The innovation of the internet was championed internally by Director-General John Birt, who saw how it could transform ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s global media role, and mobilised R&D and managerial expertise to make it happen. There were initial problems that publication of web pages did not sit within the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Charter, but this obstacle was overcome, and on 15 December 1997, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ website was officially launched.
Online milestones quickly followed: that Christmas Day, the Queen's Christmas Speech was shown live online for the first time. Burgeoning sites for sport, weather and children's content quickly followed, the latter transforming a generation's use of media.
By 2005, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s online service was reaching almost 12 million users a month. Then in December 2007, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ iPlayer launched, growing into a market-leading service used by the vast majority of the UK population. In 2012 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Online delivered the first comprehensively digital Olympic Games. In May 2021, monthly reach for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Online was 81% of 16+ adults in the UK (43.2m), whilst average weekly reach was 61% (32.5m). ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Online had some record traffic levels in 2020, largely driven by News and Covid spikes, and regularly reached over 100 million unique browsers a week.
Further reading
-
Dreams, data and downloads
A timeline of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ on the World Wide Web
December anniversaries
-
Ireland: A Television History
2 December 1980 -
Start of The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Television Shakespeare
3 December 1978 -
The World About Us
3 December 1967 -
Edward VIII Abdication speech
11 December 1936 -
1984 Broadcast
12 December 1954 -
bbc.co.uk is launched
12 December 1997 -
Jackanory first broadcast
13 December 1965 -
Comedy Playhouse
15 December 1961 -
Culloden
15 December 1964 -
The Likely Lads
16 December 1964 -
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service launches
19 December 1932 -
Zoo Quest, first on-screen appearance by David Attenborough
21 December 1954 -
Just a Minute first transmitted
22 December 1967 -
A Close Shave
24 December 1995 -
First Empire Address by King George V
25 December 1932 -
Morecambe and Wise Christmas Shows
25 December -
Only Fools and Horses 1996 Christmas Specials
25 December 1996 -
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Reith Lectures
26 December 1948 -
Alice in Wonderland
28 December 1966 -
Big Ben chimes broadcast at New Year for the first time
31 December 1923