ITV, legally known asChannel 3, is a Britishfree-to-airpublic broadcast television network. It is branded asITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is branded asSTV. It was launched in 1955 asIndependent Television to provide competition toBBC Television (established in 1936).[1] ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of theBroadcasting Act 1990, it has beenlegally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time:BBC1,BBC2 andChannel 4.
ITV was, for decades, a network of separate companies that provided regional television services and also shared programmes among themselves to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies:ITV plc, which runsthe ITV1 channel, andSTV Group, which runsthe STV channel.
The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger ofGranada plc andCarlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 broadcasting licences for every region except for central and northern Scotland, which are held by STV Group.
Today, ITV plc simply commissions the network schedule centrally; programmes are made by its own subsidiary ITV Studios and independent production companies. Regional programming remains in news and some current affairs series.
Although the ITV network's history goes back to 1955, many regional franchisees changed over the years. Some of the most important names in the network's past—notablyThames,ABC andATV—have no connection with the modern network.
Granada Studios was built in 1954 to house the broadcasterGranada Television. Granada Television opened in 1956 and is the only franchisee to remain an ITV contractor since the creation of the network. The Granada studios closed in 2013.The ITV network in 1962, after all regional companies had begun broadcasting
The origins of ITV lie in the passing of theTelevision Act 1954, designed to break the monopoly on television held by theBBC Television Service.[1] The act created theIndependent Television Authority (ITA, then IBA after the Sound Broadcasting Act) to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London,the Midlands and the North of England, with separate franchises for Weekdays and Weekends.[1] The first ITV service to launch was London'sAssociated-Rediffusion on 22 September 1955,[2] with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches, the ITA awarded more franchises until the whole country was covered by fourteen regional stations, all launched by 1962.
The network has been modified several times through franchise reviews that have taken place in 1963,[3] 1967,[4] 1974,[5] 1980[6][7] and 1991,[8] during which broadcast regions have changed and service operators have been replaced. Only one service operator has ever been declared bankrupt,WWN in 1963,[9] with all other operators leaving the network as a result of a franchise review. Separate weekend franchises were removed in 1968 (with the exception of London)[3] and over the years more services were added; these included a national breakfast franchise from 1983 onward—operating between 6:00 am and 9:25 am—and a teletext service.[6] TheBroadcasting Act 1990 changed the nature of ITV; the then regulator theIBA was replaced with a light-touch regulator, theITC; companies became able to purchase other ITV regional companies[10] and franchises were now being awarded based upon ahighest-bidder auction, with few safeguards in place.[8] This heavily criticised part of the review saw four operators replaced, and the operators facing different annual payments tothe Treasury:Central Independent Television, for example, paid only £2,000—despite holding a lucrative and large region—because it was unopposed, while Yorkshire Television paid £37.7 million for a region of the same size and status, owing to heavy competition.[8][11]
Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. By 2004, the ITV network was owned by five companies, of which two,Carlton andGranada, had become major players by owning between them all the franchises in England, Wales, the Scottish borders and the Isle of Man.[12][13][14] That same year, the two merged to form ITV plc[12][13][14] with the only subsequent acquisitions being the takeover ofChannel Television, the Channel Islands franchise, in 2011;[15] andUTV, the franchise for ITV in Northern Ireland, in 2015.
The ITV network is not owned or operated by one company, but by a number of licensees, which provide regional services while also broadcasting programmes across the network. Since 2016, the fifteen licences are held by two companies, with the majority held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc.
The network is regulated by the media regulatorOfcom which is responsible for awarding the broadcast licences. The last major review of the Channel 3 franchises was in 1991, with all operators' licences having been renewed between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2014 without a further contest. While this has been the longest period that the ITV network has gone without a major review of its licence holders, Ofcom announced (following consultation) that it would split theWales and West licence from 1 January 2014, creating a national licence for Wales and joining the newly separated West region toWestcountry Television, to form a new licence for the enlarged South West of England region.
