History of ITV
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The history of ITV, the United Kingdom "Independent Television" commercial network, goes back to 1954.
[edit] The early years: 1954–1963
After much debate both in the British Parliament and the British Press, the Television Act became law in 1954. This Act paved the way for the establishment of a commercial television service in the UK, creating the Independent Television Authority (ITA). The ITA's responsibility was to regulate the new service, ensuring that the new service did not follow the same path taken by American television 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, American shows 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 "Independent Television" service, so-called because of its independence from the BBC (which previously had held a monopoly on broadcasting in the UK), was to be made up of regions, with each region run by different companies. The three largest regions (London, the Midlands and the North of England) were subdivided into weekday and weekend services, with a different company running each. Space for commercials, shown during and between programmes was always sold on a region-by-region basis by each ITV company, and not on a nation-wide basis throughout the United Kingdom. The reason for this seemingly over-complicated arrangement was to fulfil the 1954 Act's requirement for competition within the ITV system (as well as against the BBC) and also to help prevent any individual company obtaining a monopoly on commercial broadcasting.
The ITV companies were required, by the terms of their licences from the ITA, to provide a local television service for their particular region, including a daily local news bulletin and regular local documentaries. However, national news bulletins, covering events in the UK and the rest of the world, were (and still are) produced by Independent Television News (ITN). Until 1990 ITN was jointly owned by all the ITV companies.
Each company also produced programming that would be shown across the network (although the decision as to when or if to show each programme remained with the individual contractors), with the four largest franchise operators (known as the "Big Four"—London Weekday, London Weekend, the North of England and the Midlands) producing the bulk of this output. 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.
The first ITV contractor to begin broadcasting was the London Weekday contractor Associated-Rediffusion, on 22 September 1955 beginning at 19.15hrs 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 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 weekend London contractor, ATV London (initially known as "ABC" until the Midlands weekend contractor, Associated British Corporation, complained), began two days later. The other regions all launched later:
The ITV regions initially broadcast on 405-line VHF. 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. ITV eventually introduced PAL colour on this system from 15 November 1969, 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. 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.
In general, usually a few years after their launch, the regional companies made a profit; 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'. However, this was not the case with Wales (West and North) Television (WWN). Problems with the construction of their transmitter network, as well as strict provisions in their contract to produce a large amount of Welsh-language programming, meant that WWN lost a lot of money. Although WWN did receive some help from other ITV contractors, it was not enough; the company declared itself bankrupt in 1964—the only ITV company to have ever done so. The name "Teledu Cymru" and studio facilities were taken over by TWW, who continued to broadcast in North and West Wales using that name until 1968.
[edit] The first franchise round: 1964
Contracts to run an ITV region are not permanent. Contracts were renewed by the ITA every few years, but it was not guaranteed that the incumbent contractor would win an extension; a new company could take over instead.
The ITA's new chairman, former Postmaster General Lord Hill of Luton, undertook a licence review in September 1963 before the legal limit of 10 years for an ITV contract was reached. The purpose of this review was to look at the ITV system in the light of the Pilkington Report into broadcasting in the UK, which had roundly and, it was felt, unfairly, criticised ITV; the review also took into account the promised ITV2 UHF channel, due to be launched if the Conservative Party won the 1964 General Election.
The review also had the effect of showing the Authority's teeth in the face of perceived arrogance from the contractors.
However, 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.
[edit] The second franchise round: 1968
Unlike the 'roll-over' of contracts in 1963, the 1967 review (for contracts running from the end of July 1968) was to create dramatic changes to the structure of the ITV network. The purpose of this review was to ensure the ITV system was ready for the arrival of colour broadcasting in 1969, and also to again allow for the potential start of ITV2, should the Conservatives win any election held after 1970.
Additionally, Lord Hill of Luton had failed to temper the 'arrogance' of the contractors when he made no changes between 1963 and 1964. Indeed, it was felt by many inside the ITA that the arrogance of the companies had grown — especially Rediffusion London, whose department managers also popped up in similar roles for rival applicants, and TWW, who reapplied for their contract under both their own name and that of WWN/Teledu Cymru as a tax dodge.
Lord Hill had made it clear in 1966 that 'all bets were off' on the next franchise round, and that the regions themselves would be likely to 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 moving to replace Southern and various other wild ideas (although it seems clear that Scottish would indeed have exited, had TWW not been the sacrificial company chosen).
