1.
Hamburg
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Hamburg, officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is the second smallest German state by area and its population is over 1.7 million people, and the wider Hamburg Metropolitan Region covers more than 5.1 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe, the official long name reflects Hamburgs history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a sovereign state. Prior to the changes in 1919, the civic republic was ruled by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Though repeatedly destroyed by the Great Fire of Hamburg, the floods and military conflicts including WW2 bombing raids, the city managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. On the river Elbe, Hamburg is a port and a global service, media, logistics and industrial hub, with headquarters and facilities of Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf. The radio and television broadcaster NDR, Europes largest printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg has been an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of Germanys oldest stock exchange and the worlds second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank. The city is a fast expanding tourist destination for domestic and international visitors. It ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015, the ensemble Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg is a major European science, research and education hub with several universities and institutes and its creative industries and major cultural venues include the renowned Elbphilharmonie and Laeisz concert halls, various art venues, music producers and artists. It is regarded as a haven for artists, gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule. Hamburg is also known for theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Paulis Reeperbahn is among the best known European entertainment districts, Hamburg is on the southern point of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the north-east. It is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster, the city centre is around the Binnenalster and Außenalster, both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The island of Neuwerk and two neighbouring islands Scharhörn and Nigehörn, in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of Hamburg. The neighbourhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land region, neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburgs highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres AMSL. Hamburg has a climate, influenced by its proximity to the coast
2.
Snooker
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Snooker is a cue sport which originated in India in the latter half of the 19th century. It is played on a covered with a green cloth, or baize, with pockets at each of the four corners. Using a cue and 22 coloured balls, players must strike the ball to pot the remaining balls in the correct sequence. An individual game, or frame, is won by the player who scores the most points, a match is won when a player wins a predetermined number of frames. In the 1870s, billiards was a sport played by members of the British Army stationed in India. Snooker gained its own identity in 1884 when officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, while stationed in Ooty, devised a set of rules that combined pyramid, the word snooker was a long used military term used to describe inexperienced or first year personnel. The game grew in popularity in England, cemented by the formation of the Billiards Association and it is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The World Snooker Championship has taken place since 1927, with Joe Davis becoming a key figure in the growth of the sport with 15 championship wins from 1927 to 1946. Top professional players now compete regularly around the world and attain multi-million-pound career earnings, the sport has become increasingly popular in China. The origin of snooker dates back to the half of the nineteenth century. In the 1870s, billiards was a popular activity amongst British Army officers stationed in India, one such variation originated at the officers mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in Jabalpur in 1875, which combined the rules of two pocket billiards games, pyramid and life pool. The former was played with fifteen red balls and one positioned in a triangle, while the latter involved the potting of designated coloured balls. The name instantly stuck with the players, in 1887, snooker was given its first definite reference in England in a copy of Sporting Life which caused a growth in popularity. Chamberlain came out as the inventor in a letter to The Field published on 19 March 1938,63 years after the fact. To accommodate the growing interest, smaller and more open snooker-specific clubs were formed, in 1919, the Billiards Association and the Billiards Control Board merged to form the Billiards Association and Control Club and a new, standard set of rules for snooker first became official. Davis won every championship until 1946 when he retired. The game went into a decline through the 1950s and 1960s with little interest generated outside of those who played, in 1959, Davis introduced a variation of the game, known as snooker plus to try to improve the games popularity by adding two extra colours. The TV series became a success and was for a time the second most popular show on BBC Two
3.
