Fiktiv UK - ITV

ITV plc is a British media company that holds 14 of the 16 regional television licences that make up the ITV network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. The network, which is branded ITV by ITV plc, has vied with BBC One for the status of the UK's most watched channel since the 1950s (a crown it lost in 2005).

The company was formed in 2004, after a corporate takeover by Granada plc (the parent company of Granada Television) of Carlton Communications. Granada acquired a 68% controlling interest of the newly formed company whilst Carlton retained the 32% remaining shares. It began trading on 2 February 2004. That was the most recent stage in a long process of mergers between the original ITV regional franchises. It acquired the remaining 25% of the Breakfast franchise holder, GMTV, from The Walt Disney Company in 2009, Channel Television from Yattendon Group plc in 2011 and UTV for £100 million in 2015, with ownership of the latter transferring to ITV on 29 February 2016.

ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

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ITV is a British free-to-air television channel. Previously a network of separate uniquely identifiable regional television channels, ITV currently operates in England, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.

ITV is the biggest and most popular commercial television channel in the United Kingdom. ITV, and its predecessor channels have contended with BBC One for the status of the UK's most watched television channel since the 1950s. However, in line with other terrestrial channels, ITV's audience share has fallen as a result of availability of multi-channel television in the UK.

ITV consists of 13 franchises in England and Wales which broadcast regional news and other local programming to its area. Many franchise areas in England have sub-regions providing separate regional news bulletins. For example, the Anglia region is divided into West and East. Since 27 October 2002, on all ITV plc-owned franchises, regional programming is been preceded or plugged by an oral regional announcement, in the format ITV regional brand; e.g. ITV Granada. In English regions, regional names are also superimposed (post-production) on these idents below the ITV logo. ITV Wales retains a separate teams of announcers, which also double up as transmission directors.

ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its soap operas, such as the flagship Coronation Street and Emmerdale. At the start of the 21st century, Independent Television faced criticism for including a large amount of "reality TV" programmes in the schedule, such as Celebrity Fit Club, Celebrity Wrestling and Love Island. In its defence, ITV does continue to show its major strengths in the fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and it continues to schedule national news in primetime.

ITV's strong daytime line-up helped by programmes such as This Morning, Loose Women, Daybreak, Dickinson's Real Deal and game shows Tipping Point and The Chase are very popular, achieving the highest audience share during the daytime slot.

Since the network started, Independent Television News (ITN) has held the contract to produce news for the ITV Network, with 30-minute national news bulletins broadcast at 12:30pm, 6:30pm, and 10:00pm. These bulletins were broadcast under the ITN brand between 1955 and 1999, when a new network identity reinforced the ITV brand, resulting in the new bulletins being broadcast under the ITV News brand.

The regional ITV companies are required to provide local news as part of their franchise agreement, with the main local bulletin at 6pm and regional bulletins located after each national news programme. In addition to this, ITV companies provide other regional programming based on current affairs, entertainment or drama.

Daybreak is a British morning television programme which is broadcast on ITV from 6 September 2010. Daybreak replaced GMTV, which aired its last weekday edition on 3 September 2010. Daybreak launched three days later.

Daybreak is a news, lifestyle and entertainment magazine programme interspersed with celebrity interviews, consumer and health items and reports from locations around the UK. Between 6am and 7am Matt Barbet and Ranvir Singh present the 'Daybreak Newshour'. The presenters also talk to guests and review the front pages of the newspapers throughout the hour. John Stapleton, Louisa James or Sean Fletcher act as stand-in presenters for this section of the programme. Ben Shephard and Lorraine Kelly present the main part of the show from 7am until 9am, focusing on human interest stories, showbiz gossip and lifestyle features. Kate Garraway, Matt Barbet or John Stapleton are stand-in presenters for this section of the programme, with Barbet occasionally presenting the whole show from 6am until 9am. Richard Madeley occasionally presents the show on a stand-in basis.

Each Friday, summer periods and other holidays, the running time of the programme changes, as Lorraine does not air, meaning Daybreak broadcasts from 6am–10am.

The news bulletins are presented by Ranvir Singh (or Kate Garraway or Sean Fletcher if Singh is not present) from the Daybreak Newsdesk at 7am and 8am with headlines at 7:30am and 8:30am and again at 9am and 9:30am on sister show Lorraine. Reports are presented by members of the programme's news team. Other news stories are covered and discussed in the programme as they develop. ITV Regional News bulletins are broadcast at 6:15am, 6:45am, 7:35am and 8:35am with local news in brief, traffic and travel updates, and a local weather forecast.

Some mornings, the main headlines on the front pages and articles from the inside of the morning newspapers are discussed with two guests on the programme. Adil Ray, Kevin Maguire, Martel Maxwell and Michael Portillo are occasional newspaper reviewers, they often feature on sister show Lorraine to discuss the main newspaper headlines at 9:05am.

