page_title: Television in the United Kingdom
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Television in the United Kingdom / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, London. The image was taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1.
context_page_description: Television in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed. There are 27,000 hours of domestic content produced a year at a cost of £2.6 billion. Since 24 October 2012, all television broadcasts in the United Kingdom have been in a digital format, following the end of analogue transmissions in Northern Ireland. Digital content is delivered via terrestrial, satellite and cable, as well as over IP. As of 2003, 53.2% of households watch through terrestrial, 31.3% through satellite, and 15.6% through cable.
caption: Alexandra Palace, the headquarters of the BBC Television Service from 1936.
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