ITV
ITV (first known as Independent Television) is a public television broadcasting service in the United Kingdom. It was set up in 1954 by the Television Act 1954 provide competition to the BBC.
History
The Television Act 1954 outlined the service that Independent Television would produce. It also created the Independent Television Authority to manage the ITV network and its transmitters that would be used by the ITV companies to produce a regional service. In 1969, colour television started in some areas of the ITV network and by 1975, the entire ITV network was in colour.
In 1998, ITV2 launched as a channel. It was mainly promoted with ONdigital (renamed ITV Digital in 2001) and it's subscription service even though ITV2 was free to air.
In 2002, all franchises in England and Wales started using the ITV1 name.
In 2004, ITV plc launched ITV3 as a free to air channel, replacing Plus (originally Granada Plus before Granada and Carlton merged into ITV plc.).
In 2005, ITV plc launched ITV4. The channel was supposed to replace Men & Motors, the last channel of the Granada Sky Broadcasting deal that was finalised in 1996, but it would end up replacing the ITV News channel.
In 2009, ITV1 HD launched as a high definition channel on Freeview HD and 5 months later on other platforms.
Current ITV regions
Listed as they were originally named and as they are known now:
- Anglia Television (now known as 'ITV Anglia', broadcasting to the East of England)
- Carlton Central (now known as 'ITV Central', broadcasting to the English Midlands)
- Carlton / London Weekend Television (now known as 'ITV London', broadcasting to London)
- Meridian Broadcasting (now known as 'ITV Meridian', broadcasting to South West England)
- Tyne Tees Television (now known as 'ITV Tyne Tees', broadcasting to North East England)
- Granada Television (now known as 'ITV Granada', broadcasting to North West England)
- Channel Television (now known as 'ITV Channel Television' broadcasting to the Channel Islands)
- Yorkshire Television (now known as 'ITV Yorkshire' broadcasting to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)
