Jump to content

Mass media in the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Junior5a (talk | contribs) at 09:44, 18 July 2020 (Reverted 1 edit by Sunak23 (talk) to last revision by Hmains (TW)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

There are several different types of mass media in the United Kingdom: television, radio, newspapers, magazines and websites. The country also has a strong music industry. The United Kingdom has a diverse range of providers, the most prominent being the publicly owned public service broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The BBC's largest competitors are ITV plc, which operates 13 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, and American global media conglomerate Comcast, which owns the broadcaster Sky Ltd. Regional media is covered by local radio, television and print newspapers. Trinity Mirror operates 240 local and regional newspapers, as well as national newspapers such as the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror.

Audiences

Mediacity in Greater Manchester, privately funded and publicly backed by the BBC is the largest media-production facility in the United Kingdom.

In 2009 it was estimated that individuals viewed a mean of 3.75 hours of television per day and listened to 2.81 hours of radio. The main BBC public service broadcasting channels accounted for and estimated 28.4% of all television viewing; the three main independent channels accounted for 29.5% and the increasingly important other satellite and digital channels for the remaining 42.1%.[1] Sales of newspapers have fallen since the 1970s and in 2009 42% of people reported reading a daily national newspaper.[2] In 2010, 82.5% of the United Kingdom population were Internet users, the highest proportion amongst the 20 countries with the largest total number of users in that year.[3]

In 2017, European Broadcasting Union research found that people in the United Kingdom trusted the written press least of any European country, by a considerable margin. Trust in television and the radio was closer to the European average.[4]

National media centres and organisations

London

Main article: Media in London

London dominates the media sector in the United Kingdom as national newspapers, television and radio networks are largely based there. Notable centres include Fleet Street and BBC Broadcasting House.

Specialist local paper City A.M. is a free, business-focused newspaper published in print Monday to Friday. It is typically available from around 6 am at London commuter stations and is handed out at key points in the City, Canary Wharf and other central London locations.

Greater Manchester

Main article: Media in Manchester

Greater Manchester is also a significant national media hub. Notable centres include MediaCityUK a 200-acre (80ha) media production facility in Salford and Trafford.

The Guardian national newspaper was founded in Manchester in 1821, and was known as the Manchester Guardian until 1959. In the 1950s, coinciding with the growth in television, the Granada Television franchise was set up by Sidney Bernstein. Consequently, the Granada Studios were the first purpose-built television studios in the United Kingdom. The franchise produced television programmes such as Coronation Street and the Up Series. The BBC currently has two of its six major business divisions based here BBC North Group that comprises a number of important departments including BBC Breakfast, BBC Children's, BBC Sport, BBC Radio 5 and BBC North West. The other division is BBC Future Media. In addition ITV has two major divisions of its business based here ITV Studios responsible for UK and international network production and ITV Granada its regional service provider. The University of Salford also has a media campus and research center based at media city.[5]

The United Kingdom is known for its large music industry, along with its new and upcoming artists. In the UK, media is spread through the forms of TV, newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio.

The Daily Mirror was founded in 1903.[6] The Sunday Mirror, the sister paper to the Daily Mirror, was started in 1915.[7]

Other Key centres

Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Cardiff are important centres of newspaper and broadcasting production in Scotland and Wales respectively.[8]

The BBC, founded in 1922, is the United Kingdom's publicly funded radio, television and Internet broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world. It operates numerous television and radio stations in the United Kingdom and abroad and its domestic services are funded by the television licence.[9][10]

Other major players in the United Kingdom media include ITV plc, which operates 11 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network,[11] and News Corporation, which owns a number of national newspapers through News International such as the tabloid The Sun and "broadsheet" The Times.[12][13]

Print

The United Kingdom print publishing sector, including books, server, directories and databases, journals, magazines and business media, newspapers and news agencies, has a combined turnover of around £20 billion and employs around 167,000 people. The print media sector is entirely regulating itself and there are no specific statutory rules regulating the print media unlike TV media.[14]

Newspapers

Main articles: List of newspapers in the United Kingdom and History of British newspapers

