ITV

ITV (also known as Independent Television or EyeTV) is the main rival of the infamous BBC, but they are actually good, unlike BBC. Good not as in great quality, but good as in great morality. You may not know this, but the TV in ITV stands for Television. Also, the I in ITV stands for Apple, because of course Apple owns it.
== History ==
Back in 1955, Danielle Smithy was tired of the Teletubbies and BBC, so she created the ITA (or the Independent Television Authority), and she thought, "What if like shops, the channel has different franchises for different regions?", and on the 22nd September 1955, Associated-Rediffusion, the first ITA franchisee, went on air.
The ITA became the IBA in 1972, and many franchises came and went over the years, well, expect for Granada, which were undefeatable!
For some reason, unlike the BBC, ITV really got their bad, long strikes on 3-18 August 1968 and once again for 11 weeks on 10th August-24th October 1979, which during the second strike threatens viewers to watch BBC1 or just being plain bored with nothing else to do just go out and worrying about if Coronation Street would come back on, except for Channel Television in the Channel Islands, just escaped the strike without ending up getting their ITV region bankrupt, along with Yorkshire Television when they kept showing reports about the so-called "Yorkshire Ripper" every day and night.
=== 1991 Franchise Round ===
Main article: ITV 1991 Franchise Round
Things were getting tough by 1991, the Teletubbies' infamous show had been on-air for 6 years, but more importantly, the next round of ITV franchises was coming up, this was a massive war!
=== Present day ===
In 2002, the franchises idea was scrapped, after almost 50 years, and all franchises were referred to on-screen as "ITV1". they kept there names, STV (Scotland) and UTV (Northern Ireland), but Border owned the ITV franchise in the Scottish Borders, so it became known on-screen as ITV1.
== Regions (present) ==
* Owned by Granada plc until 2004:
** North West England: Granada Television. Service now named ITV Granada.
** London (on weekends): London Weekend Television. Now part of the ITV London service.
** North East England: Tyne Tees Television. Service now named ITV Tyne Tees.
** East of England: Anglia Television. Service now named ITV Anglia.
** Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Norfolk: Yorkshire Television. Service now named ITV Yorkshire.
** English-Scottish border and Isle of Man: Border Television. Service now named ITV Border (broadcasting for the Isle of Man was taken over by ITV Granada).
** South and South East England: Meridian Broadcasting. Service now named ITV Meridian.
* Owned by Carlton Communications plc until 2004:
** London (on weekdays): Carlton Television. Now part of the ITV London service.
** Midlands: Central Independent Television. Service now named ITV Central.
** South West England: Westcountry Television. The service was renamed ITV Westcountry until 2009, before it was merged with ITV West to form the new non-franchise ITV West & Westcountry region (rebranded as ITV West Country shortly after). This service became a licence in its own right from 1 January 2014 when it split from Wales and has an opt-out for the western sub-region (formerly the Westcountry region).
** West of England and Wales: HTV (Harlech Television). The franchise was renamed ITV Wales & West, since it has traditionally held a "dual-region" licence for two areas, each one with its own service: ITV West (now the eastern sub-region of ITV West Country) and ITV Cymru Wales. From 1 January 2014 the dual-region licence was split into two separate licences for Wales and South West England (combining the former West and Westcountry regions).
* Owned by UTV Media plc until 2016:
** Northern Ireland: UTV
* Former independently owned:
** Channel Islands: Channel Television, service now named ITV Channel Television (since 2011).
Category:Good Channels
Category:Channels
Category:UnUnited Kingdom
Category:Apple