ITV plc

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ITV plc is a British media company which operates the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. It owns a dominant stake in ITV1, which has vied with the British Broadcasting Corporation's BBC One for the status of the UK's most watched channel since the 1950s. ITV plc was formed by the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada plc and began trading on 2 February 2004. This was the last stage in a long process of mergers between the original ITV regional franchises.

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

Former Granada-owned franchises:

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

Former Carlton-owned franchises:

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

ITV plc does not own or operate the remaining four ITV franchises:

Channel Television: Channel Islands franchise
Grampian Television: North of Scotland franchise
Scottish Television: Scotland franchise
Ulster Television: Northern Ireland franchise (normally referred to as UTV)

As the holder of eleven out of fifteen ITV franchises ITV plc has a dominant influence on ITV1, but it does not actually operate the channel. However it wholly owns the following television channels:

ITV2
ITV3
ITV4
ITV Play
CITV Channel
ITV News Channel (produced by ITN) (defunct)
Men & Motors (operated by Granada Sky Broadcasting)

ITV plc also owns 75% of the ITV national breakfast television franchise GMTV, as well as 45% of the Irish broadcaster TV3. The company owns a 16.9% shareholding in SMG plc, owner of the Scottish and Grampian ITV1 franchises, as well as a 40% stake in its news provider Independent Television News Limited.

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

ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was created through a share swop, Granada shareholders exchanged their shares for ITV shares at a rate of 1:1, Carlton shareholders at a rate of almost 2:1. Thus the former Granada shareholders own almost 2/3rds of the new company.

ITV plc is divided into three divisions: Broadcast, which operates the TV networks, News, which runs the ITV regional franchises, and Granada which is the network production division.

ITV plc also owns the largest cinema advertising business in the UK and Ireland, Carlton Screen Advertising, Leckie and Leckie (Scotland's leading educational publishers) and recently bought Friends Reunited, a website dedicated to reunited former schoolfriends or work colleagues in a number of countries.

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