BBC ITV. However, the BBC monopoly on radio services would persist until 8 October 1973 when under the control of the newly renamed Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the UK's first Independent local radio station, LBC came on-air in the London area. As a result of the Pilkington Committee report of 1962, in which the BBC was praised for the quality and range of its output, and ITV was very heavily criticised for not providing enough quality programming, the decision was taken to award the BBC a second television channel, BBC2, in 1964, renaming the existing service BBC1. BBC2 used the higher
BBC Studios income received through the licence fee. In exchange, the BBC agreed to tender its current programming to allow third-party independent studios to produce them on behalf of the BBC. The formal establishment of BBC Studios as a commercial entity occurred in April 2017. In April 2018, BBC Worldwide was merged into the company, to make it both a distributor and producer of programmes, in line with other major multinational studio conglomerates. BBC News and BBC Radio remain separate internal production divisions in the BBC (although BBC Radio Comedy is part of Studios), and the rest of the former BBC Television