TV channels United Kingdom

British television comes in four distinct layers: the national news giants, the international broadcasters that make London a world newsroom, a dense faith and diaspora sector, and the veterans of shopping television.

National News

Sky News is Britain's original 24-hour news channel, on air since 5 February 1989 and broadcasting today from Sky Central at Osterley in West London. BBC News is the news operation of the British Broadcasting Corporation - the world's largest broadcast news organization, producing around 120 hours of radio and television output every day from fifty foreign bureaus. GBNews is the opinion-led challenger that joined the market in 2021.

London, the World's Newsroom

A remarkable group of international channels broadcasts from or through the UK. Iran International is the London-based Persian-language news channel followed by millions of Iranians. Al Araby TV is a pan-Arab general and news channel broadcasting from London since January 2015, and CGTN Europe is the London production hub of the China Global Television Network. The BBC's World Service appears twice: BBC News Arabic and BBC Persian. Sky News Arabia, built on the British rolling-news model, serves Arabic-speaking audiences from Abu Dhabi, and Euronews English is the English service of the pan-European channel.

Faith Broadcasting

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's MTA network - the world's first Muslim-run satellite television, launched on 7 January 1994 - is here in four services: MTA1 World, MTA2 Europe, MTA3 Al-Arabia and MTA4 Africa. British Christian television includes Revelation TV, the viewer-funded channel founded in 2003 by Howard and Lesley Conder, and GOD TV, the word-of-faith network that began in the United Kingdom and grew into one of the world's largest religious broadcasters. Inspiration TV is the international channel of Inspiration Ministries, Ahlebait TV is a non-profit Shia broadcaster, the Sikh Channel was the first television channel of its kind for the Sikh community, and Swamiji TV is the channel of the Yoga in Daily Life movement.

Diaspora and Community Channels

Vox Africa is the pan-African channel broadcasting from London. Athavan TV serves the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora from the UK around the clock, Alb UK TV is the Albanian community's channel, and Eman TV - Eman Channel - has been a British Islamic channel from London since 2013. Brit Asia TV is the British-Asian music and entertainment channel, from Bhangra and Bollywood to the UK's own scene.

Shopping and Music Television

British teleshopping history lives here: QVC UK was the country's first full-time home shopping channel, on air since 1 October 1993; Gems TV, on air since 2004 from Redditch, turned gemstone retail into a television genre; Ideal World TV sells crafts, health products and homeware from Peterborough; and Hobby Maker TV serves the hobby and DIY audience. Music is covered by the Euro Indie Music Chart TV channel of independent European hits.