ITV History

## Formation

The ITV regions after the network was completed in 1962.

The ITV network came about as a result of the Television Act 1954, which paved the way for the establishment of a commercial television service in the UK and created the Independent Television Authority (ITA).[1] The act itself was not without controversy, and much debate ensued both in the British Parliament and the British Press, and it was passed on the basis that the ITA would regulate the new service and ensure that the new service did not follow the same path taken by USA networks (which were perceived as 'vulgar' by some commentators). For example, it was made obligatory that commercials be clearly distinguishable from programmes. At the time, programmes in the USA were normally sponsored by a single company, so it was not uncommon for a game show host to step away from his podium after a round to sell cars or *The Flintstones* to segue into an ad for cigarettes with no perceived change from show to advert.

The new "Independent Television" network, named due to its independence from the BBC which had a monopoly on broadcasting in the UK, was made up of numerous companies providing a regional television service and would also generally provide programmes to the network as a whole. Each individual company broadcast on 405-line VHF and was responsible for providing a local service, including daily news bulletins and local documentaries, and for selling advertising space on their channel: this measure ensured that all the ITV companies were in competition with each other and that no single broadcaster could gain a monopoly over commercial broadcasting. However, national news was not provided by the individual companies and is instead provided by Independent Television News (ITN). Each regional service had its own on-screen identity to distinguish it from other regions, since there was often a sizeable overlap in reception capability within each region.

Upon the creation of the network, six franchises were awarded for London, the Midlands and the North of England with separate franchises for weekdays and the weekends. The companies in these regions were known as 'The Big Four' and consisted of Associated-Rediffusion (London weekday), ATV (Midlands weekday and London weekend), Granada Television (North of England weekday) and ABC (North of England and Midlands weekend). These companies were generally the best known and provided the most network output.

The first ITV contractor to begin broadcasting was the London Weekday contractor Associated-Rediffusion, on 22 September 1955 beginning at 19:15 local time. On the first night of telecasts, the BBC, who had held the monopoly on broadcasting in Britain, aired a melodramatic episode of their popular radio soap opera *The Archers* on the BBC Home Service. In the episode, core character Grace Archer was fatally injured in a fire, and it was seen as a ploy to keep loyal viewers and listeners away from the new station. The first full day of transmissions was 23 September 1955 when Britain's first female newsreader Barbara Mandell appeared. The London weekend contractor ATV launched two days later.

The other franchises launched within a year of the London launch, and other contracts were awarded by the ITA between 1956 and 1961. All the franchises launched by September 1962:

ITV was admitted as an active member of the European Broadcasting Union through the Independent Television Companies' Association Ltd (ITCA) together with the Independent Television Authority (ITA) in 1959.

## 1964–1968

The ITV regions after the minor change in contracts in 1964.

In 1963 the ITA chairman, Lord Hill of Luton, initiated a review of all the ITV companies following the release of the Pilkington Report, which saw the launch of BBC2 and heavily criticised ITV. This review would review a company's performance, and either grant them an extension to their service licence or replace the company with another in that region. This process was repeated frequently throughout the early life of ITV and lasted approximately ten years. Reviews like this also ensured that the companies maintained their high performance by maintaining the possibility of the loss of their licence. The new licences also included clauses which took into account the promised ITV2 UHF channel, promised to be launched if the Conservative Party won the 1964 general election.

Despite the review, no company lost its position as the local ITV contractor for their region and all licences were extended for another three years (starting July 1964), although several of the major companies were instructed to strengthen the regional emphasis of their on-screen identities. The only change to the network was the formation of a single Wales and West franchise, operated by TWW, following the collapse of WWN and its subsequent takeover by TWW. WWN ran into trouble when it had problems with the construction of its transmitter network, as well as strict provisions in its contract to produce a large amount of Welsh-language programming. This meant that WWN lost a lot of money and, despite some help from other ITV companies, it declared itself bankrupt in January 1964 — the only ITV company to have ever done so.

Overall, the regional companies made a profit within the first few years of their existence; the largest regions especially so. Roy Thomson, the Canadian founding chairman of Scottish Television, famously described the ownership of an ITV franchise as "a licence to print money".

## 1968–1974

The ITV regions after the major change in contracts in 1968.

Another franchise review was called by the ITA in 1967, for contracts running from the end of July 1968, that was to drastically change the structure of ITV itself. The review aimed to ensure that the ITV system was ready for the impending arrival of colour broadcasting, and also to again allow for the potential start of ITV2, should the Conservatives win any election held after 1970. The behaviour of some of the companies only reinforced the ITA's assumptions of 'arrogance' following the few changes in the last franchise round: Rediffusion London's department managers also popped up in similar roles for rival applications and TWW reapplied for their contract under both their own name and that of WWN/Teledu Cymru as a tax dodge. As a result, Lord Hill had made it clear in 1966 that "all bets were off" on the next franchise round and that the regions themselves might change. Therefore, in the period between the interviews of each applicant and the announcement of the changes, the newspapers speculated wildly about the likely changes: suggestions were made of Scottish Television exiting the system, Rediffusion London moving to replace Southern Television and various other wild ideas.

In the end, the changes made to the ITV regions were as follows:

* The weekend franchises in the North of England and the Midlands were abolished.
* The North of England region was split into two new smaller regions, the North West and Yorkshire. Seven-day contracts were specified in both these new regions, as well as in the Midlands.
* Separate weekday and weekend franchises continued in London; however, the handover time was moved from the beginning of Saturday to Friday at 7 pm.

