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BBC One was launched in 1936 in Britain as BBC Television Service and was the first world TV channel to broadcast regularly and in high resolution.

As the flagship channel of the BBC, BBC One has the highest audience outreach in the UK (around 20% of all viewers), regularly beating other close competitors.

BBC Television Service stopped broadcasting on September 1, 1939, when WWII began and there were fears that the TV signal would be a beacon for enemies. The channel resumed broadcasting in 1946 with the same Mickey Mouse cartoon that was shown on the day before the shutdown.

The channel gets funding for operations from the television license fees (paid by all households), and viewers watch BBC One without commercial advertising.

It was on BBC One that the iconic series Doctor Who premiered and continues with interruptions till today.

BBC One is the channel that instead of being criticized for lack of revenues or viewers is regularly criticized for providing too entertaining or simplistic content and the typical demands are that the channel keeps up with its image of the sophisticated ‘high-brow’ broadcaster.

Till 2012, BBC One had a share of children’s programmes loved by younger and older viewers alike, but in a shift of broadcasting policy, all kids’ content was moved to other channels of the BBC network, including BBC Cbeebies.

In 1997, BBC One became the first British channel to provide a widescreen broadcasting format.

BBC One has a strict quota on providing content produced domestically, by large companies and independent studios alike. During a typical day, around 89% of programming is original domestic content (the quota is 70%).

During the Coronavirus restrictions, a special set of BBC One idents was developed to remind people to comply with social distancing rules. A new ident was presented when the restrictions were lifted.