87-530: Crims is a British television sitcom created by Dan Swimer and Adam Kay . It centres on two men sent to a young offenders' institution after one of them involves the unaware other in a bank robbery . It was screened in early 2015 on BBC Three . In May 2015, the BBC confirmed the show would not be renewed. On the radio show and podcast Elis James hosts with comedian John Robins , James' starring role in Crims became
174-488: A joint venture , and applied to operate three digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences. They faced competition from a rival, Digital Television Network (DTN), a company created by cable operator CableTel (later known as NTL ). On 25 June 1997, BDB won the auction and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) awarded the sole broadcast licence for DTT to the consortium. Then on 20 December 1997,
261-475: A running gag , with Robins heavily implying that Crims was of poor quality, and pretending to believe that it was called 'Crimes', while mocking the fact that James, despite portraying a teenager , was 34 at the time of Crims' broadcast. British television Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as
348-510: A 4-channel service received via satellite. The channels at launch were Sky Channel , Sky News , Sky Movies and Eurosport . They were initially free to receive, and Sky Movies was the first to move to a subscription early in 1990. Sky News was the UK's first dedicated news channel. The new service was the UK's first consumer satellite TV service, beating rival BSB , with which Sky would later merge to become BSkyB. Sky's satellite service grew to become
435-531: A certain deadline. The ONdigital pay-per-view channels were encrypted using a system – SECA MediaGuard – which had subsequently been cracked by hackers working for NDS Group, the makers of the VideoGuard system that Sky Digital used. ONdigital did not update this system, therefore it was possible to produce and sell counterfeit subscription cards which would give access to all the channels. About 100,000 pirate cards were in circulation by 2002, and these played
522-410: A complex pricing structure with many options; a poor-quality subscriber management system (adapted from Canal+ ); a paper magazine TV guide whereas BSkyB had an electronic programme guide (EPG); insufficient technical customer services; and much signal piracy . While there was a limited return path provided via an in-built 2400 baud modem , there was no requirement, as there was with BSkyB, to connect
609-450: A discount on their broadcasting licence payments based on the number of homes they had converted to digital television. It was also likely done to avoid further negativity towards the two companies. During the time under administration, Carlton and Granada were in talks regarding a merger, which was eventually cleared in 2004. Following the proposed Football League merger, with the lucrative finances it proposed, ITV Digital's collapse had
696-517: A few months. See List of British television series . 100 Greatest British Television Programmes was a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened. Although not including any programmes made in 2000 or later, the list is useful as an indication of what were generally regarded as
783-561: A greater total number of regional news programmes. Ofcom sets a quota for the BBC and ITV on the amount of regional programming required. Advertising on ITV1/STV and Channel 4 is regional. Channel 4 is split into 6 advertising regions, but has no regional programming. BBC Scotland and the Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba target Scotland, and the Welsh-language channel S4C targets Wales. In Northern Ireland, channels originating in
870-493: A head start over the ONdigital service. ONdigital's subscription pricing had been set to compare with the older Sky analogue service of 20 channels. In 1999, digital cable services were launched by NTL , Telewest and Cable & Wireless . In February 1999, ITV secured the rights for UEFA Champions League football matches for four years, which would partly be broadcast through ONdigital. Two sports channels were added to
957-645: A large effect on many football clubs. Bradford City F.C. was one of the affected, and its debt forced it into administration in May 2002 , followed by Leicester City in October . Barnsley F.C. also entered administration in October 2002, despite the club making a profit for the twelve years prior to the collapse of ITV Digital. Barnsley had budgeted on the basis that the money from the ITV Digital deal would be received, leaving
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#17328727441381044-551: 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. There are 27,000 hours of domestic content produced
