Media of the United Kingdom on:  
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There are several different types of
mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit informati ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
:
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
,
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
,
newspapers
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
,
magazines
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...
and
websites
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wiki ...
. The United Kingdom is known for its large
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
industry, along with its new and upcoming artists. The country also has a large
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...
,
film,
video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...
and
book publishing
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, news ...
industries.
The United Kingdom has a diverse range of providers, the most prominent being the publicly owned
public service broadcaster
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
, the British Broadcasting Corporation (
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
). The BBC's largest competitors are
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom.
ITV plc is listed on the ...
, which operates 13 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, and the broadcaster
Sky.
Regional media is covered by local radio, television and print newspapers.
Reach plc (formerly Trinity Mirror) operates 240 local and regional newspapers. The
secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport has overall responsibility over media ownership and broadcasting.
The main BBC
public service broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
channels accounted for an estimated 28.4% of all television viewing; the three main independent channels accounted for 29.5% and the increasingly important other satellite and digital channels for the remaining 42.1%. Sales of newspapers have fallen since the 1970s and in 2009 42% of people reported reading a daily national newspaper. In 2010, 82.5% of the United Kingdom population were Internet users, the highest proportion amongst the 20 countries with the largest total number of users in that year.
Organisations
The
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the
national broadcaster
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. Headquartered at
Broadcasting House in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, it is the world's oldest national broadcaster, and the largest
broadcaster in the world by number of employees, employing over 22,000 staff in total, of whom approximately 19,000 are in public-sector broadcasting.
The BBC is established under a royal charter and operates under its agreement with the
secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual
television licence fee
A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of Television broadcasting, television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or ...
which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
broadcasts and
iPlayer catch-up.
The fee is set by the
British Government, agreed by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
,
and is used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has also funded the
BBC World Service (launched in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service), which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
.
The BBC operates several television channels nationally and internationally. The main two in the UK are
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
and
BBC Two, where each English region, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have variations of the channel (excluding BBC Two in Scotland where it is
BBC Scotland). Others include youth-focused channel
BBC Three
BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...
, cultural and documentary channel
BBC Four, news channels
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
and the
BBC World News
BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and ...
, parliamentary channel
BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Select Committees of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliamen ...
,
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...
-language channel
BBC Alba, and two children's channels,
CBBC
CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
and
CBeebies
CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...
. The BBC has ten radio stations serving the whole of the UK, a further seven stations in the "national regions" (
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
), and 39 other local stations serving defined areas of England. These are
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
, offering new music and popular styles and being notable for its chart show;
BBC Radio 2, playing
Adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
, country and soul music amongst many other genres;
BBC Radio 3, presenting classical music and opera, jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts. The station broadcasts the
BBC Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
concerts, live and in full, each summer in addition to performances by the
BBC Orchestras and Singers
BBC Orchestras and Singers refers collectively to a number of orchestras, choirs and other musical ensembles, maintained by the BBC.
Current operation
All of the BBC’s Orchestras and Singers record performances primarily for BBC Radio 3, wi ...
. There are regular productions of both classic plays and newly commissioned drama.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
, focusing on current affairs, science, history, factual and other speech-based programming, including drama and comedy; and
BBC Radio 5 Live, broadcasting 24-hour news, sport and discussion programmes.
In addition to these five stations, the BBC runs a further five stations that broadcast on DAB and online only. These stations supplement and expand on the big five stations, and were launched in 2002.
BBC Radio 1Xtra sisters Radio 1, and broadcasts new black music and urban tracks.
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a national digital radio station in the United Kingdom, operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a sister station to BBC Radio 5 Live a ...
sisters 5 Live and offers extra sport analysis, including broadcasting sports.
BBC Radio 6 Music
BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...
offers alternative music genres and is notable as a platform for new artists.
BBC Radio 4 Extra, provided archive drama, comedy and children's programming. The final station is the
BBC Asian Network
BBC Asian Network is a British Asian radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially British Asians between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has ...
, providing music, talk and news to this section of the community.
As well as the national stations, the BBC also provides 40
BBC Local Radio stations in England and the Channel Islands, each named for and covering a particular city and its surrounding area (e.g.
BBC Radio Bristol
BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC's local radio station serving Bristol, Bath and North & North East Somerset.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Broadcasting House in Bristol.
According to RAJAR, the stati ...
), county or region (e.g.
