BBC World News marks 20 years of broadcasting

In 1991, the channel started broadcasting to Europe as BBC World Service Television. By 1995 it was available across all major continents as BBC World. Three years ago, in 2008, the channel rebranded as BBC World News and is today available in close to 300 million households around the world.

BBC World News is currently preparing to join the rest of the BBC's newsgathering operation at Broadcasting House in central London in 2012, in what will be one of the largest and most technologically advanced news studios in the world.

Richard Porter, Acting Controller of English at BBC Global News, says: "The changes we've witnessed in the past 20 years, in both the way we gather news and the way stories interconnect, have been far-reaching and dramatic. Technological advances have brought real immediacy to global news and people are far more interested and engaged with the rest of the world now ' they understand the way the big stories connect us all. The role of channels like BBC World News is now more important than ever in that respect."

Colin Lawrence, Commercial Director of BBC World News, adds: "The BBC has continually invested in its global news offering over the past 20 years. The combination of best-in-class authored journalism, pre-eminent news gathering scale, and the world's most trusted and respected news brand is a compelling proposition; it's also a world class product for our affiliate and advertising sales teams. News is a challenging business, but BBC World News is on a sound commercial footing, and we're constantly working with our many commercial partners to adapt our offering to changing consumption and platform paradigms."

Nik Gowing, the longest-serving presenter on the channel, adds: "The world is such a different place to the one we often struggled to cover both editorially and technologically in 1991; the latest upheavals in Egypt, Libya and across the Middle East are the latest examples of the dramatic pace at which huge stories now develop, and the swift impact they have globally. We give our large audience an international perspective with the analysis they want. Above all, the new go-anywhere digital technologies and social media have created the exciting ability to bring them the news from almost anywhere and, in most cases, instantaneously."