# BBC Genome Project > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/BBC_Genome_Project > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/BBC_Genome_Project.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Genome_Project > Source revision: 1354641485 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) The **BBC Genome Project** is an online searchable database of programme listings initially based upon the contents of the *[Radio Times](/source/Radio_Times)* from the first issue in 1923 to 2009.[1] Television listings from post-2009 can be accessed via the BBC Programmes site.[2] ## History ### Prior BBC Genome is not the BBC's first online searchable database. In April 2006, they gave the public access to Infax – their only electronic programme database at the time. It contained around 900,000 entries but not every programme ever broadcast, and it ceased operation in December 2007.[3] The front page of the website is still available to see via the [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive).[4] After Infax ceased, a message on the website said that it would be incorporating in the information into individual programme pages.[5] In 2012, Infax was replaced by the database Fabric but this is only for internal use within the BBC. ### *Radio Times* In December 2012, the [BBC](/source/BBC) completed a digitisation exercise, scanning the listings from *[Radio Times](/source/Radio_Times)* of all BBC's programmes from 1923 to 2009 from an entire run of about 4,500 copies of the magazine.[6] They identified around five million programmes involving 8.5 million actors, presenters, writers and technical staff.[6] BBC Genome was released for public use on 15 October 2014.[7][8] The listings are as published in advance, and so do not include late changes or cancellations which were reflected on Infax. However, they do include huge numbers of early radio and television broadcasts, and "DJ shows" from [BBC Radio 1](/source/BBC_Radio_1) and [BBC Radio 2](/source/BBC_Radio_2) which were rarely kept officially, which were not listed on Infax (which also did not usually include repeats of archived programmes prior to 1976) because they were not in the BBC archives. The issues were scanned at [high resolution](/source/Image_resolution), producing [TIFF](/source/TIFF) images and [optical character recognition](/source/Optical_character_recognition) was then used to turn the text from the page into searchable text on the Genome database.[1] The aim of this project is to allow researchers to be able to find out information easier and to help [BBC Archives](/source/BBC_Archives) to build up a picture of what exists and what is currently missing from the archive.[9][10] Corrections to OCR errors and changes to advertised schedules are being [crowdsourced](/source/Crowdsourcing),[7] with over 440,910 user generated edits accepted after editorial review as of mid-December 2018.[11][12] Each listing entry has a unique identifier which may be expressed as a URL. For example, the first screening of *[Doctor Who](/source/Doctor_Who)* is [bbc.co.uk](https://web.archive.org/web/20141020114518/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/8f81c193ba224e84981f353cae480d49). A broadcast programme may have more than one such identifier, if it was broadcast (and thus listed) on repeat occasions, or in different regions. #### Other content Digitised editions of entire magazines (including front covers, prose articles, advertisements, and other non-listings content) from the 1920s were added in March 2017;[13] for the 1930s in December 2017;[14] for the 1940s in December 2018;[15] and for the 1950s in December 2019.[16] #### Missing listings Issue date[17] Reason[17] 14 May 1926 General strike 21 February 1947 Fuel crisis 28 February 1947 8 September 1950 Printing dispute 13 October 1950 20 October 1950 27 October 1950 1 August 1981 2 April 1983 9 April 1983 3 December 1983 ## See also - [BBC Archives](/source/BBC_Archives) - [BBC Programme Catalogue](/source/BBC_Programme_Catalogue) - [Timeline of the BBC](/source/Timeline_of_the_BBC) ## References 1. ["About this project"](https://web.archive.org/web/20141016205302/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/about). [BBC](/source/BBC). Archived from [the original](http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/about) on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2014. 1. [BBC Programmes site](https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl6p/2010/01/01) 1. ["About This Prototype"](http://open.bbc.co.uk/cataloguemeta/2005/11/about_this_prototype.html). [BBC](/source/BBC). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20060613100552/http://open.bbc.co.uk/cataloguemeta/2005/11/about_this_prototype.html) 13 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2 February 2016. 1. ["BBC Programme Catalogue"](https://web.archive.org/web/20060512054648/http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax). *open.bbc.co.uk*. Archived from [the original](http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax) on 12 May 2006. Retrieved 17 January 2022. 