Launched in 1955, ITV is a federation of
television companies holding licences from the Independent Television Commission (
ITC) to broadcast in fourteen regions throughout the
United Kingdom.
There are currently fifteen companies holding licences to broadcast in the fourteen regions (two licences being held for London, Carlton controlling the weekday output and the other for the weekends, the mysteriously-named London Weekend Television). The regions, and current licence holders, are:
England & Wales
East Anglia
East, West & South Midlands Carlton
London Carlton & LWT
North East Tyne Tees
North West Granada
South East Meridian
South West Carlton
West and Wales HTV
Yorkshire Yorkshire
Channel Islands Channel
Scotland & Borders
The Borders and Isle of Man Border
Central Scotland ScottishTV
North of Scotland Grampian
Ireland
Northern Ireland UTV
At the time of launch, the only other channels available in the UK were
BBC1 and
BBC2, both funded by the
television licence fee, while ITV's funding comes purely from regionalised
advertising. In terms of programming output, it's very much within the
mainstream including drama, comedy, light entertainment, sport national news and regional news (from twenty-seven regions and sub-regions). Very little of the choice of shows you can see on ITV are what you could call
high-brow. Or even, really, mid-brow. It's pretty much
tabloid television designed to appeal to the
majority of the UK that reads
The Sun with, to be fair, occasional breaks for quality, quality drama - see
Bad Girls and
Cracker. Seriously, when ITV does drama it is often compulsive viewing. (recent 2003 example, the
christopher eccleston vehicle,
the second coming).
The channel is responsible for, amongst others, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and the longest-running soap opera in the United Kingdom, Coronation Street.