When Just One Bbc Is Not Enough

摘要

It may surprise some viewers but Channel 4, the purveyor of "Celebrity Big Brother" and "Wife Swap", is a public-service broadcaster. In pre-digital times, the three main commercial networks-ITV1, Channel 4 and Five-were obliged, in return for a chunk of scarce spectrum, to provide such worthy stuff as news and educational programmes along with their soaps and reality shows. Unlike the bbc, which is financed by a licence fee paid by British viewers, the other networks, even state-owned Channel 4, had to live by selling advertising space.