British television

British television broadcasting has a range of different broadcasters, broadcasting multiple channels over a variety of distribution media.

Major broadcasters

There are six major broadcasters:

Free-to-air analogue terrestrial networks

Before the advent of digital television in the UK, five main television channels dominated British television. With the increasing popularity of digital television, all are expanding and offering a portfolio of digital-only channels to viewers.

BBC: The BBC is the oldest British broadcaster, and is the country's first and largest public service broadcaster. Its analogue channels are BBC One and BBC Two. The BBC first began a television service, initially serving London only, in 1936. BBC Television was closed during World War II but reopened in 1946. The second station, BBC Two, was launched in 1964. As well as these two analogue services, the BBC now also offers digital services BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, CBBC, CBeebies, BBCi and has trialled BBC HD.
ITV: ITV (Independent Television) was the name given to the original commercial British television broadcasters, set up on a regional basis in 1955 to provide competition to the BBC. Almost all of these companies have now merged into a single business. Its flagship analogue channel is ITV1, though it also now runs digital-only television channels ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, CITV, Men & Motors and ITV Play.
Channel 4 (originally only England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and S4C (originally only Wales): They were launched in 1982, and although state owned, Channel 4 is funded by its commercial activities (including advertising). The situation is more complex with S4C~, as the BBC produces some programming, and the channel has welsh language obligations. Channel 4 has expanded into digital television, now offering E4, More 4 and Filmfour on all digital platforms. S4C~ has also expanded, offering S4C2 in wales. S4C now also has to compete with Channel 4 in many areas of wales, even though both channels carry many of the same programmes.
Five: Five (previously known as Channel 5) was the final analogue broadcaster to be launched, in 1997. Its coverage is less than that of the other analogue broadcasters. RTL Group, Europe's largest television broadcaster, took full control of the channel in August 2005, and intends to launch two new digital-only TV channels in autumn 2006 (Five US and Five Life)

All of these channels are also carried on satellite television, cable television and digital terrestrial television services.

Digital Networks

BSkyB: BSkyB (British Sky Broadcasting) operates a satellite television service and numerous television channels e.g. Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky Movies, Sky Sports etc. It is owned by News Corporation.
Flextech: Owned by the cable provider NTL and operates several channels, e.g. Living TV, Bravo, Trouble etc. It also owns 50% of the UKTV company (The other 50% is owned by the BBC).

These six broadcasters dominate British television. The terrestrial networks all operate numerous digital channels (except Five, which is set to launch two digital channels later this year) and the bulk of viewing is on channels provided by these broadcasters. The most watched digital channels are owned by these networks also. There are other broadcasters who have secured a notable place on British television including Discovery Channel, Viacom International and EMAP, which all provide multiple channels.

No further analogue broadcasters are expected to be launched, and efforts are being made to popularise the uptake of digital television so that analogue television broadcasts can be discontinued and the bandwidth allocated can be reused. The analogue service is to be switched off over a 5 year plan starting in 2008 and finishing in 2012. 2008 will see ITV Border, ITV Westcountry and ITV Wales analogue service switched off. 2009: ITV Granada, ITV West, stv. 2010: ITV Central, ITV Yorkshire and ITV Anglia, 2011: ITV Meridian, ITV London, ITV Tyne Tees and UTV, and finally 2012: ITV Channel Television.

With the passage of UK’s Communications Act 2003, there are no longer any foreign-ownership restrictions in the UK’s television programming services, cable and Direct-to-Home satellite television sectors. To counterbalance the removal of foreign-ownership restrictions for companies in the broadcasting sector, the UK government has increased the power of the regulatory body, which is called Ofcom.

Digital terrestrial television

Digital terrestrial television was originally launched as a subscription-based service by a company called ONdigital, later ITV Digital, which failed commercially. The digital television service was relaunched as Freeview, a free-to-air service which is run and promoted by a consortium which includes the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, BSkyB and National Grid Wireless. The Freeview package includes all of the terrestrial channels mentioned above, some extra BBC channels, and a selection of the specialist channels found on the three subscription services, but not any of the premium ones such as top sport and movie channels. A more limited package of subscription channels has since been added under the name Top Up TV.

Cable and satellite

The major competitors to the old free-to-air analogue broadcasters are the subscription-based services of the regional cable companies NTL and Telewest, and the satellite broadcaster BSkyB, whose Sky Digital system is available nationwide, as well as in Ireland.

In 2005, NTL announced the purchase of its rival Telewest, establishing a single dominant company offering telephone, digital television, and high-speed broadband in the UK. The merger is widely rumoured to be intended to create an effective competitor to BSkyB. Sky have now reacted to this move, with the purchase of Easynet, in a bid to match NTL's "triple-play" offering.

Freesat from Sky, a satellite-based free-to-air service similar to Freeview, is available from BSkyB for an initial installation charge of £150, and includes receiver, dish, viewing card, with access to all FTA and FTV* channels in the UK.

UK mainland address required.

Alternatively, existing Sky customers can end their ongoing subscriptions, and opt for the Free-To-View viewing card, which is inserted into the Sky Viewing Card slot; effectively giving them the FreeSat from Sky service.

Freesat from Sky is not to be confused with the proposed Freesat service from the BBC and ITV, which is yet to be launched.

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