1131-458: A reduction from £2 million per season to £700,000 in broadcasting revenue for First Division clubs. In total, fourteen Football League clubs were placed in administration within four years of the collapse of ITV Digital, compared to four in the four years before. On 31 March 2002, French cable company Canal+ accused Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation in the United States of extracting
1218-565: A request by Labour MP Tom Watson . ITV Digital ran an advertising campaign involving the comedian Johnny Vegas as Al and a knitted monkey simply called Monkey , voiced by Ben Miller . A knitted replica of Monkey could be obtained by signing up to ITV Digital. Because the monkey could not be obtained without signing up to the service, a market for second-hand monkeys developed. At one time, original ITV Digital Monkeys were fetching several hundred pounds on eBay , and knitting patterns delivered by email were sold for several pounds. The campaign
1305-474: A role in the demise of the broadcaster that year. In April 2001 it was said that ONdigital would be 'relaunched' to bring it closer to the ITV network and to better compete with Sky. On 11 July 2001 Carlton and Granada rebranded ONdigital as ITV Digital . Other services were also rebranded, such as ONnet to ITV Active. A rebranding campaign was launched, with customers being sent ITV Digital stickers to place over
1392-411: A subscription package featuring channels such as Sky One , Cartoon Network , E4 , UKTV channels and many developed in-house by Carlton and Granada such as Carlton World ; premium channels including Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, Sky Premier and Sky MovieMax ; and the newly launched FilmFour . From the beginning, however, the company was quickly losing money. Supply problems with set-top boxes meant that
1479-427: A subscription platform through which Sky offer their own channels, pay-per-view services and channels from other broadcasters. Sky's digital platform launched in 1998, with the original analogue service closing in 2001. Sky was acquired by Comcast in 2018. Since 2012, Sky operate Now , an Internet TV streaming service offering subscriptions without a fixed-term contract. Sky's channel portfolio has grown greatly since
1566-417: A traditional cable TV connection. The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board publish quarterly statistics of the number of UK households per broadcast TV platform. Aggregating the statistics for Q1 2020 show that 56% subscribe to one or more broadcast TV services, vs 44% who receive free TV. The primary digital terrestrial TV service, Freeview , launched in 2002 and is free-of-charge to view. It replaced
1653-501: A year, at a cost of £2.6 billion. Since 24 October 2012, all television broadcasts in the United Kingdom have been in a digital format, following the end of analogue transmissions in Northern Ireland. Digital content is delivered via terrestrial, satellite and cable, as well as over IP. As of 2003, 53.2% of households watch through terrestrial, 31.3% through satellite, and 15.6% through cable. The Royal Television Society (RTS)
1740-437: A £2.5 million shortfall in their accounts when the broadcaster collapsed. Clubs were forced to slash staff, and some players were forced to be sold as they were unable to pay them. Some clubs increased ticket prices for fans to offset the losses. The rights to show Football League matches were resold to Sky Sports for £95 million for the next four years compared to £315 million over three years from ITV Digital, leading to
1827-449: A £39.99 fee. Had this been successful, it could have threatened to undermine the fledgling Freeview service, since at the time most digital terrestrial receivers in households were ONdigital and ITV Digital legacy hardware. In January 2003, Carlton and Granada stepped in and paid £2.8m to the liquidators to allow the boxes to stay with their customers, because at the time the ITV companies received
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#17328727441381914-422: Is a British-based educational charity for the discussion and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. Free-to-air , free-to-view and subscription providers operate, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the programme guide (EPG), video on demand (VOD), high-definition (HD), interactive television via
2001-500: Is a state-owned national broadcaster which is funded by its commercial activities (including advertising). Channel 4 has expanded greatly after gaining greater independence from the IBA , especially in the multi-channel digital world launching E4 , Film4 , More4 , 4Music , 4seven and various timeshift services . Since 2005, it has been a member of the Freeview consortium, and operates one of
2088-406: Is a subscription service operated by Sky Ltd , owned by Comcast , which launched in 1998 as SkyDigital. Compared to the previous analogue service which had launched in 1989, it provided more channels, widescreen, interactive TV and a near video-on-demand service using staggered start times for pay-per-view content. Innovations since have included high definition, 3D TV, a digital video recorder ,
