Exhibition: The OU and Alexandra Palace

During the 1980s television viewing habits were changing significantly. No longer did students have to watch material only at the time it was broadcast, thanks to the widespread take-up of video recorders during the 1980s and into the 1990s. This allowed for Open University programmes to be broadcast during the overnight BBC two Learning Zone and recorded by students for watching later.

In the 1990s the University's television and radio broadcasting expanded beyond course-related programmes. It began to commission peak-time series for BBC channels while continuing to deliver material specifically related to individual courses in the late-night Learning Zone.

By 2002, technological advances had again changed the nature of the University's broadcast activity. Audio-visual material for courses was made directly by the University and sent to students in the form of CDs and DVDs. The BBC production centre at Milton Keynes closed in September 2003. December 2006 saw the last of the course-material programmes to be shown on the Learning Zone.

The Open University evolved its partnership with the BBC to co-produce peak-time TV and radio content to support OU teaching and learning. This not only provided unique assets for the curriculum but also enabled the University to continue its social mission of inspiring learning for a general public audience. In 2007, more than 20 TV series were broadcast bearing The Open University logo.

Since then the OU/BBC Partnership has gone from strength to strength, co-producing award winning TV, Radio, digital and online content.

Details of the latest programmes can be found in the TV and Radio section of OpenLearn.