ITV plc

History

Pre-acquisition

ITV plc was the result of Granada purchasing Carlton following the various mergers and acquisitions between the companies of the ITV network that had taken place from 1994 when the ownership rules were relaxed.

The first wave of mergers began with Yorkshire Television acquiring Tyne Tees Television in 1992, forming a parent group called Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television. In 1994, Carlton Communications – which had owned a 20% stake in Central Independent Television – acquired the remainder of the company and, because of Central's shareholdings, inherited a 20% stake in Meridian Broadcasting. Later that year, Granada acquired London Weekend Television through a hostile takeover worth in the region of £750 million. MAI, which controlled Meridian Broadcasting, acquired Anglia Television; MAI became United News & Media after merging with United Newspapers – owners of The Daily Express in 1996. Ownership rules, that previously restricted ownership of ITV licences by one company to two outright, plus 20% in a third, were relaxed, and so Carlton went on to acquire Westcountry Television (later re-branding it Carlton, along with Central), Granada acquired Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television (with the parent group becoming Granada Media, later simply Granada) and United acquired HTV.

The idiosyncrasies and business model of the future ITV plc operation can be found in the way these new conglomerates operated their licences. Carlton re-branded all of its stations with its own name, creating a single identity across the whole expanse of its territory. By contrast, Granada and United, while keeping the licencees' names, centralised their continuity departments – Granada in Leeds and United in Southampton. All three, however, merged the network production operations of their franchises, creating Carlton Productions, Granada Content and United Productions.

By the end of the 1990s, there were three dominating owners of the ITV franchises in England and Wales: Carlton Communications, Granada plc and United News and Media. In 2000, after an aborted merger attempt with Carlton, UNM decided to leave ITV and Granada bought all the UNM franchises, but sold HTV to Carlton in order to comply with the permitted audience percentage covered by a single broadcasting interest. It kept the production arm of HTV, however, renaming it Granada Bristol and moving it out of Bath Road to a new, smaller office in Whiteladies Road (near the BBC). This arm of the company closed in 2006, following later rationalisation of ITV's production operations. The last remaining independent ITV franchise in England and Wales, Border Television, had been bought by Capital Group in 2000, and was sold on to Granada in 2001, with Border's radio assets being retained by Capital Radio plc.

The acquisition

In 2004, Granada purchased Carlton and renamed itself ITV plc, a single company for all ITV franchises in England and Wales. One of the consequences of the merger was (according to the company) an over-capacity of studio facilities and production units around the country, which had previously been rivals, but were now all part of the same group. In order to make cost savings, several large regional headquarters, studio sites and programme departments closed and merged. Among the casualties were network production and studio facilities of Tyne Tees in Newcastle upon Tyne, Meridian in Southampton, Central in Nottingham and Anglia in Norwich. In all cases, ITV moved the regional franchisee to a new location complete with hi-tech facilities for news production, but with a minimal number of (physically smaller) studios and the loss of many jobs. Tyne Tees' factual department merged with Yorkshire's in Leeds (which has since closed and re-emerged as Shiver Productions); Meridian's factual and sport production moved to London; all network production in Nottingham was re-allocated to London, Manchester or Leeds (and the local Central News studio moved to Birmingham), and Anglia Factual, reduced to a satellite operation of ITV Studios and primarily producing output for the international market or occasionally third parties in the UK, was eventually closed in January 2012.

Post-acquisition

Prior to the acquisition, and despite being rivals within ITV, Granada and Carlton had already been involved in several joint ventures, including the digital terrestrial television operator ITV Digital that went bankrupt, and collapsed in 2002. They also owned the digital channel ITV2, which had launched in December 1998, and 65% of the (re-branded) ITV News Channel, previously owned by ITN and was originally launched as the ITN News Channel. As well as consolidating its (now 40%) shareholding in ITN itself, the newly merged company was able to buy the final 35% stake in the ITV News Channel from ITN's original partners NTL in April 2004. In November the same year, and following a frantic last-minute deal with BSkyB to buy its half of the Granada Sky Broadcasting joint venture, they launched the digital channel ITV3, replacing Granada Plus which ITV plc closed down on satellite and cable. A year later they launched ITV4. However, due to multiplex issues (and the fact that it was losing money) the ITV News Channel controversially had its hours on Freeview reduced, and was finally closed down on 23 December 2005, with its Freeview space being taken over by replacements ITV4 and CITV, which launched in November 2005 and March 2006, respectively.