Traditionally British newspapers have been divided into "quality", serious-minded newspapers (usually referred to as "broadsheets" because of their large size) and the more populist, "tabloid" varieties. For convenience of reading many traditional broadsheets have switched to a more compact-sized format, traditionally used by tabloids. In 2008 The Sun had the highest circulation of any daily newspaper in the United Kingdom at 3.1 million, approximately a quarter of the market.[15] Its sister paper, the News of the World, had the highest circulation in the Sunday newspaper market,[15] and traditionally focused on celebrity-led stories until its closure in 2011.[16] The Daily Telegraph, a centre-right broadsheet paper, is the highest-selling of the "quality" newspapers.[15] While The Guardian is a centre-left "quality" broadsheet and the Financial Times is the main business newspaper, printed on distinctive salmon-pink broadsheet paper.[17] In 2018 Reach plc (formerly Trinity Mirror), which operates 240 local and regional newspapers in the United Kingdom as well as the national newspapers Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People, purchased Northern & Shell which added the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and three celebrity magazines to its stable.[18][19]

Scotland has a distinct tradition of newspaper readership (see list of newspapers in Scotland). The tabloid Daily Record has the highest circulation of any daily newspaper, outselling The Scottish Sun by four to one, while its sister paper the Sunday Mail similarly leads the Sunday newspaper market. The leading "quality" daily newspaper in Scotland is The Herald, though it is the sister paper of The Scotsman, and the Scotland on Sunday that leads in the Sunday newspaper market.[20] In November 2014 a new newspaper was launched in Scotland called The National.[21]

In 2018 TheGuardian.com, News UK (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun) and The Daily Telegraph created a joint platform for advertisers to buy online adverts across the multiple leading news websites, called The Ozone Project.[22] Later in the year Reach plc joined the platform, bringing nearly all of UK's national newspapers onto the platform.[23]

As of 2020, the newspaper with the highest circulation is Metro with 1,426,535 readers.[24] The Sun and other tabloid daily newspapers have seen a drop in circulation.[24]

Broadsheet and former broadsheet newspapers

Title Days of
publication 		Circulation Established Editor Owner Political
orientation 		Political party support
in the 2019 general election 		Format
The Daily Telegraph Daily 308,015 1855 Chris Evans Press Holdings (Barclay brothers) Centre-right, conservative Conservative Party Broadsheet
The Sunday Telegraph Sundays 1961 Allister Heath Broadsheet
The Times Daily 417,298 1785 John Witherow News Corporation Broadsheet (1785 – 2003)

Compact (since 2004)

The Sunday Times Sundays 659,699 1821 Emma Tucker Broadsheet
Financial Times Daily 740,000 1888 Lionel Barber Nikkei Inc. Economically liberal None Broadsheet
The Guardian Daily 130,496 1821 Katharine Viner Scott Trust Limited's Guardian Media Group. Centre-left Labour Party Berliner (2005 – 2018)
Compact (since 2018)[25]
The Observer Sundays 159,780 1791 John Mulholland None Berliner (2006 – Compact (since 2018)[25]
The Guardian Weekly Weekly 1919 Graham Snowdon (acting) None Berliner (2005–2018)
Compact (since 2018)
i [a] Daily 221,083 2010 Oliver Duff Daily Mail and General Trust (since 29 November 2019)[26] Liberal, centrist None Compact
i Weekend Saturdays 2017 N/A Compact
The Independent N/A 1986 Chris Broughton Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel

Alexander Lebedev

Evgeny Lebedev

Liberal, non-partisan None[b] Broadsheet (1986 – 2004)

Compact (2003 – 2016)

Online only (since 2016)

  1. ^ "i" is the name of the newspaper
  2. ^ Supported Sir Keir Starmer (Labour Party) to be Brexit Secretary and the UK's Brexit negotiator, as well as supporting unionist candidates in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.[27][28]

Tabloid newspapers

Title Days of publication Format Established Editor Owner Political
orientation 		Political party support
in the 2019 general election
Daily Mail Daily Broadsheet (1896 – 1971)

Tabloid (since 1971)

1896 Geordie Greig Daily Mail and General Trust plc Right-wing, conservative Conservative Party
The Mail on Sunday Sundays Tabloid 1982
Daily Express Daily Broadsheet (1900 – 1977)

Tabloid (since 1978)

1900 Gary Jones Reach Right-wing, Eurosceptic
Sunday Express Sundays Broadsheet (1918 – 1992)

Tabloid (since 1992)

