UK broadcasting companies and TV channels

Analogue terrestrial television in the United Kingdom is made up of two public broadcasting companies, the BBC and Channel 4 and two commercial television companies, ITV and Five. There are five major free-to-air analogue channels: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Analogue terrestrial transmissions are currently being switched off and giving way to digital terrestrial, cable and satellite television. Although a great number of other channels are now available via these new technologies, the five above-mentioned channels remain the most popular (and are also the oldest).

· The BBC is the world's oldest and biggest broadcaster, and is the country's first and largest public service broadcaster. The BBC is funded by public money accrued from a television licence fee gathered from all UK households with a television set; it does not carry advertising. The BBC channels in the UK are BBC 1, BBC 2 (analogue), BBC 3, BBC 4, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament (digital).

BBC One – the Corporation’s primary network, broadcasting mainstream comedy, drama, documentaries, films, sport, and children’s programmes. BBC One is also the home of the BBC’s main 30-minutes news bulletins, currently shown at 13.00, 18.00, and 22.00 on weekdays (shorter early- and late-evening bulletins are broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays). The main news bulletins are followed by local news. These are provided by production centres in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and a further 14 regional and sub-regional centres in England. Along with the BBC's other domestic television stations, it is funded entirely by the licence fee, and therefore shows uninterrupted programming with no commercial advertising. It is currently the most watched television channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership, ITV1.

BBC Two – home to more specialist programming, including comedy, documentaries, dramas and minority interest programmes, as well as imported programmes from other countries, particularly the United States. An important feature of the schedule is Newsnight, a 50-minute news analysis programme shown each weeknight at 22.30. There are slight differences in the programming for England, Wales Northern Ireland and Scotland.

BBC Three – the main digital television network operated by the Corporation, home to mainly youth-oriented programming, particularly new comedy sketch shows and sitcoms.

BBC Four – niche programming for an intellectual audience, including specialist documentaries, occasional “serious” dramas, live theatre, foreign language films and television programmes and “prestige” archive television repeats.

CBBC Channel – for children aged six and above.

CBeebies – for children under six.

BBC News – a dedicated news channel.

BBC Parliament – the Corporation’s dedicated politics channel, covering both the British parliament and international politics.

· ITV (Independent Television) is the network of fifteen regional and three national commercial television franchises, originally founded in 1955 to provide competition to the BBC. ITV was the country's first commercial television provider funded by advertisements, and has been the most popular commercial channel through most of its existence. These companies earn money from advertising. There is a break for advertising about every 15-20 minutes. From the late 1990s, ITV's long-standing commitment to strong current affairs and documentary programming began to diminish with the ending of productions such as World in Action and their replacement with populist shows such as Tonight. Increasingly ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its soap operas, such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Recently, Independent Television faced criticism for including a large amount of "reality TV" programmes in the schedule. In its defence, ITV does continue to show its major strengths in the fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and it continues to schedule national news in primetime. ITV plc also operates digital channels ITV1 HD, ITV2 (entertainment), ITV3 (entertainment aimed at the over-35 audience), ITV4 (has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action series), Men & Motors and the CITV Channel (Children's Independent Television).

· Launched in 1982, Channel 4 is a state-owned national broadcaster which is funded by its commercial activities (including advertising). Channel 4 is a "publisher-broadcaster", meaning that it commissions or "buys" all of its programming from companies independent of itself, it has also had a long record of success in funding the production of films. Apart from the analogue Channel 4, the corporation runs a number of digital channels: FilmFour, E4 (youth entertainment channel), More4 (aimed at middle-aged and older audience), 4Music, etc.

· Channel Five was the final analogue broadcaster to be launched, in March 1997. The channel was re-named " Five " in 2002. Like Channel 4, the channel is a general entertainment channel, with internally commissioned shows such as The Gadget Show and Fifth Gear appearing alongside numerous international programmes such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The channel has historically had the lowest audience of Britain's five terrestrial television channels, with a viewing share of around 5% although it occasionally outperforms Channel 4 at peak times. The Company’s digital channels include Fiver (providing pre-school shows under the Milkshake! banner as well as drama, films, soaps, popular factual and lifestyle shows) and 5USA (offering drama, films, sport, comedy and youth programming from the USA).

· British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) operates a digital satellite television service and numerous television channels including Sky1 (entertainment channel whose listings include some very popular broadcasts—many imported from North America), Sky2 (programming mostly features sci-fi series, drama shows and documentary strands), Sky3, Sky Movies and Sky Sports, etc.

· UKTV is a digital cable and satellite television network, formed through a joint venture between BBC Worldwide, a commercial subsidiary of the BBC and Virgin Media. It is one of the United Kingdom's largest television companies. Most programmes on UKTV's channels are repeat broadcasts of BBC productions (although the entertainment channels also feature programmes made by other companies). The network’s channels are Alibi (crime and drama), Blighty (Britain and Britons), Dave (male), Eden (nature), G.O.L.D. (classic British comedy), Good Food, Really (reality, lifestyles), Home, Watch (entertainment), Yesterday (history).

The most watched digital channels are owned by the six broadcasters above. Other broadcasters who have secured a notable place on British television include Virgin Media, Viacom, Discovery Networks and Disney.

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