2175-429: Is predominately operated by Arqiva . The TV channels are transmitted in bundles, called multiplexes , and the available channels are dependent on how many multiplexes are transmitted in each area. The six national multiplexes are available to 90% of households from 92 transmitters; and three multiplexes are available to 9% of households from 1,067 transmitters. In Northern Ireland, a multiplex carrying channels from
2262-419: Is the name Ofcom uses. ITV plc or its predecessor companies created additional free or subscription channels, of which the oldest still running is ITV2 , having launched in 1998. Several older channels have since stopped broadcasting; the oldest of these is Super Channel which was launched by a consortium of ITV regional companies in 1987, was sold and eventually closed in 1998. Launched in 1982, Channel 4
2349-426: Is the world's oldest and largest broadcaster, and is the country's principal public service broadcaster of radio and television. BBC Television is funded primarily by a television licence and from sales of its programming to overseas markets. It does not carry advertising . The licence fee is levied on all households that watch or record TV as it is broadcast and the fee is determined by periodic negotiation between
2436-632: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . TV via the Internet can be streamed or downloaded, and consist of amateur or professionally produced content. In the UK, most broadcasters provide catch-up TV services which allow viewing of TV for a window after it was broadcast. Online video can be viewed via mobile devices, computers, TVs equipped with a built in Internet connection, or TVs connected to an external set-top-box, streaming stick or games console. Most of
2523-460: The Football League to broadcast 88 live Nationwide League and Worthington Cup matches from the 2001–02 season. In 1999, Sky started to give away their digiboxes for free whilst the customer subscribed. This was a problem for ONdigital, as they had no choice but to sell prepaid set top boxes to win customers back from rival services. Even when they decided to sell prepaid set top boxes (under
2610-500: The ITV network. Starting as ONdigital in 1998, the service was rebranded as ITV Digital in July 2001. Low audience figures, piracy issues and an ultimately unaffordable multi-million pound deal with the Football League led to the broadcaster suffering large losses, and it entered administration in March 2002. Pay television services ceased permanently on 1 May of that year, but carriage of
2697-495: The Pluto TV and Paramount+ Internet streaming services. Since 2012, additional local TV channels are available via Freeview channel 7 or 8. The channels are licensed by Ofcom, with 34 local TV channels licensed as of 2 July 2020. Nineteen of the licenses are held by That's TV, and eight are held by Made Television. The remainder are held independently. Each license contains the amount of local TV programming required. As an example,
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2784-601: The Republic of Ireland can reach 71% of Northern Irish households from 3 transmitters. Local TV and radio is available to 54% of households from an additional multiplex via 44 transmitters, and an extra multiplex is available to 54% of households in Greater Manchester. Multiple vendors sell hybrid set-top-boxes or smart TVs which combine terrestrial channels with streamed (Internet TV) content. Internet-based TV apps such as BBC iPlayer , ITVX and Channel 4 are available via
2871-494: The red button , and coverage across the UK. All providers make available the UK's five most-watched channels: BBC One , BBC Two , ITV ( ITV1 / STV ), Channel 4 and Channel 5 . Broadcast television is distributed as radio waves via terrestrial or satellite transmissions, or as electrical or light signals through ground-based cables. In the UK, these use the Digital Video Broadcasting standard. Most TVs sold in
2958-505: The BBC's commercial units. Originating in 1992 with UK Gold , UKTV expanded its channels from 1997 onwards, with the BBC taking full ownership in June 2019. Unlike the BBC's public service channels, the UKTV channels contain advertising. ITV, branded as ITV1 or STV, is the network of fourteen regional and one national commercial television franchise, founded in 1955 to provide competition to the BBC. ITV
3045-463: The ITC awarded three pay-TV digital multiplex licences to BDB. That same year, however, the ITC forced BSkyB out of the consortium on competition grounds; this effectively placed Sky in direct competition with the new service as Sky would also launch its digital satellite service in 1998, although Sky was still required to provide key channels such as Sky Movies and Sky Sports to BDB. With Sky as part of