The ITV companies themselves changed considerably. Some merely had their contracts changed, while others were replaced altogether by new companies. The changes were as follows:

* TWW controversially lost the Wales and West of England franchise to a new company, **Harlech Television** (later HTV). Unhappy with the development, TWW ceased broadcasting on 4 March 1968 - nearly five months before its contract was due to expire - with the ITA providing an interim service until Harlech Television took over on 20 May.
* ATV lost the London weekend franchise to a consortium led by David Frost, called the London Television Consortium, which was soon renamed **London Weekend Television**. It had been expected that ABC would take over this franchise.
* ATV was awarded the seven-day contract for the Midlands region, replacing ABC Midlands at the weekends.
* Granada Television was awarded the seven-day contract for the new North West region, again replacing ABC North at the weekends.
* Two consortia applied for the new Yorkshire region, Telefusion Yorkshire and Yorkshire Independent Television. The region was awarded to Telefusion, on the basis that it merged with Yorkshire Independent. The merged company took the name **Yorkshire Television**.
* Rediffusion and ABC were asked to form a joint company for the London weekday franchise, in an attempt by the ITA to keep ABC in the network. This company, **Thames Television**, was controlled by ABC, who owned 51% while Rediffusion owned 49%.
* Roy Thomson, later Baron Thomson of Fleet, was required to divest himself of most of his holding in Scottish Television.

In addition, the Independent Television Publications company was formed to produce a national ITV programme listings magazine. This magazine was called the *TVTimes*, originally the title of the London listings magazine (and also briefly used by the Midlands magazine). It replaced all of the regional magazines, except the Channel Islands publication.

Before the changes were implemented, however, Harold Wilson appointed Lord Hill as chairman of the BBC Board of Governors and replaced him with Herbert Bowden, also known as Lord Aylestone. He reviewed the changes Hill had made, but allowed them to stand.

### 1968 strike

The implementation of the ITV changes led to industrial unrest in the companies. Although there were no job losses in the system – this was an ITA stipulation – people were forced to move from Manchester and Birmingham to Leeds, from London to Cardiff and, perhaps less troublesome, from one part of London to another. Many staff stayed in the same jobs in the same locations, but now had a different employer. Since this meant that staff were being made redundant (albeit with a guaranteed job to go to), the unions required redundancy payments. However, these payments led to problems in staff not receiving them, who were changing company but not location, as in the case of the Teddington Studios. The unions asked for payments to be made in those cases; the companies responded by drawing the line, and wildcat strikes broke out in the weeks before and after the changes came into effect. By the Friday, after the changes, a mixture of strike action and management lock-outs had taken ITV off the air, and for most of August 1968 the regional network was replaced with an ITV Emergency National Service run by management. By September 1968, with both sides claiming victory, all workers had returned to work. However, memory of this strike would cause more industrial unrest in the decades that followed.

#### Post strike and colour television

This era also saw the introduction of colour television to the network and the introduction of the new 625-line system. During the 1960s, some commercial companies proposed the introduction of colour on the 405-line system, but the General Post Office insisted that colour should wait until the higher-definition 625-line UHF system became standard.[*citation needed*] ITV eventually introduced PAL colour on this system from 15 November 1969,[2] simultaneous with BBC1 and two years after BBC2. This did not, however, spread immediately across the UK – some regions had to wait a few more years before colour was available. This was primarily due to the cost incurred in purchasing new recording and broadcast equipment and the subsequent studio upgrade that usually accompanied it.

### Colour strike, 13 November 1970 to 8 February 1971

The colour strike was an industrial action by technicians at all ITV companies from 13 November 1970 to 8 February 1971 (although some shows made during this period in black and white were having their first transmission as late as December 1971) who, due to a pay dispute with their management, refused to make programmes in colour.

### Post-colour strike

Colour was available to nearly 100% of the UK from 1976, with the Channel Islands being the last region to be converted. This enabled the 405-line system to be phased out between 1982 and 1985.

## 1974–1982

### Before the 1979 dispute

The ITV regions after the minor change in contracts in 1974.

Following the passing of the Sound Broadcasting Act 1972, the ITA was reconstituted as the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) who took on the same role as the ITA but were also were given responsibility of the then-new Independent Local Radio stations.

The next franchise round in 1974 produced no changes in contractors, as the huge cost in switching to colour television would have made the companies unable to compete against rivals in a franchise battle. It also allowed the companies to recoup the cost and to return to normal service. Some slight changes were made to the Yorkshire Television franchise area however, as the Belmont transmitter in Lincolnshire switched from Anglia Television to Yorkshire Television, boosting the broadcast area. Also the Bilsdale UHF transmitter, based on the border between Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television and much disputed over, was assigned to Tyne Tees Television.[3]

The IBA during this period allowed Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television to consolidate slightly into a new venture: Trident Television. Trident originally managed advertising sales for Tyne Tees Television and Yorkshire Television but was allowed a reverse takeover of both companies; Tyne Tees Television and Yorkshire Television did however retain their own studio bases, management, boards and on-screen identity.[4]

#### Launch of Oracle teletext

This period also saw the launch of the Oracle teletext service. It was officially launched in 1978, a few years after the launch of the BBC's Ceefax service and offered news and information delivered through the remaining lines of information in the television transmission. The service began to see improved takings following a heavy promotional campaign using the slogan *Page the Oracle* and the inclusion of the software as standard in most new television sets at the beginning of the 1980s.

### 1979 dispute

Possibly one of the most notable events for ITV during this period was a 10-week industrial dispute in 1979, which led to the subsequent shutdown of almost all ITV broadcasts and productions. Trouble first occurred at London's Thames Television when electricians refused to accept, what they considered, a derisory pay increase. Management attempted to operate a normal service but other transmission staff refused to co-operate. When Thames' management ordered the striking staff to "return or else" the broadcasting union ACTT instructed members at 13 other ITV stations to walk out in support. The only company unaffected was Channel Television; the unions realised action there could force the station out of business as it was so small.

Viewers were greeted with blank television screens on the morning of 10 August 1979, and were left without regular programmes, most importantly the highly rated soap opera *Coronation Street* as well as various sporting events.

### Post-1979 strike

The strike ended with victory for the unions in a dispute estimated to have cost the companies £100 million in lost revenue. Programming resumed at 5.38 pm on 24 October 1979. Returning viewers were greeted with a new jingle, "Welcome home to ITV", sung by the Mike Sammes Singers. When the strike ended, ITV had the daunting task of luring back viewers from the BBC. This proved difficult as production of original programming had stopped and wouldn't even be available for several months; ITV therefore suffered in the ratings at the hands of the BBC. Two and a half months after ITV began broadcasting again, it was finally ready to air additional original programming and viewers began switching back. This strike was to be the last major strike for ITV as the power of the broadcasting unions began to wane, even though minor disputes plagued the television industry in the 1980s. The dispute was the longest in the history of British television.