All companies holding a licence were part of the non-profit body ITV Network Limited, which commissioned and scheduled network programming, with compliance previously handled by ITV plc andChannel Television. However, due to amalgamation of several of these companies since the creation of ITV Network Limited (and given Channel Television is now owned by ITV plc), it has been replaced by an affiliation system.[16] Approved by Ofcom, this results in ITV plc commissioning and funding the network schedule, withSTV andUTV paying a fee to broadcast it.[16] All licensees have the right to opt out of network programming (except for the national news bulletins), but, unlike the previous system, will receive no fee refund for doing so. Therefore many do not opt out due to pressures from the parent company or because of limited resources.[16] Prior to the affiliate system being introduced, STV would frequently (and sometimes controversially) opt out of several popular network programmes – such as the original run of the first series ofDownton Abbey – citing the need to provide more Scottish content to its viewers.[17]
As a public service broadcaster, the ITV network is obliged to broadcast programming of public importance, including news, current affairs, children's and religious programming as well as party election broadcasts on behalf of the major political parties and political events, such as the Budget. The network also needs to produce accessible output containing subtitles, signing and audio description. In exchange for this programming, the ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of theEPG of all providers.
Since the launch of the platform in 1998, all of the ITV licensees have received gifted capacity on thedigital terrestrial television platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc ownedITV2,ITV3,ITV4 andITV Quiz in their region.[citation needed] UTV and STV (formerlyScottish Television andGrampian Television) previously broadcast their own services –UTV2 in Northern Ireland andS2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, when they adopted the ITV plc channels. Despite this, STV was given a broadcasting licence for what would become theSTV2 channel in 2013, however this was short-lived and the channel closed in 2018. The broadcasters all make use of theDigital 3&4 multiplex, shared withChannel 4.CITV launched in March 2006 (closed September 2023).ITV Encore launched in June 2014 (closed May 2018) andITVBe launched in October 2014.ITV Box Office launched in February 2017 (closed January 2020).
On 13 September 2022,[18] ITV confirmed that during the day of Monday 19 September, the day of the state funeral for Her Majesty QueenElizabeth II, all programming schedules on ITV's digital channels would be scrapped, with the main ITV News coverage being shown live and uninterrupted on every channel.[19][18] This was the first time ITV decided to do this, with the company keeping their digital channels' schedules mostly as advertised in the run up to the funeral (with a few amendments for cancelled sporting events on ITV4) and all royal coverage being on their main channel.[19][20][21][22][23][24]
The Leeds Studios, used byITV Yorkshire. Each ITV region originally had its own studios, however the rise of publisher-broadcasters likeCarlton Television and the takeover of regions caused several studios to be closed.
ITV plc owns thirteen of the fifteen franchises and broadcasts to England, Wales, southern Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland through its subsidiary company ITV Broadcasting Limited.[15] The company also owns thebreakfast television licence,[25] which as of January 2020, broadcasts across the network between 6:00 and 10:00am each morning using theGood Morning Britain (previouslyDaybreak) andLorraine names. The company broadcasts a centralised service under theITV1 brand. In Northern Ireland, ITV used the UTV brand name as the name of the channel until April 2020.[26]
The group also ownsITV Studios, the production arm of the company and formed from an amalgamation of all the production departments of the regional licences they own. The company produces a large proportion of ITV's networked programming (around 47%, but previously as high as 66% according to some reports[27]), with the rest coming primarily from independent suppliers (under the Broadcasting Act 1990, at least 25% of ITV's total output must be from independent companies).[28] ITV plc hopes to increase the amount of in-house programming to as close to the 75% limit as possible.
The group cut the number of regional news programmes offered from 17 in 2007 to 9 by 2009, resulting several regions being merged to form one programme, including theBorder andTyne Tees regions, theWestcountry andWest regions and the removal of sub regional programming, with some regions only represented by pre-recorded segments.[29] Sub-regions were restored in 2013.
