It was curious to see that the article mentioned that the hours of 6 to 8pm were considered part of UK prime time. "Prime Time" in the US and Canada doesn't start until 8pm. 6pm is normally local or national news. 7pm you may find some game shows on (traditionally) and now also quite a number of entertainment industry / tabloid shows, such as Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, etc.

I'm speaking of course about the broadcast channels. So-called "cable" channels, that are also available of course on other for-pay formats such as Satellite, have entirely different programming formats and may not have any differentiation of "Prime Time," airing the same types of shows at any point during the day. However, the ones that have big-name original drama/comedy programming will usually first-air those shows during a prime-time slot.

I've only experienced a little bit of UK format television while watching UK satellite in Portugal. And of course what I've read on the net since then and watching various UK series. I can't say I'm a fan of the format, including the fact that shows aren't necessarily arranged into a neat grid of 30 minute slots. But mostly I'm really disappointed that most UK series run only 6 episodes. That's because there are so many UK series I simply adore and I'd love to see a lot more of them. At least 12 episodes per series would be a good start.

Translation when I say "series" above I'm talking about a US "season"