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.
Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 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.
Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Sky Group and from 2018 onwards, part of Comcast. It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster with 12.7 million customers as of the end of 2019 for its digital satellite TV platform. Sky's flagship products are Sky Q and the internet-based Sky Glass, and its flagship channels are Sky Showcase, Sky Sports and Sky Atlantic.
Sit-Up Ltd., traded as Bid Shopping, was an English broadcaster which launched in 2000. It operated a portfolio of falling price shopping television channels to over 12 million homes in the UK.
Top Up TV was a pay TV service in the United Kingdom that was launched in March 2004, operating on the digital terrestrial television platform. The service aimed to "top up" Freeview customers by providing additional content and services through encrypted TV channels unavailable to other viewers.
Rapture TV was a previously free-to-air satellite television station operated from the United Kingdom, founded in 1997. Focusing mostly on electronic dance music and extreme sports, it is notable for the number of times it has "failed" financially only to be relaunched.
Television X (TVX) is a series of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by MG Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond's publishing company Northern & Shell until 2016. All of the programmes on the main Television X channel are filmed and produced in the United Kingdom.
Friendly TV was a British television channel, owned by Hi2 Limited. Much of the channel's output was made up of interactive programmes and games which allowed user participation by phone or mobile phone using SMS messaging.
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 Everyone TV. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Freesat offers a satellite alternative to the Freeview service on digital terrestrial television, with a broadly similar selection of channels available without subscription for users purchasing a receiver.
Freesat from Sky (FsfS) was a British satellite television service from Sky UK. It offered over 240 free-to-air (FTA) channels in its EPG. This is a greater number than its competitors, Freesat, which has 200+, and Freeview, which has 70+. It also had up to six HD channels and used to have Sky Active interactive data service. Sky was not actively promoting the service and the service has quietly been discontinued for new customers as of 2021.
Babeworld was a British adult chat television broadcaster on Sky from 2006 until 2011. Both the channel and programme were named Babeworld.
Rockworld TV was a British television channel which featured rock music, and was aimed to highlight "underground" lifestyles and artists.
JML Direct TV is a television shopping channel owned by JML Direct Limited that mainly broadcasts infomercials featuring various products from the company. The channel is broadcast on Sky and Freesat.
Sex Station is a pornographic British adult chat television programme. It began broadcasting in 2006 on Sky Digital at night on the Lucky Star channel and the Live XXX channel. By 2013 it had ceased television broadcasting but it continues to stream content on the Internet.
High-definition television in the United Kingdom is available via cable, IPTV, satellite and terrestrial television. The first high-definition broadcasts began in late 2005 and since then the number of channels available to view has grown to a maximum of 87 that can be viewed on pay-TV service, Sky.
Cellcast Group is a broadcasting company based in the United Kingdom. They operate channels on the Sky UK, Virgin Media, YouTube, Freesat and Freeview TV platforms in the UK and internationally via paid programming which consist of participatory television programming such as phone-ins, teleshopping and quiz channels. They are also a provider of software development services for the media industry such as second screen application development, production of digital on screen graphics, mobile gaming development, direct carrier billing and internet marketing.
QVC Beauty is a digital television shopping channel broadcast in the United Kingdom, specializing in beauty products. It is the sister channel to QVC. The channel launched on Tuesday 26 October 2010 and is available on Freeview, Sky, Freesat and online.
PBS America is a British free-to-air television channel derived from PBS, an American public television broadcaster similar to the BBC and Channel 4. It is a joint venture between entrepreneur David Lyons and PBS Distribution, itself a joint venture of PBS and the WGBH Educational Foundation, which owns the international rights to the bulk of PBS's output.
Home Video Channel (HVC) was a British cable television service devoted to broadcast low-budget movies (such as horror, action, adventure, science fiction and erotica) from 8.00pm to midnight, and the owners also operated The Adult Channel which started on 31 January 1992.