## 1982–1993

The ITV regions after the major change in contracts in 1982.

On 28 December 1980, the IBA announced via Lady Plowden, the then chair of the IBA, that it had reviewed the ITV broadcasting licences again, for contracts beginning on 1 January 1982. A few changes were made to the ITV structure, with the creation of dual regions for Wales and the West, the South and South East and the East and West Midlands. These regions were created following the push for more regional news. The company operating these regions had to provide a regional news service for both regions and provide studio facilities in both areas. The franchise round concluded with the following changes:

* ATV was re-awarded its contract for the dual Midlands region, but was considered by the IBA to have not focused on the region enough. As a result, changes were ordered including the diluting of existing shareholdings, greater production facilities in the contract area and the sale of Elstree Studios; to emphasise these actions the company was told to rename itself. It settled on the name **Central Independent Television**.
* Southern Television lost its licence for the South of England, in favour of **Television South** (TVS).
* Westward Television also lost its licence for South West England, being replaced by **Television South West** (TSW). TSW ended up taking over Westward Television in August 1981, but continued to use the Westward Television name until 1 January 1982.
* The new nationwide breakfast television service was awarded to **TV-am**.
* Trident Television was ordered to sell the majority of its holdings in Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television, and the two companies became independent of each other again.
* The Bluebell Hill transmitter in Kent was transferred from Thames Television/LWT to TVS, to increase the size of TVS's South East sub-region.

This period saw the ITV companies, and the BBC, expand their services further into the day than ever before. A large part of this was a result of the franchising of a breakfast service in 1980. TV-am was awarded this contract and given a provisional start date of May 1983. There had been other programmes previously, most notably Yorkshire's *Good Morning Calendar*, which had shown that the public were interested in a breakfast service. As a result, TV-am and the BBC rushed their own services to the air. TV-am would broadcast between the hours of 6 am and 9.25 am every morning; the somewhat obscure 9.25 close time came about in order to allow time to switch transmitters from the breakfast broadcaster over to the regional ITV stations; today this transition is seamless, though the anomaly remains. TV-am launched as a serious news programme on 1 February 1983; however, it changed its format soon after to attempt to copy the success of the BBC's *Breakfast Time*.

Another expansion came in 1987 when ITV Schools programming was transferred to Channel 4, freeing up a large section of the daytime schedule for new shows. This expansion in programming, and in advertising time, helped give the stations a boost. At around the same time, the companies began to move into night-time broadcasting. This began with individual efforts by individual companies, primarily the 'Big Five' (Thames Television, LWT, Central Independent Television, Granada Television and Yorkshire Television), before collaborative efforts resulted in the whole network operating 24 hours a day by the end of 1988. Notable efforts included Granada Television's Night Time (which also went out to Tyne Tees Television, TSW, Border Television, Grampian Television and Ulster Television), LWT's Night Network (which also went out to Anglia Television), TVS's Late Night Late (which also went out to Channel Television) and HTV's Night Club; later efforts included ITV Night Time from Thames Television and LWT (which also went out to TVS, HTV, Anglia Television and Channel Television) and Night Shift from Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television.

Channel 4 had launched on 2 November 1982. Originally, it built on the ITV network for its funding, whereby the ITV companies sold Channel 4's airtime. This arrangement ended on 31 December 1992, after which a 'funding formula' continued, whereby the ITV companies would subsidise Channel 4 if it fell into the red. However, it never did, and the funding formula was withdrawn in 1998. During this sixteen-year period, Channel 4 and ITV would regularly cross-promote each other's programming, free of charge.

ITV introduced its first official corporate logo and national on-air identity in September 1989; this was an attempt to unify the network under one image while still allowing for regional identity. However, six companies refused to use their versions of the generic ident (Granada Television, TVS, TSW, Anglia Television, Channel Television and Ulster Television), preferring to stick with their distinctive on-screen branding. The companies to use the generic ident for the longest time were Yorkshire Television, who kept it on until October 1994, and Grampian Television, who continued to use it right up until ITV's second corporate logo was introduced in 1998.

Another new venture was the ITV Telethon. This event, held in 1988, 1990 and 1992, saw the regional companies and the national network come together to raise money for charity. The 27-hour telethons were suspended following the change of culture at ITV following the franchise changes in 1993.

### The Broadcasting Act of 1990

Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government spent much of the 1980s privatising and deregulating British industry, and commercial broadcasting was no exception. The Broadcasting Act 1990 paved the way for the deregulation of the British commercial broadcasting industry, which was to have many consequences for the ITV system.

As a result of this Act, the Independent Broadcasting Authority was abolished, and replaced by two new 'light-touch' regulators: the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Radio Authority. The small Cable Authority was also abolished, its powers transferred to the ITC. The act also changed the system of licence allocation for the franchises now legally known as **Channel 3**: the previous system where applicants needed to show good programming ideas and fine financial controls was replaced by highest-bidder auctions to determine the winner of each ITV regional franchise. This element of the ITV franchising process was very controversial; the press and the existing ITV companies lobbied to have it changed and the ITC agreed to introduce a 'quality threshold' to prevent high bidders with poor programme plans from joining the system. Another safeguard was the 'business plan' which determined if a bidder could maintain the payments due and still retain money for programme making.

Other changes were also made as part of the act: ITN, the news provider for ITV, was no longer to be exclusively owned by ITV companies. Additionally, Channel 4, which had previously been an independent subsidiary of the IBA, was now to become a government-owned corporation, patterned after the BBC. It would also begin to sell its own advertising – a function previously provided by each ITV company as a return for subsidising the channel.

One further change in the 1990 Act related to the way the ITV networking system was run. Since the 1960s, the Independent Television Companies' Association's Programme Controllers' Committee, representing the 'Big Five' network companies (Thames Television, LWT, Central Independent Television, Granada Television and Yorkshire Television) had decided which programmes had aired in network programme time slots. This had the effect of excluding smaller ITV companies, as well as independent production companies. Following lobbying by independent producers and TVS, the Act required that ITV's scheduling be performed by a nominated person independent of the regional companies, and that a 25% threshold of independent production be required. This led to the creation in 1992 of the ITV Network Centre, a central body in charge of the network schedule, with, for the first time, a single ITV Director of Programming.

