British Broadcasting has traditionally been based on the principle that it is a public service accountable to the people through Parliament. It also embraces the principle of competition and choice. Three public bodies are responsible for television and radio services in Britain: a) the BBC - the British Broadcasting Corporation which broadcasts television and radio services; b) the ITC - the Independent Television Commission which licenses and regulates the non-BB TV services, including cable and satellite services; c) the Radio Authority which lisenses and regulates all non-BBC radio services. Television viewing is Britain's most popular leisure pastime: practically all households have TV set and most have video recorders. The Government is not responsible for programme content. The independence of broadcasters requires them to maintain certain standards: programme must display a proper balance and wide range of subject matter. The BBC has two national TV channels and five radio services. It also broadcasts in 37 different languages of the
world and its audience is about 120 mln people. Millions of Americans in their spare time watch TV and read newspapers. The daily paper dominates family life at breakfast; TV dominates the life of the family most of the time. The TV set is not just a piece of furniture. It is someone who is "one of the family". It is also a habit-forming drug impossible to resist. The radio is turned on most of the time, creating a permanent background noise. It does not interfere with your activities. You can listen to the radio while doing
some work about the house, reading a book or driving a car. There are 11,400 radio stations, 1,500 TV stations and 1,200 cable TV systems in the USA. Most commercial radio stations follow a distinctive "format": top-40 hits, hard rock, light music, classical music, jazz, religious music, all news and farm news. There are no state or federal government radios or TV stations. There is also no governmental censorship of programs. The most popular news are CBS's Sixty minutes and PBS's Newshour. There is a lot of advertising on American TV and radio. Some of the TV and radio stations are owned by big corporations or individuals. The owners can advertise whatever they choose. To advertise their goods, commercial firms buy TV and radio time. So most of the radio and TV time is taken up by
advertisements.