Current TV-situation in the UK

Hello,

I'm a student from Austria and I'm currently writing a work about Pay-TV in Europe with a special focus on the UK (BSkyB).

As I'm not exactly informed about the current TV-situation in the UK, maybe somebody could answer my questions. Thank you!

- Which (british) TV-channels can be received in the UK? For example BBC, ITV, Sky,...

- Which of them are "free" and which are Pay-TV-stations?

- Which of them transmit their program already in a digital way?

- Is the Pay-TV-station "Sky" just called "Sky" or "BSkyB"? I've found both names for my research.

While I'm reluctant to do people's work for them, I've nothing better to do...

There are five analogue terrestrial channels in the UK, BBC ONE, BBC TWO, ITV1, Channel 4, and five. All of them transmit their signals over digital cable, digital terrestrial and digital satellite.

There are hundreds more free and pay services. The most famous of these are BBC THREE, BBC FOUR, CBBC, CBeebies, ITV2, ITV3, BBC NEWS 24, SKY News (all Free to Air). Pay channels are split into those normally appearing as part of packages (like Nickelodeon in the US), and premium channels generally bought individually (like HBO in the US) The most famous of the former type are Sky One, UK Gold and LivingTV. The latter include the Sky Sports and Movie channels. Both Sky and the cable operators also run pay-per-view services.

Free to air digital terrestrial: www.freeview.co.uk
Free to air digital satellite: www.freesatfromsky.co.uk (some of these channels are encrypted, but no subscription is required for a viewing card. BBC channels are broadcast in the celar).
Paid sky: www.sky.com
Paid cable: www.ntl.com, www.telewest.co.uk

BSkyB = Company Name (British Sky Broadcasting), its product is usually branded Sky. Sky is both a provider of digital satellite tv, and a channel owner, most of the channels are available on cable as well.

Sorry double post

There are 5 analogue TV channels;
> BBC ONE (Regional)
> BBC TWO (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Variations)
> ITV (Regional; ITV1 in England and Wales, Scottish and Grampian in Scotland, Channel TV in the Channel Islands, and UTV in Northern Ireland)
> Channel 4 (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Called S4C in Wales)
> Five (National)

Digital Television is available three ways,
Cable (NTL, Telewest, and more smaller regional companies) www.ntl.com www.telewest.co.uk
Satellite (Sky*) - www.sky.com or a free service www.freesatfromsky.co.uk
Terrestrial (A Free service called Freeview and an additional service Top-Up TV, which broadcasts additional Pay-TV) – www.freeview.co.uk – www.topuptv.com
Pay Per View is operated by Sky Box Office on satellite and Frontrow on Cable.

* Sky is the name product name the company which operates the satellite service and channels is called British Sky Broadcasting, which came about after the merger of two satellite broadcasters, SKY and British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB).

Im sure there are many other people who can add to this…

The BBC, which operates BBC1 and BBC2 on Terrestrial TV, is a service that is funded by the Licence Fee (approx. £120 per year), all of this goes to the BBC, which they also spend on other services such as Radio and On-Line.

ITV, is a Regional Network, made up of 15 Regional Companies and a National Breakfast Time licence. Though in recent years the Government has relaxed ownership rules in order for one company to run ITV. At present a company called ITV Plc runs 11 of the Regions, in these regions, branding is known as ITV1, where as they used to have their Regional Identities. ITV Plc was formed from a merger between two of the Big ITV companies that emerged, those being Carlton Communications and Granada Media.

A company called Scottish Media Group runs the ITV licences in Central Scotland and Northern Scotland, Scottish TV and Grampian TV consiquently. (sp?) The Northern Ireland licence is ran by a company called UTV (Ulster Television), which also owns many Local Indpendent Radio Stations in Northern and Southern Ireland. (* UTV is also one of the most popular channels within the Republic of Ireland, even though the station is only for the UK)

In the Channel Islands, the smallest Region, a company called Channel Television run the licence, though for most of the day they operate under the ITV1 brand seen in England and Wales.

The national Breakfast licence is ran by GMTV (Good Morning Television), which is currently owned by ITV Plc (75%) and Disney (25%), the Station operates on ITV between 6.00am-9.25am. The station came on air 1st January 1993, taking over from the previous licencee, that being TV-am.

Channel 4 is ran differently than ITV, it has adverts to raise income, but it is NOT privately owned, all profits the channel makes goes back into programmes. Channel 4 is also supposed to provide an alternative to other channels, when it comes to such things as documentaries and entertainment. Channel 4 also runs two Digital channels, the successful channel being E4, which is home to Channel 4's entertainment. Their less successful channel is Film Four, though they charge viewers £6 per month to watch the channel, which has a choice of alternative films, also helped by the former Production arm that was Film Four/Channel Four Films, their biggest success being 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'.