## 1993–2002

### 1991 ITV franchise auctions

Following the changes laid out in the Broadcasting Act 1990, a franchise round was announced by the ITC in 1991 for licences beginning 1 January 1993. A number of companies bid for the licences including:

[7]

The ITV regions after the major change of contracts in 1993.

The following notes apply to the 1991 Franchise round:

1. **^** The 'quality threshold' was a subjective evaluation by the ITC of the application submitted with the bid. The 'threshold' worked in one direction – high bidders could be disqualified for not reaching it, but low bidders could not be 'promoted' for having passed it. The ITC did not announce if the lower bidders had passed the threshold or not.
2. **^** CPV-TV was a consortium led by David Frost and Richard Branson. It bid for the East, London weekday and South franchises, aiming to offer a centralized single service.
3. **^** The ITC at first considered failing the Tyne Tees Television bid, on business plan grounds.
4. **^** North East was backed financially by Granada Television.
5. **^** North West Television was a consortium led by Phil Redmond of the independent producer Mersey Television, and backed financially by Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television.
6. **^** The 'business plan' test was a subjective evaluation by the ITC of the business plan submitted with each bid. The evaluation tested whether the bidder could afford its programme plans and also, more importantly, afford to pay the amount it had bid. The ITC did not announce if the lower bidders had passed the business plan evaluation.
7. **^** TVS sought a judicial review of this decision, but the High Court decided it could not look into the matter as the ITC had already awarded the contract to Meridian Broadcasting.
8. **^** TSW sought a judicial review of this decision. The ITC held off from awarding the contract to Westcountry Television until the High Court had ruled. After four months, the High Court ruled that the ITC had no case to answer, and ITC confirmed the award of the contract to Westcountry.
9. **^** The ITC at first considered failing the HTV bid on business plan grounds.
10. **^** The ITC at first considered failing the Yorkshire Television bid on business plan grounds.[8]

As a direct result of the franchise bid:

* TSW lost the South West of England franchise to **Westcountry Television**.
* Thames Television controversially lost the London weekday franchise to **Carlton Television**. However, Thames (now Talkback Thames) continued to produce programmes for ITV and other channels, such as *The Bill* and most recently the successful reality television programmes *Pop Idol* and *The X Factor*.
* TVS lost the South of England franchise to **Meridian Broadcasting**.
* TV-am lost the national breakfast television franchise to Sunrise Television, which changed its name to **GMTV** before launch because of a dispute with BSkyB over the name 'Sunrise'.
* ORACLE lost the National Teletext franchise to **Teletext Ltd**.

All other existing ITV companies retained their regional franchises. Due to their bids being barred on business plan grounds and therefore deemed 'too high', TSW and TVS attempted to obtain a judicial review of the ITC's decisions, and of the wording of the 1990 Act. Accordingly, the ITC held off awarding the contract to Westcountry Television until the review was completed. As the contract with Meridian Broadcasting had already been agreed, the court felt unable to conduct a review of that decision. The review of the South West franchise process took several months, but was decided in favour of the ITC.

The relaxation in the franchise ownership rules, as a result of the 1990 Act, meant that mergers between ITV companies were now possible; this was further enhanced by the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1996, which relaxed the rules even further. As a result, companies began to take each other over to increase efficiencies and to expand.

In 1992, Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television merged again, creating Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc. The two companies were permitted to merge before their existing arrangements expired in June 1992,[9] due to the marginal nature of both companies' finances, and a need to rationalise the two companies before the franchise handover date. Takeovers began in earnest in 1994, as Carlton Television took over Central Independent Television having held a stake in the company since 1987, Granada Television bought LWT in a hostile bid and MAI, owners of Meridian Broadcasting, took over Anglia Television. As a result of the latter, Anglia Television's presentation and playout facilities were moved to Meridian Broadcasting's base in Southampton. In 1996 Carlton Television bought Westcountry Television and increased its stake in Central Independent Television to 81%. Then, in 1997, Granada Television acquired Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television and moved the presentation and playout of Granada Television, Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television to The Leeds Studios, while Scottish Media Group (SMG), which owned Scottish Television, acquired Grampian Television and began to consolidate staff at its studio base in Glasgow. Also in 1997, United News and Media, the evolution of MAI and owner of Meridian Broadcasting and Anglia Television, purchased HTV; however, few departments were consolidated.

### 1998-2002

By 1999, four groups owned the majority of the ITV franchises: Granada Television, Carlton Television, United News and Media (UNM) and the Scottish Media Group (SMG), with Ulster Television, Channel Television and Border Television remaining independent. From here, the companies further consolidated their channels. In November 1999 a new, hearts-based on-air look was introduced and adopted by the Granada Television and UNM regions, along with Border Television and Channel Television. This look reduced regional identity to a design at the conclusion of the ident: the majority of the ident was generic to all the stations. Two months before, in September 1999, Carlton Television dropped the Central Independent Television and Westcountry Television names from their on-air presentation, instead branding these regions as Carlton Television, and using the same presentation for all three regions. In the summer of 2000, following an unsuccessful attempt to merge with Carlton Television, UNM sold its three stations - Meridian Broadcasting, Anglia Television and HTV - to Granada Television. However, Granada Television had to sell the broadcasting arm of HTV to Carlton Television to comply with the then-current regulatory requirements. In July 2001, Granada Television acquired Border Television from Capital Radio Group and moved presentation and play-out facilities to Leeds.

In addition to franchise mergers, in 1998 the Independent Television Association and Network Centre formally merged, becoming "ITV Network Limited". At the same time, a new lower-case ITV network logo was introduced at the same time for use around the network. The new logo design was meant to appear friendlier to the viewer.