3132-580: The ITV brand did not belong solely to Carlton and Granada. SMG and UTV initially refused to carry the advertising campaign for ITV Digital and did not allow the ITV Sport Channel space on their multiplex, thus it was not available at launch in most of Scotland and Northern Ireland. The case was resolved in Scotland and the Channel Islands and later still in Northern Ireland, allowing ITV Sport to launch in
3219-480: The Internet. In the article, Ofcom responded that the licensing scheme was inherited from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport . In April 2018, BBC News reported that "many of the stations have been ridiculed for the poor quality of their output or have been reported to Ofcom for breaching broadcasting rules". The local TV companies receive a subsidy from the BBC of £147.50 per local news story, funded by
3306-536: The ONdigital logos on their remote controls and set top boxes. The software running on the receivers was not changed, however, and continued to display 'ON' on nearly every screen. However, iDTVs made after the rebrand removed the 'ON' prefix from their software. Option 7 on the main menu on iDTVs was also renamed from "ONdigital Updates" to "Subscription Information". The rebrand was not without controversy, as SMG plc (owner of Scottish Television and Grampian Television ), UTV and Channel Television pointed out that
3393-458: The ONprepaid brand), they could not easily compete with Sky. ONdigital's growth slowed throughout 2000, and by the start of 2001 the number of subscribers was no longer increasing; meanwhile, its competitor Sky Digital oversaw a dramatic increase in subscribers, spearheaded by the launch of interactive services, such as Open... and Sky Gamestar , and the launch of rival cable digital services from
3480-569: The Republic of Ireland are available, including RTÉ One , RTÉ2 and the Irish-language TG4 . British television differs from other countries, such as the United States , in as much that programmes produced in the United Kingdom do not generally have a long season run of around 20 weeks. Instead, they are produced in a series, a set of episodes varying in length, usually aired over a period of
3567-499: The UK (as well as much of the rest of Europe) come with a DVB-T (terrestrial) tuner. Set-top boxes are generally used to receive channels from other providers. All of the traditional services have integrated their broadcast TV with streamed channels or on-demand programmes when connected to the Internet . Since 2022, broadcast-like TV services can be wholly-received via Internet-connected devices, which don't require an aerial, satellite or
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3654-775: The UK, offering a combination of subscription, rental and purchase options for viewing online TV. Most are available via any Internet connection, however some require a specific broadband connection. Some services sell 3rd party services, such as Amazon's Prime Video. BARB tracks the number of households subscribing to Netflix, Prime Video and Now, referred to as SVOD households. Their statistics for Q1 2020 show that 53% of households subscribe to at least one of these, and 24% to at least two. Netflix has 13.01 million subscribers, Prime Video (Amazon) has 7.86 million, and Now has 1.62 million, according to BARB's figures for Q1 2020. BARB's equivalent figures for broadcast TV show that 56% of households subscribe. The table following summarises some of
3741-472: The UK. As of 2 January 2022, the average daily viewing time per home was 3 hours 8 minutes (of BARB-reported channels, includes broadcast and Internet viewings). 15 channels have a 4-week share of ≥ 1.0%. As of 2 January 2022 , there are 10 broadcaster groups with a four week share of ≥ 1.0% (although BARB reports sub-groups of BBC and Paramount individually, and it's unclear what the 'ITV' group refers to). The British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC )
3828-529: The UserROM code from its MediaGuard encryption cards and leaking it onto the internet. Canal+ brought a lawsuit against News Corporation alleging that it, through its subsidiary NDS (which provides encryption technology for Sky and other TV services from Murdoch), had been working on breaking the MediaGuard smartcards used by Canal+, ITV Digital and other non-Murdoch-owned TV companies throughout Europe. The action
3915-534: The ability to view recordings on other devices, remote operation via the Internet to add recordings, and on-demand content via the satellite-receiver's broadband connection of both Sky and third-party TV. The Sky subscription also includes access to Sky Go , which allows mobile devices and computers to access subscription content via the Internet. Freesat is a free satellite service operated by Everyone TV, who also operate Freeview. Like Sky, it provides high-definition content, digital recording and video-on-demand via
