Free channel of the day: BBC One

Freeview 1, Freesat 101, Sky 101 and watch online.

^{Published on 1st February 2012 at 07:38 by Brian Butterworth on UK Free TV}

How is the free channel paid for?

The £1,402m BBC One budget is funded by the £3,596m Television Licence Fee, and represents 39% of all BBC spending - that's about £1.11 per week per person.

Is the channel live, pre-recorded, new content or repeats?

BBC One has live presentation, and both national and regional are broadcast live. In addition the daily The One Show (7pm) is live, as are sporting events. All other programmes are pre-recorded and are almost always commissioned by the BBC and having their first showing.

What's the channel's unique selling point?

The channel is customized for viewers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as to a lesser extent in the English regions, and has the most extensive television regional news service in the UK.

The programme schedule highlights

Weekdays has national news from 6am-9am, 1pm, 6pm and 10pm and regional news at 1:30pm and 6:30pm. There's a daily soap, Doctors at 1:45pm, and EastEnders (Mon/Fri 8pm, Tue/Thurs 7:30pm) and Holby City (Wed 8pm).

The rest of the schedule is mixed, with factual (Mon 7:30pm, 8:30pm) and entertainment and factual/entertainment mix shows (such as Motorway Cops). Thursday night has politics from 10:35pm onwards, Friday night being entertainment only.

The bits to avoid

The morning schedule of Cash In The Attic, 11:30am and Bargain Hunt, 12:15pm are formulistic.

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