In the end, the ITA made the following changes to the ITV region map:
- any split weekday/weekend licences were removed in all regions, except London.
- the London split was moved from Friday/Saturday to Friday at 7pm.
- the North of England region was split into the North West and Yorkshire.
There were also changes to the companies running each region:
- Granada, the existing weekday contractor for the North of England region, was given a seven-day licence for the new North West region.
- Lord Thompson of Fleet was required to divest himself of most of his holding in Scottish Television.
- a new company, Telefusion Yorkshire, later renamed Yorkshire Television, was given the licence to broadcast in the newly created Yorkshire region.
- ATV won the new seven-day Midlands licence, replacing ABC at the weekend.
- ABC and Rediffusion were asked to form a joint company to take the London weekday franchise previously held by Rediffusion alone; the result, Thames Television, was 51% controlled by ABC.
- London Weekend Television was awarded the London Weekend licence, replacing ATV in London.
- most controversially, TWW lost its franchise for Wales and the West of England to Harlech Television, which became known as HTV on the arrival of UHF.
Finally, the local programme guides produced in each region (except the Channel Islands) were abolished and a new company, Independent Television Publications was formed, taking over the London TV Times magazine and producing it as national magazine with regional editions.
Before the changes were implemented, Harold Wilson made the surprise move of sending Lord Hill to the chairmanship of the BBC Board of Governors and replacing him with Herbert Bowden, the Secretary of State for the Commonwealth Office, who was elevated to the peerage under the title Lord Aylestone. He reviewed the changes Hill had made, but allowed them to stand.
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 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 (for instance, from Rediffusion to Thames) but not location. The unions asked for payments to also 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, the strike left a legacy of bitterness across the ITV system that would continue to boil up occasionally during the next decade.
The transition to colour broadcasting began in November 1969.
[edit] The third franchise round: 1974
Much like 1964, and very much unlike 1968, the review of contracts in 1974 produced a 'roll-over' with almost no changes.
The IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) - which replaced the ITA when it was given the responsibility of regulating the new commercial "Independent Local Radio" (ILR) stations under the Sound Broadcasting Act 1972 - took the opportunity of reassigning the Belmont transmitter in Lincolnshire from Anglia to Yorkshire Television, almost doubling the area served by the smallest of the 'Big Five' companies; YTV's non-overlap region had been eroded to just West and South Yorkshire, when the new Bilsdale UHF transmitter was assigned to Tyne Tees Television.[1]
A degree of consolidation was allowed into the system by the IBA (for instance joint, advertising sales operations). One of these, Trident Management, which handled sales for Tyne Tees Television and Yorkshire Television, was allowed to perform a reverse takeover on the two companies, creating a new entity, Trident Television. Both YTV and TTTV, however, retained their own identities, boards and local management.[2]
The teletext service ORACLE was fully launched in 1974—one of the first of its kind (along with the BBC's CEEFAX).
[edit] The fourth franchise round: 1982
At the end of 1980 the IBA reviewed the ITV broadcasting licences again, for contracts beginning on 1 January 1982. As a result, the following changes occurred:
- ATV was considered by the IBA to have not focused on their region enough, and were ordered to change in order to keep their licence. The renamed Central Independent Television took over from ATV on 1 January 1982.
- Southern Television lost their licence for the South of England, in favour of Television South (TVS).
- Westward Television also lost their licence (for South West England), being replaced by Television South West (TSW).
- the new nation-wide breakfast television service was awarded to TV-am, with a provisional start date of May 1983
- Trident Television was ordered to sell the majority of its holdings in Yorkshire and Tyne Tees, and the two companies became independent of each other again.
Along with the new franchises, the IBA introduced new 'dual regions' where one region would be divided into two for different news coverage, as was already the practice with HTV in the "Wales" and "West" regions. The Midlands would be divided into Central West and Central East, and the south of England into TVS South and TVS South East. The Bluebell Hill transmitter was also handed over from Thames Television and London Weekend Television to the new TVS South-East region. Other dual regions would later follow.
November 2, 1982 saw the launch of Channel 4, which built on the ITV network for its funding. The ITV companies sold Channel 4's airtime until 31 December 1992, after which a 'funding formula' continued, whereby the ITV companies would subsidise Channel 4 if it fell into losses. However, it never did, and the funding formula was withdrawn in 1998. During the period 1982-98, Channel 4 and ITV would regularly cross-promote each other's programming, free of charge. Whilst this was clearly in everyone's interest prior to 1993, after this date the two channels were effectively competing, and as part of the funding formula they were required to cross-promote a certain number of prime-time programmes each day. (The broadcasters usually chose the least attractive programmes to cross-promote, such as Channel 4 News, and preferred to play the generic (non-programme-specific) promotions over those that were specific, wherever possible.)
