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BBC and other public service broadcasting
The Government aims to encourage strong public service broadcasting to maintain quality and ensure that all consumers have access to varied programming. This is particularly important when a range of new channels are entering the market.
The public service television broadcasters are:
- The BBC, a public corporation, funded mainly by the television licence fee
- Channel 4, a public corporation self-funded by advertising revenues
- S4C, a public corporation broadcasting for the fourth channel in Wales and funded by grant-in-aid from the Government and advertising revenue and
- Channel 3 (ITV), Channel 5 (Five), and Teletext, commercial television companies, funded by advertising revenues
The Government sets the licence fee and grants which support the BBC and S4C respectively.
Within the framework provided by the Charter and Agreement, the BBC Governors are responsible for ensuring that the BBC meets all its statutory and other obligations. However the Secretary of State has certain powers, for example the power to approve and review the operation of new licence-fee funded public services. The criteria used by Secretary of State in assessing BBC new public services proposals was published on 10 January 2001.
The Agreement gives Ofcom some regulatory functions in respect of the BBC, although the Governors retain some exclusive responsibilities, such as ensuring the editorial independence of the BBC.
The Charter and Agreement can be seen in full on the BBC website.
The S4C Authority regulates S4C, subject to the regulatory powers vested in Ofcom by the Communications Act 2003. The requirements on S4C, including Welsh language programming, are set out in the Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996, and the Communications Act.
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) licences and monitors Channel 3, Channel 4, and Channel 5.
Channel 4's licence from Ofcom sets out the types of programming that the Channel has to include in its service.
Although primarily commercial broadcasters, ITV and Channel 5 are also required to include certain types of programming in their services.
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