Analogue terrestrial television in the United Kingdom was originally the method by which the significant majority of viewers in the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man received television. Analogue terrestrial television broadcasts have fully ceased in the UK with Northern Ireland being the last region to have ceased transmission analogue terrestrial television broadcasts. Northern Ireland switched off the last analogue television signals, making all of the United Kingdom only capable of receiving digital television, in the early hours of 24 October, 2012. It has been completely replaced by digital terrestrial television and other non-terrestrial means as of the end of 2012.
Channels available
The following channels, all of which are free-to-air, were available on a national basis and continue to be available via digital terrestrial television:
BBC One
BBC Two
ITV (made up of a number of regional franchises, branded "ITV1" or "STV") Channel 4 (S4C in Wales before analogue services closed there on 31 March 2010.) Channel 5
Prior to the cessation of analogue services, the first four services were available to 99% of households, with the more recent Channel 5 available to around 70%. There were additionally a number a smaller local channels available in particular areas, such as Channel M, which was available in Manchester and Six TV available in Oxford, Southampton, Reading and Portsmouth.
ITV, BBC One and BBC Two carried regional programmes, such as the local news, and continue to do so digitally. The ITV Network is made up of a number of regional operators, though a series of consolidations it all being owned by ITV plc, bar two, owned by STV Group plc.
Additional services
All channels carried at least one teletext service. This included subtitles for many programmes.
Broadcasters
The terrestrial analogue services themselves were in most cases unique when compared to most non-analogue broadcast services (such as those available via digital satellite), in that they are much older, contain a much more diverse range of programming, rather than centring on a specific genre (all five major stations carry news bulletins, for example) and all hold some form of public service requirement in terms of their output.
BBC
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) began a regular television service, one of the first in the world, in 1936 as the BBC Television Service, funded to this day by a yearly mandatory licence fee. Since 1964 the BBC have provided two analogue television services, BBC One and BBC Two. Both services carried a wide variety of content as well as regional variations in programming and sometimes continuity. Latterly the BBC Two variations have been limited to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For many years, BBC One in Wales was effectively a separate service, BBC Wales, though many programmes were common to both it and BBC One proper.
ITV
ITV (Independent Television) was established in 1954, providing the first commercial alternative to the BBC. Programmes would be funded through the 'selling' of air-time for the playing of advertisements; the broadcasters, the first of which began broadcasting in 1955, would be privately owned.
An Independent Television Authority (ITA), (superseded by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), Independent Television Commission (ITC) and latterly Ofcom) would choose the companies licensed to broadcast on a periodic basis. Each company would be (and nominally still is) afforded a 'franchise' to broadcast to a specific coverage area of the UK, with larger areas sometimes having two broadcasters 'time-sharing' a channel between weekdays and weekends. A separate nationwide 'breakfast' franchise also began in 1983.
Most viewers would only receive one service (unless they happened to receive signals from two transmitters in different areas). Each regional 'franchisee' would broadcast a combination of unique regional programmes and shared 'networked' content aired nationwide; the latter practice becoming ever more commonplace throughout the network's history. Originally each company would broadcast with their own, unique station name, such as "Yorkshire Television" or "Associated-Rediffusion"; with separate continuity announcers and on-screen presentation. It was not until the late 1980s that popular use of the name "ITV" was used as a major on-screen brand, a practice which did not become universal in the ITV plc owned regions until the early 2000s.