STV Group plc owns two franchises, covering central and northern Scotland, through subsidiary companies STV Central and STV North, broadcasting a central service under theSTV brand.
The company had several disputes with ITV plc in the late 2000s and early 2010s over network programming. STV aimed to broadcast more Scottish programmes at peak times and so removed several key ITV plc programmes from their schedule in July 2009 includingThe Bill,Midsomer Murders andLewis.[30] Despite STV's explanation of expense, ITV plc were angered by the decision, as a recent schedule change had madeThe Bill central to their programming, and broadcast the programmes onITV3 as well to ensure Scottish viewers could see the programmes. On 23 September ITV plc was reported to be in the process of suing STV for £20 million, as ITV felt dropping the shows constituted a breach of network agreements;[31] STV subsequentlycounter-sued ITV plc for £35 million.
The dispute was ended in 2011 with STV agreeing to pay ITV plc £18 million. The signing of the new affiliation deal has resulted in STV paying a flat fee for all networked programming, and so to drop any programmes is unlikely due to the large costs involved.[32]
On-air branding of the ITV network regions 2013–2022. Since then, ITV has rebranded as ITV1.The fully ITV-branded franchises since 2014
There are fifteen regional licences, covering fourteen regions (there are separate weekday and weekend licences for the London region), and one national licence for the breakfast service. All licences listed here were renewed until the end of 2024. Licences in England and Wales were held by the individual regional ITV plc owned companies prior to November 2008.[33]
The appointment to provide national news for Channel 3 is also subject to approval by Ofcom. This appointment has been held byITN since the channel's inception, and has also been approved through the end of 2024.[34]
ITV share of viewing 1981–2008 Broadcasters' Audience Research Board figures
For over 60 years of ITV, its homegrown programmes have become among the best remembered as well as being extremely successful. Before the 1990s, nearly all of the content for the channel was produced by the fifteen franchise licensees: the regional companies.
However, following legislation in theBroadcasting Act 1990 imposing a 25% quota for commissioning of independent productions,[28] the number of programmes from independent production companies not connected to the traditional ITV network has increased rapidly. Notable examples includeTalkback Thames (one half of which,Thames Television, was itself a former ITV franchisee), producers ofThe Bill and co-producers ofThe X Factor, and2waytraffic, producers ofWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its soap operas, such as the flagshipCoronation Street andEmmerdale. At the start of the 21st century, ITV faced criticism for including a large amount of "reality TV" programmes in the schedule, such asCelebrity Fit Club,Celebrity Wrestling andCelebrity Love Island. In its defence[editorializing], ITV does continue to show its major strengths in the fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and it continues to schedule national news in primetime.
Breakfast television programmes have been broadcast on ITV since 1 February 1983. It was initially run by an independent contractor -TV-am, and later GMTV - untilGMTV Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary ofITV plc in November 2009.[37]
Historically, ITV aired breakfast programmes from 6am until 9.25am but ITV extended this to 10am on weekdays on 6 January 2020.[38] and now broadcasts two breakfast programmes on weekdays -Good Morning Britain andLorraine.Good Morning Britain keeps viewers up to date with all the latest news, sports, features and weather, whilstLorraine predominantly focuses on celebrity interviews, recipes, fashion and showbiz. Until 27th August 2023, the service would show a simulcast of the CITV channel, but since that service has closed, a mix of repeated programming is shown whilst the CITV service that still exist broadcasts at breakfast time on ITV2 (which has the CITV block), ITV3, ITV4 and ITVBe from 7am show other repeats some of which provide a sign language service within the broadcast as part of its quota and licence requirements.
