Historically, broadcast sites were owned and operated by either the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) or, since the start of ITV in 1955, the ITA (Independent Television Authority). The Landlord field will continue to reflect this.

The first 625-line television service to be broadcast on UHF was BBC2, from 1964, but the ITU Stockholm agreement of 1961 made provision for three other national networks on UHF, and these would be BBC1, ITV plus one other which, of course was Channel 4. As a result of a recommendation by the Pilkington Committee in 1962 the decision was made that all four services would be co-sited, i.e. that they would all come from the same transmitter site in any given area. This is something which we have come to take for granted, but at the time it was a new concept.

In order to make the system work the BBC and ITA came to an agreement over the division of responsibility at each site. At half the sites the BBC would act as landlord taking responsibility for the mast or tower and infrustructure, while the ITA would act as hosts at the remainder. This applied to all the UHF stations, not just the hgh-powered main stations.

• In 1972 the ITA became the IBA (Independent Broadcating Authority) as a precursor to the introduction, the following year, of independent local radio.

• In 1997 the BBC was forced by the then Conservative government to sell off its transmission networks. The domestic transmitter networks were bought by Crown Transmission International which then became Crown Castle International (CCI). The World Service transmission network was bought by Merlin Communications, which then became VT Communications.

• In 1990 the IBA was disbanded and its functions split between three organisations. NTL (National Transcommunications Ltd.) became responsible for the transmission systems.

The IBA's regulatory functions were divided between the ITC (Independent Television Commission) and the RA (Radio Authority).

• In 2004 the UK division of CCI was acquired by National Grid PLC and in 2005 was renamed National Grid Wireless (NGW).

• In 2005 the broadcast division of NTL became Arqiva

• In September 2008 Arqiva received the final go-ahead for their merger with NGW

So now all the tv sites, and most of the radio sites are owned and operated by the same company, Arqiva, but out of historical interest we have retained an indication of whether the sites originally had the BBC or IBA/ITA as landlord.

Inevitably there may be a few anomalies in the data. If you feel any genuine errors need correcting please use the contact page to let us know.

Important notice : Due to the merger we can no longer guarantee that visits to tx sites will be rewarded by the landlord serving you a delicious pint of Taylor's Olde Cathode, or similar.