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,
News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB days later, with the News of the World phone hacking scandal exploding, Ofcom intervened, saying that it has "a duty to be satisfied on an ongoing basis that the holder of a broadcasting licence is 'fit and proper'". It was in the wake of the Milly Dowler phone hacking allegations that a significant number of people, including former deputy prime minister John Prescott and other politicians, began to seriously question whether the takeover of BSkyB by News Corporation ought to be blocked. The Media Standards Trust formed the pressure group "Hacked Off," to campaign for a public inquiry. Soon after