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

In April 2006, the participation channel ITV Play was launched. It was also an overnight block on ITV1. Following a series of scandals surrounding participation TV, the dedicated ITV Play channel was closed down in March 2007, followed by the late-night phone-in quiz shows on the ITV Network in December 2007, however the brand continued to be used for a time for part of the gaming section of itv.com.

In August 2006, the company sold its 45% shareholding in TV3 Ireland, which had been bought by Granada in 2001, to Doughty Hanson & Co.

Reorganisation

There were rumours of take-over and merger bids during 2006. For example, on 9 November 2006, NTL announced that it had approached ITV plc about a proposed merger. The merger was effectively blocked by British Sky Broadcasting on 17 November 2006 when it bought a 17.9% stake in ITV plc for £940 million,{{Cite news | access-date = 6 December 2006 }} a move that attracted anger from NTL shareholder Richard Branson{{Cite news | access-date = 6 December 2006 }} and an investigation from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom.{{Cite news | access-date = 6 December 2006 }} On 6 December 2006, NTL announced that it had complained to the Office of Fair Trading about BSkyB's move. NTL stated that it had withdrawn its attempt to buy ITV plc, citing that it did not believe that there was any possibility to make a deal on favourable terms.{{Cite news |access-date= 6 December 2006 }} At the same time as the NTL bid, RTL, the then-owner of Channel 5, was also rumoured to be preparing a bid for ITV plc, with the possibility of a stock-swap with BSkyB; the plan would have seen RTL acquiring BSkyB's stake in ITV plc (with the aim of further acquisitions of shares in the future) in exchange for BSkyB taking full control of Channel 5.{{Cite news | access-date = 6 December 2006 }} In the end, no movement was made on this possible deal and RTL sold Channel 5 to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell Network in July 2010.

The company then entered into a series of disposals of non-core activities: in March 2009 the company sold its investment in Friends Reunited (a website dedicated to reunited former school friends or colleagues in a number of countries) which it had acquired in December 2005. Also in May 2009 the company sold Carlton Screen Advertising (the largest cinema advertising business in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and now known as Wide Eye Media).

In 2010, a large-scale business reorganisation, called the "five-year Transformation Plan" was launched. Thanks to stringent working capital management and cost management some of the set goals were already achieved in 2012. These include a ranking upgrade (from BB− to BB+), an increase in audience share and reduction of debt (from net debt of £730 million at the end of 2008, to a positive net cash position of £16 million at the end of the first quarter 2012).

In December 2013 the company sold its remaining shareholding in STV Group plc (owner of the Scottish and Grampian ITV licences) which had been bought by Carlton in 1999.

On 17 July 2014, BSkyB's 6.4% stake in ITV was sold to Liberty Global, valued at £481 million.

On 19 October 2015, ITV purchased UTV for £100m ensuring that 13 out of the 15 licences (it does not hold the two wholly in Scotland) were in its control. It sold UTV Ireland to Virgin Media in July 2016.

Canadian multinational film and television distributor Entertainment One rejected an ITV takeover offer of around £1 billion in 2016, stating that it "fundamentally undervalue[d] the company and its prospects".

ITV acquired a majority stake in World Productions, producers of hit BBC series Line of Duty, in 2017, making it part of ITV Studios.

In 2022, the company announced the arrival of ITVX, which it said would be Britain's first integrated advertising and subscription funded streaming platform, and would complement its catch-up service, ITV Hub, and would include access to BritBox.

A fall in share value linked to investor worries about declining advertising revenue led to ITV being moved from the FTSE 100 to the FTSE 250 Index in mid-2022.

Proposed sale

On 23 November 2024, Sky News reported that CVC Capital Partners, TF1 Group, RedBird Capital Partners, All3Media, Mediawan and KKR had been linked to a potential takeover bid for ITV plc and a possible break-up of core assets such as ITV Studios and ITVX.

On 30 January 2025, Reuters reported that RedBird IMI were in early-stage talks with ITV plc to merge the All3Media and ITV Studios production businesses.

