ITV Digital Channels Ltd

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ITV Digital Channels Limited (formerly known as Granada Sky Broadcasting or GSB and Carlton Digital Broadcasting or CDB) is a wholly owned subsidiary of British television broadcaster ITV plc. GSB was set up in 1996 until 2004 as joint venture between Granada Television and British Sky Broadcasting to launch a range of television channels broadcasting the Granada archive on the Sky satellite television platform. CDB was set up in 1997 until 2004

GSB's logo

It launched four later nine channels on October 1, 1996:

• Granada Plus — entertainment programmes from the archives of Granada and its subsidiaries. Closed in 2004.
• Granada Good Life — a lifestyle channel split into four segments: Granada Food & Wine, Granada Health & Beauty, Granada TV High Street and Granada Home & Garden. Relaunched as Granada Breeze in May 1998 in an attempt to improve ratings but it too was closed in May 2002.
• Granada Men & Motors — a channel aimed at men
• Granada Talk TV — a debate channel. Closed in August 1997
• Carlton Cinema — a movie channel. Closed in 2003
• Carlton Food Network — a food channel. Closed in 2001
• Carlton Kids — a Carlton channel version of Children's ITV. Closed in 2000
• Carlton Select — a drama channel. Closed in 2000
• Carlton World — a world cinema channel. Closed in 2001

On February 2, 2004, Granada merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc. On November 1, 2004, ITV plc agreed to purchase BSkyB's stake in GSB for £10 million and closed Granada Plus. This gave ITV a free slot on the Sky Digital platform in which to broadcast its new ITV3 channel, which launched later on the same day^[1] . The negotiations that led to ITV plc taking sole control of GSB, closing Granada Plus and launching ITV3 on digital satellite were apparently completed just hours before the new channel started broadcasting. A week later, on the November 8, 2004, Granada Sky Broadcasting was renamed "ITV Digital Channels Limited". The closure of Granada Plus, left Men & Motors the sole survivor of the original four channels. As part of ITV's buy-out of Sky's shareholding Sky will receive 49.5% of any proceeds (net of liabilities) from any sale of Men & Motors.^[1]

On May 2, 2005, Men & Motors launched as free-to-air channel on the Freeview, digital terrestrial television service. It was rumoured than ITV plc would replace Men & Motors with ITV4, another men's channel, when it launched on 1 November 2005. However, after a better than expected performance from Men & Motors as a free-to-air channel, both channels continued and ITV plc cut the hours of the ITV News Channel to make way for ITV4 instead.

Although ITV4 started broadcasting from the Astra satellite on 1 November, it was not placed on the Sky EPG until 7 November. Because of this, some ITV4 sporting programming was simulcast on Men & Motors in a ITV4 on m&m strand.

Despite, the previous U-turn not to close Men & Motors, fresh rumours over the channels future began to circulate in early 2006 due to a poorer than expected performance from the fledgling ITV4 service.^[2] In April 2006, Men & Motors left Freeview to make way for the launch of ITV Play. However, Men & Motors continues to broadcast on cable and satellite.

[edit] On-screen identity

Granada Sky Broadcasting	Granada Food & Wine (part of Granada Good Life)	Granada Health & Beauty (part of Granada Good Life)	Granada TV High Street (part of Granada Good Life)
Granada Home & Garden (part of Granada Good Life)	Granada Men & Motors	Granada Plus	Granada Talk TV
Taste CFN	ITV plc

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} ITV plc (2004-11-01). "ITV3 to launch on satellite today". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
2. ^ Wilkes, Neil. "ITV "not happy" with ITV4 ratings", Digital Spy, 2006-02-23. Retrieved on 2006-11-16. 

[edit] See also

• ITV Digital

[edit] External links

• ITV plc
• MenandMotors.co.uk
• EMC Bitstream: ITV3: reaching for the Sky — discusses the negotiations that led to the sale of Sky's stake and closure of Granada Plus