Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.
Freeview is the United Kingdom's sole digital terrestrial television platform. It is operated by Everyone TV and DTV Services Ltd, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. It was launched on 30 October 2002, taking over the licence from ITV Digital which collapsed that year. The service provides consumer access via an aerial to the seven DTT multiplexes covering the United Kingdom. As of July 2020, it has 85 TV channels, 26 digital radio channels, 10 HD channels, six text services, 11 streamed channels, and one interactive channel.
Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent network Home Box Office (HBO) and initially focusing on recent and classic films upon its launch on August 1, 1980. Programming featured on Cinemax currently consists primarily of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures, and original action series, as well as documentaries and special behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. 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.
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 children aged 6 to 12. It broadcasts every day from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm GMT / BST (Summer), timesharing with BBC Four.
ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a claim now held by its sister service ITV3 both of which are freely available to a majority of households.
BBC Children's and Education is the BBC division responsible for media content for children in the UK. Since the launch of specially dedicated television channels in 2002, the services have been marketed under two brands. CBBC is aimed at children aged between 6 and 12, and CBeebies offers content for younger viewers.
Dave is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios. It broadcasts mainly comedy, with some factual programming. The channel took the name Dave on 15 October 2007, but it had been on air under various identities and formats since October 1998.
ITV3 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first launched on Monday 1 November 2004 at 9 pm, replacing Plus (Granada). ITV3 is the sixth-largest UK television channel by audience share and the largest after the five main terrestrial services, the position which was previously held by its sister station ITV2. The channel is known for repeats of ITV dramas, and including sequential reruns of Agatha Christie's Poirot, Classic Coronation Street, Classic Emmerdale, Heartbeat, Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost, amongst others as well as formerly showing repeats of Kojak, Numb3rs, Columbo, Cagney & Lacey and The Bill.
Challenge is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel mostly transmits game shows from the UK and around the world, with some original productions.
Fox was a British pay television channel serving the United Kingdom and Ireland, owned by Fox Networks Group, a unit of Disney International Operations. It launched on 12 January 2004 as FX289, then changed its name to FX in April 2005, and rebranded to FOX in January 2013. Featuring a mix of comedies and drama series, the channel's programming targeted adults from 18 to 35 years old.
Nickelodeon is a British pay television network.
Universal TV was a British and Irish pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal International Networks division of NBCUniversal. It was devoted primarily to imported drama series, mostly from the United States.
5Star is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global, which is grouped under Paramount Networks UK & Australia division. It originally launched as the female-orientated Five Life on 15 October 2006, and was relaunched as Fiver on 28 April 2008 with a revised version of the same concept. The channel later re-branded as 5* on 7 March 2011, and later to its current name on 11 February 2016. The network focuses on documentaries, comedy and drama, with a range of original content such as Rich Kids Go Skint and Young, Dumb & Banged Up in the Sun, along with some American and Australian imports.
E4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. The "E" stands for entertainment and the channel is primarily aimed at the 16/18–34 age group.
My5 is the brand name of video-on-demand services offered by Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. The service went live on 26 June 2008. It is owned by Paramount Global and operated by their Paramount Networks UK & Australia division.
Channel 5 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK and Australia division. It was launched in 1997 to provide a fifth national terrestrial channel in the United Kingdom.
ABC Kids is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's part-time channel, broadcasting shows between the hours of 5 am and 7:30 pm for children 6 years old and younger, including an upper preschool audience. It shares the same bandwidth as ABC TV Plus which broadcasts outside ABC Kids' scheduled hours and supplements the flagship ABC TV channel with extra adult-oriented programming. It has an educational program for children ages 2 to 13 called "ABC Reading Eggs" for Australia, internationally called "Reading Eggs" and owned by Edmentum.
Channel 5 airs a wide variety of programming that covers various genres and themes, with programmes about farming, trains and royalty being popular.
This is a timeline of the history of Channel 4.