4002-821: The available Internet TV services in the UK. For brevity, it does not include catch-up-only or amateur-only services, individual channels, distributors of illegal or adult content, services which solely redistribute free broadcast channels, portals, or services which don't target the UK. 'Free' refers to free at the point of consumption, not including fees for Internet connectivity or a TV licence. Other international streaming services with pricing in GBP include: Acorn TV, Arrow, BKTV, Crunchyroll, Dekkoo, Demand Africa, Docsville, Funimation Now, GuideDoc, Hayu, Hoichoi, Hotstar, iQiyi, iWantTFC, Mubi, NewsPlayer+, Revry, Shudder, Starz, True Story, WOW Presents Plus and ZEE5. The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) measures television ratings in
4089-411: The average viewership achieved by each broadcast during its run-time and do not include peak viewership. Notes : ONdigital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc , owners of multiple licences of
4176-513: The broadband connection of Freeview Play and Netgem devices. These also support optional subscription services such as Netflix and Prime Video. EE TV and TalkTalk TV offer additional subscription services for their respective broadband customers using Netgem or YouView devices. Saorview , the terrestrial TV service in the Republic of Ireland which launched in 2011, can be received in parts of Northern Ireland via overspill transmissions. Many regional companies developed cable-television services in
4263-460: The broadband connection. Freesat and Sky TV transmit from SES Astra satellites at 28.2° east ( Astra 2E / 2F / 2G ). As the satellites are in geostationary orbit , they are positioned above the earth 's equator ( 0°00′N 28°12′E / 0°N 28.2°E / 0; 28.2 ( Satellites transmitting Sky TV and Freesat to the UK and Ireland ) ) approximately 35,786 km above sea level ; this places them above
4350-425: The broadcast TV providers have integrated their set-top-boxes with Internet video to provide a hybrid broadcast and online service. Since 2006, UK channel owners and content producers have been creating Internet services to access their programmes. Often, these are available for a window after the broadcast schedule. These services generally block users outside of the UK. There are numerous online services targeting
4437-419: The channel name of STV for its two franchises in Scotland. ITV plc names the channel UTV in Northern Ireland, and ITV1 for the remaining regions, although UTV has used ITV or ITV1 branding since April 2020. The national breakfast-time franchise is held by ITV plc, which appears as an indistinguishable programming block across the network. Legally, the network has been known as Channel 3 since 1990, which
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#17328727441384524-467: The channel was only licensed to cable company NTL . Subscriptions for ONnet/ITV Active, its internet service, peaked at around 100,000 customers. ITV Digital had a 12% share of digital subscribers as of December 2001. ITV Digital and Granada cut jobs that month. By 2002, the company was thought to be losing up to £1 million per day. In February 2002, Carlton and Granada said that ITV Digital needed an urgent "fundamental restructuring". The biggest cost
4611-532: The company faced was its three-year deal with the Football League, which had been deemed too expensive by critics when agreed, as it was inferior to the top-flight Premiership coverage from Sky Sports . It was reported on 21 March 2002 that ITV Digital had proposed paying only £50 million for the remaining two years of the Football League deal, a reduction of £129m. Chiefs from the League said that any reduction in
4698-413: The company missed Christmas sales and retailers had to wait several months for the customers to receive their boxes. Meanwhile, aggressive marketing by BSkyB for Sky Digital made the ONdigital offer look unattractive. The new digital satellite service provided a dish, digibox , installation and around 200 channels for £159, a lower price than ONdigital at £199. Sky had also launched earlier, meaning they had
4785-622: The consortium, British Digital Broadcasting would have paid discounted rates to carry Sky's television channels. Instead, with its positioning as a competitor, Sky charged the full market rates for the channels, at an extra cost of around £60million a year to BDB. On 28 July 1998, BDB announced the service would be called ONdigital, and claimed it would be the biggest television brand launch in history. The company would be based in Marco Polo House (since demolished) in Battersea, south London, which
4872-419: The customer at no charge for as long as they continued to subscribe to ONdigital, an offer that was matched by Sky. ONdigital's churn rate , a measure of the number of subscribers leaving the service, reached 28% during 2001. Additional problems for ONdigital were the choice of 64QAM broadcast mode, which when coupled with far weaker than expected broadcast power, meant that the signal was weak in many areas;