Motor Cycle News
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MCN or Motor Cycle News is a UK weekly motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspaper, the title was founded in late 1955 as Motorcycle News by Cyril Quantrill, a former employee of Motor Cycling, and was sold to EMAP in 1956. Bauer bought Emaps consumer media division in 2008, in 2009, average weekly circulation was 114,304 copies according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and 2010 it was 106,446 copies. The figure for 2013 was 85,651, Cyril Quantrill was an employee of Motor Cycling under famous editor Graham Walker, learning his trade both pre and post-war. The British motorcycle media was dominated by two rival publishing houses - Temple Press with Motor Cycling and Iliffe with The Motor Cycle. Both were weekly magazine-format Thursday publications, limited by a 3,000 issue print-run capability and underfunding, Quantrill arranged to sell to EMAP in 1956. Under new ownership the issues were priced at fourpence. Quantrill stayed on as editor and with EMAPs backing the brand flourished, by the time of Quantrills resignation in 1961 circulation was at 67,000. Quantrill continued working as a journalist, including as editor of Motor Cyclist Illustrated, published by City Magazines Ltd of London, continuing Quantrills earlier motivation of sports reporting, it had the strapline the sporting monthly. Motorcycle News as a newspaper was pitched to beat the rivals to the newsstands by one day. Both of the rivals were still magazine-format and remained traditionally producing practical, by 1962, the front page had been restyled by replacing the centred-title with a left-corner masthead box. In 1962, rival Motor Cycling had gone to newspaper format having more sporting coverage, the two publications continued as rival papers. From the late 1960s, the MCN corner-masthead became blue, turning to the red for the 1970s. Rival Motor Cycle became Motor Cycle Weekly, which reverted to a format in 1983 in an effort to boost sales figures by then-publisher IPC before eventual closure in late 1983. MCN continued from strength to strength, MCN have been presenting an annual awards ceremony almost since they were founded in 1955. These included the popularity poll Man of the Year and the overall MCN Machine of the Year award, Official website
4.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
5.
BBC News
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BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the worlds largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, the service maintains 50 foreign news bureaux with more than 250 correspondents around the world. James Harding has been Director of News and Current Affairs since April 2013, the departments annual budget is in excess of £350 million, it has 3,500 staff,2,000 of whom are journalists. BBC News domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, all nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. As with all media outlets, though, it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum. The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922, on Easter weekend in 1930, this reliance on newspaper wire services left the radio news service with no information to report. The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, however, it could not broadcast news before 6 PM until World War II. Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, a weekly Childrens Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers. The network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The publics interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth IIs coronation in 1953 and it is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radios audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission and that year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a commentary by John Snagge. It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs with it. It was from here that the first Panorama, a new programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953. On 28 October 1957, the Today programme, a radio programme, was launched in central London on the Home Service. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs and he set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole
6.
Radio Times
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Radio Times is a British weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. It was the worlds first broadcast listings magazine when it was founded in 1923 by John Reith and it was published entirely in-house by BBC Magazines from 1937 until 2011 when the BBC Magazines division was merged into Immediate Media Company. Radio Times was first issued on 28 September 1923, carrying details of BBC radio programmes, initially, Radio Times was a combined enterprise between the BBC and the publisher George Newnes, who type-set, printed and distributed the magazine. But in 1925 the BBC assumed full control, and by 1937 the publication was fully in-house. The Radio Times established a reputation for using leading writers and illustrators, in 1928, Radio Times announced a regular series of ‘experimental television transmissions by the Baird process for half an hour every morning. The launch of the first regular 405-line television service by the BBC was reflected with television listings in the Radio Times edition of 23 October 1936, thus Radio Times became the first television listings magazine in the world. Initially only two pages in each edition were devoted to television, however, in January 1937 the magazine published a lavish photogravure supplement and by September 1939, there were three pages of television listings. Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 and television broadcasting ceased, Radio listings continued throughout the war for a reduced service, but by 1944, paper rationing meant editions were only 20 pages of tiny print on thin paper. After the war resumed and the Radio Times expanded too. In 1953 the television listings, which so far had been in the back of the magazine, were alongside the radio schedules. By the 1950s Radio Times had grown to be the magazine with the largest circulation in Europe, today both publications carry listings for all major terrestrial, cable and satellite television channels in the United Kingdom. A number of magazines, from independent publishers, also exist. Radio Times is published on Tuesdays and carries listings for the following Saturday through to Friday, since Christmas 1969, a double-sized issue has been published each December containing listings for two weeks of programmes. Originally, this covered Christmas and New Year listings, but in some years these appear in separate editions, by the early 2000s, advertisements for the publication had become sparse on the BBC. The Radio Times has not been promoted on BBC television and radio channels since 2005, the latest circulation figure for the Radio Times is 831,591 making it third in the TV listings magazine market behind TV Choice and Whats on TV. There are several editions, which each contain different listings for regional programming. All editions carry variations for adjoining regions and local radio listings, the number of English regional editions has been reduced since the 1990s due to there being fewer variations in the schedules. The most recent of these was in August 2007 when the Midlands, the exception to this process of merging is Wales, which used to be part of a larger Wales/West version, mirroring the HTV region
7.
