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From 1936 to 1955 there was only one television channel in the UK (and nothing at all during World War 2), then the ITV (Independent Television) network came along which unlike the BBC was funded entirely using revenue from advertisments shown between programmes. Another key difference was that ITV consisted of several different companies, each one serving a different part of the British Isles and producing programmes which were either shown locally or nationally across the entire network. This caption from Tyne Tees (North-East England) gives the VHF channel number. |
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ITN (Independent Television News) provided news programmes for the ITV network and the organisation still does so today. The first bulletin was transmitted at 10 p.m. on 22 September 1955 on ITV's opening night, and introduced a less formal style of news broadcasting to the UK imported from America, which was in direct contrast to the cinema newsreels and still pictures that the BBC used. The appropriately-named Christopher Chataway presented the first programme, and him, along with Robin Day and Ludovic Kennedy, became household names. |
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The news was not the only thing different about the new service. ITV, in contrast to the licence fee funded BBC, was more 'downmarket' in its approach, showing quiz games and popular light entertainment shows in order to attract viewers to the new service. The caption shown is the start of the title sequence for Sunday Night at the London Palladium, presented by Jack Parnell, and produced for the ITV network by Associated Television (ATV), the company that served the Midlands (and London at weekends up to 1968) until 1982. |
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Another early feature of ITV which survived until 1963 (when it was outlawed) was the 'ad mag' or advertising magazine, another idea borrowed from America. Instead of featuring advertisments in clearly defined breaks before and during a programme, the advertisments were incorporated into the content of the programme, so (for example) a 'housewife' talking to her friend would casually mention that she uses Persil washing powder for 'a whiter wash'. The most popular of these was called "Jim's Inn". |
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Granada Television (which serves the North-West of England) is the longest surviving of the ITV companies, having been one of the original franchise holders in 1956. It is famous for several programmes, especially Coronation Street (a long-running soap opera) and World in Action. |
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ITV's Picasso Period...In the 1960's up to the advent of colour (when it was sadly abandoned) there was what as known as the 'Picasso' tuning signal, which was unofficially named after the famous artist by virtue of its style. What Picasso himself would have made of it is unknown, but he surely would have given nodding approval ! The example pictured was broadcast exclusively from the Emley Moor transmitter in Yorkshire. |
Before 1968 there were four major ITV networking companies:
| Associated-Rediffusion |
Served London Monday-Friday. |
| ATV Network |
Served the Midlands Monday-Friday and London at weekends. |
| ABC Television |
Served the Midlands and North at weekends. |
| Granada Television |
Served the North Monday-Friday. |
The first ITV franchise review in 1968 resulted in a 'big five':
| Thames Television |
A new company (created by joining Associated-Rediffusion with ABC Television) serving London from Monday until 7 pm on a Friday. |
| London Weekend Television |
Another new company serving London from 7 pm Friday until Sunday. |
| Yorkshire Television |
The North region was split in two, with this new company serving Yorkshire for the entire week. |
| Granada Television |
Now serving Lancashire throughout the week. |
| ATV Network |
Now serving the Midlands thoughout the week. |
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As well as the changes listed above, TWW (Television Wales and West) were ''dispossessed' and were replaced by Harlech Television, a company named after Lord Harlech but which was soon to be renamed HTV since the Harlech name (rightly or wrongly to many viewers) reflected a Welsh bias to viewers in the West of England. HTV still has the franchise but is now part of the group of companies which also own a stake in Meridian and Anglia Television. Pre-programme company idents (as such) were no longer used from the beginning of 1988.