4959-402: The frequency used by Channel 5's new broadcasts. Channel 5 was the first terrestrial channel to also broadcast via satellite. From 2006 onwards, Channel 5 launched new digital channels and an Internet on-demand service. After changing ownership several times, in May 2014 Channel 5 and its sister channels were acquired by Viacom, an American media conglomerate , known as Paramount since 2022. By
5046-504: The government and the BBC. Its first analogue terrestrial channel was launched by the BBC Television Service in 1936. It rebranded to BBC1 in 1964 following the launch of BBC2 , the UK's third analogue terrestrial channel after ITV. BBC News 24 launched as an analogue cable channel in 1997, later rebranding to BBC News in 2008. BBC Parliament , which was originally an analogue cable channel known as The Parliamentary Channel,
5133-501: The government's ambition to switch off analogue terrestrial TV signals by 2010. Despite several interested parties, the administrators were unable to find a buyer for the company and effectively put it into liquidation on 26 April 2002. Most subscription channels stopped broadcasting on ITV Digital on 1 May 2002 at 7 am, with only free-to-air services continuing. The next day, ITV chief executive Stuart Prebble quit. In all, 1,500 jobs were lost by ITV Digital's collapse. ITV Digital
5220-417: The guaranteed income. On 1 August the league lost the case, with the judge ruling that it had "failed to extract sufficient written guarantees". The league then filed a negligence claim against its own lawyers for failing to press for a written guarantee at the time of the deal with ITV Digital. From this, in June 2006, it was awarded a paltry £4 in damages of the £150m it was seeking. The collapse put in doubt
5307-668: The late 1980s and 1990s as licences for cable television were awarded on a city-by-city basis. The mid-1990s saw the companies start to merge and the turn of the century only three big companies remained. In 2007 Telewest and NTL merged, resulting in the formation of Virgin Media , which is available to 55% of households. Cable TV is a subscription service normally bundled with a phone line and broadband. There are two distinctly-marketed direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) services (also known as direct-to-home (DTH), to be distinguished from satellite signals intended for non-consumer reception). Sky TV
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#17328727441385394-400: The launch of digital TV. Sky make their channels available via rival cable and Internet services as well as their own satellite service and Now. Channel 5 was the fifth analogue terrestrial channel to launch, in March 1997. Due to constraints with the available UHF frequencies at the time, many households had to retune their video recorders , which shared the frequency on their RF output with
5481-458: The launch of other digital services from the likes of NTL and Telewest . This bundle sold in high street shops and supermarkets at a price that included the set-top box (which was technically on loan) and the first year's subscription package. These prepaid boxes amounted to 50% of sales in December 1999. Thousands of these packages were also sold at well below retail price on auction sites such as
5568-500: The license fee, paid whether the BBC uses the content or not. A June 2018 article on BuzzFeed claimed that That's TV was created "primarily to extract money from the BBC whilst delivering little content of useful value". BBC One, BBC Two and the ITV network (comprising ITV1 and STV) are split into regions in which regional news and other programming is broadcast. ITV1/STV is split into fourteen geographic licencees , with several of these split into two or three sub-regions, resulting in
5655-460: The license for Scarborough, which is held by That's TV, requires seven hours of local programming per week (one hour per day on average). Thirteen additional licenses were originally intended, but Ofcom decided not to advertise these in June 2018. The way Ofcom structured local television – being dependent on terrestrial transmission – was criticised in a Guardian article in 2015 for being "years behind in its thinking", as it does not account for
5742-409: The likes of NTL and Telewest ate into ONdigital's subscriber numbers. The ONdigital management team responded with a series of free set-top box promotions, initially at retailers such as Currys and Dixons , when ONdigital receiving equipment was purchased at the same time as a television set or similarly priced piece of equipment. These offers eventually became permanent, with the set-top box loaned to
