television in the UK

The post-office allowed the creation of experimental radio stations in 1922. Then, the British Broadcasting Company was created as an independent company as the wish as its first general manager John Reith.
A Royal Charter created the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1927.
Television broadcasting became regular in 1936. In 1937, TV showed for the first time the Coronation procession of King George VI. However, Television broadcasting had to stop during WWII because if the risk of the use of the signals as a beacon by German’s bombers. Today TV is the first leisure activity in people ‘s time spending.
The BBC is managed by 12 Governors, 4 of them represent Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions. Fees were introduced to finance TV broadcasting: everyone has to pay £126,50 a year for a colour TV, £42 for a black and white one. People aged over 75 years old pay for free and blind people pay 50% of the fees. The annual budget, £3,8 millions is mostly financed by the fees but also by the commercial service BBC Worldwide which sells videos, books...
Because of its neutral and independent position, the BBC knew clashes with authorities which accused them of having an unpatriotic stance in some circumstances.
The main channels of the BBC are BBC one, the first television channel which have a high quality reputation, BBC two talking about national and international events, BBC three, BBC four, BBC parliament, BBC News 24 and CBeebies and CBBC for children.
International channels do exist too: BBC world, BBC Prime, BBC America, BBC Canada, BBC Japan and BBC kids are broadcast out from Great Britain.
The BBC became quickly the symbol of British society.
1954 saw the creation of the ITA (Independent Television Authority) which role was to regulate new television network. The following year, commercial televisions, like ITV1, financed by advertising, appeared. This channel broadcast
programs about sport like the UEFA Champions League...
Other independent television channels appeared like ITV2 in 1998, ITV3 in 2004, ITV4 in 2005 and ITV News.
Channel 4 created by the 1980 Broadcasting Act was known for their provocation movies showing sex or violent scenes. A red triangle on the corner of the screen announces a “Special Discretion Required”.
British Sky Broadcasting, a pay TV service (Sky News, Eurosport...) is the most popular subscription TV service in the United Kingdom. They had revenue of £4 billion between 2004 and 2005.