TV listings in the United Kingdom are the lists of programmes that will appear on television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 over the next few days and weeks.

History

In March 1991, the monopoly on listings magazines ended and the market was opened up. Before this, there were two magazines on the market: Radio Times

Radio Times

Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...

, launched in 1923, for BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 listings and TV Times

TV Times

TVTimes is a television listings magazine published in the United Kingdom by IPC Media, a subsidiary of Time Warner. It is known for its access to television actors and their programmes. In 2006 it was refreshed for a more modern look, increasing its emphasis on big star interviews and soaps...

, launched in 1955, for ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 and, from 1982, Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 listings. A number of magazines appeared on the market at that time: TV Quick

TV Quick

TV Choice, is a British weekly TV listings magazine published by H. Bauer Publishing, the UK subsidiary of family-run German company Bauer Media Group...

, What's on TV

What's On TV

What's on TV is a weekly television listings magazine published by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.-Overview:What's on TV is a weekly UK television magazine. It publishes features, TV listings, news and gossip from soap operas, as well as puzzles and competitions...

 and the short-lived TV Plus. By the mid-1990s What's on TV was Britain's best-selling weekly magazine but in 2008 a rival publication, TV Choice (launched in 1999 by Bauer Media Group) achieved a higher circulation. TV Choice has a very similar design and format but at a lower price.

Traditionally these have been simple broadcast programming lists of what appears in chronological order on the various channels available, having been designed for an age in which there were only a few channels, and where the only medium was paper. Now there over 600 channels in the UK alone, the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 offers different formats and possibilities for TV listings, and television is starting to appear in both mobile

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

 and internet formats, so the whole approach to TV listings is changing.

Providers

The Press Association

Press Association

The Press Association is the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland, supplying multimedia news content to almost all national and regional newspapers, television and radio news, as well as many websites with text, pictures, video and data content globally...

, Red Bee Media Broadcasting Dataservices and DigiGuide

DigiGuide

DigiGuide is a digital TV guide in the UK.Digiguide creates TV guides which cut through the clutter and which are customised to your tastes and needs....

 are major providers of listings within the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.