Its first director general, Lord Reith introduced many of the concepts that would later define public service broadcasting in the UK when he adopted the mission to "inform, educate and entertain".
Neither was required to be commercially successful as Channel 4 was subsidised by the ITV network and S4C received a grant from the central government.
The advent of digital age has brought about many questions about the future of public service broadcasting in the UK.
[2] ITV has been attempting to significantly reduce its obligations to produce and broadcast unprofitable public service programming, citing the increased competition from digital and multichannel television.
Similarly, Channel 4 has projected a £100m funding gap if it is to continue with public service broadcasting after digital switch-over.