In recent years the network has tried to use formats that ITV Studios own outright (whether they have originated in the UK with their Lifted Entertainment[40] company or have come from production companies they own abroad), though some popular programme formats likeThe Masked Singer have still been acquired from other companies abroad. Currently ITV are behind the formats forDancing on Ice,The Voice UK (the format originally coming from their Dutch production company) andI'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, while forthcoming music game showWalk The Line has been co-developed by Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment and ITV.[41][42][43][44]
Since the network started,Independent Television News Limited (ITN) has held the contract to produce news for the ITV network, with 30-minute national news bulletins currently broadcast at1:30 pm, and 10:00 pm, and an hour-long bulletin at 6.30pm. These bulletins were broadcast under the ITN brand from 1955 until 1999, when a new network identity reinforced the ITV brand, resulting in the new bulletins being broadcast under theITV News brand.[45][46]
ITN has long been respected in the news industry as a source of reliable information and news, and as a result the service has won many awards for their programmes, the latest being in May 2011 whenNews at Ten was named best news programme by theRoyal Television Society andBAFTA.
The ITV National Weather forecast was first broadcast in 1989, using data supplied by theMet Office, and was presented by a number of weather forecasters. The forecasts are sponsored with the sponsor's message appearing before and after the forecast. The forecasts are made immediately after the main national news bulletins.
Prior to the creation of the national forecast, each regional company provided its own regional forecast. The regional forecasts today are incorporated into the main regional news bulletins, and in the summer months, includes a pollen count.
Currently only new episodes of long-form news and current affairs programmes likeExposure,[47]Peston[48] andOn Assignment[49] are being scheduled afterNews at Ten. The channel broadcasts a partnership teleshopping service overnight, replacing gambling broadcasts: the time between the news and the shopping is usually kept for re-runs, with ITV repeating its primetime entertainment shows, films, or sports programming from ITV4.[50][51][52][53]
Also aired overnight are[54] repeats, many of which have on-screen BSL signing for the deaf community.[55] Replacing the information-basedITV Nightscreen slot in 2021 wasUnwind With ITV,[56] programming produced in association with theCampaign Against Living Miserably. This mindfulness programme shows calming shots of natural landscapes and relaxing animations,[57][58] with versions of the footage also seen on ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4.
On some occasions the schedule is varied, for example a live event overnight, such as theSuper Bowl or theOscars.[59][60]
This overnight programme service is very different to what used to be shown on the network in the years after 24-hour broadcasting was introduced - this included new entertainment, imports, sports and other information programmes, and, in some regions, a job finder service.
The regional ITV companies are required to provide local news as part of their franchise agreement together with local weather forecasts, with the main local bulletin at 6pm and regional bulletins located after each national news programme. In addition to this, traditionally ITV companies would provide other regional programming based on current affairs, entertainment or drama. However, apart from a monthly political programme, most non-news regional programming in the English regions was dropped by ITV plc in 2009, although it continues in Wales and the Channel Islands, as well as on STV and UTV and ITV Border in Scotland from 2014 to cover mainly Scottish politics whilst ITV Border in England broadcast network programming .[61] On 14 January 2013, ITV plc regional news programmes titles were discontinued in favour of more generic branding under theITV News title with the region listed as the subheading. However some "heritage" brand names were retained includingCalendar,Granada Reports andLookaround. On 28 June 2014,ITV News Cymru Wales returned to its historic name ofWales at Six.