5829-458: The most successful British programmes of the 20th century. The top 10 programmes are: 100 Greatest TV Moments was a list compiled by Channel 4 in 1999. The top 10 entries are: The majority of special events attracting large audiences are often carried on more than one channel. The most-watched programme of all time on a single channel is the 1973 wedding ceremony of The Princess Anne , shown only on BBC1. The figures in these tables represent
5916-517: The non-Carlton and Granada regions, although it was never made available in the Channel Islands, where there was no DTT or cable, and it never appeared on Sky Digital. Later in 2001, ITV Sport Channel was announced. This would be a premium sport channel, and would broadcast English football games as per the company's deal with the Football League in 2000, as well as ATP tennis games and Champions League games previously covered by ONsport 1 and ONsport 2. The channel launched on 11 August of that year, and
6003-496: The operator of a hacking website, who claimed he was paid up to £60,000 per year by Ray Adams, NDS's head of security. This would mean that Murdoch used computer hacking to directly undermine rival ITV Digital. Lawyers for News Corporation claimed that these accusations of illegal activities against a rival business are "false and libellous". In June 2013 the Metropolitan Police decided to look into these allegations following
6090-434: The payment could threaten the existence of many football clubs, which had budgeted for large incomes from the television contract. On 27 March 2002, ITV Digital was placed in administration as it was unable to pay the full amount due to the Football League. Later, as chances of its survival remained bleak, the Football League sued Carlton and Granada, claiming that the firms had breached their contract in failing to deliver
6177-664: The platform, Champions ON 28 and Champions ON 99 (later renamed ONsport 1 and ONsport 2 when it secured the rights to ATP tennis games), the latter of which timeshared with Carlton Cinema . Throughout 1999, channels including MTV and British Eurosport launched on the platform. The exclusive Carlton Kids and Carlton World channels closed in 2000 to make way for two Discovery channels. ONdigital reported in April 1999 that it had 110,000 subscribers, while Sky Digital had over 350,000 by that time. By March 2000, there were 673,000 ONdigital customers. The first interactive digital service
6264-454: The remaining free-to-air channels such as BBC One and Channel 4 continued. In October, ITV Digital’s former terrestrial multiplexes were taken over by Crown Castle and the BBC to create the Freeview free-to-air service. On 31 January 1997, Carlton Television , Granada Television and satellite company British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) together created British Digital Broadcasting (BDB) as
6351-465: The set-top box's modem to a phone line. With this combination of factors contributing to the service's lack of popularity, in 2001, executives at ONdigital management wrote a letter to the government, asking for emergency funding to finance the service in order to keep it alive due to a lack of customers and paying members. ONdigital began to sell prepaid set-top boxes (under the name ONprepaid) from November 1999 in order to win customers, especially at
6438-500: The six digital terrestrial multiplexes with ITV as Digital 3&4 . Since the advent of digital television, Channel 4 is now also broadcast in Wales across all digital platforms. Channel 4 was the first British channel not to carry regional variations for programming, however it does have six set advertising regions. Sky is a European broadcaster owned by global American media conglomerate Comcast . Sky Television launched in 1989, with
6525-459: The subscription service named ONdigital or ITV Digital, which ran from 1998 to 2002. Digital terrestrial television was itself the replacement for analogue terrestrial TV , which ran from 1936 to 2012. As of March 2021 , Freeview provides over seventy TV and radio channels, which are received via an aerial. It is operated by Everyone TV and DTV Services Ltd., joint ventures between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The transmitter network
6612-457: The then-popular QXL . As the call to activate the viewing card did not require any bank details, many ONdigital boxes which were supposed to be on loan were at unverifiable addresses. This was later changed so a customer could not buy a box without ONdigital verifying their address. Many customers did not activate the viewing card at all, although where the viewer's address was known, ONdigital would write informing them that they must activate before
6699-485: The time it acquired Channel 5, Paramount already operated a large number of subscription channels in the UK, including the MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central channels, which are available via Sky TV, Virgin Media and Now. In terms of viewing share, the combined viewing across Paramount's channels make the group the UK's fifth largest broadcaster, according to BARB's viewing figures for 1 March 2020. Paramount additionally operates