1918 Michael Booker
The Sun Daily Tabloid 1964 Tony Gallagher News Corporation Right-wing, conservative
The Sun on Sunday Sundays Tabloid 2012
Daily Mirror Daily Tabloid 1903 Lloyd Embley Reach Centre-left Labour Party
Sunday Mirror Sundays Tabloid 1915
Sunday People Sundays Tabloid 1881 Peter Willis
Daily Star Daily Tabloid 1978 Dawn Neesom Largely non-political None
Daily Star Sunday Sundays Tabloid 2002 Stuart James
Morning Star Daily Tabloid 1930 Ben Chacko People's Press Printing Society Left-wing, socialist Labour Party
Eastern Eye Weekly Tabloid 1989 Asian Media Group None

Freesheet newspapers in urban centres

Title Days of Publication Format Established Editor Owner Political
Orientation 		Distribution
London Evening Standard Weekdays (evening) Tabloid 1827 George Osborne Alexander Lebedev (75.1%)
Lord Rothermere (24.9%)		 Centre-right, conservative Greater London
Metro Weekdays Tabloid 1999 Ted Young Daily Mail and General Trust plc Non-partisan, neutral Wide availability in the major cities
City A.M. Weekdays (morning) Tabloid 2005 Christian May City A.M. Ltd Centre-right, conservative Wide availability in the major cities
The Shuttle Weekly Tabloid 1870 Peter John Newsquest Media Group Local politics Wyre Forest area of Worcestershire
Asian Express Weekly Tabloid 1999 Media Buzz Ltd
Yorkshire Reporter Monthly Tabloid 2013 Pick up Publications Ltd Widely available in Leeds and its surrounding areas

Magazines

A large range of magazines are sold in the United Kingdom covering most interests and potential topics. British magazines and journals that have achieved worldwide circulation include The Economist, Nature, and New Scientist, Private Eye, Hello!, The Spectator, the Radio Times, and NME.

Books

Main article: Books in the United Kingdom

Broadcasting

Radio

Picture of a Truetone brand radio
Main articles: Radio in the United Kingdom and Digital radio in the United Kingdom

Radio in the United Kingdom is dominated by the BBC, which operates radio stations both in the United Kingdom and abroad. The BBC World Service radio network is broadcast in 33 languages globally. Domestically the BBC also operates ten national networks and over 40 local radio stations including services in Welsh on BBC Radio Cymru, Gaelic on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal in Scotland and Irish in Northern Ireland.[29] The domestic services of the BBC are funded by the television licence.[30] The internationally targeted BBC World Service Radio is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, though from 2014 it will be funded by the television licence.[31] The most popular radio station by number of listeners is BBC Radio 2, closely followed by BBC Radio 4. Advances in digital radio technology have enabled the launch of several new stations by the Corporation.[32]

Rather than operating as independent entities, many commercial local radio stations are owned by large radio groups which broadcast a similar format to many areas. The largest operator of radio stations is Global Radio, owner of the major Heart, Smooth and Capital radio brands. It also owns Classic FM, LBC and Radio X. Other owners are Wireless Group and Bauer Radio. There are a number of licensed community radio stations[33] which broadcast to local audiences.

Television

Main article: Television in the United Kingdom
The Channel 4 building in London

The United Kingdom has no analogue television. A free to air digital service is made up of two chartered public broadcasting companies, the BBC and Channel 4 and two franchised commercial television companies, (ITV and Channel 5) specializing in entertainment, drama, culture, arts, nature, sports, comedy etc. In addition to this, the United Kingdom's free-to-air Freeview service runs a large number of Entertainment, Music, Sport and Shopping channels from the likes of CBS, UKTV and Sky. There are five major nationwide television channels: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5—currently transmitted by digital terrestrial, free-to-air signals with the latter three channels funded by commercial advertising. The vast majority of digital cable television services are provided by Virgin Media with satellite television available from Freesat or Sky and free-to-air digital terrestrial television by Freeview. The entire country switched to digital (from a previously analogue signal) in 2012.[34]

The BBC operates several television channels in the United Kingdom and abroad. The BBC's international television news service, BBC World News, is broadcast throughout the world. The domestic services of the BBC are funded by the television licence.[30] The international television broadcast services are operated by BBC Worldwide on a commercial subscription basis over cable and satellite services. This commercial arm of the BBC also forms half of UKTV along with Virgin Media.[35]

Channel 4 is similarly chartered to the BBC, with a remit to provide public service broadcasting and schools programs, however it runs commercial advertisements to provide a revenue stream. It produces a number of digital channels, branded as Channel 4, as well as E4, More 4 and Film4.