In April 2025, the Financial Times reported that Banijay Entertainment was considering making an offer to acquire ITV Studios or, alternatively, the company as a whole.

On 7 November 2025, ITV confirmed it was in talks to sell its media and entertainment division (which includes the TV channels and ITVX) to Comcast subsidiary Sky for £1.6billion. ITV Studios would not be included.

Operations

Organisation

ITV plc is divided into two divisions:

• Media and entertainment, which operates the TV networks (including the ITV News Group, which runs the ITV regional licensees)
• ITV Studios, which comprises both UK and international production, ITV's facilities businesses and Global Entertainment which exploits programme rights.

Network licences

Through ITV Broadcasting Ltd, ITV plc holds 13 of a total 15 ITV network licences, with STV holding two ITV licences in Scotland. ITV plc holds all licences in England and Wales, and the single ones in both the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland:

• Owned by Granada plc until 2004:
  • North West England: Granada Television. Service now named ITV Granada.
  • London (on weekends): London Weekend Television. Now part of the ITV London service.
  • North East England: Tyne Tees Television. Service now named ITV Tyne Tees.
  • East of England: Anglia Television. Service now named ITV Anglia.
  • Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Norfolk: Yorkshire Television. Service now named ITV Yorkshire.
  • English-Scottish border and Isle of Man: Border Television. Service now named ITV Border (broadcasting for the Isle of Man was taken over by ITV Granada).
  • South and South East England: Meridian Broadcasting. Service now named ITV Meridian.
• Owned by Carlton Communications plc until 2004:
  • London (on weekdays): Carlton Television. Now part of the ITV London service.
  • Midlands: Central Independent Television. Service now named ITV Central.
  • South West England: Westcountry Television. The service was renamed ITV Westcountry until 2009, before it was merged with ITV West to form the new non-franchise ITV West & Westcountry region (rebranded as ITV West Country shortly after). This service became a licence in its own right from 1 January 2014 when it split from Wales and has an opt-out for the western sub-region (formerly the Westcountry region).
  • West of England and Wales: HTV (Harlech Television). The franchise was renamed ITV Wales & West, since it has traditionally held a "dual-region" licence for two areas, each one with its own service: ITV West (now the eastern sub-region of ITV West Country) and ITV Cymru Wales. From 1 January 2014 the dual-region licence was split into two separate licences for Wales and South West England (combining the former West and Westcountry regions).
• Owned by UTV Media plc until 2016:
  • Northern Ireland: UTV
• Former independently owned:
  • Channel Islands: Channel Television, service now named ITV Channel Television (since 2011).

ITV plc is also the sole owner of the ITV national breakfast television franchise ITV Breakfast, formerly known as GMTV, which airs and produces Good Morning Britain, and Lorraine.

Channels

ITV plc also operates timeshift services and HD feeds for ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and ITV Quiz (only HD feed for ITV Quiz.)

Children's television blocks

ITV plc runs children's programming through children's television blocks. First is the long running children's block CITV (formerly known as Children's ITV) that launched 3 January 1983 on ITV. Currently the block is broadcast on ITV2 after being moved 2 September 2023, the morning after the closure of the CITV Channel. It is currently being broadcasts between 5am and 9am every day. The second is the dedicated preschool block, LittleBe that launched on 3 September 2018, and ended on 31 May 2024. It was broadcast between 9am and 12am every day on ITVBe. The launch of this block was to be a replacement for its predecessor called Mini CITV, originally launched 7 January 2014 on the CITV Channel. Mini CITV ended 7 January 2014 when the CITV Channel removed all preschool programming from both its weekday and weekend schedules with the exception of Sooty.

Streaming

ITV Catch Up was rebranded as the ITV Player on 5 December 2008. On 23 November 2015, the app and website were rebranded as ITV Hub. A paid subscription service allows users to watch ad-free and download content.

In November 2022, ITV announced a new streaming service to replace ITV Hub called ITVX. Launching on 8 December 2022, ITVX provides archive programming for which ITV plc owns the license, live events, and exclusive programming. There will be a free ad-supported tier and a premium subscription which will be ad-free and allow access to BritBox.

