ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom.

ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

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.