Channel 4 came on air in 1982, originally the channel's advertising was controlled by ITV, who invested into the channel and who produced alot of the content within the early days of the channel. Though by 1993 this was dropped and Channel 4 became independent, the company is known as 'Channel Four Television Corporation'.

EDIT: S4C, is rather unique in the way it is run. It's analogue version has a mix of Welsh Language programmes and programmes from Channel 4 in the rest of the UK. Like Channel 4 it also runs adverts. It's Digital version is Welsh only. S4C gets many programmes from the BBC, funded by the Licence Fee, so in this all of the BBC's Welsh Language commitments are on S4C. It also takes many programme comissions from Small Independent companies and some bigger ones such as HTV. (the licencee for ITV in Wales and the West) It is also unique that it gets it's News operation from the BBC, based at the BBC Wales' studio in Cardiff, the presentation of it is almost the same as the normal BBC News you see on BBC1 etc. The programme is called Newyddion.

Though the channel has an uncertain future as more and more of the English speaking population of Wales will be turning off S4C, when the Analogue service is switched off, it only leaves the Welsh language service, which isn't that popular. The Welsh Assembly has considered many futures for the channel and in all Public Service Broadcasting within Wales.

five, came on air in 1997, originally known as Channel 5. The channel is not available to everyone within the UK (Only 80% can recieve it on Analogue) and for alot of viewers the reception is rather poor. five is ran the same way as ITV when it comes to owners, though it has 2 main shareholders, United News and Media is one and Bertlesmann RTL is the other and more dominant shareholder. Channel 5 became five on 16th September 2002, after years of having a rather downmarket image, the channel wanted to change that. The company is known as 'Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd'

Another company that should be mentioned is ITN (Independent Television News), the company was originally owned by all of the ITV companies and has been on ITV since Day 1 in 1955. It also started making the news for Channel 4 in 1982. Ownership changed in the early 1990's, so ITV companies didn't have to own it, if anything it became a proper seperate company of its own. Though this didn't have any affect on output on ITV and Channel 4. It also gained the contract to provide the News on Channel 5 when it first came on air, they continued doing this until 31st December 2004, when the contract was awarded to BSkyB's Sky News. ITN currently makes the News for ITV1, ITV's News Channel, ITV in London and Channel 4. The company is ran by three companies, ITV Plc (40%), Retuers (20%) and believe Press Association holds the other 20%. (Though if I am wrong, please correct me.)

Firstly, 40+20+20 is 80 not 100. Not Press Association, but DMGT, who are the owners of Associated Newspapers, who "write" the Daily Mail.

According to ITN's website, the current holders are

ITV plc (40%)
Reuters (20%)
Daily Mail and General Trust (20%)
United Business Media (20%)

Whoops! My head wasn't on straight last night, cheers for the correction.

BSkyB is the corporate name for Sky. I assume BSkyB is the more accurate to use, but it is easier to say Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky One, than BSkyB News etc. BSkyB stands for British Sky Broadcasting, which also I think is to differentiate between Sky Italia and other Sky channels, all owned by the greedy Rupert Murdoch.

I would recommend posting at http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=14 (Digital Spy Satellite Forum) as the people there are more Sky satellite orientated than here as the information here, posted by nwtv2003 (no offence) is a bit too much in-depth for a beginner studying Sky television.

If you have a large satellite dish and receiver, simply point your dish at 28E to find and see all the channels we have here...

Thank you all for your help!

Best wishes from Austria,

Rene

I must also add a word of thanks, in particular to nwtv for his detailed reply. Whilst I had a gist of the situation, it is good to have the information all together in one place. I learned a few things there!

Out of interest can you give us any info about the situation with TV in Austria.

As Brekkie Boy has asked me for some information about TV in Austria, I can't deny his wish

The biggest TV-station is the public service broadcaster ORF, which operates ORF 1 and ORF 2. There are also some little private stations as ATV+, but their market share never exceed the 10%-mark. The ORF had a monopoly since 2 years ago (and some people say, it still has a monopoly ), when the European Union decided, that ORF has to accept a dual system and therefore also private competitors.

But if you may think "oh, poor Austrians, they only have 3 channels" that's not right, as most of the Austrians can receive over 30 German channels via satellite or cable too. So we are strongly influenced by German television!

Programmes of the German Pay-TV-company "Premiere" can also be subscribed by the Austrian viewers, but Pay-Tv isn't that popular as for example in the UK, as we have over 30 free channels to choose from and also the licence fees are very high in Austria...

Some "digital" information at the end: ORF plans to switch off their terrestrial analogue signal by 2010.

Rene