The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, and other factual programmes; it broadcasts from studios in London, Washington, D.C., and Singapore.

[1] Unlike the BBC's domestic channels, it is funded by subscription and advertising revenues, and not by the United Kingdom television licence.

[2] As such, the channel is not broadcast in the UK directly, although selected programmes and bulletins have been carried on the domestic BBC News channel (especially during overnight hours), and vice versa (including domestic programmes such as Click and HARDtalk, and during breaking news and special events in the UK).

The channel started broadcasting on 11 March 1991, after two weeks of real-time pilots, initially as a half-hour bulletin once a day at 19:00 GMT.

On 8 December 2003, a second makeover, using the same 'drums and beeps' style music but new graphics took place, although on a much smaller scale than that of 2000.

This resulted in layoffs of about 50 employees, including presenters David Eades, Joanna Gosling, and Tim Willcox.

Deadline Hollywood has reported that in response to concerns over the arrangement by the telecom and broadcasting regulator Ofcom, BBC News was considering allowing for more UK-specific opt-outs.

On 1 April 2015, the then-named BBC World News Channel started broadcasting in high definition on the 11.229 GHz/V transponder on Astra 1KR at the 19.2°E orbital position, available free-to-air to viewers with 60 cm dishes across Europe and coastal North Africa.

The channel is available in Europe and many parts of the world via subscription television providers in cable, satellite, IPTV and streaming platforms.

In the United States, the channel is available through providers[16] such as Cablevision, Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon Fios, and U-verse TV.

[18][19][20] In addition, BBC News syndicates its daytime and evening news programmes to public television stations throughout the US, originally maintaining a distribution partnership with Garden City, New York-based WLIW that lasted from 1998 until October 2008, when the BBC and WLIW mutually decided not to renew the contract.

[21][22][23] BBC News subsequently entered into an agreement with Community Television of Southern California, Inc., in which Los Angeles PBS member station KCET (which was a public independent station from 2011 to 2018) would take over distribution rights to BBC World News America (the KCET agreement has since been extended to encompass a half-hour simulcast of the 90-minute-long midday news bulletin GMT, which airs in the US as a morning show, and a weekly edition of the BBC news-magazine Newsnight).

[27] PBS separately began distributing another programme aired by the channel, Beyond 100 Days, as a tape-delayed late night broadcast on 2 January 2018, as an interim replacement for Charlie Rose.

Unlike GMT and BBC World News America, Beyond 100 Days is distributed exclusively to PBS member stations as part of the service's base schedule.

However, it can be easily received due to its free-to-air status on many European satellite systems, including Astra and Hot Bird, and is available in selected London hotels.

The international feed of BBC News can also be viewed in the public areas of Broadcasting House (in the lobby and café).

Many airlines around the world also play pre-recorded extracts of BBC News, have text headlines from it, or have a full bulletin available on the in-flight entertainment systems.

[37] The channel also produced short bulletins for public transport services in Singapore and Hong Kong: These broadcasts began with the statement: "Welcome to BBC World News on board the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit and Hong Kong MTR".

[clarification needed] The promotional videos now fill the entire screen and are interspersed with news and market updates, schedules, and other information.

The current style of countdown features reporters and technical staff in many different locations working to bring news stories to air.

The new countdown keeps the same music, but with Chameleon-style branding and a clock relocated to the middle from the bottom right corner,[38] similar in style to that of BBC Alba.

[39] It won a Peabody Award in 2007 for White Horse Village[40] and another in 2009 for Where Giving Life is a Death Sentence.