Everything about Itv totally explained
Independent Television (generally known as
ITV) is a
public service network of
British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the
BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990 and the
Broadcasting Act 1990, its legal name has been
Channel 3, the number 3 having no real meaning other than to distinguish it from
BBC One,
BBC Two and
Channel 4 - prior to this, the network had no legal overall name. In part,
3 was assigned as televisions would usually be tuned so that the regional ITV station would be on the third button, the other stations being allocated to that of the number their name contained.
ITV is to be distinguished from
ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of
Granada plc and
Carlton Communications in 2004 and which owns all of the Channel 3 broadcasting licences in
England,
Wales, the
Scottish/English Border and the
Isle of Man. Similarly
ITV1 is the brand used by
ITV plc for the Channel 3 service in these areas.
Organisation
Unlike practically all other TV channels in the
United Kingdom, ITV isn't owned by one single company, although it has come close in recent years.
Ofcom licences fifteen companies to provide regional
Channel 3 services in various areas of the
UK, with a separate franchise for the national breakfast service between 6:00am and 9:25am, and two franchises for London, for a weekday service and a weekend service. The licences were last put out to full tender in 1991, since then they've been renewed on a rolling basis.
In addition to ITV plc as mentioned above, central and northern Scotland are served by
SMG plc, the owner of the two franchises completely within
Scotland, (branded as
STV),
Northern Ireland is served by
UTV, under that name, whilst the
Channel Islands are served by
Channel Television, Ltd., also under the name
ITV1. In the Republic of Ireland ITV plc formerly had a 45% share in the television station TV3, which shows many ITV shows such as X-Factor and Hells Kitchen. This was sold in
2007, but the programming supply agreement continues. UTV is also available in the vast majority of homes in the country in any case.
Additionally, Channel 3 has since 1983 included a national breakfast franchise, currently held by
GMTV, and has a national contractual
teletext provider.
National teletext provider
The Public Teletext Licence allows the holder to broadcast a text-based information service around the clock on Channel 3 (as well as
Channel 4 and
S4C) frequencies. Teletext on ITV had been provided since 1974 by
ORACLE, and since 1993 is provided by
Teletext Ltd., whose news, sport and TV listings pages rival that of the BBC's television offering,
Ceefax on terrestrial and
BBCi on digital. Teletext Ltd. also provides digital teletext for the Channel 3 services, as well as the text output for both
Channel 4 and
S4C (which is covered under the same licence) and
Five (under a separate licence).
Digital Channel 3
Since 1998, each of the Channel 3 franchises have received gifted capacity on
digital terrestrial television (DTT). As per the original agreement, each regional ITV contractor broadcasts its Channel 3 service from 9:25am to 6:00am daily, with the breakfast operator broadcasting in the remaining hours. However, unlike analogue broadcasts, the assigned capacity across DTT is able to carry multiple television services which, like Channel 3, are broadcast by the regional franchisee between the hours of 9:25am and 6:00am, with the breakfast contractor operating between 6:00am and 9:25am.
At present, all franchisees opt to broadcast
ITV plc-owned channels, being
ITV2,
ITV3,
ITV4 and the
CITV Channel, as opposed to broadcasting their own. Up until 2002,
UTV in
Northern Ireland ran a service known as
UTV2, while both
Scottish and
Grampian ran
S2. The breakfast operator, currently
GMTV, is obliged to broadcast between the hours of 6:00 and 9:25am daily. Alongside the Channel 3 GMTV service, GMTV also broadcasts
GMTV2, which is broadcast on the same capacity as
ITV2 and the
CITV Channel. The company also holds a third GMTV3 licence however it currently sells this gifted capacity to
ITV plc to broadcast
ITV3 24 hours a day. ITV is available all across the UK and is also available in the Rep. of Ireland on free to air and Digital satellite.
Channel 3 shares its space with Channel 4 on Multiplex 2, known as
Digital 3&4.
Public service broadcasting
The right granted by Ofcom of Channel 3's nationally-available status on both analogue and digital television comes with responsibility, in the form of public service broadcasting. Alongside the
BBC,
Channel 4 and
Five, the members of the ITV Network and GMTV all have a responsibility to broadcast various programming of public importance on their analogue stations. This includes quotas for news, current affairs, independent and European programming, children's and religious programming, and output containing subtitles, signing and audio description. In addition, Channel 3 stations are legally obliged to screen party election broadcasts on behalf of all the major political parties, and also other political events such as the Budget.
All the companies holding a franchise are members of
ITV Network Limited (formerly the
Independent Television Companies' Association Limited), a not-for-profit body. It is this body that commissions programmes for the network, and schedules the network programming. However, in practice
ITV plc, which owns eleven of the fifteen licences, dominates the system.
Much of the originated networked programme output (around 50%, but previously up to 65% according to some reports) is contributed by
ITV Productions, the production arm of
ITV plc (consisting of the consolidated regional companies' network production departments), although a growing number of programmes are commissioned by the Network from independents (a minimum of 25% of total output, as stipulated by the 1990 Broadcasting Act). In addition, the entire network is obliged to broadcast national news sourced by a common contractor (currently
ITN). All stations have the right to opt out of national programming (except for the national news) but generally do not, since most are owned by the one company and the others have limited resources for non-networked productions.
Franchise details
The table below lists current franchises and the franchise holder.