Absolute Radio
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Absolute Radio is one of the UKs three Independent National Radio stations. The station rebranded to its current name at 7,45 am on 29 September 2008, the station is based in London and plays popular rock music. It currently broadcasts on medium wave and DAB across the UK, on 105.8 FM in London and 105.2 FM in the West Midlands, Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview and Freesat. It is also available in parts of the world via satellite, cable. As of 31 December 2013, international streaming via the internet has been discontinued, Absolute Radio is a patron of The Radio Academy. Absolute Radio is owned and operated by Bauer Radio of Hamburg based Bauer Media Group, the 1990 Broadcasting Act allowed for the launch of independent national radio stations in the United Kingdom. The Radio Authority was mandated to award three INR licences, one of which had to be for a station, and one of which had to be for a predominantly speech-based service. The remaining licence was to be open to all-comers, the licences were to be awarded to the highest cash bidder, providing that the applicant met criteria set down in the Broadcasting Act. The second national licence, INR2, would take over the 1197 kHz and 1215 kHz frequencies, later that year, TV-am lost its ITV license and its stake in the radio station was sold in March 1993 to Apax Partners, JP Morgan Investment Corporation and Sir David Frost. The station launched as Virgin 1215 at 12.15 pm on 30 April 1993, the original line-up of DJs included Richard Skinner, Russ Williams, Jono Coleman, Mitch Johnson, Graham Dene, Nick Abbot, Wendy Lloyd, Tommy Rivers, Emperor Rosko and Dave Fanning. Chris Evans was also hired to present a Saturday morning show, the Show, The Big Red Mug Show was sponsored by Nescafe. The first song was a version of the Steppenwolf song Born to be Wild. Richard Branson was the first voice to be heard, live from the Virgin Megastore in Manchester, Skinner was also Programme Director, a role he shared with John Revell. John Pearson, formerly Sales Director of LBC was launch Sales Director, andy Mollett was launch Finance Director. David Campbell, previously managing director of one of Virgins post-production television companies, was the executive at launch. From before its launch on AM, Virgin Radio was campaigning for a national FM network, Virgin Radio launched on 105.8 MHz FM in London on 10 April 1995 beginning with a message from broadcaster David Frost at 6 am followed by the Russ n’ Jono breakfast show. Part of the requirements for the London service meant that a daily London opt-out was broadcast on FM. Within a year, Virgin Group was considering the next steps for the station, including the option of a flotation or buying back the shares of JP Morgan, Apax
8.
Ascential
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Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, Richard Winfrey purchased the Spalding Guardian in 1887 and later purchased the Lynn News and the Peterborough Advertiser, he also started the North Cambs Echo. Sir Richard Winfrey was a Liberal politician and campaigner for agricultural rights, during World War II Winfreys newspaper interests began to be passed over to his son, Richard Pattinson Winfrey. The Peterborough Advertiser Co. the West Norfolk and Kings Lynn Newspaper Co. and commercial printing sections at Rushden, Kings Lynn, the magazine division was founded on a hunch when the companys printing presses lay dormant between printing issues of the local papers. The staff gambled that a weekly angling publication would be a hit - and this was soon joined by another weekly heavyweight when EMAP bought Motor Cycle News from its founder in 1956 for a hundred pounds. EMAP grew significantly in the late 1970s under the guidance of the successful partnership of Sir Robin Miller. In 1996 EMAP PLC agreed to sell its 65 newspaper titles, including the 300-year-old Stamford Mercury, scottish Radio Holdings was acquired by EMAP on 21 June 2005. In 2006, EMAP sold its French division to Italys Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, on 27 July 2007, EMAP announced that it was undertaking a review of the structure of the group in response to receiving a number of unsolicited proposals to purchase parts of the company. On 12 September 2007, EMAP announced that it had completed the disposal of its Australian consumer magazine division, on 29 January 2008, EMAP completed the sale of its radio, television and consumer media businesses to German company Bauer for £1. 14bn. In March 2012, the announced that it would be renamed Top Right Group. The EMAP name would continue to be used for the magazines operation, the database business was renamed 4C Group, and the events unit was renamed I2i Events Group. Then in October 2015 the company announced that the EMAP brand would be scrapped as all its titles move to digital-only format, in December Top Right Group rebranded as Ascential. The company was the subject of an initial public offering in February 2016
9.
