Major players of news providers in the UK - Research activity

In the UK, there are 4 Major players in terms of news providers which run over the 3 major platforms which are print, e-media and broadcast. These are the,

• BBC
• ITV
• BskyB
• News Corporation

On the broadcast platform, the biggest and most popular commercial institution news provider is Sky news which is owned by Sky news. 

Valued for its fairness, balance and journalistic objectivity by both viewers and regulators, Sky News brings a fresh approach to news broadcasting news in th UK commercially through innovative coverage of high-profile events, plus dedicated strands allowing the channel to respond to various audience demands at different times of day – while always retaining the ability to switch instantly to breaking news.

Sky News employs more than 500 dedicated staff worldwide, based at the state-of-the-art Sky News Centre  in London as well as at bureaux across the globe. This, along with alliances with major broadcasters around the world, ensures that the services covers breaking news whenever – and wherever – it happens.

For Sky News, interactivity and engagement with the audience are key. Viewers around the globe can e-mail, SMS or send a video message to Sky News, participate in discussions on the sky.com/news website or, on the UK Sky satellite platform, send a message via their set-top box.

Furthermore, due to sky news news stories which have commercial value they have acquired 1.2% of the audience share in the UK. This is the highest share of any other commercial news broadcast in the UK.

However, BBC news which is a non-commercial news broadcaster in the UK has a 1.7% audience share which is the highest of any news broadcaster in the UK either commercial and non commercial and makes the BBC number one news provider on the broadcast platform in the UK. 

The UK's most popular news programme is the Six O'Clock News on BBC One. Presented by George Alagiah and Sophie Raworth it provides a comprehensive digest of the day's news in an accessible and friendly manner.


Another BBC flagship show, Newsnight won the Royal Television Society's News Programme of the Year award for 2003. It is broadcast at 22:30 every weekday evening, after the Ten O'Clock News.
The programme is a considered look at the day's events and the big issues on the news agenda presented by Jeremy Paxman, Kirsty Wark and Gavin Esler. Newsnight's role is to be thought-provoking and informative, analysing complex issues in-depth with high quality and hard hitting films.

BBC News 24 is the UK continuous news channel broadcasting all day, every day, on cable, satellite and Freeview.
It includes an update of the main stories every hour, on the hour and the main news headlines every 15 minutes.

It is the place to go for breaking news and live coverage of the world's most important events. Along with the day's main news, BBC News 24 also provides the latest business, sport and weather updates.

BBC World is the BBC's international news channel. The channel is commercially funded through advertising and subscriptions and reaches up to 264 million homes in more than 200 countries and territories.

ITV is the biggest commercial television network in the UK, broadcasting the most talked about television and making a major contribution to the UK’s culture, economy and communities. Although Sky news is the UK's biggest NEWS broadcaster, The biggest commercial TV channel broadcaster in the UK is ITV. 

The ITV Network is made up of 15 regional licences, providing television to viewers across the UK. 11 of the licences in England and Wales are owned by ITV Plc, formed in 2004 following the merger of Carlton and Granada. SMG owns the two Scottish licences, Scottish Television and Grampian; UTV and Channel Television own the licences for Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands respectively.

ITV Network is responsible for the commissioning, scheduling and marketing of network programmes on ITV1. Programmes from ITV are provided by ITV’s in house production unit and by the independent sector. Network programming covers a full range of genres, including drama, entertainment, news, current affairs factual, sport and children’s programming. This ensures that viewers right across the UK are able to share in viewing some of the UK’s favourite programmes. It is also responsible for advertising sales on ITV1 across the UK.

ITV1, the UK’s biggest commercial public service broadcaster, is subject to a series of public service obligations and regulation concerning our relationships with producers and between the various companies within the ITV Network. As well as Network programming, each of the ITV licences provides regional programming to cater for the interests of people living in each area of the UK.

On the Print platform, the biggest selling newspaper and thus the biggest news provider on paper is The Sun. 

The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation.  It has the tenth-largest circulation of any newspaper in the world and the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the United Kingdom.

The Sun had an average daily circulation of 2,821,618 copies in July 2011. Between July and December 2010 it had an average daily readership of approximately 7.6 million, of whom approximately 2.65 million were in the ABC1 demographic and 4.9 million in the C2DE demographic.

The Sun has been involved in a number of controversies in its history, including its coverage of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster, falsely accusing Elton John of having had sexual relationships with rent boys, and its attitude towards mental health issues and homosexuality.

The Sun is published by the News Group Newspapers division of News International, itself a wholly owned company by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Furthermore, News corp. also own the following publications in the UK,

• The Sunday Times
• Times Newspapers Ltd.
• The Times
• The Times Literary Supplement

On the e-media platform, News corp also dominate the news market as the Sun is the number one online newspaper in the UK. The Suns online news website is worth £4,689,508,69 and recieves daily page views of 2,141,348 with a daily advertisement revenue of £6,423,28.