ITV holds joint rights for theFIFA World Cup and theUEFA European Championship with theBBC and has shown every World Cup live since 1966, on a shared basis with the BBC. This arrangement has been in place since the 1960s. ITV shares the rights for theFA Cup with the BBC, having previously done so from 1955 to 1988. ITV also held the live rights to the competition from 1998 to 2001 and from 2008 until 2014. The 24/25 season also added the Carabao Cup to its portfolio broadcasting both semi finals with the first leg of one and the second leg of the other and the final sharing the broadcasting rights with Sky Sports.[62][63]
ITV other flagship sporting coverage is as the exclusive free to air home of British horse racing. ITV's deal, which began on 1 January 2017, encompasses horse racing every Saturday afternoon on ITV or ITV4.[64]
ITV Sport has broadcast many boxing matches over the years under theBig Fight Live banner and the sport was a regular fixture on ITV screens until the mid 1990s when ITV lost its two premier contracts toSky Sports[65] In 2005, ITV returned to the ring when it reached an agreement to broadcast the main share ofFrank Warren'sSports Network fights. This continued until 2008, and in 2010 ITV decided to stop covering the sport as ITV thought that boxing was no longer commercially viable. In the late 2010s ITV showed some boxing on a pay-per-view channelITV Box Office.[66] However ITV's boxing coverage is now restricted toPremier Boxing Champions which it shows on ITV4, having closedITV Box Office at the start of 2020.[67]
ITV has shown theTour de France in 2002. Initially, live coverage was only broadcast at the weekend but since the 2010 Tour de France,ITV4 has broadcast daily live coverage of every stage. ITV also broadcasts the Women's Tour andTour of Britain live.
Darts
ITV4 covers six tournaments each year, including theUK Open,The Masters and theWorld Series of Darts. ITV had previously extensively covered the sport and did so from 1972 until it decided to drop the sport in 1988. ITV resumed coverage ofdarts in 2007 and since then it has gradually increased the number of events it shows.[68]
ITV has broadcast everyRugby World Cup live since 1991. ITV also broadcasts theWomen's Rugby World Cup and the Under 20 World Cup.[69] Since 2016, ITV has shared coverage of theSix Nations Championship with theBBC. ITV broadcasts all England, France Ireland and Italy home matches live, while BBC shows all Scotland and Wales home matches live.[70] ITV also shows 7 live matches fromPremiership Rugby including the final and a weekly highlights show on ITV4 on Sunday evenings, repeated later on ITV1.
Snooker is another sport which ITV dropped but has subsequently restarted showing. In the 1980s and early 1990s, ITV broadcast four tournaments per season. ITV dropped snooker after the 1993 British Open and the sport was mostly absent from ITV screens until the 2010s. In summer 2014 ITV andBarry Hearn announced they had signed a 5-year deal to cover 2 Snooker Tournaments per year, keeping coverage of theChampion of Champions and a new tournament called the World Grand Prix.[71] ITV now shows four tournaments each year, including theChampion of Champions and theWorld Grand Prix.
The network broadcasts children's programming under the CITV (Children's ITV) strand. Children's programming was originally provided during weekday afternoons and weekend mornings, however following the launch of theCITV channel in 2006, all children's programming, with the exception of the weekend ITV Breakfast slot, were relocated from the ITV line-up to the CITV channel in 2007, a move which was challenged by Ofcom in April 2007. In 2023, ITV announced that CITV would cease broadcasting as a linear channel, and would be replaced byITVX Kids, astreaming media service which launched in July 2023.[72] The CITV channel closed on 1 September 2023, with a dedicated CITV programming block now broadcasting on ITV2 every morning, from 2 September 2023.
Schools programming on the network began in 1957 in some regions and expanded as more regions began broadcasting. It was a contractual obligation for some ITV companies to broadcast schools programming, and this was initially broadcast as part of the normal scheduling. The programmes were moved into a segment for broadcast during the day in the 1960s, under the bannerIndependent Television for Schools and Colleges and from 1987 were broadcast onChannel 4 in theITV Schools on Channel 4 segment. In 1993, this segment becameChannel 4 Schools and later in 20004Learning. These strands of programming consisted of schools programming from all the ITV companies or from independent sources. The schools strand itself is now defunct, with no particular branding segment used.
ITV was originally very reliant on broadcasting American series, with westerns such asGunsmoke andRawhide in particular being considerable successes for the network during its earlier years. Action dramaThe Fugitive and sci-fi anthologyThe Twilight Zone were also broadcast by various regions in the early 1960s, withBatman andI Dream of Jeannie shown later on in the decade. Due to the varying schedules of many ITV regions, acquired content was not broadcast by some franchises.
