The world’s first public broadcaster, the BBC, went on air as radio station 2LO in 1922, and in a very tangible sense everything that followed in our media industry follows from that moment. Television quickly followed radio in the BBC timeline, with experimental broadcasts in 1929 and the first public services in 1935. More recently, the BBC iPlayer was launched in 2007, still recognised as a powerful and pioneering access to huge amounts of content. And, in a happy coincidence, the BBC’s first home, in Savoy Place, was provided by the Institute of Electrical Engineers, now the IET and one of IBC’s owners.

“Our industry, of course, has been driven forward by innovators and creators from all around the world,” said Michael Crimp, CEO of IBC. “But we all of us trace the source back to those cramped rooms in Savoy Hill in London in 1922. We are pleased to present the award to BBC100, but it a very real sense it is for all of us that care about the creativity, the technology and the business that surrounds every practitioner in the world of media."

BBC 100 will be celebrated in the digital-first awards ceremony, online at 16.00 BST on Monday 5 September. Trophies for this year’s awards will be presented at a special reception at IBC, on Sunday evening at 18.30 in room E102.