sets supported both resolutions. However, the Baird system, which used a mechanical camera for filmed programming and Farnsworth image dissector cameras for live programming, proved too cumbersome and visually inferior, and was dropped in February 1937.

Initially, the station's range was officially a 25-mile (40 km) radius of the Alexandra Palace transmitter—in practice, however, transmissions could be picked up a good deal further away, and on one occasion in 1938 were picked up by engineers at RCA in New York, who were experimenting with a British television set
BBC One HD, a simulcast of BBC One in high-definition (HD), launched on 3 November 2010 at 19:00.[46] The channel simulcasts a network version of BBC One in High Definition, with HD versions of programmes including Holby City, The One Show, Strictly Come Dancing, The Apprentice, The Weakest Link and Doctor Who. EastEnders was also made available in HD as from Christmas Day 2010. All programmes still made in standard-definition are upscaled on the channel and it is intended that by 2012 the vast majority of the channel's output will be in high-definition.

BBC One HD, however, does not offer regional variations, and therefore the channel cannot broadcast during regional programming slots, most noticeably the local news programmes. The BBC Trust admitted that this is due to technical and financial constraints,[47] but the BBC announced on 6 June 2011 that the national variations of BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC One Scotland and BBC One Wales, would become available in 2012.[48]

BBC One HD is available on all digital television platforms offering HD channels – Freesat, Freeview HD, Sky, Smallworld Cable, UPC Ireland and Virgin Media. It is available in addition to the existing BBC HD channel, which continues to broadcast HD programmes from the BBC's other television channels.

On 3 November 2011, BBC One HD launched on Sky Ireland on channel 234 or 141 for HD pack subscribers.