Terrestrial TV

Traditional television in the UK has been transmitted over radio waves. Using large transmitter aerials, multiple channels were available to be received by aerials fitted on roofs or in the loft space of homes of viewers. Limitations of the transmission of analogue signals and the requirement to transmit more than the traditional channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5) has lead to the introduction of digital transmissions (Freeview) with HD High Definition TV and the gradual switch off of the old analogue signals (Digital UK). Top Up TV offer a pay to view service over Terrestrial TV

New content was originally restricted by only having the main 5 terrestrial TV channels. Satellite television brought more channels to viewers, but to gain access to these channels you required a satellite dish pointing to the appropriate satellite and a satellite receiver. There are many Satellites flying around the equator with many companies providing free to view eg. Freesat and pay to view services eg. SKY on Astra. Many of the old analogue satellite transmissions have been replaced with digital providing even a greater number of channels and HD High Definition TV. Many pay to view language services are also available from different satellites like TVBS Chinese TV channel on Eurobird 9 and JSTV Japanese TV on Hotbird 6.

Cable TV

Underground Fibre Optic cables or Coax cables have been providing a service, which does not require an aerial or a satellite dish. This type of source requires the running of a cable down your street, with a spur feeding into your house. This type of feed can also share the cable with Internet data and Telephone signals. Companies such as Virgin Media provide this service and also provide content.

Internet  TV

The internet can be accessed at home on broadband (phone line based internet) or on cable. On the move the internet can be accessed via wireless to hard wired internet routers or via 3G through mobile telephone operators eg: (Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile , Virgin Mobile, Talk Mobile).

Content is growing on the internet with services such as You Tube, BBC iPlayer, ITV player, 4 on Demand, Demand 5 , TV Catch up who provide a free to view service.

Companies such as BT Vision, Google TV, Apple TV , Love Film , Sony Internet TV , Sky Player, Talk Talk offer a pay to view service over the internet.