I have had to make this point in comments but I think it important that people understand that the TV reporting on Cambridge Analytica that is causing all the stir was not done by the BBC. Proper attribution is important! There is understandable confusion but the reporting was done by a company, ITN (formerly Independent Television News) for Channel 4’s news output.
The Channel 4 network, like the BBC, is publicly owned (by accident!) but is funded primarily from selling commercials. To understand this, we have to go back to the founding of Channel 4 in the days of analog television.Their station “ident” is shown above deconstructing the original to the latest “stick man” figure used in their new ones.
The UK then used the “PAL” 625 line color system. The complexity in a crowded island of allocating frequencies so the different networks did not interfer with each other’s transmissions meant that there was an effective limit of 4 stations (and a bit, more later).
Prior to the Broadcasting Act 1980, there were only three terrestrial channels — BBC One, BBC Two and ITV. The last was a regionally divided commercial network with different companies running the franchises for different parts of the country (since mostly amalgamated in “ITV”). On the tuning dials of TVs they were positions 1,2 and 3 respectively. At times ITV has been referred to as “Channel 3”. It was regulated by the “Independent Broadcasting Authority” (IBA) whereas the BBC was regulated by its Board of Governors under Royal Charter.
The 1980 Act was intended to provide a new service, funded by a levy on the advertising revenue of the ITV companies but run by the IBA. As one of its mottos states, it was “born to be different” with a specific remit to show novel and innovative programming with special attention to minority groups. In Wales, the Welsh language output of the BBC and ITV, often shown at off-peak hours, was to be shown by a Welsh language channel, S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru — Channel 4 Wales) The BBC’s popular soap, Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley) transferred to S4C when it started broadcasting alongside Channel 4 in November 1982.
ITV had the long established and respected news company, ITN. Channel 4 was intended to be primarily a commissioner of shows from other companies in order to promote new production companies. So rather than setting up their own news gathering organisation, they contracted with ITN to provide their main one hour 7pm news bulletin along with other news.
I mentioned the possible “4 and a bit” analog channels. Television sets already had an “ITV 2” button as a new channel was being touted so frequencies at the analog transmitters had already been reserved. By the late 1980s, there was pressure for further choice in part driven by the introduction of direct broadcast analog satellite services. That frequency allocation and the use of UHF channel 35 for such things as VCRs or early computers meant that a new channel would have to undertake to pay for filters or the re-tuning of this equipment to avoid interference from the broadcast channels either side. It also meant that not everywhere was able to receive Channel 5 from their usual transmitter, if at all (hence the “bit”).
Enter Margaret Thatcher who wanted there to be “less regulation” and decided to abolish the IBA and some other regulators and replace it with the Independent Television Commission and Radio Authority (both later absorbed withing OfCom). The 1990 Broadcasting Act also set up Channel 5. It is slightly different to Channel 4 in that it is a “publishing house”, buying in but not commissioning most of their programming. They had a public service remit which meant that they are obliged to show news and documentaries. Like Channel 4, they bought in their news from ITN, albeit with more a more popular format from the in depth shows on C4 at 7.00 p.m. and ITV at 10 p.m.
With the introduction of a “light touch” regulator Channel 4 was at a loose end with no owner. Under British law that means it becomes state property. The 1990 act also set up a new company, publicly owned.
Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television was also required to have news programming and its Sky News is the third main television news gathering operation in the UK. (Unlike Fox News, Sky News has an excellent reputation, in part driven by regulations that require such things as political impartiality.)
The introduction of Freeview digital television in 2002 meant that many more channels could be broadcast both on each broadcast frequency and in total. From January 1997 a subscription based digital terrestrial service, ITV digital, had been available but the subscription model was not popular. Note these were standard definition widescreen services using the European DVD-T system. HD broadcasts started in 2006 using the incompatible and later DVB-T2 system. There are currently three broadcast frequencies at the main transmitters allocated to DVB-T2. In theory this means 15 HD channels are available although some bandwidth has been rented by SD services. “Time slicing” where (for example) QVC Beauty HD hands over its bandwidth to QVC HD at 1 a.m. means there are currently 15 HD free to air channels available from the main transmitters. For the most part, the rest are HD variants of their SD counterparts (BBC One local news and other programming is in SD only for technical transmitting reasons). BBC Three, their youth oriented channel, moved from linear broadcasting to internet delivery last year.
Digital also meant that the existing “legacy” broadcasters were able to transmit more specialised channels. Channel 4 has its own “youth oriented” channel E4 among others. It also has “+1” channels showing live programming one hour later. These do not have a public service remit to show news however BBC Four does show some, from both the BBC News channel and the BBC World Service television.
Herein lies one of the sources of the confusion between the BBC and Channel 4. BBC Four is “a place to think” and shows arts and documentary programming, along with some rather high brow quiz shows. (Both BBC Four and BBC Three are used as test beds for new shows which if successful, transfer to their main general entertainment channels, One and Two.) The BBC also numbered their national radio stations using numbers rather than letters in their title; so BBC One (television) is not BBC Radio 1. BBC Radio 4 is their main talk station which carries their main news coverage, notably the Today Programme each weekday morning which tends to set the political agenda for the day. (It is also used by nuclear submarines whose captains are authorised to launch their missiles in the event they cannot receive it three days running, on the assumption that the UK has been destroyed.)
Digital has also affected radio. In addition to the BBC stations and others being carried on the Freeview television system (and satellite), there is a further choice of DAB radio and the internet. In total there are now 10 national BBC radio stations plus the World Service available on all platforms plus national radio stations for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in both English and local language. (In addition to S4C digital, the BBC has the Scots Gaelic BBC Alba television. While not broadcast outside Scotland, it can be seen on the BBC iPlayer internet service.)
There is one big difference between the two publicly owned TV networks. The BBC is funded by the licence fee, currently around US$190 a year per household. That means that, apart from the World Service television and partnerships like BBC America outside the UK, access is restricted to licence holders and the television iPlayer is geo-blocked. Channel 4 on the other hand does not have this restriction and has its own YouTube channel with clips from the shows it commissions (subject to licensing agreements with the studios) and a separate Channel 4 News Youtube channel where those clips can be found.
I mentioned Channel 4’s remit to represent minority groups. In this, they can be quite aggressive as their promotion for the Sochi Winter Olympics shows, given Putin’s views.
One of their latest station idents is also interesting. It shows the Channel 4 “stick man” landing people on top of the iconic white cliffs of Dover
If that is not a pro-immigration (and anti the xenophobia surrounding Brexit), what is?