1. ITV1 Branding is used overnight
2. Branding is usually just "ITV1"
3. to 1968 Granada Television's franchise included most of what is now Yorkshire Television's franchise area and operated a weekday only contract
4. Also uses CITV branding for children's output at the weekend and on digital services
History
Independent Television was created following the
Television Act 1954. The
Independent Television Authority was set up to control and review the network. In the three main areas – London, the
Midlands and the North of England – ITV was launched in September 1955, February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. The shape of the ITV Network and the course it has taken down the years has largely been controlled by regular refranchising rounds which occurred in 1964, 1968, 1974, 1982, and 1993. These rounds saw regions and franchise areas reshaped and franchise holders changed. Additionally, since the
Broadcasting Act 1990 the consolidation of ITV companies has also had an important bearing on the direction of the network.
Future
With more channels to choose from, digital television is increasingly putting pressure on the ITV network's ratings and advertising revenues. This has led a number of requests by franchisees to reduce the networks public service commitments. For example, most recently, ITV has shown interest in reducing its children's output. Critics of the broadcaster have also pointed to the reduction in commitment to regional programming and presentation.
Perhaps the most controversial change 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 would enable it to make the evening schedule more diverse and flexible, allowing them to show feature length films without a news break. News at Ten was brought back in January 2008, With just 3.8 million viewers compared to 4.9 million viewers who watched the BBC's Ten O'Clock News.
Such actions on the part of ITV together with a move to more populist programming has led to many commentators to accuse ITV of '
dumbing down'. 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. However its long-standing commitment to strong
current affairs programming has diminished with the ending of productions such as
World in Action (
Granada),
This Week (
Rediffusion/
Thames),
First Tuesday (
Yorkshire Television) and
Weekend World (
LWT) and their replacement with populist shows such as
Tonight.
The threat to "Channel 3" advertising revenues has also led franchisees to increasingly diversify their businesses. Most notably, ITV plc owns five additional digital-only television channels,
ITV2,
ITV3,
ITV4,
CITV Channel and
Men & Motors and also time-shift channels of ITV2 and 3. This diversification has also led to numerous notable failures such as
ITV Digital in 2002, which was owned by ITV plc's predecessors Carlton and Granada.
Programmes
For over 50 years of Independent Television, the homegrown programmes have become the most lovable and 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, in the last decade, and following legislation in the
Broadcasting Act 1990 imposing a 25% quota for commissioning of independent productions, the number of programmes from independent production companies not connected to the traditional ITV Network, has increased rapidly. Notable examples include
talkbackTHAMES (one half of which -
Thames Television - was itself a former ITV franchisee), producers of
The Bill and co-producers of
The X Factor, and 2waytraffic, (previously
Celador), producers of
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
Increasingly ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its
soap operas, such as
Coronation Street,
Emmerdale, and popular cop drama
The Bill (produced by TalkbackThames). At the start of the 21st century, Independent Television faced criticism for including a large amount of 'reality TV' programs in the schedule, such as
Celebrity Fit Club and
Celebrity Wrestling.
Since then, ITV has struggled to regain viewers' trust, as inexpensive programming hasn't paid dividends. ITV plc have been working to restore this, as the major provider of programming.
News
National and International
Since the network started
Independent Television News Limited has held the contract to produce news for the ITV Network. News bulletins are broadcast at 5:30am, 1:30pm, 6:30pm, and 10:00pm.
Regional
The regional ITV companies provide local programmes tailored for the regional audiences. All the ITV companies provide a main local bulletin at 6pm (preceded in the
UTV and
STV regions by a more
features-based programme at 5:30pm), as well as other local features and sport programming.
Sport
ITV covers many popular sports. The channel emphasises coverage of
football (it holds the UK terrestrial rights to the
UEFA Champions League). The channel shares coverage of international football events such as the
World Cup with the
BBC. In the
STV region it also has the rights to the highlights of
SPL matches which are shown on its
Scotsport programme. It also covers
Formula 1 racing and other
motorsport,
rugby, and other sports. The channel won the rights to broadcast
The Boat Race in 2004.
On
30 March 2007,
The Football Association confirmed that it had agreed a new four-year £425m television deal for ITV and
Setanta Sports to show
FA Cup and
England international matches. This represents a 42% increase on the existing deal with the
BBC and
BSkyB.
Children's
The network broadcasts children's programming under the CITV (Children's ITV) strand. Children's programming is broadcast across the network on weekend mornings. Children's programmes were removed from the ITV line-up in 2006,a move which was challenged by Ofcom in April 2006. In 2006, ITV plc launched their own Children's channel under the CITV brand.
The future
ITV Plc
On
12 September 2007, ITV plc announced a major five-year restructuring plan targeting entertainment as their top priority to bring to the ITV networks. A major overhaul of the regional structure of ITV was also proposed. The proposals would see consolidation of ITV plc's regional news programmes in England and Wales, with regions now broadcasting one service per region rather than multiple tailored local services (for example:
ITV Yorkshire would no longer broadcast separate Northern and Southern regions). The proposed changes would also fully merge
ITV Border with
ITV Tyne Tees and
ITV West with
ITV Westcountry, effectively ending two regions' tenure as independent players within ITV. Any changes would be subject to full approval by
Ofcom.
There would be a certain amount of expansion elsewhere — ITV Network Limited currently commissions around 54% of its programmes from ITV Plc's in-house production units. ITV plc hope for this to be increased to the maximum 75% allowed by the regulators over the coming years.
Future Franchise Rounds
It is generally unknown if there will be any further franchise rounds held by Ofcom; the last was in 1993. Carlton Television (now part of ITV plc) had their license renewed without a contest in 2004, and
UTV's expires on
31 December 2008. If there isn't a franchise round by 2009, it'll be the longest ITV has gone with the same contractors.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Itv'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://itv.totallyexplained.com">ITV Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
