Disasters Emergency Committee a total of £107 million. On 22 January 2009, the BBC declined a request from the DEC to screen an appeal to raise money to aid relief efforts for victims of conflict in the Gaza Strip. This decision was the object of considerable controversy within the BBC as it is the only time the BBC is known to have refused such a request from the DEC; the 2009 Gaza appeal in question was screened by Channel 4 and ITV and raised £8.3m. Since then, the BBC has broadcast other DEC aid appeals for people in Gaza, without similar controversy. The
BBC Prime BBC Prime BBC Prime was the BBC's general entertainment TV channel in Europe and the Middle East from 30 January 1995 until 11 November 2009, when it was replaced by BBC Entertainment. BBC Prime was launched at 19:00 GMT on Thursday, 26 January 1995 when the former BBC World Service Television was split into two separate television stations: The channel broadcast drama, comedy and lifestyle programmes which it repeated on a monthly basis. Once, it allocated six hours per day to educational programmes from BBC Learning (shown in the European small hours); this practice was abandoned in August 2006 "with