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Independent Television (ITV) is the name given to the original network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up to provide competition to the BBC.

In England, Wales and southern Scotland, the channel has been rebranded to ITV1 by ITV plc, the owners of the broadcasting licences for those areas. Channel Television also uses the ITV1 name, although it is not owned by ITV plc. In central and northern Scotland, SMG plc, the owner of two of the three Scottish franchises, has branded the channel as stv. UTV in Northern Ireland uses its own name.

History

Main article: History of ITV

The start

Independent Television was launched following the Television Act 1954. The Independent Television Authority was set up to control and review the network. In the three main areas – London, the Midlands and the North of England – ITV was launched in September 1955, February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. These areas were divided into one franchise for weekends and one for weekdays:

Outside of these areas, the licensee would broadcast during the whole week. The rest of the franchises went to:

WWN failed financially in late 1963; in 1964 its area and on-air name, Teledu Cymru, were taken over by TWW.

ITV contracts weren't permanent and the first franchise round was made in 1963 with new licenses commencing in 1964. There were, however, virtually no changes in contracts in the first round.

1968 franchise round

Unlike the 1963 review, that of 1967 brought several changes. The new contracts would start in 1968 and the major changes were:
  • No area, except London, would be split into different franchises for weekends and weekdays.
  • The "North of England" region was split into two: North-West and Yorkshire. The weekday broadcaster in this region, Granada, was awarded the full week franchise for the North-West, while a new company called Yorkshire Television was awarded the eastern areas, mostly in Yorkshire.
  • ATV lost the London weekend franchise, but got a full week franchise for the Midlands.
  • The London Television Consortium, put together by David Frost won the London weekend contract, which now included Friday evenings from 7pm. They went on air initially using the name London Weekend Television but then adopted the name London Weekend before reverting to London Weekend Television (often abbreviated to LWT) in 1978.
  • ABC (whose weekend contracts in the Midlands and North had disappeared), and Rediffusion London, the weekday London contractor, were forced into a shotgun marriage. The resulting company, Thames Television, was 51% controlled by ABC and took the London weekdays contract.
  • TWW lost its franchise for Wales and the West to Harlech Television (which would become HTV).
The changes brought both strikes and lock-outs, leading to an ITV Emergency National Service in an attempt to keep the network on air. (A further technicians' strike blacked out ITV completely - except for the region serving the Channel Islands - for two months in 1979).

The third franchise round in 1974 brought no company changes but did take the Lincolnshire transmitter from Anglia Television and reassign it to Yorkshire Television. The ITA changed its name to Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) following the Sound Broadcasting Act 1972. During the 1970s, the teletext service ORACLE was launched.

1982 franchise round

The franchise review of 1982 would bring several changes:
  • ATV was restructured into Central Independent Television (Central), and the Midlands converted to a dual region.
  • Southern lost their licence to Television South (TVS), and the South of England was converted to a dual region, South and South East England.
  • Westward lost their licence to Television South West (TSW).
  • A national breakfast service would launch in 1983, and the franchise was awarded to TV-am.
In November 1982, Channel 4 (in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland) and S4C (in Wales) were launched.

1993 franchise round

The Broadcasting Act 1990 brought several changes to the ITV network, which was officially renamed Channel 3. The franchises would be awarded on a 'highest-bidder' basis rather than the previous 'beauty contest'. The IBA was abolished, and replaced by the Independent Television Commission (ITC).

The auction brought several changes which would come into place on New Years Day in 1993:

  • Westcountry Television won the South West England franchise, replacing TSW.
  • Meridian Broadcasting won the South and South-East England franchise, replacing TVS.
  • Carlton Television won the London Weekday franchise, replacing Thames Television.
  • Sunrise Television (soon renamed GMTV) won the Breakfast franchise, replacing TV-am.
  • Teletext Ltd. won the National Teletext franchise, replacing ORACLE.

The 1993 franchise round was followed by consolidation where most of the companies merged.

In 2000, Granada bought Meridian, Anglia and HTV from UNM, but had to sell HTV to Carlton. In 2001, Granada bought Border. Granada and Carlton then owned all the franchises for England and Wales. In February 2004, Granada Media and Carlton Communcations were eventually allowed to merge, to form one single company: ITV plc.

In addition to their "Channel 3" licences, three of the ITV companies have invested in other forms of media:

The Channel 3 licensees have also been involved in some failed businesses:

  • In 1998, Carlton and Granada launched the digital terrestrial pay-television service ONdigital (rebranded as ITV Digital in 2001); the service was placed into administration in 2002.
  • In 1999, both UTV and SMG launched their own versions of ITV2, UTV2 and S2 respectively; these were later closed, and replaced by ITV2.
  • In 2000, ITV news provider ITN and NTL launched the ITN News Channel in 2000, but later sold it to Carlton and Granada, who rebranded it as the ITV News Channel; it was closed down in December 2005, making room for ITV4 and the new CITV Channel on DTT.

Programmes

There are some programmes produced by ITV companies (past and present) that are well-known, usually in the UK, but often world-wide. These include:

In the last decade, the number of productions by 'independent' production companies (that is, companies that are independent of the ITV network) has increased. Notable examples include Thames Television (itself a former ITV contractor) and Celador, producers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

ITV companies: Past and Present

Former ITV contractors

Current ITV franchise holders

  • Independently owned franchises:
    • ITV1 Channel Television (on-screen identity) (CTV: Channel Television): Channel Islands franchise (1962–)
    • UTV (UTV: Ulster Television): Northern Ireland franchise (1959–)

References to ITV

  • The song "Could Well Be In", by The Streets, contains the lyrics: 'I saw this thing on ITV the other week / said, that if she played with her hair/ she's probably keen / she's playin with her hair / well regularly / so I reckon I could well be in.'

See also

External links

The ITV companies

Unofficial sites about ITV

ITV | British television | 1955 establishments

Independent Television | ITV | ITV | Independent Television | ITV | ITV | ITV (イギリス) | ITV | 英國獨立電視台

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "ITV".

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