Kiss (UK radio station)
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Kiss is a UK radio station which is broadcasting on FM and National DAB, specialising in pop, hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky, owned by Hamburg based Bauer Media Group, Kiss forms part of Bauers National portfolio of radio brands. Kiss spin-off brands include Kisstory and Kiss Fresh, Kiss FM began in October 1985 as a pirate radio station, broadcasting first to South London then across the whole city, on 94FM. The station had gained an audience by the time it was awarded a legitimate licence in 1990. Lyn was brought in to write the original proposal in 1989 and was Head of Talks responsible for all spoken word output on the new KISS100 FM. This material had never been broadcast in the UK on radio or TV, a missed opportunity indeed as it became the standard fare of every major broadcaster through the 1990s and noughties. Lyn Champion was the first to leave as a result, followed by such icons as Norman Jay, lyn lectures extensively about media de-regulation and content. Everyone during Kiss 94s pirate period had stickers in their cars, and it was suggested that the station had commanded almost 500,000 listeners while operating as an unlicensed pirate station. Kiss FM was established by Gordon Mac McNaeece and his friends, Tosca, Pyers Easton, Gordon Mac approached a successful London club promoter, Guy Wingate, to discuss ways of improving the Kiss FM profile. As a result, Wingate launched the very successful Kiss nights at the Wag Club and these nights increased the stations credibility with its target audience and Wingate joined the Kiss team, followed shortly thereafter by Lindsay Wesker. Kiss was owned by Gordon Mac and in 1986 he sold shares to 10 of the DJs, including Tim Westwood, Jonathan More, Norman Jay, Trevor Nelson and others. Gordon Mac, Wesker and Wingate, the team of DJs, in 1988, the Department of Trade And Industry advertised the first new radio licence in London for many years and Kiss FM mounted a strong campaign to be awarded this licence. Despite public support, the licence was awarded to Jazz FM, new licences were subsequently advertised and this time Kiss, with significant public and listener support, was awarded one of these. On 1 September 1990 Kiss relaunched as a station, with its studio and offices located on the Holloway Road. EMAP took full control of Kiss 100 as early as 1992, but there was no significant rebranding of Kiss 100, the rebranding resulted in a new logo being adopted in 1999. EMAP wanted to align Kiss 100 with the rest of its operations and to do so. At the same time, the Kiss studios and offices was moved from its roots to EMAPs main premises in Central London. These changes led to criticism from both presenters and listeners alike, concerned that Kiss 100 was losing its musical direction
10.
The Box (UK and Ireland TV channel)
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The Box is a television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is one of many within The Box Plus Network, the channel mainly broadcasts music videos, although it also features other music-related programming from across The Box Plus Network. The channel was brought to the United Kingdom by Vincent Monsey and his partner Liz Laskowski, over the next few years, The Box rolled out on a regional basis across the United Kingdom on every cable system available, and eventually onto Sky Digital in 1998. The Box was also broadcast on the Astra Satellite between 2am and 7am during the downtime of Granada Plus and Men & Motors, from 1999, all the regional versions of The Box were shut down and replaced with this version. Ticketmaster Inc. briefly owned 50% of the company becoming a public company on the FTSE. EMAP took ownership of shares in 1997, and purchased the shareholding held by the American company VJN Inc. which had then become TCI Music. The US version of the channel was sold to MTVN in 2000, each week a new playlist is released, and this will generally contain new or current music videos. The playlist was published on teletext and the channels website, now the playlist is programmed in the Up Next section on screen. On 2 April 2013, all Box Television channels went free-to-air on satellite, as a result, the channels were removed from the Sky EPG in Ireland. The Box was added to the Freesat EPG on 15 April 2013, the Box can also be streamed live from their website. The channel is known for its First Play feature, where many videos often make their UK or world premiere. This new music is shown through the Box Fresh show on the channel. Most notably, The Box, were recognised for the force behind the huge success of the first Spice Girls hit Wannabe. The slogan of The Box is Fresh Music First — previous mottos include Big Hits First, Music Television You Control and Smash Hits You Control. Notably, for a period in late 1999 and early 2000, there was a trend of artists name checking The Box in their music videos. In most cases, this was simply an insertion of the logo at some point in the video, however in a few cases. The most notable example of this is the video for the S Club 7 song S Club Party, as with all Box Television channels, The Box now operates from a pre-programmed playlist and does not include video selection jukeboxes. In July 2007, 50% of Box Television was sold to Channel Four Television Corporation, on 28 October 2013, The Boxs logo, branding, onscreen and online design was refreshed
11.
