Television in the United Kingdom 4 Corp, according to BARB's viewing figures for January 2018. On 18 January 2011, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt announced his intentions to set up a network of local television stations across the UK. The initial plan was to create a network of local television stations, connected through a national backbone. This plan would create a television network similar to that of the network-affiliate model in the United States and Canada. In June 2011, however, it was announced that the national spine plan would be scrapped, and a 'bottom-up' approach would be followed instead,
Criticisms of Sky UK accounting for a third of Fleet Street and the BBC – jointly wrote to Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, to lay out their reasons for the BSkyB share bid being a breach of media plurality. The BBC's contribution to the letter was subsequently attacked in a (News International owned) Times editorial. Ofcom complained that Sky's plan to operate pay TV services on Freeview was "generating serious consumer detriment" and the National Consumer Council call Sky's plan "bad news for consumers," combined with representations from BT, Setanta, Top Up TV, and Virgin Media caused Ofcom to launch an investigation into the