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The 1980s started with a degree of uncertainty for the ITV contractors, as the second franchise review took place. Three familiar ITV names - ATV, Southern and Westward - were displaced by newcomers Central, TVS and TSW on January 1 1982 - the big surprise was the loss of ATV because they were still a very successful TV company. Also ITV gained a new national breakfast television service which was provided by a complete separate contractor - TV-am. |
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Commercial television often uses what is known as a 'break bumper' which is a very short (typically less than 2 second) animation with no music shown just before and/or after the commercial break - the picture is taken from one which was used by Meridian Television. In the past some ITV companies used a simple animation between each commercial as well (technically a 'break spacer'); the one used by Westward Television featured a rotating hexagon ! |
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Unlike the BBC, the ITV companies only hold a franchise to broadcast in a particular region, and these franchises are reviewed every couple of years. Licence renewal is not automatic, as many companies have found to their cost. TVS lost its franchise as a result of the controversial franchise auction that took place in 1991, so it (plus Thames, TSW, and TV-am) had to go, so on the 1st January 1993... |
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...Meridian Television took over the TVS franchise, which it holds to this day. Other 1993 changes were Carlton controversially replacing Thames, Westcountry replacing TSW, and GMTV replacing TV-am (having bid a huge amount). It is fairly unlikely that the closed franchise auction fiasco of 1991 will ever be repeated whereby companies had to place sealed bids, but due to special rules (which appeared to change at one point almost daily) there were other considerations such as a 'quality threshold' to be met. So the highest bidder did not automatically win the franchise, which incidentally is how Granada managed to survive. |
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TV from the heart...ITV's new image as introduced on 5 October 1998, which includes a new lower case itv logo (replacing the 1989 design) and colour scheme. The 'heart' is meant to symbolise 'warmth' and 'cuddliness', though ITV executives nearly had heart failure when they learnt of the BBC Choice 'three hearts' ident ! 'Break bumpers' have been produced with 'hearts' as the theme, and phase two of the changes with (possibly) a more 'regional' slant was rumoured to be forthcoming. However not all companies used all changes, eg. Meridian and others used their own style of ident/break bumper and adds their own logo to generic ITV trailers. |
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The next (and not uncontroversial) change was the axing of News at Ten from March 8 1999 - since 1967 this news programme had been a regular feature of the ITV weekday evening schedule and it had also been a condition of the ITV franchise holders that they had to show it regardless, meaning that it was impossible to start showing a movie at (say) 9 pm without being interrupted by anything but commercials. Now there are news bulletins at 6:30 pm and at 11 pm instead, though these changes will be subject to a future review. |
 
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| From Monday 8 November - a year and a month after the ITV 'heart' logo was introduced, all English ITV franchises (except Carlton) adopted the ITV "generic" look for their on-screen presentation. The Carlton example is taken from the Midlands region which uses orangeBehind the scenes at ITV there have been many upheavals within many of the franchises since the mid 1990s (see table below), with numerous mergers and acquistions. |
 
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| These pictures show "Central News at Six" which illustrate how the star theme used by Carlton has been applied to the titles and studio set used (note the star pattern on the backdrop of the news studio). |
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This 'programme menu' shows the lineup of programmes for ITV for Christmas Day 1999, which is dominated by a selection of programmes designed to try and attract the largest popular audience possible. ITV has in recent years performed relatively poorly in terms of audience share on Christmas Day, so this illustrates a clear attempt to reverse the trend. |
ITV franchise ownership at the start of 2000:
| Carlton Communications |
Owns Carlton - London Monday-Friday. Also now own Central (Midlands) and Westcountry (South-West) which are now also known as Carlton, though they have their own regional programming. Also owns a share of GMTV and Meridian. |
| Granada Media Group (GMG) |
Owns Granada (North-West England), plus North East Television (name changed from Tyne Tees), Yorkshire and LWT (London weekends). |
| Scottish Media Group (SMG) |
Owns Scottish (Southern Scotland), plus Grampian (Northern Scotland). |
| United News and Media (UNM) |
Owns Meridian (Central South and South East England), HTV (Wales and West of England), plus Anglia. |
| Independent franchises |
Border (Southern Scotland and Cumbria/Northumbria - Border has since been made part of the Capital Radio Group but is still independent from the other ITV franchises), Channel (Channel Islands - Channel is now also part of a larger group of companies), Ulster (Northern Ireland). |
Many observers believe that all ITV franchises (at least in England) will eventually be owned by one company, because of the belief that a single large company may be able to compete more effectively against the rapidly increasing number of TV channels available through various means. However if ITV were to lose its regionality in the process it may sacrifice what some believe to be a unique asset that ITV possesses, plus ITV already behaves as if it was one entity for specific purposes such as bidding for sports coverage. Also at the moment single company ownership is not technically possible since this would breach current regulations relating to advertising share.
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