By the 1970s, most ITV regions were airing the likes ofHawaii Five-O,Happy Days, andThe Brady Bunch. 1972 also saw the beginning of ITV's daytime programmes at lunchtime, a slot that would become associated with the many Australian soap operas that were broadcast in the newly expanded schedule, includingThe Sullivans andThe Young Doctors. By the 1980s, more were added to the schedule, such asSons and Daughters andA Country Practice.
In primetime by the 1980s, ITV was broadcasting the likes ofHill Street Blues (which ITV began showing just one week after its debut on NBC in the United States) andL.A. Law. It was also early in the decade when Australian evening soap operaPrisoner: Cell Block H was bought by ITV, and was broadcast afterNews at Ten.
By 1982, Channel 4 had launched, and despite originally being related to ITV, it competed against its parent network to screen popular American programmes such asSt. Elsewhere andCheers, although the latter did receive a single ITV broadcast as part of a night showcasing Channel 4 programmes. BothHill Street Blues andL.A. Law had moved from ITV to Channel 4 by the end of their runs.
In February 1989, in tandem with the network launching its national weather forecast, and as part of a new early evening lineup which involved the shortening of Children's ITV, Australian soapHome and Away was acquired by ITV, particularly to compete with the success of rival Australian soap operaNeighbours on BBC One. ITV also broadcastBeverly Hills, 90210 beginning in early 1991, in the same Saturday teatime slot thatBaywatch had occupied, although some episodes were broadcast in later time slots. It moved toSky One beginning with the third season.
ITV reshuffled its daytime schedules in the autumn of 1993, and just a few months prior,Central began broadcasting the New Zealand soap operaShortland Street. The revamp saw more ITV companies pick it up, withScottish Television the only region to reject the series outright. Central also broadcast the Australian soap operaEcho Point around the same time, although no other franchises picked it up. ITV also aired a considerable amount of syndicated unscripted US programmes in daytime during the 90s, such asJudge Judy andThe Jerry Springer Show.
By 1996, ITV had been quiet with US series in primetime, particularly as Channel 4 and Sky One increased the competition for securing the most popular US dramas and sitcoms. However, that summer, ITV debuted the primetime soapSavannah, in a 9pm Friday slot. It was a considerable success for ITV's standards, and it became the highest rated new American series of that year. Despite this success, ITV moved the show for its second season, no longer networking the series and moving to late night slots.
ITV tried again at broadcasting an American drama series in September 1997, with the ABC legal dramaThe Practice, which ran in the same slot thatSavannah had the year prior. It saw nowhere near the same levels of success, and was dropped by the network after just three episodes. It later resurfaced in late night before moving to BBC One in 2000.
ITV attempted launching a Monday night block for American sitcoms in the post-News at Ten slot in the autumn of 1998, withVeronica's Closet (which ITV beat Channel 4 for the rights to) followed byDharma & Greg.[73] After this failed to catch much steam, ITV all but pulled out from showing American programmes on the main network by the end of the decade, and it would prove to be the final time ITV aired US comedy on the main network.
ITV made attempts during the mid 2000s to poach proven popular US shows such as the mystery comedy-dramaDesperate Housewives and medical dramaHouse from Channel 4 and Five, respectively, but both shows ended up remaining on their incumbent rights holders.[74][75] ITV were reportedly also interested in 2004 about acquiring theFriends spin-offJoey but later denied such interest, and in 2007 were close to picking upNeighbours after the BBC declined to continue broadcasting it, although Five eventually won the rights to both programmes.[76][77][78]
ITV returned to US programming in 2006, acquiringSix Degrees.[79] Initially it had been planned to air in a primetime slot in 2007, but ended up being shown in late nights in 2008. This could be due to the show being cancelled after its first season by original networkABC due to low ratings, despite high expectations and its slot following top-10 hitGrey's Anatomy. It was also around this time thatSupernatural andDexter, which ITV2 & ITV4 aired respectively, were given late night repeats on ITV1.[80][81]
The following year, ITV acquired another US programme, fellow ABC seriesPushing Daisies. It debuted in 2008 in a Saturday evening slot and initially did well garnering 5.7 million viewers, although there were fan complaints when ITV chose to skip broadcasting the second episode, blaming football coverage, eventually releasing it on their website.[82][83] The last attempt so far by ITV to broadcast acquired output in primetime was the TV adaption ofLethal Weapon in 2017, where it remained for all three seasons.
