ITV Digital Channels

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ITV Digital Channels Limited (formerly known as Granada Sky Broadcasting) is a wholly owned subsidiary of British broadcaster ITV plc. It manages all of television channels with the exception of ITV, which is part of the entire network.

It was set up in 1996 and operated until 2004 as a joint venture between Granada plc and British Sky Broadcasting to launch a range of television channels broadcasting the Granada and LWT archives on the Sky satellite platform, as well as other digital platforms such as ITV Digital (closed on 1 May 2002 due to administration), NTL and Telewest (both merged to form Virgin Media).

On 2 February 2004, Granada plc merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc, which fully purchased ITV Digital Channels in November of that year.

History[]

1996–2002: Launch, digital expansion and rebrands[]

ITV digital channels viewing share between 2000 and 2008

The history of ITV Digital Channels Limited traces back to 1996, when Granada plc and BSkyB agreed to create a joint venture operating four services using the Granada and LWT archives on Sky and other cable platforms, this include:

• Granada Plus, an archive channel
• Granada Men & Motors, a channel aimed at men focused on motoring and erotic content
• Granada Good Life, a women's lifestyle channel
• Granada Talk TV, a channel dedicated to talk shows until it was closed on 31 August 1997 due to low ratings

On 1 May 1998, Good Life was renamed to Breeze to increase viewing figures, whilst the GSkyB portfolio increased its reach heavily with the launch of Sky Digital and OnDigital during October and November of that year. Men & Motors' hours were extended from 11.00pm to 9.00pm to reflect the increased capacity, whilst Plus was able to broadcast up to midnight. Both Granada Plus and Men & Motors performed well in ratings, but Breeze struggled to attract viewers leading to budget cuts that resulted in original programming being cut and 60 jobs being lost. In December 2001, the decision was made to close the channel with a gradual closure across digital platforms. It was finally closed on 30 April 2002 to honour contracts with Telewest and NTL.

Throughout 2001 and 2002, the channels began to disassociate with Granada branding with Men & Motors receiving a major rebrand in March 2001, and Plus the following year after in September.

2003–2004: Uncertain future[]

In late November 2003, the future of GSkyB was thrown into uncertainty as Granada and Carlton soon to merge as ITV plc within a couple of months, looked to increase their multichannel presence. ITV Gold was conceived as a new archive channel similar to Plus, but over time this evolved to ITV3, with Plus' first run rights to archive drama being sought after for the new channel. ITV was also negotiating with Sky over carriage of ITV3, eventually reaching an impasse due to the lack of EPG space on some Sky Digiboxes. It was then later announced with carriage on Freeview, NTL and Telewest, but with no Sky carriage. Many had expected GSkyB to either be sold or closed entirely, an option ITV considered as it began the sale of non-core assets.

2004–present: ITV plc control and multichannel expansion[]

On 1 November 2004, ITV plc agreed to purchase BSkyB's stake in GSkyB for £10 million. The deal included the slot that Granada Plus was broadcasting on, which ITV used to broadcast its new ITV3 channel which replaced Plus on the same day.^[1] The negotiations that led to ITV plc taking sole control of GSkyB, closing Plus and launching ITV3 on digital satellite were apparently completed just hours before the new channel started broadcasting. On 8 November, Granada Sky Broadcasting was renamed ITV Digital Channels Limited, shortly after the closure of Granada Plus left Men & Motors as the sole survivor of the original four channels. As part of ITV's buy-out of Sky's shareholding Sky would have received 49.5% of any proceeds (net of liabilities) from any future sale of Men & Motors.^[1] The newly renamed company was given the brief of running all of ITV's digital services, with the major difference from the old GSkyB operation being that its channels were now free to air and carried the ITV brand.

On 2 May 2005, Men & Motors launched as a free-to-air channel on the Freeview digital terrestrial television service. It was rumoured that ITV plc would replace it with ITV4, another men's channel when it launched later that year on 1 November, echoing the launch of ITV3 in 2004. However, after better than expected performance from Men & Motors as a free-to-air channel and avoiding the issues that led to ITV3 replacing Plus, both channels continued and ITV plc cut the hours of the ITV News Channel to make way for ITV4 and CITV instead. The news channel closed on 23 December of that year with its remaining bandwidth used for CITV.

Although ITV4 started broadcasting from the Astra satellite on 1 November, it was not placed on the Sky EPG until 7 November. Because of this, some ITV4 sports programming was simulcast on Men & Motors under the ITV4 on m&m strand. On 23 February 2006, despite the previous decision not to close Men & Motors, fresh rumours over the channel's future began to circulate due to poorer than expected performance from ITV4.^[2] In April 2006, Men & Motors left Freeview to make way for the launch of ITV Play, and was run as a going concern, with much of the content it broadcast being moved over to ITV4. ITV intended to dispose of the channel as a non-core asset, but it ultimately closed on Virgin Media on 25 March 2010, and finally closed on Sky and Freesat on 1 April, to make way for a permanent EPG position for ITV HD.

ITV4 is benefiting from extra investment and is improving its audience share.^[when?] CITV is the highest rating commercial kids television channel in the United Kingdom, having a higher share of viewers compared to Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

In 2014, the portfolio of ITV's channels was expanded with the launch of ITV Encore, a drama channel, and ITVBe, a reality and lifestyle channel. The launch of the latter lead to ITV2's repositioning as a youth focused entertainment channel. In 2018, ITV closed the Encore channel and repositioned its content to the ITV Hub. In 2021, commissions for ITV2, ITVBe and CITV were altered in that they would debut first on the ITV Hub, then on the linear channels, whilst ITV2 was given a larger brief for producing factual content.

Channels[]

Current[]

ITV also operates the following digital television channels:

• ITV2 (including ITV2 +1 and HD) – General entertainment channel
• ITV3 (including ITV3 +1 and HD) – Drama and movie channel
• ITV4 (including ITV4 +1 and HD) – Sports and entertainment channel
• ITVBe (including ITVBe +1 and HD) – Reality television and lifestyle channel
• CITV – A channel aimed at children under 12 years old

Former[]

GSkyB's logo banner used from 1996 to 1998

• Plus – Launched as Granada Plus on 1 October 1996, showing entertainment programmes from the archives of Granada, LWT and its subsidiaries. It was closed on 1 November 2004 to allow ITV3 to launch on Sky.
• Granada Breeze – Launched as Granada Good Life on 1 October 1996, a lifestyle channel divided into four segments: 'Food & Wine', 'Health & Beauty', 'High Street' and 'Home & Garden'. Relaunched on 1 May 1998 in order to improve ratings but closed on 30 April 2002.
• Men & Motors – Launched on 1 October 1996, a channel aimed at men focused on motoring and erotic content. Last of the original Granada Sky Broadcasting channels to close on 1 April 2010.
• Granada Talk TV – A debate channel launched on 1 October 1996. Closed on 31 August 1997.
• ITV Encore (and ITV Encore +1) – A drama channel launched on 9 June 2014. Closed on 1 May 2018.
• The Store – A shopping channel, which was a joint-venture with John Mills Limited. Removed from Freeview in January 2019.
• ITV Box Office – A pay-per-view sports channel. Closed on 24 January 2020.
• Merit – A lifestyle channel. Sold to Sky plc on 20 August 2020.

References[]

External links[]

• ITV plc
• EMC Bitstream: ITV3: reaching for the Sky — discusses the negotiations that led to the sale of Sky's stake and closure of Granada Plus
• Guide to channels on Astra satellites