Throughout this period, the ITV companies sought to expand into the new, multi-channel environment forming in the UK. In October 1996, Granada Television launched four channels through a joint venture with BSkyB entitled Granada Sky Broadcasting. These four channels, Granada Plus, Granada Good Life, Granada Men & Motors and Granada Talk TV, respectively focused on repeated entertainment programming from the Granada Television archives, women's lifestyle programming, programming for men and televised interactive debating. Granada Talk TV closed down in August 1997 after only 10 months on air due to low viewership, while Granada Good Life rebranded to Granada Breeze in May 1998. In September 1996 Carlton Television launched Carlton Food Network, a cookery channel, and in November 1996 a joint venture between Scottish Television and BSkyB was launched, entitled Sky Scottish, and aimed mainly at Scots who lived outside Scotland. While Sky Scottish closed in May 1998 due to low viewership, Carlton expanded its channels, launching Carlton Select in February 1997 followed by Carlton Cinema, Carlton Kids and Carlton World in November 1998. However, all but Carlton Cinema closed shortly into the new millennium, mainly due to low viewership and cost-cutting in light of the cost of funding ONdigital (see below).

Despite these larger companies having launched their own services a few years previously, Granada Television, Carlton Television and UNM collaborated to launch a new service in December 1998: ITV2. The new channel expanded network ITV programmes and launched on multiple services, giving additional appeal to the style of ITV itself in light of new competition from channels operating on satellite, cable and more recently digital terrestrial television (DTT). However, ITV2 only launched in England and Wales, leaving SMG, Ulster Television and Channel Television to use the multiplex space in their respective regions to whatever purpose they saw fit. As a result, SMG launched S2 in April 1999 and Ulster Television launched TV You (later UTV2) in June 1999, both offering similar programming tailored for their region. By January 2002, however, both channels had ceased and were replaced by ITV2 itself.

In August 2000 ITN, the news producer for the ITV Network, launched the ITN News Channel which provided rolling news on cable, satellite and digital terrestrial. Following the increase in ITV-branded channels and services, including ITV2 and ITV Digital, the decision was taken by Carlton Television and Granada Television to rename the ITV Network in their regions as **ITV1** in August 2001.

#### ONdigital / ITV Digital

##### Pre-collapse

Another venture initiated by Carlton Television and Granada Television was jointly bidding for the newly created DTT licence. The companies jointly bid with BSkyB for the licence under the company name British Digital Broadcasting and won; however, BSkyB was forced to withdraw following competition laws. Carlton Television and Granada Television launched the service in November 1998 as ONdigital, and ran the service that housed other free-to-air channels. However, BSkyB had launched its own service, Sky Digital, the previous month and following a heavy promotional campaign by Sky, which compared the Sky Digital service to ONdigital's service and always to Sky's benefit, ONdigital started making heavy losses. In a resort to keep the venture afloat, Carlton Television and Granada Television used the name of ITV to boost the success of the company. The newly named ITV Digital launched in July 2001, complete with an expensive advertising campaign featuring Al (played by Johnny Vegas) & Monkey (voiced by Ben Miller), who later appeared in the adverts for PG Tips tea bags between 2007 & 2017 that first included a reference to the downfall of ITV Digital, and an exclusive deal to air the Football League on the newly created ITV Sport Channel. However, the venture was still not bringing the results required and ITV Digital went into administration in March 2002, with the ITV Sport Channel closing two months later (although the Sport Channel returned on 22nd August 2016 following a refresh of the network's identity on 3rd March that year). This led to criticism of Carlton Television and Granada Television from SMG, Ulster Television and Channel Television which objected to the ITV name being reduced following the collapse of the service.

On Thursday 15th December 2022, during the first two breaks of This Morning on ITV1, the entire series of ITV Digital's Monkey & Al adverts from 2001-02 were mistakenly shown, of which six adverts in a row were aired during each of these breaks as there are twelve different adverts in the series.

##### Post-collapse

After the service collapsed and all transactions on all subscription channels and certain interactive services were permanently suspended, viewers were still able to continue watching free-to-air channels through their old boxes, and later they were still able to do so when the boxes began to work under the new Freeview service from 30th October 2002, and most boxes had received the 14 additional free-to-air channels, 15 radio channels and no subscription channels alongside the original 16 free-to-air channels (45 in total) after viewers were told to re-scan their equipment. In March 2004 all ONdigital / ITV Digital boxes became compatible with the new TopUp TV service - set-top box users were told to insert their TopUp TV viewing card to activate their subscription into the same slot where they previously inserted their ONdigital / ITV Digital smartcard. Support for ONdigital / ITV Digital boxes ended in 2012 when all analogue signals in the UK were switched off and 8k FFT transmissions, which the boxes don't support, began to broadcast - this replaced the former 2k transmissions and resulted in the loss of all channels on all boxes. Some viewers had to upgrade to a proper Freeview set-top box or integrated TV to continue watching digital terrestrial television, while others decided to upgrade to other platforms such as digital satellite (Sky & Freesat) or cable (Virgin Media).

###### ONdigital / ITV Digital goes "ONdisplay" at The Great Big British TV & Radio Museum, London

In Summer 2022, a huge new £3.8m multiple-zone TV and radio museum displaying technology, presentation, programmes, continuity, advertising and sponsorships that give long-time telly-watchers hints to their past opened in the former BBC Television Centre building in London. In the museum's Digital Television Zone, a TV showing continuous video loops of the original ONdigital / ITV Digital firmware and on-screen content (including adverts, information slides, presentation and footage of programmes from that era) is displayed in a living room set that can be seen through a giant viewing window, complete with a set-top box (a Pace DTR730 is displayed as an example box) and remote control. A large Monkey mascot toy and a realistic-looking model of Johnny Vegas as Al can also be seen through the window sitting in black contoured leather chairs and eating bags of crisps in front of the TV, just like what they did in one of the adverts for ITV Digital in 2001. Like with all other displays within the museum, there are also information panels and glass cabinets displaying memorabilia from that era located nearby.

###### Monkey & Al's appearance in a new children's programme in November 2022

On Wednesday 16th November 2022, a new comedy programme debuted on the CITV channel featuring Monkey & Al, known as "Monkey & Al's Home Video", in which an old-style CRT TV with a set-top box running on ONdigital / ITV Digital firmware and a box of PG Tips tea bags can be seen briefly in all episodes of the series. The programme broadcasts as a double bill on the CITV channel every weekday at 10.30am & 2.45pm. Each episode has a running duration of 20 minutes, meaning that each double bill will last a total of 40 minutes altogether. The programme is produced exclusively for CITV by Rotten Apple Productions.

