Television in the United Kingdom

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 TV channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed.
There are 27,000 hours of domestic content produced 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 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.

Broadcast television providers

, free-to-view and subscription providers operate, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the EPG, VOD, HD tv, interactive television via the red button, and coverage across the UK. All providers make available the UK's five most-watched channels: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and 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 the UK come with a DVB-T 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 do not require an aerial, satellite or a traditional cable TV connection.
Barb Audiences publish quarterly statistics of the number of UK households per broadcast TV platform. The following table shows a summary of TV availability for Quarter 4 2024 and earlier quarters. Some of the figures are derived from others and will contain inaccuracies as Barb's data doesn't state the overlap between different combinations of technologies.

Digital terrestrial television

The primary digital terrestrial TV service, Freeview, launched in 2002 and is free-of-charge to view. It replaced 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.
, 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 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 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 content. Internet-based TV apps such as BBC iPlayer, ITVX and Channel 4 are available via 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.

Cable television

Many regional companies developed cable-television services in 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.

Satellite television

There are two distinctly marketed direct-broadcast satellite services. Sky TV 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, 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 the broadband connection. Freesat and Sky TV transmit from SES Astra satellites at 28.2° east. As the satellites are in geostationary orbit, they are positioned above the earth's equator approximately 35,786 km above sea level; this places them above the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Internet video services

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 the broadcast TV providers have integrated their set-top-boxes with Internet video to provide a hybrid broadcast and online service.

Catch-up services

Since 2006, UK channel owners and content producers have been creating Internet services to access their programmes using catch-up television. Often, these are available for a window after the broadcast schedule. These services generally block users outside of the UK.

Service name	Owner	Broadcast channels with catch-up	Catch-up period	Additional content	Streamed	Download	Free/Pay	Site
BBC iPlayer	BBC	BBC channels, S4C	30 days
S4C	S4C	S4C	35 days
Channel 4	Channel Four Television Corporation	Channel 4, E4, More4, 4seven, Film4	30 days
ITVX	ITV plc	ITV1–4, ITV Quiz	30 days
5	Paramount Networks UK & Australia	5, 5USA, 5STAR, 5Action, 5Select	30 days
Sky Go	Sky UK	Up to 65 channels
STV Player	STV Group	STV	30 days
U	UKTV Media	U&Dave, U&Drama, U&W, U&Yesterday	30 days

Online video services for professionally produced content

UK TV online services offer subscription, rental, and purchase options for viewing online TV. Most are available via the Internet but some require a specific broadband provider. Some services sell 3rd party services, such as Amazon's Prime Video.
Barb tracks the number of households subscribing to subscription video-on-demand services. Their statistics for Q3 2024 show that 69% of households subscribe to at least one of these.
The table following is the number of subscribers per service according to Barb's Q3 2024 figures. Barb's data excludes services with a household penetration below 5%, omitting services like ITVX Premium. It also omits services linked to a broadcast TV subscription, like Sky Go, and free services like BBC iPlayer, as they don't have a paid subscription.

Service	Households
Netflix	17.3m
Amazon Prime Video	13.4m
Disney+	7.5m
Discovery+	3.2m
Paramount+	2.8m
AppleTV	2.5m
Now	2.1m

The table below summarises some of 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.


UK services	BBC iPlayer BFI Player Channel 4 ITVX 5 STV Player U	Channel 4+ Flix Premiere ITVX Premium Now Sky Go requires Sky TV STV Player+ Virgin TV Go requires Virgin TV	Curzon Home Cinema Dogwoof On Demand Sky Store Virgin Media Store	BFI Player EE TV requires BT or EE Broadband Digital Theatre TalkTalk TV requires TalkTalk Broadband
International services	Arte Filmzie JustWatchTV Plex Pluto TV Revry RTÉ Player Runtime Samsung TV Plus Tubi Vevo wedotv	Apple TV HBO Max Netflix DAZN Hayu Paramount+	iTunes Store Microsoft Films & TV YouTube Movies & TV	Disney+ Prime Video Rakuten TV

Other international streaming services with pricing in GBP include: Acorn TV, Arrow, BroadwayHD, CHILI, Crunchyroll, Curiosity Stream, DAFilms, Dekkoo, Demand Africa, Docsville, Eros Now, GuideDoc, Hayu, Hoichoi, Hotstar, iQiyi, iWant, Klassiki, Magellan TV, MovieSaints, Mubi, NewsPlayer+, Shahid VIP, Shudder, SonyLIV, Spamflix, Sun NXT, True Story, TVPlayer, VMX, Viva One, WOW Presents Plus and ZEE5.