BBC One until the first Independent Television station began to broadcast on 22 September 1955, when ITV started broadcasting. The competition quickly forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a large reduction in its audience. The 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and that ITV lacked any serious programming. It therefore decided that Britain's third television station should be awarded to the BBC. The station, renamed BBC TV in 1960, became BBC1 when BBC2 was launched on 20 April 1964 transmitting an incompatible 625-line image on UHF. The only way to receive all channels was
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