Contents
Launched 22 September 1955
Owned by ITV plc
STV Group plc
UTV Media
Channel Television
Audience share 16.9% (ITV Network)
(February 2010, BARB)
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Website www.itv.com,
www.stv.tv,
www.u.tv,
www.channelonline.tv
Availability
Terrestrial
Analogue 3
Freeview 3 (SD)
51 (HD)
Satellite
Freesat 103 (SD)
119 (HD)
Sky Digital 103 (SD)
178 (HD)
Astra 2D 10758V 22000 5/6
10832H 22000 5/6 (HD)
Cable
Virgin Media 103 (SD)
113 (HD)
UPC Ireland 110 (UTV) (SD)
IPTV
TalkTalk TV 3
Internet television
ITV Player www.itv.com/itvplayer
STV Player www.stv.tv/stvplayer
UTV Player www.u.tv/utvplayer
Zattoo www.zattoo.com
ITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK, having begun broadcasting in 1955. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting Act 1990, its legal name has been Channel 3, the number 3 having no real meaning other than to distinguish it from BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4 - prior to this, the network had no legal overall name. In part, 3 was assigned as televisions would usually be tuned so that the regional ITV station would be on the third button, the other stations being allocated to that of the number their name contained.
ITV is to be distinguished from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004 and which is the parent of ITV Broadcasting Limited to whom all of the Channel 3 broadcasting licences in England, Wales, the Scottish/English Border and the Isle of Man were transferred in November 2008. Similarly ITV1 is the brand used by ITV plc for the Channel 3 service in these areas, with STV and UTV using their own brands in their own respective areas (North and Central Scotland and Northern Ireland).
Organisation
Unlike many of the TV channels in the United Kingdom, ITV is not owned by one single company, although it has come close to becoming so in recent years. Ofcom has issued licences to four companies to provide regional Channel 3 services. ITV Broadcasting Limited provides the service for 10 regions in England Wales plus the Scottish borders and the Isle of Man, with a separate weekday and weekend licence for the London region. For Scotland, STV Central Limited holds the licence for the central Scotland, and STV North Limited holds the licence for northern Scotland, including the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland Islands, with both services carrying on air branding as stv. Ulster Television Limited was issued the licence for Northern Ireland and is branded as utv. In the Channel Islands, the licencee is Channel Television Limited which carries ITV-1 branding. The licences were last put out to full tender in 1991, and have since been renewed and modified on a rolling basis.
Additionally, Channel 3 has since 1983 included a national breakfast franchise for the period between 06:00h and 09:25h, with the licence currently issued to GMTV, and has a national contractual teletext provider.
National teletext provider
The Public Teletext Licence[1] allows the holder to broadcast a text-based information service around the clock on Channel 3 (as well as Channel 4 and S4C) frequencies. Teletext on ITV had been provided since 1974 by ORACLE, and since 1993 is provided by Teletext Ltd., whose news, sport and TV listings pages rival that of the BBC's television offering, Ceefax on terrestrial and BBC Red Button on digital. Teletext Ltd. also provides digital teletext for the Channel 3 services, as well as the text output for both Channel 4 and S4C (which is covered under the same licence) and Five (under a separate licence).
Digital Channel 3
Since 1998, each of the Channel 3 franchises have received gifted capacity on digital terrestrial television (DTT). As per the original agreement, each regional ITV contractor broadcasts its Channel 3 service from 9:25am to 6:00am daily, with the breakfast operator broadcasting in the remaining hours. However, unlike analogue broadcasts, the assigned capacity across DTT is able to carry multiple television services which, like Channel 3, are broadcast by the regional franchisee between the hours of 9:25am and 6:00am, with the breakfast contractor operating between 6:00am and 9:25am.
At present, all licensees opt to broadcast ITV plc-owned channels, being ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and the CITV Channel, as opposed to broadcasting their own. Up until 2002, UTV in Northern Ireland ran a service known as UTV2, while both Scottish and Grampian ran S2. The breakfast operator, currently GMTV, is obliged to broadcast between the hours of 6:00 and 9:25am daily. Alongside the Channel 3 GMTV service, GMTV also broadcasts GMTV2, which is broadcast on the same capacity as ITV4 (previously ITV2) and the CITV Channel. The company also holds a third GMTV3 licence however it currently sells this gifted capacity to ITV plc to broadcast ITV3 24 hours a day. ITV is available all across the UK and is also available in the Rep. of Ireland on Freeview and Digital satellite.
Channel 3 shares its space with Channel 4 on Multiplex 2, known as Digital 3&4.
