(Ammendments proper are in italics, except for entirely new paragraphs. They are not meant to be in italics in the final version, though italics in new paragraphs are. Sorry if that's insultingly obvious.)

The Revolution of 1968

Paragraph 2: ...ABC, Hill's favourite company, would be rewarded with London weekends (the weekend-weekday split was retained in London out of concern that a 7-day London contractor would have too much power over the network), now starting on Friday evenings as a slap on the wrist for arrogant Rediffusion, London (as A-R were then known).

Technical Crisis

... This is, in fact, the first known national on-screen use of the name 'Independent Television'.

The Quiet Seventies

New Paragraph: One other event in the 1970s was to foreshadow later events in ITV's history. By 1970 Tyne Tees was in financial dire straits. It did not want to follow WWN, and turned to its neighbour to the south fot help. Yorkshire knew that it, too would benefit from joint ownership with Tyne Tees, and together, they pleaded exceptional circumstances to the ITA. The end result was that, in 1974, the two set up Trident, a new holding company, which was mostly controlled by Yorkshire. Effectively, Yorkshire had taken over Tyne Tees. Though the two would later be forced apart in the early 1980 contract round, the idea of companies buying each other would later take over ITV.

ITV Gets Thatchered

Paragraph 1: Instead of the various companies bartering between themselves, a centralised system, consisting of a board known as ITV Network Centre, that simply dictated what would be networked, was introduced.

The Revolution of 1990

This header should say 'The Revolution of 1991'

The End of the Regions?

A further Broadcasting Act was passed in the mid-1990s freeing the companies to buy each other. It seemed a good idea, and Yorkshire promptly demonstrated that maybe it wasn't. The first aquisition under the new rules was, for the second time, of Tyne Tees by Yorkshire, who dreamed of a new look network -- Channel 3. Each region's name would have the fomula 'Channel 3', and then the name of the region. Thus, in 1997, Tyne Tees became Channel 3 North East, and Yorkshire became, er, Yorkshire. Apparently the new formula didn't suit the region that invented it. It didn't suit the North Easterners, either. After much public outcry, and Yorkshire itself being bought by Granada, the name of Tyne Tees was restored.

Despite this setback, takeovers gathered apace. Companies bought each other up, only to be bought up themselves. At the time of writing, only five remain. Granada now owns Border, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire, Anglia, LWT and Meridian. Carlton owns Westcountry, Central and HTV. Scottish owns Grampian. The only remaining independents are little Channel, which belongs to a separate gorup, and the totally independent UTV (as Ulster is now known).

From hereon, the paragraphs are entirely rewritten, or are brand new.

This led to a revival of the generic look idea. A new ITV, or rather itv, logo was created in lower case with the motto 'itv -- television from the heart of life', showing hearts to reflect this. In the Granadian empire, all regions were given the same format for their on-screen identities, consisting of thier own logo in a small box (too small for Tyne Tees and Meridian), followed by their own name in big letters, with 'itv' below and spinning hearts in the background (though LWT bent the rules as far as it could, using a video wall as the background). Channel adopted the hearts as well, but not the itv. Carlton went furthest, using spinning stars instead of hearts, and obliterating the names of Central and Westcountry altogether, as of 1999. Apparently, people were confused by seeing Carlton programmes on a differently-named station, which is odd, because it never confused anybody in the past. That was the whole point of ITV in the old days. Oddly, not only did Carlton spare HTV, presumably because of its Welsh viewers, but HTV adopted a Granada style 'hearts' look. In Scotland, the only difference between the two companies came to be the name on screen -- both had a box of shapes above the name, in the middle of a little film. UTV kept its own, totally separate identity.

The hearts look failed to catch on, and ITV1 (as the terrestrial channel was renamed after the launch of the digital channel ITV2) found its ratings in decline. In 2002, a third generic look was unveiled, throughout both the Granada and Carlton empires. This was far more radical than the hearts, with films of ITV celebrities and only the name of 'itv1' on screen. The regional names only featured before regional programmes. Also, the identities of HTV and the London companies disappeared completely, with their regions now ITV1 Wales, ITV1 West of England, and ITV1 London. LWT went out in a nostalgic blaze of glory, using all its old on-screen identities in its last weekend. From then on, all continuity announcements, including the few remaining regional ones, were made from London. Channel went along with this, but UTV and the Scotland companies kept their own continuity and their on-screen names, though they did adopt the celebrity idents.

Just as ITV consolidated on screen, so it continued to do so behind the scenes. Carlton and Granada, in October 2002, announced plans to merge in a deal that would leave Granada dominant. This announcement was made following the publication of the draft for another new broadcasting act that looks set to do away with the rule that has existed since the launch of ITV expressly forbidding its single ownership. It seems certain that the merger will go ahead when the new Brodacasting Act is passed. There may, however, be other concerns about a single ITV - Carlton and Granada have an embarrassing joint business record. Together, they created ON Digital, a service whereby viewers could receive digital television without needing to get a satellite dish. Potentially, this was a good idea, but they offered an awkward mish-mash of channels, which were often their own efforts, and had little about them that was special. In addition, they suffered from a large number of avoidable technical problems. Most people who wanted digital bought Sky, if they didn't already have it. Finally, ON Digital, desparately renamed ITV Digital, bought up the rights to screen lower-division club football, not noticing that anyone who cared enough about such games would already be at the grounds watching them there. ITV Digital went bankrupt and crashed out of the market.¹ At the same time ITV1's terrestrial audience share fell, not just to the new Sky channels, but also to old BBC1, which managed to outdo ITV1 in the ratings on a regular basis, a previously unheard of event. This is due, in part, to ITV's refusal, until very late in the day, to put itself on Sky. The digital misadventure also meant that the mian channel became short of money to spend on programming, which helped the fall of the terrestrial viewing gfigures, and in fact led to the celebrity rebrand, so as to strengthen ITV1 as a brand. Some say consolidation will make the channel a strong player in a mutichannel world, others that it is throwing away its uniqueness. The future for the channel in the digital age is now quite impossible to predict.