###### Freeview to produce specially-designed boxes for those who miss their ONdigital / ITV Digital boxes or just love old-school tech

In early 2023, it was announced that Freeview would start producing smaller, 8K-compatible replicas of the ONdigital / ITV Digital boxes. The specially-designed boxes are being manufactured under the name "Freeview Flashbacks"; the first box was produced on 1st May 2023 and was sold two weeks later. The boxes and remotes themselves look exactly like the original ONdigital / ITV Digital boxes, but they have a revised version of the original firmware, and an HDMI connection rather than a SCART one and will only run on standard Freeview. These new boxes are compatible with Arqiva+, Freeview's new subscription service where subscribers can set up their subscriptions either online, on the Freeview app or over the phone once they have received their NanoCard viewing card, and they will be asked for their NanoCard number and the serial number of their Freeview TV or box during the process (although most newer Freeview and all Freeview HD / Freeview Play equipment do not have a viewing card slot - instead, these cards will be inserted into a detachable CAM device, which can be connected to the equipment via a HDMI connection). All boxes are designed to work on all TVs with an HDMI port, but they can also work with a "SCART-to-HDMI" connection through some older TVs from more than 20-odd years ago.

Despite the old boxes not having an electronic programme guide, these new boxes have their own additional integrated electronic programme guide, which will only be brought up by simply pressing the "MENU" button and dialling number 8 or using the up and down buttons, followed by the "SELECT" button, on the remote control.

At least one week before these new boxes launched, the former placeholder for the TopUp TV Anytime+ channel that closed in March was removed from Freeview to release a slot for the Arqiva+ Demo barker channel on channel 99.

## 2002–present

From 2002, the ITV Network began to consolidate again. On 28 October 2002 (only two days before Freeview officially launched), the Carlton Television and Granada Television regions adopted a new presentation package featuring the network's celebrities, which resulted in the regions becoming known as ITV1 at all times, with the region names only appearing prior to regional programmes. This look also marked the centralization of continuity announcements in the Carlton Television and Granada Television regions to London, with the exception of Wales. However, the regions' names and logos have continued to appear at the end of their own programmes until 31st October 2004.

The pinnacle of ITV's consolidation was the merger of Carlton Television and Granada Television in 2004. The two companies had previously tried to merge twice before in the 1990s; however, the government and competition laws prevented this from occurring. But in October 2003, the government announced that it would no longer prevent a merger from taking place, subject to safeguards being set in place to ensure the continued independence of SMG, Ulster Television and Channel Television. Carlton Television and Granada Television finally merged at the end of January 2004, with Granada Television shareholders owning 68% of the new company, ITV plc, and Carlton Television shareholders owning the remaining 32%. ITV plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol 'ITV' on 2 February 2004.[10] The new company owned all the ITV regions in England, Wales and the Scottish Borders. The choice of the name "ITV plc" was controversial, since it could imply that the company ran the entire network, and an agreement had to be reached with SMG, Ulster Television and Channel Television before the name could be used.

The day of the merger was marked by significant changes throughout the ITV plc regions. All of the ITV plc regional news programmes received a new look in line with the national ITV News bulletins and the regional company logos were replaced officially with an ITV logo followed by the company name below – these began to appear on production captions and as part of other branded output, such as weather summaries. As a result of the merger, ITV plc was faced with a surplus of facilities it no longer needed. Studio and production facilities were replicated many times over, many of which were becoming costly to maintain due to age and difficult to justify following technological advancements. As a result, regional news moved into smaller offices and studio facilities were sold off. Anglia Television's separate studio facility was sold off as an independent studio, as was HTV's main studio in Cardiff. However, Tyne Tees Television's Newcastle studios and Meridian Broadcasting's Southampton studio complex were closed completely and demolished, both broadcasters moving to smaller regional news bureaux. The reduction in the size of the organisation and in the number of transmission centres resulted in a large number of job cuts.

ITV plc reviewed its digital channel portfolio. In June 2002 Carlton Television and Granada Television jointly bought the ITN News Channel from ITN, renaming it the ITV News Channel three months later (although the service was still produced by ITN). In March 2003 the final Carlton-owned channel, Carlton Cinema, closed; the channel had been struggling ever since the failure of ITV Digital. Following the success of ITV2, compared to the Granada and Carlton-branded channels, a further channel - ITV3 - was launched on 1 November 2004. The channel replaced Granada Plus and aired archive programmes, notably drama. On 1 November 2005, ITV plc launched another new channel aimed specifically at men: ITV4.[11] This channel became notable for airing programmes such as classic 1960s ITC Entertainment series and alternative sports such as the British Touring Car Championship. The new channel featured a new-look ITV logo, which was officially rolled out across the network on 16 January 2006.[12] The new look was more coherent than previous looks, and was also voluntarily adopted by Channel Television. 2006 also saw the launch of the CITV channel, which used the airspace previously used by the ITV News Channel which had closed down in December 2005 (later relaunched in October 2013), and of the participation television channel ITV Play, which turned out to be controversial and closed down the following year.

ITV plc began to look at high-definition television in June 2006, when it launched an experimental channel, ITV HD, primarily for airing the 2006 FIFA World Cup (to which ITV held the rights) and classic films. ITV HD was launched as a permanent channel in June 2008, showing its own schedule of programmes in HD acquired by ITV plc. The channel re-branded as ITV1 HD in December 2009, before becoming a full simulcast of ITV1 on 2 April 2010. The launch of the simulcast service saw the end of the last Granada channel, Men & Motors, which was closed down on 1 April 2010 to make room for ITV1 HD on other platforms. On 7 October 2010, ITV plc launched ITV2 HD, an HD simulcast of ITV2, followed on 15 November by ITV3 HD and ITV4 HD. All three of these channels were initially only available on the Sky platform. Later, in March 2016, ITV HD relaunched as a pay-per-view transaction fee for existing Freeview, Sky & Freesat HD customers and shows its own schedule of HD programmes acquired by ITV plc, and all of the HD channel simulcasts have since become permanently unavailable. The service lasted until 1st December 2019 following the results of an online subscribers' poll showed that 95% said "yes" when they were asked a question for ITV to bring back the HD channels. This seemed to work when the four main channels on the network were given back their own HD simulcasts, along with the other channels (except CITV) on the network being given their own HD simulcasts for the first time. However, CITV launched an HD simulcast of its channel for the first time a full year later.

