History of ITV

The history of ITV, the United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies "Independent Television" commercial network, goes back to 1955.
Independent Television began as a network of independently owned regional companies that were both broadcasters and programme makers, beginning with four companies operating six stations in three large regions in 1955–1956, and gradually expanding to 17 stations in 14 regions by 1962. Each regional station was responsible for its own branding, scheduling and advertising, with many peak-time programmes shared simultaneously across the whole network.
By 29 February 2016, 12 regions in England and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man shared national ITV branding and scheduling, and, together with a 13th region UTV in Northern Ireland, were owned by a single company, ITV plc. A further two regions in Scotland carry STV branding and are owned by the STV Group.

1955–1964

Formation

The Independent Television network came about as a result of the Television Act 1954, which paved the way for the establishment of a commercial television service in the United Kingdom and created the Independent Television Authority. The act itself was not without controversy, and much debate ensued both in the British Parliament and the British Press, and it was passed on the basis that the ITA would regulate the new service and ensure that the new service did not follow the same path taken by the American networks.
For example, it was made obligatory that commercials would have to be clearly distinguishable from programmes. At the time, programmes in the USA were normally sponsored by a single company, so it was not uncommon for a game show host to step away from their podium after a round to sell cars or The Flintstones to segue into an ad for cigarettes with no perceived change from show to advertising.
The new "Independent Television" network, named due to its independence from the BBC which until then had a monopoly on broadcasting within the United Kingdom, was made up of numerous companies providing a regional television service and would also generally provide programmes to the network as a whole. Each individual company broadcast on 405-line VHF and was responsible for providing a local service, including daily news bulletins and local documentaries, and for selling advertising space on their channel: this measure ensured that all the independent companies were in competition with each other and that no single broadcaster could gain a monopoly over commercial broadcasting.
Similar to how British newspapers separate their operations between Saturdays and Sundays, versus Monday through Friday, the ITA divided the franchises between weekends and weekdays. Upon the creation of the network, six franchises were awarded for London, the Midlands around Birmingham, and the North of England around Manchester. The companies in these regions were known as 'The Big Four' and consisted of Associated-Rediffusion, ATV, Granada Television and ABC. These companies were generally the best known and provided the most network output.
The ITA intended that the larger franchisees, with the most revenue, act as "network companies" that would produce most programmes broadcast nationally, while the other franchisees, as "regional companies", would primarily focus on programmes for their own areas. ITV companies that broadcast a programme paid varying fractions of the production cost, and ITA approved all scripts. After choosing the first four franchisees, ITA decided that national news would be provided by a separate contractor, Independent Television News. Each regional service had its own on-screen identity to distinguish it from other regions, since there was often a sizeable overlap in reception capability within each region.

Launch

The first ITA contractor to begin broadcasting was the London weekday contractor Associated-Rediffusion, on 22 September 1955 beginning at 7.15pm. On the first night of telecasts, the BBC, who had held the monopoly on broadcasting in Britain, aired a melodramatic episode of its popular radio soap opera The Archers on the BBC Home Service. In the episode, core character Grace Archer was fatally injured in a fire, and it was seen as a ploy to keep loyal viewers and listeners away from the new station.
Among the programs on the first night were three excerpts from plays, including Margaret Leighton, John Gielgud, and Edith Evans in The Importance of Being Earnest. At 8:12 pm, the first commercial said of Gibbs SR toothpaste: "It's tingling fresh, it's fresh as ice". Christopher Chataway was ITN's first newsreader, at 10 pm. The first full day of transmissions was 23 September 1955 when Britain's first female newsreader Barbara Mandell appeared. The London weekend contractor ATV launched two days later.
Early television commercials were staid adaptations of newspaper advertisements. The British industry was unfamiliar with the format, but also did not want to seem too Americanized. ITV was only available to the one eighth of Britons living in the London area. Popular shows in its first year included The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, and American imports Dragnet, I Love Lucy, and Gun Law. The other franchises launched within a year of the London launch, and other contracts were awarded by the ITA between 1956 and 1961. All the franchises had launched by September 1962:

Franchise awarded	Launch date	Regional area	Programme company
26 October 1954	22 September 1955	London	Associated-Rediffusion
26 October 1954	24 September 1955	London	ATV
26 October 1954	17 February 1956	Midlands	ATV
21 September 1955	18 February 1956	Midlands	ABC Weekend TV
26 October 1954	3 May 1956	North of England	Granada Television
21 September 1955	5 May 1956	North of England	ABC Weekend TV
30 May 1956	31 August 1957	Central Scotland	Scottish Television
26 October 1956	14 January 1958	South Wales and West of England	TWW
22 July 1957	30 August 1958	South of England	Southern Television
13 December 1957	15 January 1959	North East England	Tyne Tees Television
25 June 1958	27 October 1959	East of England	Anglia Television
10 November 1958	31 October 1959	Northern Ireland	Ulster Television
16 December 1959	29 April 1961	South West England	Westward Television
5 May 1960	1 September 1961	English-Scottish Border	Border Television
2 August 1960	30 September 1961	North East Scotland	Grampian Television
28 March 1960	1 September 1962	Channel Islands	Channel Television
6 June 1961	14 September 1962	West and North Wales	Wales Television/Teledu Cymru

Not all ITV franchisees were profitable in their early years; they benefited from the end of the Toddlers' Truce in 1957. Franchisees also broadcast shows that emphasised product placement; Parliament banned such admags, including the popular soap opera Jims Inn, in 1963. IBA had banned "time spots", in which advertisers gave the current time and stated "time to" have a cigarette or use some other product, in 1960.
ITV was admitted as an active member of the European Broadcasting Union through the Independent Television Companies' Association Ltd together with the ITA on 1 January 1960.

1964–1968

An American television executive predicted in 1955 that the first six franchises, with only the BBC as competition for their population of 38 million, would be "perhaps the richest commercial television monopoly in the world". Roy Thomson of Scottish Television described the ownership of an ITV franchise as "a licence to print money". Overall, the regional companies made a profit within the first few years of their existence, the largest regions especially so.
In 1963, the ITA chairman, Lord Hill of Luton, initiated a review of all the ITV companies following the release of the Pilkington Report, which saw the launch of BBC2 and heavily criticised ITV. This review would review a company's performance, and either grant them an extension to their service licence or replace the company with another in that region. This process was repeated frequently throughout the early life of ITV and lasted approximately ten years. Reviews like this also ensured that the companies maintained their high performance by maintaining the possibility of the loss of their licence. The new licences also included clauses which took into account the promise of an "ITV2" UHF channel to be launched if the Conservative Party won the 1964 general election.
Despite the review, no company lost its position as the local ITV contractor for their region and all licences were extended for another three years, although several of the major companies were instructed to strengthen the regional emphasis of their on-screen identities. The only change to the network was the formation of a single Wales and West franchise, operated by TWW, following the collapse of WWN and its subsequent takeover by TWW. WWN ran into trouble when it had problems with the construction of its transmitter network, as well as strict provisions in its contract to produce a large amount of Welsh-language programming. This meant that WWN lost a lot of money and, despite some help from other ITV companies, it declared itself bankrupt on 26 January 1964 – the only ITV company to have ever done so.
At a 1965 dinner at Guildhall, London to celebrate ITV's first ten years, Prime Minister Harold Wilson said "independent television has become part of our national anatomy. More than that, it has become part of our social system and part of our national way of life". The network stopped broadcasting cigarette commercials that year, affecting £8 million in annual revenue.