[edit] 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 (otherwise known as the ITC) and the Radio Authority. The small Cable Authority was also abolished, its powers transferred to the ITC.
The main change caused by the Act was to the system of licence allocation: the 'beauty contest', 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.
ITN, the news provider for ITV, was no longer to be exclusively owned by ITV companies. The legal name of the ITV network was changed to Channel 3, although the network is still generally referred to as 'ITV' by the general public and the media.
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 advertisement space — 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 Controllors' Committee, representing the 'Big 5' network companies (Thames, LWT, Central, Granada, and Yorkshire) had decided which programmes had aired in network programme timeslots. This had the effect of excluding other ITV companies, as well as independent production companies. Following lobbying by independent producers, as well as 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.
Ahead of the 1990 Act, ITV had introduced its first official corporate logo and national on-air identity in September 1989; however, Ulster, TVS, and TSW refused to use the generic idents that were designed for their regions, preferring to stay with their distinctive on-screen branding. A whole branding package was designed around this logo. In addition to the idents, there was also a clock, trailer style, font, break bumpers and various other elements. Some regions took some elements, but not others, and they were slowly dropped over time. The regions to have the longest use of the generic ident were Yorkshire Television, who kept it on until October 1994, and Grampian Television who continued to use the 1989 generic ident right up until ITV's new corporate logo was introduced in 1998. In addition, Tyne Tees, Border and Grampian Television continued to use an edited version of the 1989 ident's music in their first idents after dropping the generic ident from use, whereas LWT used a re-recorded version.
[edit] The fifth franchise round: 1993
The results of the Channel 3 franchise auction in 1991 for licences beginning 1 January 1993 were:
- TSW lost the South West England franchise to Westcountry Television.
- Thames Television lost the London weekday franchise to Carlton Television. However, Thames continues to produces programmes for ITV and other channels, such as The Bill and most recently the successful reality television programme Pop Idol.
- TVS lost the South of England franchise to Meridian Broadcasting.
- TV-am lost the national breakfast television franchise to Sunrise Television, who changed their name to GMTV before launch due to 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.
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 until the review was completed. As the contract with Meridian 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 (and therefore against TSW).
[edit] Results of franchise auction
| Franchise | Incumbent and bid | Competition and bid | Results | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borders | Border Television £52,000 | unopposed | unopposed | Border (by default) |
| Central Scotland | Scottish Television £2,000 | unopposed | unopposed | Scottish (by default) |
| Channel Islands | Channel Television £1,000 | CI3 Group £102,000 | CI3 Group disqualified on quality grounds | Channel (by default) |
| East and West Midlands | Central Independent Television £2,000 | unopposed | unopposed | Central (by default) |
| East of England | Anglia Television £17,800,000 | CPV-TV £10,100,000; Three East £14,100,000 | incumbent highest bidder | Anglia (highest bidder) |
| London (weekdays) | Thames Television £32,700,000 | CPV-TV (bid never published); Carlton Television £43,200,000 | CPV-TV bid highest but disqualified on quality grounds | Carlton (highest qualified bidder) |
| London (weekends) | London Weekend Television (LWT) £7,590,000 | London Independent Broadcasting £35,400,000 | London Independent Broadcasting disqualified on quality grounds | London Weekend Television (by default) |
| North of Scotland | Grampian Television £720,000 | North of Scotland £2,710,000; C3 Caledonia £1,130,000 | North of Scotland and C3 Caledonia both disqualified on quality grounds | Grampian (by default) |
| North East England | Tyne Tees Television £15,100,000 | North East Television £5,010,000 | incumbent highest bidder | Tyne Tees (highest bidder) |
| North West England | Granada Television £9,000,000 | North West Television £35,000,000 | North West disqualified on quality grounds | Granada (by default) |
| Northern Ireland | Ulster Television £1,010,000 | TVNi £3,100,000; Lagan £2,710,000 | TVNi disqualified for business plan. Lagan disqualified on quality grounds | Ulster (by default) |
| South and South East | Television South (TVS) £59,800,000 | Meridian Broadcasting £36,500,000; CPV-TV £22,100,000; Carlton £18,100,100 | TVS disqualified for business plan. | Meridian (highest qualified bidder) |
| South West | Television South West (TSW) £16,100,000 | Westcountry Broadcasting £7,820,000; Tele West £7,270,000 | TSW disqualified for business plan. | Westcountry (highest qualified bidder) |
| Wales and West of England | HTV £20,500,000 | Merlin £19,400,000; C3WW £18,300,000; C3W £17,800,000 | incumbent highest bidder | HTV (highest bidder) |
| Yorkshire and Lincolnshire | Yorkshire £37,700,000 | Viking £30,100,000; White Rose £17,400,000 | incumbent highest bidder | Yorkshire (highest bidder) |
| Breakfast | TV-am £14,100,000 | Sunrise £34,600,000; Daybreak £33,200,000 | Sunrise highest bidder | Sunrise [later GMTV] (highest bidder) |
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ CPV-TV was a consortium led by Sir David Frost and Richard Branson. It bid for the East, London weekday and South franchises, aiming to offer a centralised single service.