In June 2005 Ofcom, the channel's regulator since the demise of the Independent Television Commission at the end of 2003, announced huge reductions in the licence fees payable by the Channel 3 contractors (and Five). This move reflected the significant shift towards digital viewing in the UK, and the British government's desire to switch off analogue television signals altogether between 2010 & 2012. Licence fees fell further as the shift to digital continued. Ofcom also significantly relaxed most of the remaining public service requirements on the ITV contractors; regional non-news output was a significant casualty of these cutbacks, with most regions now broadcasting no more than two hours a week in this category. An experimental internet service, ITV Local, attempted to unite regional content through an on-line user experience that combined regional news, local programming and other features.

### ITV50/ITV60

In September 2005, the ITV network celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a season of *ITV50* programming that was run on the network, including a run down of ITV's 50 top programmes, a *World of Sport* retrospective, a seven-week *Gameshow Marathon* presented by Ant & Dec, the launch of an "Avenue Of The Stars", and most notably a five-part documentary series made by Melvyn Bragg, which chronicled ITV's history. The Post Office issued special *ITV50* postage stamps. The regional companies owned by ITV plc also aired special regional retrospectives (even though none of them were themselves fifty years old), as well as using special *ITV50* station identification, which lasted for three weeks in September. While Scottish Television, Grampian Television, and UTV aired the network *ITV50* programming, they did not themselves air regional programmes of this sort, nor did they use the special identification. ITN also celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with special features in its programming.

In September 2015, the idea of this special identification was revisited when ITV celebrated its sixtieth anniversary, with ITV1 being temporarily renamed *ITV60* for three weeks starting 7th September. This included a countdown of ITV's top 60 programmes, as well as special *ITV60* Post Office stamps, a special six-part documentary series focusing on the network's 60-year history, and newer versions of the above-mentioned retrospectives. ITN also celebrated its sixtieth anniversary with a special *60 Years of News Broadcasting* endboard. Other programmes included a 3-hour long special documentary featuring a countdown of the top 60 TV adverts shown on ITV in the last 60 years.

### 2006-2012

In March 2006 SMG plc announced that Scottish Television and Grampian Television were to be rebranded as **STV**, making Grampian the latest ITV region to lose its own regional identity. The STV brand, which works similarly to the ITV brand in England and Wales, had previously been used by Scottish Television from 1969 until 1985.

In September 2007 the chairman of ITV plc, Michael Grade, announced huge cost-cutting plans for the company which would see the number of regional news programmes cut from seventeen to nine. These plans saw many mergers of news programmes, including the respective mergers of the programmes in the two remaining Central sub-regions (East and West), the programmes in the two Anglia sub-regions (East and West) and the programmes in the two Yorkshire sub-regions (North and South) into one programme for each region. Most controversial, however, were the merger proposals which covered two regions. These included the respective mergers of the programmes in the West and Westcountry regions into one programme from Bristol, the programmes in the two Meridian sub-regions (South and South East) and the Thames Valley region into one programme from Whiteley, and the programmes in the two Tyne Tees sub-regions (North and South) and the Border region into one programme from Gateshead. The new arrangement resulted in pre-recorded opt-out segments in the main programme for some regions where regional news was mandatory, such as Meridian South and South East, and where a programme crossed regional boundaries, such as Tyne Tees and Border. These changes took effect from February 2009, when Meridian began its pan-regional service.[13][14][15]

In November 2008 the operating licences of all the ITV plc regions were transferred to a new company, ITV Broadcasting Ltd. This essentially leaves one company producing and broadcasting programmes to the ITV regions in England and Wales.

In November 2009 ITV plc gained full control of the breakfast broadcaster, GMTV, when it bought the 25% stake of The Walt Disney Company for £18 million. ITV subsequently announced that GMTV would be closed and replaced with a new programme in September 2010: Daybreak, a news and features programme. The official name of the company itself was changed to ITV Breakfast Ltd. However, this Daybreak brand was short-lived and was reverted back to GMTV on the same day when ITV6 launched, although the programme began broadcasting on ITV6 from launch until it returned to ITV1 three months later.

In the autumn of 2010 another step was taken towards the full unification of the ITV Network when ITV plc bought Channel Television (now ITV1 Channel Islands as of 29th March 2011)

Between 6th April 2011 & 27th October 2012, five new sister channels were launched to make ITV more entertaining than ever before. The launch dates were:

* **6th April 2011** (ITV5)
* **7th June 2011** (ITV6)
* **20th August 2011** (ITV7)
* **23rd August 2011** (ITV8)
* **27th October 2012** (ITV9)

These five channels were converted into one single channel on 3rd March 2016, known as ITV1 Extra. This channel later ceased broadcasting on 29th August 2020 and all of its content were shifted to ITV Player.

### 2014 rebrand

Following the relaunch of the ITV News Channel in October 2013, the company was given a slight rebrand in January 2014 - starting with ITV2 bringing a new logo and on-screen presentation on the 10th, then ITV1 introduced a slightly modified version of the 2011 logo and retrospectively brought back its November 2004 on-screen presentation on the 13th (this time using a yellow / orange theme instead of a blue one), and former channel ITV5 unveiled a new logo and on-screen presentation on March 5th that year. New pre-recorded information announcements were introduced shortly after each refresh (a few of which are still in use today).

