The arrival of the digital technology and the Internet during the decade marked a new era for broadcasting. The BBC had been broadcasting in analogue since it began in 1922, but it now instigated major investment in digital broadcasting and in internet services, paving the way for even greater change in the decade to follow. No broadcasting operation in the world is better positioned for the digital age than the BBC Sir John Birt, Director-General, 2000
Darcy and Del Boy top the ratings
Despite the unprecedented increase in competition and the fragmentation of the market, the BBC continued to try and reach all audiences. As in the 1920s when BBC Radio started, the BBC continued to foster national identity especially via sport and national events (though the former had become harder because of the cost of broadcast rights). Television and radio coverage of the VE and VJ Day 50th anniversary commemorations in 1995 were highly acclaimed as were the broadcasts of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. Successful drama such as Our Friends In The North, Pride and Prejudice (starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, in a fresh new script by Andrew Davies, who would go on to adapt numerous classic novels for TV), Middlemarch and Ballykissangel demonstrated the BBC’s continual mastery of the costume drama, as well as creating insightful contemporary drama which held the mirror up to the moment. Other notable hits were with comedy and light entertainment shows such as One Foot in the Grave, Men Behaving Badly, Absolutely Fabulous, The Vicar of Dibley, The Fast Show, The Mrs Merton Show and Have I Got News For You. Only Fools and Horses secured an audience of 24 million during Christmas 1996 - the largest single programme audience on British television since measurement of individual viewing began over twenty years ago.
Diana, Diana…
Documentary making also continued during this period, with penetrating explorations of cultural and...
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