BBC 7 is a digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's vast archive of spoken-word entertainment. Programmes qualify for broadcast on BBC7 if they are either three years old or more, or if they have previously been broadcast twice on their original stations. Even if a programme fulfils these criteria there may be copyright issues that prevent it from appearing on BBC7, as with the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

The schedule spans the decades, from 1950s classics like the Goon Show to recent Radio 4 shows like Little Britain. This means it is like a radio form of UKTV Gold, but without commercials. The station aims for a less formal approach than other speech networks. The announcers who link the programmes are promoted as personalities in their own right and are associated with themed blocks of programming.

There is speculative fiction of various kinds, science fiction, fantasy or horror seven days a week in a regular slot called The 7th Dimension which is broadcast on BBC 7 twice a day.

Paul Merton launched the station at 8pm on December 15, 2002 in a United States series, Garrison Keillor's Radio Show and Internet, in Britain, Ireland and parts of France, Belgium and The Netherlands via the Astra 2D satellite, and in the UK on DAB digital radio, cable television, and Freeview digital terrestrial television.