- ↑ The ITC at first considered disqualifying the Tyne Tees bid, on business plan grounds.
- ↑ North East was backed financially by Granada.
- ↑ North West was a consortium led by Phil Redmond of the independent producer Mersey Television, and backed financially by Yorkshire and Tyne Tees.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ TSW sought a judicial review of this decision. The ITC held off from awarding the contract to Westcountry 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.
- ↑ The ITC at first considered disqualifying the HTV bid on business plan grounds.
- ↑ The ITC at first considered disqualifying the Yorkshire bid on business plan grounds.
- Source for table: ITC, quoted in Encouraging Bidding In The Single Licence National Lottery Framework report, UK National Lottery Commission, 19 November 2004.
- Source for notes: Cherry, Simon ITV: The People's Channel Richmond, UK: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd 2005, pp204–207.
[edit] Consolidation since 1993
The relaxation in the franchise ownership rules, as a result of the 1990 Act, meant that mergers between ITV companies were now possible (even more after the Broadcasting Act 1996, which relaxed the rules even further). This was quickly taken advantage of by the larger companies—Carlton Communications, Granada and (to a lesser extent) Scottish Television:
- 1993:
- Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees re-merged, creating Yorkshire–Tyne Tees Television plc.
- 1994:
- Carlton Television bought Central Independent Television.
- MAI (later United News and Media—UNM), owners of Meridian, bought Anglia Television.
- Granada's takeover of LWT took place.
- 1996:
- Carlton bought Westcountry Television.
- United News and Media purchased HTV.
- 1997:
- Granada acquisition of Yorkshire–Tyne Tees Television plc.
- Scottish Media Group (SMG) acquired Grampian Television.
- 1999:
- Carlton dropped the Central and Westcountry names from their on-air presentation.
- 2000:
- Granada acquired Anglia, Meridian and HTV from UNM; Granada then sold HTV to Carlton to comply with the then-current regulatory requirements.
- 2001;
- Granada acquired Border from Capital Radio Group who bought it in 2000 to obtain the portfolio of radio stations then owned by Border.
In 1998 the Independent Television Association and Network Centre formally merged, becoming "ITV Network Limited". A new lower-case ITV network logo was introduced at the same time.
Carlton and Granada attempted to merge twice in the 1990s, creating a new company that would own all the Channel 3 licences in England and Wales (and the English-Scottish Border). 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 the Scottish Media Group, UTV and Channel Television. The merger of the two companies finally took place at the end of January 2004, and the new company—named ITV plc—started trading on 2 February, with former Carlton shareholders owning 32% and Granada shareholders owning 68% of the new shares in the company.
The choice of the name "ITV plc" was controversial, since it could imply that the company runs the entire network, and an agreement had to be reached with SMG, UTV and Channel before the name could be used. Granada and Carlton have also been criticised, in the past, for using the ITV name to brand their failed pay television service, ITV Digital, and the ITV Sports Channel.
[edit] Adapting to multi channel television
Although still the major force in UK commercial television, ITV's share of the TV viewing audience has been falling for years, particularly since the start of competition by satellite television and cable, and more recently Digital Terrestrial Television. As a result, the ITV companies have tried to adapt by launching several extra channels.