### 2016 rebrand

In July 2015, it was announced that ITV would bring a new look to be rolled out by March 2016, which involved the introduction of a new heart-shaped logo (the first new corporate logo in 10 years), along with a new tagline representing 'The Heart of Entertainment', and also a few relaunches of several former ITV services and franchises. The new logo was rolled out on all ITV Services on 3rd March, except CITV which didn't receive the new logo until later on in the month. And also, ITV1 readopted their 1999 'Hearts' identity whilst ITV2 readopted their 2001 'Everyday Life' identity from the same era. Since this rebrand, all presentation graphics on all channels are now computerised, as well as the credits at the end of all programmes produced since then - the most noticeable thing in the credits is that the itv.com website URL now remains on screen throughout, unlike previously when it disappeared during the last two seconds of the credits, with the programme's copyright and year of production replacing it during those last two seconds. In programmes produced since 3rd March 2016 the programme's copyright and year of production appears below the itv.com URL in the last two seconds of the credits. All pre-recorded information announcements have stayed the same as before until July 2016 when ITV.com's website for drama programmes changed its sponsorship to Leerdammer Cheese, replacing the old Ford sponsorship that first appeared on 1st January 2011 - back when car manufacturers were allowed to sponsor programmes and websites on ITV that aren't sport-related until Ofcom stepped in, as mentioned below the next paragraph. A film classification slide, which is shown before the start of each movie on all of ITV's main channels, was also introduced.

As the 2016 corporate logo is exclusive to the UK, Northern Ireland & The Channel Islands, all other ITV worldwide services continued using the old corporate logo which had been in use since 2006.

### 2016 'Car-branded sponsorship ban' cutback

In July 2016, it was announced that Ofcom had banned car-branded programme sponsorships from non-sport-related programmes and websites on ITV due to a significant 30% budget decrease. These sponsorships are now used for sport-related programmes only.

### ITV on TopUp TV

In April 2017, all ITV channels became available on TopUp TV via subscriber's choice, as well as being free-to-air channels on Freeview. On 8th March 2023, all channels were removed from TopUp TV when the service ceased operation and fell into liquidation. This was due to the service becoming more unpopular and having fewer subscription channels than in 2004 when the service launched.

### 2020 LWT Hoax / 2022 Carlton Hoax

In October 2020, it was announced by ITV plc that ITV1 would bring the LWT name back to its London station for use on weekends only, then to revert back to ITV1 on weekdays, although this never happened and was later turned out to be a hoax. This left the majority of viewers in London disappointed that the return of LWT was never going to happen. Two years later, the same thing happened with the Carlton brand. Could viewers put the blame on ITV over this?

### 2021 Power Failure

On 16th February 2021 a major power failure had occured at ITV's South Bank headquarters, which caused all channels to temporarily go off air until the following morning. It was later reported that ITV had received complaints from viewers who saw this happening and became very upset when they had to miss their favourite live programmes that day. All pre-recorded (not live) programmes were re-scheduled the following day.

### ITV announces I'm A Celebrity will be returning to the jungle in 2022

In 2022, ITV announced that I'm A Celebrity will be returning to the jungle (where the show was originally set in from Series 1 in early 2002 until Series 19 in late 2019) later in the year after two years of being set in Abergele's Gwrych Castle in North Wales due to rising COVID cases in Australia. Series 22 also saw the programme receiving new titles for the first time since Series 8 in 2008 - this time with the celebrities entering the camp one-by-one from different directions. It was also confirmed that biscuit manufacturer Fox's, who manufacture premium biscuits including the iconic childhood favourite Party Rings, will take over the resurrected Iceland sponsorship from Series 22.

The series started earlier that year on 6th November because of live coverage of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 which started on 20th November.

### ITV permanently axes Dance Mania after contestant dies live on air, and new global talent show spin-off makes debut to replace Dance Mania

During the first round of Dance Mania 2022 on 5th November, Susan Park, who applied to appear on the show with her husband Ken as her partner shortly after the 2021 series ended, made the headlines when she suddenly died on the dance floor mid-performance after she collapsed and became unconscious live on air. The emergency services were then called out immediately after she failed to recover when Ken tried all the techniques of CPR, and Susan had died within a few minutes before the paramedic arrived. At first, it was unknown what had caused her to die mid-performance, but reports later revealed that she had died from hypoxemia - a condition that leads to a lack of oxygen in the blood and can lead to death if left untreated. She did not realise she had the condition. The remainder of the episode was cancelled, which led to the ITV News Channel with Ranvir Singh reading the breaking news about the incident alongside other news stories. Tributes were later paid to her following her sudden death.

The show was later axed permanently by ITV following this unusually shocking moment, and has now been replaced with World's Got Talent - a brand new worldwide spin-off from the Got Talent Global franchise, featuring all of the year's winners from around the world (including those from Britain's Got Talent, America's Got Talent & Australia's Got Talent). All episodes of this spin-off are not live - instead, they are pre-recorded yearly on an open-air stage for ten nights in Paris during August before being shown worldwide in November. However, there are no presenters in this spin-off, but there is a panel of four French-born judges who have been trained to speak in several different languages, including English (although subtitles are shown on screen for translation whenever a judge or act speaks in a different language, e .g. French subtitles over English in France, Japanese subtitles over Spanish in Japan and so on as the subititle language varies from country to country). The programme is produced in-house by TV4 France on behalf of other worldwide television networks including ITV, NBC & Seven Network Australia.

### ITV.com & ITV Player merge to become ITVX

On 8th December 2022, ITV launched the new online on-demand streaming service ITVX, replacing ITV Player & ITV.com. The new service carries out more exclusive content and programming than ever before, and has access to services like FAST, which have their own channels, & BritBox. Content from the ITV.com website, including interactive services, news and competitions have also moved there. The website URL from the original ITV.com website still remains but now redirects to the new ITVX website.

### ITV cancels re-boot of "The Paul O'Grady Show" after presenter's death

In early 2023 it was announced that "The Paul O'Grady Show" will return to ITV1 after nearly eight years, but this was later cancelled as the presenter and comedian suddenly died unexpectedly on 28th March when he was only 67. At first, it was unknown what he had died of until reports later revealed that he had died of a sudden cardiac arrest. Instead, ITV3 will air classic re-runs of the show during its daytime line-up, starting with the very first episode from 2004.

### ITV scraps movies on two of its main channels and launches four new movie channels on digital television

On 5th September 2023 ITV3 & 4 stopped broadcasting movies in favour of four new ITV Movies channels launching on all digital television platforms at 8pm. Prior to launch, test transmissions began broadcasting for the last few days in the run-up to the official launch night. They are also the first ITV channels to require PIN protection before watershed hours for movies with an age rating of 12 and over.