Rupert Murdoch has been thwarted in his long term ambitions to infiltrate the UK terrestrial broadcast market in the same way his BSkyB operation dominates the satellite market. For many years he has attempted to purchase Channel 5, the smallest of the UK's "public service broadcasters" or PSBs. Now the owners, Northern and Shell, have concluded an agreementwith the US company Viacom to sell the company for £450 million (@ US $745), preventing the sale of a significant interest in UK television from one soft pornography publisher to another.
The sale to Viacom relieves the UK broadcasting regulator OfCom of the burden of assessing whether those involved proposed to run Channel 5 are "fit and proper persons" in the light of the revelations about phone hacking. As late as mid-April, Murdoch and the Discovery Channel were reported as "poised to acquire" the company in a joint venture.
The UK television market is very complicated so I've given a fairly detailed background on it for those unfamiliar with it to see how Channel 5 fits into it. I have however put it in a blockquote for easier separate reading and to allow you to skip it if you wish.
There are four main platforms for delivery of television in the UK. I'll start with terrestrial broadcasting.
Terrestrial
The Analog Days
The UK has to co-ordinate with other countries through the European Broadcasting Union to ensure that the broadcasts in the UK do not interfere with their transmissions, something much more frequent when analog was used. Consequently only four national stations could be broadcast and these were allocated to the BBC (BBC One and BBC Two); the first commercial broadcast network with regionally based contractors, "Independent Television" and the publicly owned, commercial funded Channel 4. In Wales Channel 4 was replaced by the Welsh language service Sianel Pedwar Cymru, usually called S4C.
Prior to the move to digital there was an increase in demand for extra channels and this was achieved by releasing frequencies but only for broadcast from main transmitters for a "fifth channel". The UK relies on a system of main and relay transmitters to ensure coverage which would otherwise be restricted by geography. Virtually all transmitters share the same towers originally run by the BBC and now by a separate infrastructure company, Arqiva.
In exchange for the use of a national asset, these broadcasters were required to undertake "public service broadcasting" which includes, for example, a mandate to include regular news bulletins. The four organizations are collectively known as public service broadcasters or "PSBs".
The Move to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
Standard definition DTT started in the UK in 1998. The original set-top boxes were only available as part of a subscription package however after a couple of failed attempts to launch these services, most of the broadcasters formed a joint venture to market DTT under the name "Freeview". In exchange for continuing public broadcasting requirements, the PSBs were given preferential places on the "electronic program guide" which uses "logical channel numbers" or LCNs and a half share of each digital frequency's bandwidth for each of their analog services. The system used in the UK, DVB-T encoded using MPEG-2 allows for multiple TV and radio channels on each frequency. Thus the BBC were given one "multiplex" or "mux", ITV and Channel 4 a second and a third was allocated to Channel 5 and S4C (5 later sold their interests to S4C which only used its bandwidth for its services in Wales, leasing out the rest). S4C's analog service included English language programs from Channel 4 however S4C Digidol was Welsh language only, Channel 4 itself becoming available for Welsh viewers under this arrangement.
Three other multiplexes, now usually called the COM muxes, were auctioned off to a consortium of two ITV regional companies (now merged into ITV PLC) and Murdoch's BSkyB. To save money, they decided to only broadcast from the main transmitter sites. Those parts of the country served only by relay transmitters receive a restricted service of around 30 TV channels sometimes called "Freeview Lite". Most receive around 70 TV channels plus radio - the numbers are varied by such tactics as "time sharing", which the BBC use to provide BBC Three after 7 pm and CBBC (children's programming) before, or by deliberately restricting the data sent.
Unlike the USA, the UK used the appeal of larger choice to promote DTT and started to switch off analogue after a good level market penetration had been reached. Even then this was region by region, with special assistance programs for the disabled and poor elderly to get a set top box free or at reduced cost if they wish to have a PVR version. These schemes were funded by top slicing the BBC licence fee income.
High Definition DTT
"High Definition" television is a variable feast. The term was first applied to the original 405 line black and white electronic system the BBC chose to contrast with the original 30 line Baird mechanical system. The minimum these days is regarded as @ 720 pixels high with 1080 being the most used.
It is important that Americans do not conflate "HDTV" and widescreen digital television. The UK chose to digitally broadcast standard definition 16:9 anamorphic pictures where a "square" 5:4 image is stretched by the receiver to the widescreen format. Some European countries use DVB-T with MPEG-4 encoding (sometimes called the Nordic digital or Nordig standard) for true high definition but this severely limits the number of channels each can carry.
The UK waited for the second generation DVB-T2 to be agreed and was the first to start broadcasting the standard in late 2009 although domestic set-top boxes were not available until April 2010. (Like the American ATSC 3.0 standard now being proposed, existing receivers were not compatible with the later standard although the new receivers are "backward compatible") At launch, there was sufficient bandwidth for up to four separate HDTV channels and each of the PSBs were offered a slot. Channel 5 at that time declined to start a DTT HD service, a position that continues today despite a further preferential offer. Improved encoding and a system called "stat muxing" which allocates bandwidth according to the demands of the program have increased this to five per frequency.