The Public Teletext Licence[84] allows the holder to broadcast a text-based information service around the clock on Channel 3 (as well asChannel 4 andS4C) frequencies. Teletext on ITV was provided byORACLE from 1974 until 1993 and from 1993 to 2010 byTeletext Ltd., whose news, sport and TV listings pages rivalled the BBC's offering,Ceefax on terrestrial andBBC Red Button on digital. Teletext Ltd. also provided digital teletext for the Channel 3 services, as well as the text output for bothChannel 4 andS4C under the same licence andChannel 5. However, the licence was revoked by Ofcom on 29 January 2010 for failing to provide news and local non-news information on ITV and there is currently no teletext licence holder for ITV.[85]
Since the launch of ITV, there have been concerns from politicians and the press that ITV faced a conflict concerning programme audiences and advertisers. As advertisers are reluctant to buy advertising space around low viewing programmes, there is a pressure on ITV to broadcast more popular programmes in peak times.[citation needed] This became more profound in the early 21st century, following a relaxation in regulation and significantly more competition in the advertising market following the huge increase in commercial channels.[citation needed] In the 2000s, programmes from the reality television genre including the celebrity and talent show subgenres became a dominant presence on the channel. This led to accusations of ITV 'dumbing down' their programmes and appealing to the 'lowest common denominator', accusations that are at odds with the network's status as apublic service broadcaster.[87][88] ITV was/is also heavily criticized for scaling back its regional programmes, including regional news.[citation needed]
ITV logos shared between the network companies before the establishment of asingle ITV1 channel in England, Wales and Southern Scotland in 2002
There has never been an identity for ITV as a whole that was adopted uniformly by all broadcasters within the ITV network. Before 1989, each regional company used its own name for identification and the name "ITV" was rarely seen on screen, except for some sub-brands such asITV Schools orITV Sport. In September 1989, a national ITVcorporate identity was established, which saw regional brands combined with the national ITV brand, although the balance between regional and national brands varied from company to company, and some companies never used the ITV brand at all. It was not until October 2002 that national ITV-branded continuity was adopted across all the regions in England and Wales (seeITV1), although regional continuity before local programmes continued until November 2006.
^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 byGranada Television for Monday to Friday and byABC Weekend for weekends.
^Coverage was transferred from ITV Border and Tyne Tees to ITV Granada following DSO in the Isle of Man in July 2009.
^South West of England only until 31 December 2013
^Since 2013 all presentation has only carried the ITV/ITV1 name, however the nameITV Channel Television was previously used on-screen.
^Despite UTV permanently adopting ITV/ITV1 continuity in November 2020, the UTV brand is still used for local programming.
^The current breakfast holder,ITV Breakfast Ltd, is a rebrand ofGMTV, which took over from the previous incumbent,TV-am in 1993.
^ITV plc purchased the remaining stake ofGMTV (nowITV Breakfast) from The Walt Disney Company in November 2009.
^abTryhorn, Chris (2 February 2004)."Finally, ITV plc is born".Guardian. London.Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved19 January 2013.
^Holmwood, Leigh (12 September 2007)."Unions slam ITV regional cuts". London: MediaGuardian.Archived from the original on 22 December 2013. Retrieved27 September 2007.
^Sherryl Wilson (2005). "9". In Catherine Johnson and Rob Turnock (ed.).ITV Cultures: Independent Television over Fifty years. Maidenhead: Open University Press. pp. 159–176.ISBN9780335217298.
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