The mass media in the UK

Newspapers, radio, television, Internet and the other media are very important for us. We can get through them the newest information from the whole world even if we are in the remotest village. Some people disown media, but they are very important to keep this world working.

Newspapers

Newspapers are the oldest of the mass media (has been there from the end of the 17th century). We can divide the daily press in the UK into two groups: the quality press and popular press (tabloids).
1.The quality papers are distinguishable easily by the unimpressive, but not confusing graphic. They could be described by the words: well written, thick and serious. They speak about current affairs and give entire and mostly impartial look of the situation. The most important papers are The Times (founded by John Walter I on January 1st, 1788), The Independent, The Guardian, and The Telegraph.
2.The popular papers have fewer pages, are written with a simple language and have very short articles with big headlines and many photos and illustrations. I think they are addressed for "not very educated" people, because I can hardly imagine somebody sophisticated with The Sun in his hands :-).
The most important are The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror.
To the special kind of press, which comes out only on Sunday, belong The Observer and The Sunday Times. One issue is as thick as the issues for the whole week of any Czech press and costs approximately the same...
In the United Kingdom we can also find many kinds of magazines. They cover many different interests groups: women, men, girls, fans of sports, gardening, cooking, computers, music, nudity etc.
Lots of them offer free gifts to tempt the readers.

Radio

In Britain radio and television broadcasting is mainly provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which has four radio and television channels.
The radio (and later the TV) - provided by the BBC - has been broadcasting since 1927. After the 2nd world war a commercial company was set up. It's called ITV (The Independent Television).
We can recognise four national channels in Britain (all by BBC):
Radio 1 presents pop music and rock. Radio 2 is a light programme for all age groups. Radio 3 plays the classical music and Radio 4 offers news and discussions about current international and national affairs. When I was in London I used to listen to a local Radio Kiss, which is similar to the Czech Radio 1 - 91.9fm.

Television

There is good choice of television channels in Britain. The television started to broadcast in 1936. The main TV domain BBC has an opponent in the ITV. The difference between them is that the income of the BBC is from the sale of television licences and there is no advertising, the service of the ITV is financed by the advertisements. I would compare it with the situation between Czech TV and TV Nova in the Czech republic.
The most important channels are BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 & 5, Anglia and satellite Sky channels.