1. ["This experimental prototype trial has now concluded"](https://archive.today/20120707042534/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/catalogue_offline.shtml). [BBC](/source/BBC). Archived from [the original](https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/catalogue_offline.shtml) on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2016. 1. Kelion, Leo (7 December 2012). ["BBC finishes Radio Times archive digitisation effort"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20625884). *[BBC Online](/source/BBC_Online)*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20130209063924/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20625884) 9 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 January 2013. 1. Bishop, Hilary (15 October 2014). ["Genome – Radio Times archive now live"](https://web.archive.org/web/20141019034330/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/posts/Genome-The-Radio-Times-Archive-is-now-live). *[BBC Online](/source/BBC_Online)*. Archived from [the original](https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/posts/Genome-The-Radio-Times-Archive-is-now-live) on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014. 1. Sweney, Mark (16 October 2014). ["BBC digitises Radio Times back issues"](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/16/bbc-digitises-radio-times-back-issues-genome-project). *Guardian* 1. ["BBC's Genome Project offers radio and TV archive listings"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29643662). [BBC](/source/BBC). 16 October 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2014. 1. Sweney, Mark (16 October 2014). ["BBC digitises Radio Times back issues"](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/16/bbc-digitises-radio-times-back-issues-genome-project). *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)*. Retrieved 21 October 2014. 1. ["BBC One London - 20 April 1964 - BBC Genome"](https://web.archive.org/web/20141016205338/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1964-04-20). *genome.ch.bbc.co.uk*. Archived from [the original](http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1964-04-20) on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 2017-01-09. 1. ["FAQs - BBC Genome"](https://web.archive.org/web/20141016205317/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/faqs#what). BBC. Archived from [the original](http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/faqs#what) on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2017. Once you edit an entry your suggestion will be validated, and if accepted, Genome will be changed. If your suggestion does not match the magazine, we will include your edit in the additional data we are gathering for use at a later date. 1. ["BBC - BBC makes 1920s Radio Times magazines available to public - Media Centre"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/radio-times-1920s). *BBC Genome Blog*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20181217173013/https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/radio-times-1920s) 17 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 15 December 2018. 1. ["Pages from history - Radio Times in the 1930s"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fgenome%2Fentries%2Ff6f6f01f-cbed-49d1-b10c-1df091af8e4b). *BBC Genome Blog*. 5 December 2017. [Archived](https://ghostarchive.org/archive/jxAFK) 17 May 2026 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 15 December 2018. 1. ["Radio Times in the 1940s - War and Peace"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fgenome%2Fentries%2Fec09407d-09b6-4321-a8da-e5e6b78557fc). *BBC Genome Blog*. 8 December 2018. [Archived](https://ghostarchive.org/archive/VNhhW) 17 May 2026 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 15 December 2018. 1. Martin, Andrew (22 December 2018). ["Radio Times - the 1950s pages"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fgenome%2Fentries%2F639160bb-dda5-4cc5-94fa-285446c64a84). *BBC Genome Blog*. [Archived](https://ghostarchive.org/archive/sVzjl) 17 May 2026 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 26 December 2018. 1. ["Does Radio Times/Genome cover every week of the BBC's broadcast history?"](https://archive.today/20141019225315/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/faqs#every-week). [BBC Genome](/source/BBC_Genome). Archived from [the original](https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/faqs#every-week) on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2018. ## External links - [BBC Genome Project (1923-2009)](http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20201203001709/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/) 3 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine - [BBC Programme TV Listings (2010-)](https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl6p/2010/01/01) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [BBC Genome Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Genome_Project) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Genome_Project?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.