[DTV]

It's really sad to hear that the WBR name will be dropped after many, many years. Does anyone know when it was actually first introduced? I'm certain it goes back to the early BBC World Service TV days, so possibly some time in the early 1990s?

As far as I was able to work out, World Business Report was there from the beginning - initially broadcast at 18:45 UKT, just before the then single BBC World Service News bulletin at 19:00 UKT. From October, it moved to after Newsnight, and was extended to 30 minutes in June 1992 (though additional bulletins might also have been broadcast on WSTV Asia at the time). From October 1992, when Newsnight was moved to tape delay, the main edition was broadcast at 22:30 UKT.

When BBC World launched, the main edition was incorporated into The World Report, with an additional afternoon edition added at 13:15 GMT (plus unbranded business updates in other programmes). The main edition was separated out again in January 1998, now at 21:10 UKT, moving to 21:30 with a February 2000 rebrand, from which point it was dual-presented from London and New York. At this point, four standalone editions aired daily (13:15 GMT, 17:15 UKT, 18:40 UKT, 21:30 UKT), but this was massively expanded in September 2001 - with the launch of the new European breakfast schedule (introducing editions at 05:30, 06:30 and 07:30 UKT) and the refreshed Asian afternoon schedule (10:45 and 12:30 GMT bulletins replacing the 13:15).

WBR rebranded in July 2003 and, by late 2005, there were a dozen editions of the programme daily. Coinciding with the launch of World News Today in July 2006, WBR again rebranded - adopting the 'barcode' titles - with extra editions included in most editions of WNT. From September 2006, the main edition was pushed back to 22:30 UKT, before moving forward to 22:15 the following July and axed and replaced by World News Today: Business Edition in May 2008. From the February 2010 mega-schedule change, the remaining 30 minute editions were reduced to 15 minutes.

This will also be the demise of Asia Business Report, which was launched in its current form (an earlier version may have aired on WSTV Asia) in October 2000, with Mishal Husain briefly the main presenter, followed by a few others before long-term host Rico Hizon joined in 2002. It initially only aired on the three Asian feeds of the channel, but a single edition was aired on all feeds from mid-2008, with all editions doing so from the Feb 2010 changes.

Feel that's a pretty comprehensive pre-NBH history of the programme.