    itv west country, formerly known as westcountry television and carlton television, is the itv franchise holder in the south west of england, covering cornwall, devon, isles of scilly, southern and western somerset and western dorset. the company replaced its predecessor, tsw (television south west), from the 1 january 1993. the station is owned and operated by itv plc under the licensee of itv broadcasting limited (formerly westcountry television limited). itv west country incorporating the former itv westcountry and itv west ('east') regions was (until 31 december 2013) a non-franchise itv regional station covering south west england. with the formal split of the wales and west channel 3 licence in january 2014, a separate licence was created for wales with the west licence merged with that of west country. itv west country thus became a franchise region. each company that makes up the new region still legally exists. itv wales & west ltd, itv wales & west group ltd and westcountry television ltd are each, along with most other regional companies owned by itv plc, listed on www.companieshouse.gov.uk as a "dormant company". this article however, covers the westcountry television part of the franchise. == history == ===franchise award=== westcountry television was one of two rival consortia bidding against the incumbent tsw when the itv franchises were put to tender early in 1991.{{cite news|title=television south west bid under fire|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodid=ttda&usergroupname=hamlib&tabid=t003&docpage=article&searchtype=basicsearchform&docid=if501867571&type=multipage&contentset=lto&version=1.0|accessdate=10 september 2012|newspaper=times|date=22 july 1991|location=london, united kingdom|p
Carlton_Television ITV_franchisees Media_in_Cornwall Media_in_Dorset Television_channels_and_stations_established_in_1993 West_Country