The commercial operators rely on advertising for their revenue, and are run as commercial ventures, in contrast to the public service operators. The ITV franchise transmits the 3 different networks in different parts of the country. These are known as ITV (in England, Wales, Scottish Borders, Isle of Man and Channel Islands), STV (In Central and Northern Scotland), and UTV in Northern Ireland.

Internet

Main article: Internet in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom's most visited websites include google.com, youtube.co.uk, facebook.com, bbc.co.uk, google.co.uk, and ebay.co.uk.[36]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ofcom "Communication Market Report 2010", 19 August 2010, pp. 97, 164 and 191, retrieved 17 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Social Trends: Lifestyles and social participation", Office for National Statistics, 16 February 2010, archived from the original on 24 June 2011.
  3. ^ "Top 20 countries with the highest number of Internet users", Internet World Stats, archived from the original on 10 June 2011.
  4. ^ Ponsford, Dominic (26 May 2017). "Survey finds that UK written press is (by some way) the least trusted in Europe". Press Gazette. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  5. ^ UK Campus, Media City. "Courses and Training". Research Center. University of Salford. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  6. ^ Daily Mirror
  7. ^ Sunday Mirror
  8. ^ D. William, UK Cities: A Look at Life and Major Cities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Godfrey Mwakikagile, 2010), ISBN 9987-16-021-2, pp. 22, 46, 109 and 145.
  9. ^ Newswire7 (13 August 2009), "BBC: World's largest broadcaster & Most trusted media brand", Media Newsline, archived from the original on 10 May 2011{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link).
  10. ^ "TV Licence Fee: facts & figures", BBC Press Office, April 2010, archived from the original on 27 April 2011.
  11. ^ "Publications & Policies: The History of ITV", ITV.com, archived from the original on 11 April 2011.
  12. ^ "Publishing", News Corporation, archived from the original on 4 June 2011.
  13. ^ "Direct Broadcast Satellite Television", News Corporation, archived from the original on 4 June 2011.
  14. ^ "Publishing", Department of Culture, Media and Sport, archived from the original on 5 May 2011.
  15. ^ a b c "ABCs: National daily newspaper circulation September 2008". The Guardian. UK. 10 October 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
  16. ^ Phone-hacking probe: 'Thank you & goodbye', says NoW, BBC News, 10 July 2011, retrieved 11 July 2011.
  17. ^ Lyall, Sarah (24 February 2010). "British Panel Condemns Media Group in Phone Hacking Case". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  18. ^ "Trinity Mirror plc: Annual Report and Accounts 2010" (PDF), Trinity Mirror, 2010, archived from the original (PDF) on 15 May 2011.
  19. ^ Tobitt, Charlotte (20 June 2018). "Culture Secretary gives green light to Reach takeover of Express Newspapers". Press Gazette. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  20. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (9 May 2008), "Scottish Sun pulls further ahead of Record", guardian.co.uk, archived from the original on 16 March 2009.
  21. ^ Pro-independence daily paper the National to launch in Scotland. The Guardian. Author - Mark Sweney. Published 21 November 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  22. ^ Waterson, Jim (20 June 2018). "Guardian, News UK and Telegraph launch joint advertising business". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  23. ^ Tobitt, Charlotte (11 September 2018). "Joint advertising platform becomes 'truly cross-industry initiative' as Reach unites with News UK, Guardian and Telegraph". Press Gazette. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  24. ^ a b https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/national-newspaper-abc-daily-star-sunday-print-drop-first-2020-circulation-figures/
  25. ^ a b Guardian and Observer launch new tabloid format and digital redesign. The Guardian. Published 14 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  26. ^ "Daily Mail owner buys i newspaper for £50m". BBC News. 29 November 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  27. ^ "It's your vote – so think about the values you support, not just the party". Independent. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  28. ^ "Keir Starmer is the right person to negotiate Brexit – or at least to hold the Government to account". The Independent. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  29. ^ "News and Analysis in your language". BBC. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  30. ^ a b "TV Licence Fee: facts & figures". BBC Press Office. Archived from the original on 7 September 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  31. ^ "BBC Funding Settlements: the details". OFCOMWATCH. October 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  32. ^ "BBC7 radio launches with comedy", BBC News, 16 December 2002, retrieved 10 July 2011.
  33. ^ Map of Community radio stations broadcasting in the UK
  34. ^ "What is digital switchover". Directgov. December 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  35. ^ "CHANNELS". BBC Worldwide. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  36. ^ https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/united-kingdom

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mass_media_in_the_United_Kingdom&oldid=968270216"