References

References

1. "Annual Results 2024". ITV plc.
2. Medhurst, Jamie. (2010). "A History of Independent Television in Wales". University of Wales Press.
3. [http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/uk_television_sector/overview/key_dates.asp.html An Overview of Television in the UK] Ofcom, 2002
4. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jul/12/broadcasting Willis steps into new role at Granada] The Guardian, 12 July 2001
5. (24 October 2000). "Carlton buys HTV". The Independent.
6. (17 April 2000). "Granada to buy Border TV assets for £50m if Capital wins bid battle". The Independent.
7. (17 April 2000). "Capital agrees Border carve-up". BBC News.
8. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/nov/15/itv.politicsandthemedia Carlton-Granada merger clears last hurdle] The Guardian, 2003
9. "what we do". Shiver Productions.
10. (13 January 2012). "ITV Studios to close Norwich base with loss of 35 jobs". BBC News.
11. (17 August 2003). "BSkyB facing legal threat over Ondigital". The Independent.
12. "ITV buys NTL's share in news station ITV News". Cableforum.co.uk.
13. (13 March 2007). "CITV celebrates its first birthday". Digital Spy.
14. (28 April 2005). "ITV buys SDN for £134m".
15. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/mar/13/broadcasting.ITV3 ITV Play digital channel axed] The Guardian, 13 March 2007
16. (23 August 2006). "TV to sell TV3 stake to Doughty Hanson". Irish Times.
17. (9 November 2006). "Ntl Incorporated Discussions with ITV plc". [[Arqiva.
18. (9 November 2006). "ITV and NTL 'in merger talks'". ITV plc.
19. (24 July 2010). "Daily Express boss beats rivals to buy Channel 5". Daily Express.
20. (6 August 2009). "ITV in £25m Friends Reunited sale". BBC News.
21. Darren Davidson. "Carlton Screen Advertising sold to joint venture for £500k". Brandrepublic.com.
22. "Frankfurt Business Media". cfo-insight.com.
23. (11 December 2014). "ITV sells final part of stake in STV for £7.5m". The Scotsman.
24. Clover, Julian. (17 July 2014). "Liberty Global makes £481m investment in ITV". Broadband TV News.
25. (20 October 2015). "ITV buys Irish broadcaster UTV for £100m". Independent.
26. (11 July 2016). "TV3 owner Virgin Media buys UTV Ireland for €10m". Irish Times.
27. (10 August 2016). "eOne Rejects $1.3B ITV Approach That "Fundamentally Undervalues" Company".
28. "ITV Studios acquires Line of Duty Producer World Productions". Press Centre.
29. Mitchell, Robert. (2 May 2017). "ITV Studios Takes Over World Productions". Variety.
30. (3 March 2022). "ITVX - ITV announce brand new streaming platform to launch later this year".
31. (3 March 2022). "ITV Launches Streaming Service ITVX; Shows Will Air Months Before Being Given Linear Slot; Full Year Results Show Record Ad Spend".
32. (2 June 2022). "ITV and Royal Mail to drop out of FTSE 100 in reshuffle". The Guardian.
33. (2024-11-23). "ITV back in spotlight as suitors screen potential bids". [[Sky News]].
34. (2025-01-30). "Exclusive: ITV, RedBird IMI in early-stage talks to merge production businesses, sources say". [[Reuters]].
35. Thomas, Daniel. (27 April 2025). "France’s Banijay explores takeover bid for ITV".
36. Masud, Faarea. (7 November 2025). "ITV in talks to sell television business to Sky". [[BBC News]].
37. Thomas, Daniel. (7 November 2025). "Sky in talks to buy ITV television business for £1.6bn".
38. "What we do". ITV (TV network).
39. "Review of ITV Networking Arrangements". Ofcom.
40. (22 March 2022). "Catch-up TV kills the +1 channel". RX RV.
41. Thornham, Marc. (24 August 2023). "Changes to ITV1 and ITV2 after CITV closure".
42. (2025-01-01). "Broadcasting U-turns of 2024".
43. (2018-07-04). "ITV set to reintroduce pre-school block".
44. (5 December 2008). "ITV's Catch Up rebranded ITV Player". Media Week.
45. "ITV Hub+ - All of the action. None of the ads.". ITV Hub.
46. "ITVX the UK's freshest streaming service to launch on 8th December".
47. "What is ITVX? Launch date speculation, prices, shows, BritBox news".