BBC Three Counties Radio
BBC Three Counties Radio is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Grove Park in Dunstable.
According t ...
), or geographical area (e.g.
BBC Radio Solent
BBC Radio Solent is the BBC's local radio station serving Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Havelock Road in Southampton.
According to RAJAR, the station has a ...
covering the central south coast). A further six stations broadcast in what the BBC terms "the national regions": Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. These are
BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales is a Welsh radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the 'Radio 4 Wales' opt-out service (previously the Welsh Home Service). Radio Wales b ...
(in English),
BBC Radio Cymru (in
Welsh),
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same na ...
(in English),
BBC Radio nan Gaidheal #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
(in
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...
),
BBC Radio Ulster
BBC Radio Ulster ( ga, BBC Raidió Uladh) is a Northern Irish radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. It is ...
, and
BBC Radio Foyle, the latter being an opt-out station from Radio Ulster for the north-west of Northern Ireland.
For a worldwide audience, the
BBC World Service provides news, current affairs and information in over 33 languages, including English, around the world and is available in over 150 capital cities. It has an estimated weekly audience of 192 million, and its websites have an audience of 38 million people per week. The service is funded by a Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid, administered by the
Foreign Office.
BBC Online
BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...
operates numerous sub sites that focus on different knowledge genre centred around the topics of science, nature and wildlife, arts and culture, religion and ethics, food, and history and language. For example, BBC Food contains recipes featured on various BBC cookery programmes, BBC History shares an interactive timeline of key events and individuals, BBC Nature contains a database of nature and creatures, and the language site teaches phrases and more in 40 languages. Included in this range was the well received
Your Paintings website that catalogued every painting in public ownership for view. Other BBC services include
BBC Music
BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network.
Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...
,
BBC Film
BBC Film (formerly BBC Films) is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'', ''Alan Partr ...
,
BBC Earth
BBC Earth is a brand used by BBC Studios since 2009 to market and distribute the BBC's natural history content to countries other than the United Kingdom. BBC Studios is the commercial arm of the public service broadcaster.
BBC Earth commercia ...
,
BBC Weather
BBC Weather is the department of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) responsible for both the preparation and the broadcasting of weather forecasts.
On 6 February 2018, BBC Weather changed supplier from the government Met Office to Me ...
,
BBC Learning {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022
BBC Learning can refer to the following:
* A department of the BBC North Group division (formerly part of Interactive Factual and Learning), part of BBC Television
* The portal website created by BBC Learning
* A w ...
,
BBC Schools,
BBC Research,
BBC Archives
BBC Archives are collections documenting the BBC's broadcasting history, including copies of television and radio broadcasts, internal documents, photographs, online content, sheet music, commercially available music, BBC products (including ...
,
BBC Sounds, and
BBC Culture
BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, the childre ...
.
Sky is a broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services. Sky's flagship product is
Sky Q
Sky Q is a subscription-based television and entertainment service operated by British satellite television provider Sky, as a part of its operations in Austria and Germany, Ireland, Italy and in the UK. The name also refers to the Sky Q set- ...
and its flagship channels are
Sky Showcase
Sky Showcase is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021 along with Sky Max. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a division of American media company Comcast.
The channel was announced on 28 July 2021 to replace S ...
,
Sky Arts
Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...
and
Sky Atlantic
Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HB ...
.
UKTV
UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through ...
, is a multi-channel broadcaster, wholly owned by
BBC Studios
BBC Studios is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. ...
. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through a joint venture between the BBC and
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
. It is one of the United Kingdom's largest television companies. UKTV's channels are available via a digital satellite or cable subscription in the UK and Ireland. The
Dave,
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
and
Yesterday channels are also available on
Freeview and
Freesat
Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...
, two free-to-air
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
services in the UK. Most programmes on the channels are repeat broadcasts of productions from the
BBC Archives
BBC Archives are collections documenting the BBC's broadcasting history, including copies of television and radio broadcasts, internal documents, photographs, online content, sheet music, commercially available music, BBC products (including ...
. Other players in the United Kingdom media include
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom.
ITV plc is listed on the ...
, which operates 11 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network.
News UK
News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...
is the current publisher of newspapers such as ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' and ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
''.
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was esta ...
is an international news organisation founded in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and based in London. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide and is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
Media centres
London
London dominates the media sector in the United Kingdom as national newspapers, television and radio networks are largely based there. Notable centres include
Fleet Street and
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's