UK news media are widely available. According to industry regulator Ofcom (2009), at the end of March 2009 consumer satisfaction with communications services stood at 89 %. Nine in ten homes had digital television and two-thirds broadband. Multiplatform news delivery was high and there existed no regulatory restrictions on access to online-news. Three digital TV platforms offered a free-to-view service which provided news and current affairs programmes. The BBC’s Freeview was available via terrestrial TV, while satellite offered two non-subscription options: Freesat from ITV/BBC and Freesat from Sky. Viewers could choose from different UK television news services with their own distinctive brands (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, C5 and Sky). The three major television news providers (BBC, ITN and Sky News) each provided a 24-hour service as well as peak-time news reports. Strict news and current affairs programming quotas applied across all the UK’s designated public service broadcasters – namely, BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and S4C – ensuring that high quality international, national and regional news content was widely available. Ofcom (2009: 111) reported that all the public service broadcasters had mostly exceeded their quotas for news and current affairs programmes over 2004-2008. Sky News, a non- public service provider, operated a 24-hour news service that regularly won awards for the quality of its reporting (Royal Television Society awards, BAFTAs, etc.). In 2010, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) counted no fewer than 28 national newspapers in the UK (seven of these were Scottish and Welsh). The Newspaper Society counted 1,212 regional/local newspapers in January 2010.
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