From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ITV plc
Type	Public (LSE: ITV)
Founded	2004
Headquarters	London
Key people	Michael Grade (Executive Chairman); John Cresswell (Chief Operating Officer/CFO)
Industry	Media
Products	Broadcasting
Revenue	£2,181 million GBP[1] (2006)
Operating income	£264 million (2006)
Net income	£222 million (2006)
Employees	6,073 (2006)
Website	www.itv.com/plc

ITV plc (LSE: ITV) is the British media company that operates 11 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. The network, which is currently branded ITV1 by ITV plc, and the independent Channel Television, has vied with the British Broadcasting Corporation's BBC One for the status of the UK's most watched channel since the 1950s. Although ITV plc has a dominant influence on the ITV Network, it should be noted that it does not actually own or operate the whole network.

ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was formed by the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada plc and began trading on 2 February 2004, with Granada being valued about at about twice the worth of Carlton. This was the most recent stage in a long process of mergers between the original ITV regional franchises.

ITV plc is divided into three divisions: Broadcast, which operates the TV networks; News, which runs the ITV regional franchises; and ITV Productions the network production division, of which Granada is an on screen brandname when producing for other networks.

Contents 1 Assets 1.1 ITV franchises 1.2 Wholly owned digital channels 1.3 Other assets 2 Future 3 Notes 4 External links

ITV plc currently owns the following ITV franchises in the UK:

Former Granada-owned franchises:

• Anglia Television: East of England franchise
• Border Television: Scottish/English Border and Isle of Man franchise
• Granada Television: North West England franchise
• London Weekend Television: London weekend franchise
• Meridian Broadcasting: South and South East England franchise
• Tyne Tees Television: North East England franchise
• Yorkshire Television: Yorkshire/Lincolnshire franchise

Former Carlton-owned franchises:

• Carlton Television: London weekday franchise
• Central Independent Television: Midlands franchise
• HTV: Wales and West of England franchise
• Westcountry Television: South West England franchise

Note that ITV Thames Valley is not a franchise but a combined opt-out for parts of the Central and Meridian franchises. Similarly both Carlton Television and London Weekend Television are now exclusively known as ITV London although both still remain in legal existence. The combined Wales and West franchise also appears to operate as two separate entities (ITV Wales, ITV West), although legally they both form part of the single franchise held by HTV Group.

ITV plc also owns 75% of the ITV national breakfast television franchise GMTV.

• ITV2
• ITV3
• ITV4
• CITV Channel
• Men & Motors (operated by Granada Sky Broadcasting)

ITV plc owns a 16.9% shareholding in SMG plc, owner of the Scottish and Grampian ITV franchises, as well as a 40% stake in its news provider Independent Television News Limited. ITV plc also owns 33.3% of Manchester United TV.

On 27 April 2005 ITV plc bought SDN, the digital terrestrial franchise holder of Multiplex A (currently transmitting ten channels) from its shareholders, S4C and UBM for £134 million.

ITV plc also owns the largest cinema advertising business in the UK and Ireland, Carlton Screen Advertising and recently bought Friends Reunited, a website dedicated to reunited former schoolfriends or work colleagues in a number of countries.

ITV plc has been the subject of a flurry of rumoured take-over and merger bids since it was formed. Most recently, on 2006-11-09, NTL announced that it had approached ITV plc about a proposed merger ^[2][3]. The merger was effectively blocked by BSkyB on 2006-11-17 when it controversially bought a 17.9% stake in ITV plc for £940 million ^[4], a move that attracted anger from NTL shareholder Richard Branson^[5] and an investigation from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom^[6]. On 2006-12-06, NTL announced that it had complained to the Office of Fair Trading about BSkyB's move, and was withdrawing its attempt to buy ITV plc citeing that it did not believe that it would currently abe able to make a deal on favourable terms^[7]. At the same time as the NTL bid, RTL, the owner of Five, was also rumoured to be preparing a bid for ITV plc,^[8] however, no bid from RTL has yet materialised.

1. ^ "ITV profits up despite core channel's decline", Reuters UK, March 8, 2006.
2. ^ NTL (2006-11-09). Ntl Incorporated Discussions with ITV plc. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
3. ^ ITV plc (2006-11-09). ITV and NTL 'in merger talks'. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
4. ^ Welsh, James. "Sky buys 17.9% of ITV", Digital Spy, 2006-11-17. Retrieved on December 6, 2006.
5. ^ Wilkes, Neil. "Sky/ITV: Branson statement in full", Digital Spy, 2006-11-20. Retrieved on December 6, 2006.
6. ^ Welsh, James. "Ofcom examines impact of Sky's ITV stake", Digital Spy, 2006-11-21. Retrieved on December 6, 2006.
7. ^ Oatts, Joanne. "NTL complains about Sky as it drops plans for ITV Ofcom", Digital Spy, 2006-12-06. Retrieved on December 6, 2006.
8. ^ Oatts, Joanne. "RTL to make ITV decision this week", Digital Spy, 2006-11-16. Retrieved on December 6, 2006.

• ITV plc at itv.com