Channel 4
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Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster that began transmission on 2 November 1982. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services, BBC1, BBC2, and ITV. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth, after some months of test broadcasts, it began scheduled transmissions on 2 November 1982. Indeed, television sets throughout the 1970s and early 1980s had a spare channel called ITV/IBA2. It was most likely politics which had the biggest impact in leading to a delay of almost three decades before the commercial channel became a reality. The campaign was taken so seriously by Gwynfor Evans, former president of Plaid Cymru, the result was that Channel 4 as seen by the rest of the United Kingdom would be replaced in Wales by Sianel Pedwar Cymru. Operated by a specially created authority, S4C would air programmes in Welsh made by HTV, since then, carriage on digital cable, satellite and digital terrestrial has introduced Channel 4 to Welsh homes where it is now universally available. The first programme to air on the channel was the game show Countdown. The first person to be seen on Channel 4 was Richard Whiteley with Ted Moult being the second, the first woman on the channel, contrary to popular belief, was not Carol Vorderman and was a lexicographer only ever identified as Mary. Whiteley opened the show with the words, On its first day, Channel 4 also broadcast controversial soap opera Brookside, which ran until 2003. On its launch, Channel 4 committed itself to providing an alternative to the existing channels, Channel 4 co-commissioned Robert Ashleys ground-breaking television opera Perfect Lives, which it premiered over several episodes in 1984. The channel often did not receive mass audiences for much of period, however. Channel 4 for many years had a poorer quality signal compared to other channels, Channel 4 also began the funding of independent films, such as the Merchant-Ivory docudrama The Courtesans of Bombay, during this time. In 1992, Channel 4 also faced its first libel case by Jani Allan, a South African journalist, who objected to her representation in the documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Drivers Wife. After control of the station passed from the Channel Four Television Company to the Channel Four Television Corporation in 1993, instead of aiming for the fringes of society, it began to focus on the edges of the mainstream, and the centre of the mass market itself. It began to show many US programmes in peak viewing time and it gave such shows as Friends and ER their UK premières. In the early 2000s, Channel 4 began broadcasting reality formats such as Big Brother and obtained the rights to broadcast mass appeal sporting events like cricket and this new direction increased ratings and revenues. In addition, the corporation launched a number of new channels through its new 4Ventures offshoot, including Film4, At the Races, E4
12.
Freeview (UK)
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Freeview is the United Kingdoms digital terrestrial television platform. It is operated by DTV Services Ltd, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky and transmitter operator Arqiva, the service provides consumer access via an aerial to the six DTT multiplexes covering the United Kingdom. In April 2014 it had some 60 DVB-T TV channels,26 digital radio channels,10 HD channels, six services,11 streamed channels. A number of new HD channels launched in 2014, from a new group of multiplexes awarded to Arqiva, the new HD channels were launched in selected areas on 10 December 2013 with a further roll-out during 2014. DTV Services delivery of television and radio is labelled Freeview. Reception of Freeview requires a Freeview tuner, either in a separate box or built into the TV set. Since 2008 all new TV sets sold in the United Kingdom have a built-in Freeview tuner, Freeview HD requires a HDTV-capable tuner. Digital video recorders with a built-in Freeview tuner are labelled Freeview+, depending on model, DVRs and HDTV sets with a Freeview tuner may offer standard Freeview or Freeview HD. DMOL, a company owned by the operators of the six DTT multiplexes is responsible for platform management and policy, including the electronic programme guide. The founding members of DTV Services, who trade as Freeview, were the BBC, Crown Castle UK, on 11 October 2006, ITV plc and Channel 4 became equal shareholders. Since then, the Freeview model has been copied in Australia, with the launch of Freeview other channels were broadcast free-to-air, such as, Sky Travel, UK History, Sky News, Sky Sports News, The Hits and TMF were available from the start. BBC Four and the interactive BBC streams were moved to multiplex B, under the initial plans, the two multiplexes operated by Crown Castle would carry eight channels altogether. The seventh stream became shared by UK Bright Ideas and Ftn which launched in February 2003, the eighth stream was left unused until April 2004 when the shopping channel Ideal World launched on Freeview. There are now 14 streams carried by the two multiplexes, with Multiplex C carrying 6 streams, and Multiplex D carrying 8 and it has recently been announced that more streams are now available on the multiplexes, and that bidding is under way. The Freeview service underwent an upgrade on 30 September 2009. The changes, meant to ensure reception of Channel 5. The Freeview website crashed and the centre was inundated as a result of the problems. The change involved an update to the NIT, which some receivers could not accommodate, many thousands of people could not receive some channels