ITV plc has launched several channels using the "ITV" brand: ITV2 in 1998, carrying a mix of imported and homemade programming; ITV3 in 2004, showing 'classic' programming; ITV4 in 2005, targeting a 'male' audience, including some classic 1960s ITC series; the CITV Channel in 2006; and ITV Play also in 2006. Sudsidaries of ITV plc also include the Men & Motors channel, a broadband television trial called "ITV Local" and stakes in GMTV, ITN and Irish broadcaster TV3. UTV has launched several radio channels (UTV Radio) and SMG plc have bought Virgin Radio. Both SMG and UTV launched their own versions of ITV2, called S2 and UTV2, but these were closed in 2001 and 2002. An ITN-founded ITV News Channel was later acquired by ITV, although this too closed down, on 23 December 2005, having lost half of its broadcasting hours on the Freeview platform when ITV4 was launched.
In recognition of the fact that there was an ITV2, the ITV network (in the Carlton- and Granada-owned areas) was rebranded ITV1 in 2001. From October 2002, regional branding in these regions (and later, Channel Television) was dropped altogether, except before regional programming, with all ITV plc regions now being controlled from a reduced number of transmission centres. This has led to a number of job cuts and scaled-back operations at regional centres, with some studios being sold off altogether. In view of the national audiences they serve, Scottish, Grampian and UTV have all decided not to adopt the ITV1 brand, and kept use of their own individual identities at all times. In March, Grampian lost their identity, in favour of Scottish Television's 'stv' brand.
In June 2005, Ofcom, the channel's regulator since the demise of the Independent Television Commission, announced huge reductions in the licence fees payable by the Channel 3 contractors (and Five). This move reflects the significant shift towards digital viewing in the UK, and the British government's desire to switch off analogue television signals altogether by 2012. Licence fees will fall further as the shift to digital continues. Ofcom has also significantly relaxed most of the remaining public service requirements on the ITV contractors; regional non-news output has been a significant casualty of these cutbacks, with most regions now broadcasting no more than two hours a week in this category. Following digital switchover, it remains unclear whether Ofcom or the British government will be able to insist that ITV maintains any public service commitments.
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. 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.
On 9 January 2006, ITV plc unveiled a new corporate identity [11] and generic ITV logo (already used for ITV4), with new on-air identities to be used on screen across all Channel 3 franchises owned by ITV plc (plus Channel Television), as well as ITV2, ITV3, and the ITV News programming, from 16 January 2006. This has replaced the logo in use since 1998.
In March 2006, it was announced by SMG plc that Grampian Television would become the latest ITV region to lose its own regional identity, as it adopts the brand name stv, used by Scottish Television. This brand, which will work similarly to the ITV1 brand in England, had previously been used by Scottish Television from 1969 until 1985.
[edit] Accusations of dumbing down
It is believed by many commentators that ITV has undergone a process 'dumbing down' in recent years. They argue that serious documentary and current affairs programmes are seldom seen in prime time, whilst the amount of reality television programmes and soap operas has increased (although this may be something attributed to British television in general, since the BBC has been accused of the same things). In its defence, ITV does continue to show its major strengths in the fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and the production of 'high-brow' programming such as The South Bank Show has continued.
One of the most controversial changes was the scrapping of the flagship late evening news programme, News at Ten in 1999, replacing it with a later, irregular scheduled and shorter news bulletin. ITV argued that the move was to enable them to have diversity and flexibility to the evening schedule, showing more documentaries and feature length films without a news break. However, the move was (temporarily) reversed in 2001, after much criticism. Three years later, however, on 2 February 2004, ITV again axed News at Ten, opting for a 10:30pm bulletin instead. Critics of the broadcaster have also pointed to the reduction in commitment to regional programming and presentation.
[edit] Changing for the future
With the analogue switch-off ever nearing, ITV will have to find other ways of keeping up in the financial television market. One of ITV's main future plans, apart from adding more channels to the already large digital network, is to build and improve ITV online. This can enable users to to keep up to date with local news and weather while playing along for cash prizes. Digital television will be increasingly difficult for advertising revenue and ratings with more channels to choose from. Therefore ITV can use broadband to make up for the loss on television.
[edit] NTL Merger
On Thursday 9 November 2006, NTL annouced that "it has approached UK commercial broadcaster ITV about a possible merger of the companies." [3]
[edit] References
- ^ Photomusications, accessed 12 June 2006.
- ^ Tyne Tees TV official website, accessed 12 June 2006.
- ^ BBC News website, accessed 9 November 2006.
[edit] External links
- ITV50 at itv.com
- ITV at Fifty (Transdiffusion)
- Independent TeleWeb
- Key dates in the history of commercial TV (ITC, 2002)