The national Daybreak weather forecast by Laura Tobin is presented at around 6:08am, 6:25am, 6:55am, 7:25am, 7:55am, 8:25am and 8:55am. Showbiz editor Richard Arnold presents the showbiz updates on Daybreak at 7:50am weekdays. Items range from music news, celebrity gossip and interviews.

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ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a claim now held by its sister service ITV3 both of which are freely available to a majority of households.

The channel is known for American programming such as Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries; repeats of recently aired episodes of soap operas and other entertainment programming from ITV such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale; spin-off shows such as I'm a Celebrity: Extra Camp, and original programming such as Celebrity Juice and Love Island.

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ITV3 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004, replacing Granada Plus. ITV3 is the sixth largest UK television channel by audience share and the largest after the five main terrestrial services, the position which was previously held by its sister station ITV2. The channel is known for UK dramas, including sequential reruns of Agatha Christie's Poirot, Classic Coronation Street, Classic Emmerdale, Heartbeat and Inspector Morse, amongst others.

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ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-orientated line-up, including sport, police shows, Bond films and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action series of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

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ITVBe is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel launched on 8 October 2014. ITVBe targets the young female audience, airing reality and unscripted shows, including US imports such as The Real Housewives series, Million Dollar Listing New York and Botched; and original programming such as Dinner Date and most notably The Only Way Is Essex.

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CITV (short for Children's ITV or initialed for Children's Independent Television) is a British free-to-air children's television channel from ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which was previously 6 am to 6 pm until 21 February 2016. It is also the title of a programming block on the ITV network at weekends.

Children's ITV launched on 3 January 1983, as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network. It replaced the earlier Watch It! branding and introduced networked in-vision continuity links between programmes. These links were originally pre-recorded from a small London studio, up until 1987 when Central won the contract to produce live links from their Birmingham studios. In 2004, presentation of CITV was relocated to Granada Television in Manchester, which saw the demise of in-vision continuity. Nine years later, the operations moved to ITV Granada's MediaCityUK studios in Salford.

On 1 February 2000, CITV launched as a channel in its own right, replacing Carlton Kids. The CITV channel averages around 100,000 viewers between 4pm-6pm every day. The CITV strand on the ITV network airs on weekend mornings from 6 am to 9:25 am, as part of the ITV Breakfast time slot.

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ITV News Channel is a British free-to-air television news channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network.

The channel launched on 1 August 2000 as a joint venture between ITN and NTL as the ITN News Channel. In June 2002, Carlton Television and Granada Television - the predecessors of ITV plc - bought out ITN's 65% stake. This led to a rebrand as the ITV News Channel in September 2002. In April 2004 the newly created ITV plc bought NTL's 35% stake to assume full control of the channel.

Wherever it's happening, whenever it's happening, the ITV News Channel has it covered. There's no need to wait for one of the main daily ITV News bulletins to see some of the most popular presenters on television today.

Presented from the famous ITV News set, the ITV News Channel uses the same brand, on-screen look and identity, as its terrestrial counter-part, including the theme music and, of course, the infamous bongs.

The ITV News Channel puts the drama back into news with an emphasis on live events, breaking news, live pictures and agenda-setting interviews, providing the latest breaking national and international headlines as well as sport, business and weather.

The channel offers an unrivalled line up of presenters, including Steve Scott, Romilly Weeks, Geraint Vincent, Faye Barker, Jonathan Hill and Charlotte Hawkins.

The ITV News Channel draws on the unparalleled expertise and resources of one of the world's most respected newsgathering organisations. It has access to a high-profile and talented set of reporters and correspondents from all over the world, plus it has a skilled news management team providing "all news, all the time".

The channel also has a strong focus on news for the UK, with a network of more than 20 regional newsrooms with over 100 reporters and 150 cameras on the road at any one time, covering news from around the UK.

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ITV Choice (formerly Granada UKTV, Granada TV and ITV Granada) is a cable and satellite television channel owned and operated by ITV plc. It is available in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia as well as in Malta.

The channel was launched in 1997 by Granada Media under the name Granada UKTV, and offered on cable an satellite services in Middle East, Malta and Asia. It was also carried by Sky Network Television in New Zealand between 1999 and 2002.

The service was expanded and relaunched as Granada TV during 2008, when ITV announced plans to offer the channel to cable and satellite operators in Asia.

On 1 November 2010, it was rebranded as ITV Granada. The channel was renamed again as ITV Choice on 25 March 2013.

It primarily carries ITV and other UK programming, produced by ITV Studios and other independent production companies. Key programmes include Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Dancing on Ice, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, The Jonathan Ross Show, Doc Martin, The Chase, Tipping Point, among others.