Eventually all transmissions will migrate to DVB-T2 however some parts of the UHF spectrum have been cleared in order to accommodate possible telecoms use - this has already happened with 4G telephony. As a temporary measure last year a further 2 frequencies were released for DVB-T2 using the "cleared" spectrum. This increased the possible number of HD slots from 5 to 15 but only from main transmitters. (Again time sharing increases the apparent number of channels). So far only three broadcasters are exploiting the one additional mux to start up so far. Previously the BBC had used two slots for an HD simulcast of BBC One (minus regional programming) and a HD showcase "BBC HD" takeing programming from their other channels. With the increased capacity, it has started simulcasts of BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three/CBBC, BBC Four/Cbeebies (for younger children) and BBC News. "The Community Channel" which previously broadcast terrestrially in the small hours have a full time HD service. Al Jazeera have started Al Jazeera English HD and Al Jazeera Arabic, the latter only in standard definition.
Cable Television.
Cable TV systems were originally installed for much the same reasons as in the USA. There were populated areas where reception was poor and the market was sufficiently large to warrant the capital cost of installation. The main company, Rediffusion, provided some additional channels to the then standard two/three. (I did once manage to accidentally cut off Rediffusion from half of SE London but that is another story)
In the early 1980s the possibility of extra channels including premium movie services etc became viable and the UK licenced companies to install them in urban areas in exchange for a monopoly in the area. The size varies from whole towns to individual London boroughs. They could also use the cables for telecom services. The number of licencees has reduced by a series of acquisitions and mergers so that Virginmedia is the now almost monopoly provider. (The company was recently purchased by the US Liberty Media).
OfCom, the market regulator, requires that the predominant satellite broadcaster, BSkyB, makes its "own brand" channels available via cable however this has been done on a channel by channel basis so Sky has started additional exclusive services.
Satellite
The first analog direct broadcast service widely available was Murdoch's Sky service broadcast via the Astra satellite cluster at 28.2 degrees East. This was a spoiler to undermine the official British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) digital service which used an advance system requiring only a 1 ft large "squarial" rather than the 60/90cm dish needed for Sky. Both services were encrypted although they used different systems. The BSB encryption was pirated extensively, allegedly with the involvement of the Israeli company owned by News Corp that provided the encryption for Sky. BSB failed and were taken over by Sky, hence the current name of the company.
As well as encrypted channels, the Astra satellites transmit free to air services, including the BBC's as it has a policy of being "platform neutral". Sky introduced a lot of attractive programming like "The Simpsons", which gave them "pester power" from children wanting their parents to get the service for the show, and sports, particularly football. Recent changes to the broadcasting rights for soccer have significantly diminished this aspect of the mix (more later).
It is of course possible to get "generic" satellite receivers to access the free to air services however only "now and next" program data is broadcast. To more easily view and to enable you to set recordings in advance, you need an electronic program guide. Sky provides this as part of their subscription service, although it can be accessed using an ex-subscription box. Early demand of extra channels provided by DTT then only available in some regions meant a consortium of the main PSBs was put together to market a different EPG funded by fees from the channels carried but free to the consumer who only had to pay for the cost of a receiver and dish. Many use old Sky dishes or, like me, communal satellite systems to receive this "freesat" service. HD freesat receivers start around £50 with PVRs from around £140 compared to around £20 per month for the minimum basic subscription to Sky. (Sky sneakily deactivate the recording function on the PVRs if you stop subscribing even though you have effectively paid for the box and dish by the end of the minimum subscription period).
Sky is however the dominant player in the UK satellite market and satellite TV is often referred to as "Sky" in the same way vacuum cleaners are generically "Hoovers".
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)
In the past couple of years this has become a large player in the UK market. Initially the main use was to watch catchup services like the BBC iPlayer and Demand 5. In order to provide a common standard and additional services, the PSBs together with telecoms companies BT and TalkTalk and others like Arqiva came together in another consortium. From that emerged the "YouView" service which is utilizes hybrid DTT and IPTV boxes. These are marketed using two models. The first is direct sales of boxes although so far only one manufacturer, Humax, is generally available. Their boxes are also used by BT as part of a phone/fiber broadband/TV package with a combined monthly subscription. In addition to channels received over the air, their subscribers can get extra IPTV channels including sports where BT have rights to about half the Premier League soccer matches. Like Sky's own brand channels, BT are obliged to wholesale these services to Sky and Virginmedia. BT used to have a "Vision" service that used similar hybrid boxes with hard drives but additional programming was often delivered overnight and recorded during periods when their network was otherwise quiet. BT YouView boxes are currently only available with their fiber network, those with copper cable do not get the YouView box in a package but can access BT Sports using the defunct Vision boxes or a Sky box using their encryption.
TalkTalk have a similar subscription model but with a different extra channel line-up. They use boxes provided by Huawei. Another nationwide telecoms company, Plusnet is due to start a similar service and is likely to use Humax boxes - they are owned by BT even if they market separately.
Non-subscribers can still access premium film services. There are also a free children's programming service from Channel Five called Milkshake.
More recently, the BBC has announced its intention to stop transmitting BBC Three and deliver its programs via IPTV. This is subject to agreement by the BBC Trust and would have to be platform neutral in the same way their iPlayer service is.