page_title: Mass media in the United Kingdom
section_title: Television
hierarchical_section_title: Mass media in the United Kingdom / Broadcasting / Television
caption_attribution_description: en:Channel 4 Building - Horseferry Road - en:London - en:England - photo by and copyright Tagishsimon - 31st May 2004
context_page_description: There are several different types of mass media in the United Kingdom: television, radio, newspapers, magazines and websites. The country also has a strong music industry. The United Kingdom has a diverse range of providers, the most prominent being the publicly owned public service broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC's largest competitors are ITV plc, which operates 13 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, and American global media conglomerate Comcast, which owns the broadcaster Sky Ltd. Regional media is covered by local radio, television and print newspapers. Trinity Mirror operates 240 local and regional newspapers, as well as national newspapers such as the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror.
context_section_description: The United Kingdom has no analogue television. A free to air digital service is made up of two chartered public broadcasting companies, the BBC and Channel 4 and two franchised commercial television companies, (ITV and Channel 5) specializing in entertainment, drama, culture, arts, nature, sports, comedy etc. In addition to this, the United Kingdom's free-to-air Freeview service runs a large number of Entertainment, Music, Sport and Shopping channels from the likes of CBS, UKTV and Sky. There are five major nationwide television channels: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5—currently transmitted by digital terrestrial, free-to-air signals with the latter three channels funded by commercial advertising. The vast majority of digital cable television services are provided by Virgin Media with satellite television available from Freesat or Sky and free-to-air digital terrestrial television by Freeview. The entire country switched to digital (from a previously analogue signal) in 2012.
  The BBC operates several television channels in the United Kingdom and abroad. The BBC's international television news service, BBC World News, is broadcast throughout the world. The domestic services of the BBC are funded by the television licence. The international television broadcast services are operated by BBC Worldwide on a commercial subscription basis over cable and satellite services. This commercial arm of the BBC also forms half of UKTV along with Virgin Media.
  Channel 4 is similarly chartered to the BBC, with a remit to provide public service broadcasting and schools programs, however it runs commercial advertisements to provide a revenue stream. It produces a number of digital channels, branded as Channel 4, as well as E4, More 4 and Film4.
  The commercial operators rely on advertising for their revenue, and are run as commercial ventures, in contrast to the public service operators. The ITV franchise transmits the 3 different networks in different parts of the country. These are known as ITV (in England, Wales, Scottish Borders, Isle of Man and Channel Islands), STV (In Central and Northern Scotland), and UTV in Northern Ireland.
caption: The Channel 4 building in London
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