6786-447: Was acquired by the BBC in 1998. From 1998 onwards the BBC started digital TV transmissions, launching new channels and broadcasting via satellite in addition to terrestrial and cable. The BBC's Internet-based service iPlayer contains content from the BBC's TV channels, the Welsh-language public-service broadcaster S4C, as well as videos created from BBC radio programmes. UKTV is a commercial broadcaster owned by BBC Studios , one of
6873-449: Was also carried on cable by NTL . The service reached 1 million subscribers by January 2001, whereas Sky Digital had 5.7 million. Granada reported £69 million in losses in the first six months of 2001, leading some investors to urge it to close or sell ONdigital/ITV Digital. ITV Digital was unable to make a deal to put the ITV Sport Channel on Sky, which could have given the channel access to millions of Sky customers and generated income;
6960-473: Was an open standard that was used by all broadcasters on DTT. ONdigital was officially launched on 15 November 1998 amid a large public ceremony featuring celebrity Ulrika Jonsson and fireworks around the Crystal Palace transmitting station . Its competitor Sky Digital had already debuted on 1 October. The service launched with 12 primary channels, which included the new BBC Choice and ITV2 channels;
7047-434: Was awarded. On 26 March 2012, an investigation from BBC's Panorama found evidence that one of News Corporation's subsidiaries sabotaged ITV Digital. It found that NDS hacked ONdigital/ITV Digital smartcard data and leaked them through a pirate website under Murdoch's control – actions which enabled pirated cards to flood the market. The accusations arose from emails obtained by the BBC, and an interview with Lee Gibling,
7134-421: Was created by the advertising agency Mother . In August 2002, following ITV Digital's collapse, Vegas claimed that he was owed money for the advertisements. In early 2007, Monkey and Al reappeared in an advert for PG Tips tea, which at first included a reference to ITV Digital's downfall. The set-top boxes used for ITV Digital and ONdigital were: Carlton and Granada (later ITV Digital Channels Ltd ) created
7221-868: Was eventually placed into liquidation on 18 October, with debts of £1.25 billion. By 30 April 2002, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) had revoked ITV Digital's broadcasting licence and started looking for a buyer. A consortium made up of the BBC and Crown Castle submitted an application on 13 June, later joined by BSkyB, and were awarded the licence on 4 July. They launched the Freeview service on 30 October 2002, offering 30 free-to-air TV channels and 20 free-to-air radio channels including several interactive channels such as BBC Red Button and Teletext , but no subscription or premium services. Those followed on 31 March 2004 when Top Up TV began broadcasting 11 pay TV channels in timeshared broadcast slots. From 10 December 2002, ITV Digital's liquidators started to ask customers to return their set top boxes or pay
7308-446: Was later partially dropped after News Corporation agreed to buy Canal+'s struggling Italian operation Telepiu , a direct rival to a Murdoch-owned company in that country. Other legal action by EchoStar /NagraStar was being pursued as late as August 2005, accusing NDS of the same wrongdoing. In 2008, NDS was found to have broken piracy laws by hacking EchoStar Communications' smart card system, however only $ 1,500 in statutory damages
7395-415: Was launched in mid-1999, called ONgames. On 7 March 2000, ONmail was launched which provided an interactive e-mail service. A deal with multiplex operator SDN led to the launch of pay-per-view service ONrequest on 1 May 2000. In June 2000, ONoffer was launched. On 18 September 2000, the internet TV service ONnet was launched. On 17 June 2000, ONdigital agreed to a £315 million three-year deal with
7482-486: Was previously the home of BSkyB's earlier rival, British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB). Six multiplexes were set up, with three of them allocated to the existing analogue broadcasters. The other three multiplexes were auctioned off. ONdigital was given one year from the award of the licence to launch the first DTT service. In addition to launching audio and video services, it also led the specification of an industry-wide advanced interactive engine, based on MHEG-5 . This
7569-437: Was the country's first commercial television provider funded by advertisements . Each region was originally independent and used its own on-air identity . Through a series of mergers following relaxation of regulation in 1990, thirteen of the franchises are now held by ITV plc , and the remaining two by STV Group . Since 2012, ITV plc produces the network nationally, with STV Group acting as an affiliate . STV Group uses
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