Public service broadcasting
The right granted by Ofcom of Channel 3's nationally-available status on both analogue and digital television comes with responsibility, in the form of public service broadcasting. Alongside the BBC, Channel 4 and Five, the members of the ITV Network and GMTV all have a responsibility to broadcast various programming of public importance on their analogue stations. This includes quotas for news, current affairs, independent and European programming, children's and religious programming, and output containing subtitles, signing and audio description. In addition, Channel 3 stations are legally obliged to screen party election broadcasts on behalf of all the major political parties, and also other political events such as the Budget.
All the companies holding a franchise are members of ITV Network Limited (formerly the Independent Television Companies' Association Limited), a non-profit body. It is this body that commissions programmes for the network, and schedules the network programming. However, in practice ITV plc, which owns ITV Broadcasting Limited which hold eleven of the fifteen regional licences, dominates the system.
Much of the originated networked programme output (around 50%[citation needed], but previously up to 65%[citation needed] according to some reports) is contributed by ITV Studios, the production arm of ITV plc (consisting of the consolidated regional companies' network production departments), although a growing number of programmes are commissioned by the Network from independents (a minimum of 25% of total output, as stipulated by the 1990 Broadcasting Act). In addition, the entire network is obliged to broadcast national news sourced by a common contractor (currently ITN). All stations have the right to opt out of national programming (except for the national news) but generally do not, since most are owned by the one company and the others have limited resources for non-networked productions.
Licence details
The table below lists current Channel 3 regional and national licences and the licence holder.
Licenses in England and Wales were held by individual regional ITV plc owned companies prior to November 2008.[2]
Regional Channel 3 Licences
Northern Scotland STV North Limited 1961 STV Group plc Grampian Television STV
Central Scotland STV Central Limited 1957 STV Group plc Scottish Television STV
Northern Ireland UTV Limited 1959 UTV Media plc UTV UTV1
Channel Islands Channel Television Limited 1962 Yattendon Investment Trust ITV1 Channel Television ITV1 (Channel Television)2
English-Scottish border and Isle of Man ITV Broadcasting Limited February 2009 ITV plc ITV1 (Border)
ITV1 (Border Scotland) ITV1
North East England ITV Broadcasting Limited February 2009 ITV plc ITV1 (Tyne Tees) ITV1
Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Norfolk 3 ITV Broadcasting Limited November 2008 ITV plc ITV1 (Yorkshire) ITV1
North West England 3 ITV Broadcasting Limited November 2008 ITV plc ITV1 (Granada) ITV1
Wales and West of England ITV Broadcasting Limited November 2008 ITV plc ITV1 (HTV Wales)
ITV1 (HTV West) ITV1 Wales 1
ITV1
Midlands 4 ITV Broadcasting Limited November 2008 ITV plc ITV1 (Central) ITV1
East of England ITV Broadcasting Limited December 2006 5 ITV plc ITV1 (Anglia) ITV1
London Weekday ITV Broadcasting Limited November 2008 ITV plc ITV1 (Carlton) ITV1
London Weekend ITV Broadcasting Limited November 2008 ITV plc ITV1 (LWT) ITV1
South and South East England ITV Broadcasting Limited November 2008 ITV plc ITV1 (Meridian) ITV1
South West England ITV Broadcasting Limited February 2009 ITV plc ITV1 (Carlton) ITV1
National Channel 3 Licences
National teletext service Teletext Ltd. 1993 DMGT ITV Teletext Teletext
National breakfast time GMTV Ltd 1993 ITV plc6 Good Morning Television GMTV
- ITV1 on air branding is used overnight
- Usually Just ITV1.
- Up to 1968, the service for a single Northern area consisting of both the current North West region and most of the current Yorkshire region was provided by Granada Television for Monday to Friday and by ABC Television for weekends.
- Up to 1968, the service for the Midlands region was provided by Associated Television for Monday to Friday and by ABC Television for weekends.
- "Anglia Television Limited", which had provided the service since 1959, had its name changed to "ITV Broadcasting Limited" on December 29, 2006.
- CITV branding is also used for children's output at the weekend and on digital services.
- ITV plc purchased the remaining stake of GMTV from Walt Disney in November 2009
History
Independent Television was created 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. The shape of the ITV Network and the course it has taken down the years has largely been controlled by regular re-franchising rounds which occurred in 1964, 1968, 1974, 1982, and 1993. These rounds saw regions and franchise areas reshaped and franchise holders changed. Additionally, since the Broadcasting Act 1990 the consolidation of ITV companies has also had an important bearing on the direction of the network. The 1990s saw the number of broadcasters drop dramatically, for instance in 1992, Yorkshire Television acquired Tyne Tees Television to create Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television, only for this entity to merge with Granada Television in 1997. A similar process happened with the Southern Regions, leaving Carlton Television and Granada Television as the two major players, until the failure of ITV Digital saw these two merge.