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ITV is a commercial TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 as Independent Television under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority (ITA, then after the Sound Broadcasting Act 1972, Independent Broadcasting Authority, now Ofcom) to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990 its legal name has been Channel 3, to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, namely BBC 1, BBC 2 and Channel 4. In part, the number 3 was assigned as television sets would usually be tuned so that the regional ITV station would be on the third button, with the other stations being allocated to the number within their name. ITV is a network of television channels that operate regional television services as well as sharing programmes between each other to be displayed on the entire network. In recent years, several of these companies have merged so currently the fifteen franchises are in the hands of three companies. The ITV network is to be distinguished from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004 and which holds the Channel 3 broadcasting licences in England, Wales, southern Scotland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Similarly the ITV brand is the brand used by ITV plc for the Channel 3 service in these areas. Of the companies external to ITV plc, STV and UTV use their own brands in their own respective areas (northern and central Scotland and Northern Ireland). == History == (詳細はTelevision Act 1954, designed to break the monopoly on television held by the BBC Television Service.〔 The act created the Independent Television Authority (ITA, then IBA after the Sound Broadcasting Act) to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London, the Midlands and the North of England, with separate franchises for Weekdays and Weekends.〔 The first ITV network to launch was London's Associated-Rediffusion on 22 September 1955, with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches, the ITA awarded more franchises until the whole country was covered by fourteen regional stations, all launched by 1962. The network has been modified several times through franchise reviews that have taken place in 1963, 1967, 1974, 1980 and 1991, during which broadcast regions have changed and service operators have been replaced. Only one service operator has ever been declared bankrupt, WWN in 1963, with all other operators leaving the network as a result of a franchise review. Separate weekend franchises were removed, with the exception of London, in 1964〔 and over the years more services were added including a teletext service and a national breakfast franchise, operating between 6:00 am and 9:25 am, in 1983.〔 The Broadcasting Act 1990 changed the nature of ITV; the then regulator the IBA was replaced with a light-touch regulator the ITC, companies now able to purchase other ITV regional companies and franchises were now being awarded based upon a highest-bidder auction, with few safeguards in place.〔 This heavily criticised part of the review saw four operators replaced and the operators facing different annual payments to the treasury: Central Television, for example, paid only £2000, despite holding a lucrative and large region, because they were unopposed, while Yorkshire television paid £37.7 million for a region of the same size and status due to heavy competition.〔〔ITC, quoted in ''Encouraging Bidding In The Single Licence National Lottery Framework'' report, UK National Lottery Commission, 19 November 2004〕 Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. By 2004, ITV was owned by five companies of which two, Carlton and Granada had become major players by owning between the two all the franchises in England, Wales, the Scottish borders and the Isle of Man.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.itvplc.com/about/history )〕 That same year, the two merged to form ITV plc〔〔〔 with the only subsequent acquisition being the takeover of Channel Television, the Channel Islands franchise, in 2011. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ITV (TV network)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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