LibGuides: News Sources: Broadcast News Resources

Box of Broadcasts

Box of Broadcasts
Finding News Items in BoB

Box of Broadcasts welcome image

Box of Broadcasts
BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National is an innovative shared online off-air TV and radio recording service for UK higher and further education institutions. It contains over a million items, including an archive of all BBC TV and radio content dating from 2007.
BoB enables all staff and students in subscribing institutions to choose and record any scheduled broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels. You can also edit programmes into clips, create playlists, embed clips into Moodle, share items via social media and generate reference citations.
Please note that our BoB licence is for educational purposes only, and only for use within the UK.
BUFVC’s privacy policy

You can find more information about using BoB on our TV for learning webpage.

Box of Broadcasts is a great resource for finding news footage.

It works best if you open up the Search box and use the Search options button just below it.

You can then make choices, such as TV or radio only, whether your words appear in the title only or in the whole text of the extract.
You can limit your search to certain channels - click on Custom and make your choice
Most importantly, you can choose a Custom Date Range, or a specific day, so that you can find coverage of an event in the news.
One you have selected an item to view, there will often be an option to Show Transcript. fif you click on that, you can view the text of the broadcast as you watch it.
You can then search for words within the transcript, which is the perfect way to locate the news item you want within a longer news bulletin.
You can save clips of any sections that interest you
You can find the URL for the broadcast by clicking on the Share button.
You can add items of interest to your Playlists, which you can access in MyBoB along with your clips.

Resources elsewhere in the UK

British Library Broadcast News Service - The British Library was subject to a cyber-attack in October 2023 and since then this service has been unavailable. There is still no timescale for restoring all services. Information can be found on the British Library blog. (Updated May 2025)

This viewing-only service, covering broadcasts from 2010 onwards, is only available in the British Library's Reading Rooms in London, so definitely a last resort.