Jump to content

United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting
PredecessorIndependent Television Companies Association (ITCA)
Formation1981; 43 years ago (1981)
TypeAffiliation of broadcasters
Membership
ITV, Channel 4, S4C
Official language
English, Welsh

United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting (UKIB) is an affiliation of three British independent television production companies and broadcasters. The primary function of its predecessor, the Independent Television Companies Association (ITCA), was to represent independent British television interests as a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The current members of UKIB are the ITV network centre, the 4 ITV licence holders, Channel 4, and S4C.

History

[edit]

UKIB was formed in 1981, when the Association of Independent Radio Contractors (AIRC)[1] was admitted as an active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It replaced the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), formerly the Independent Television Authority (ITA) as the second British EBU member.

Once ITCA was admitted as a fully active EBU member, the AIRC joined with UKIB to form the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) in June 1996. In July 2006, it merged with the Radio Advertising Bureau to form Radiocentre, the industry body for UK commercial radio.[2] Following the merger, CRCA cancelled its EBU membership.[3][4]

The IBA continued to exist until it was disbanded by the Broadcasting Act 1990, which replaced it with the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Radio Authority.[5]

Members

[edit]
Service name Broadcast area Licence holder[6] Broadcast since[Note 1] Parent company EBU abbreviation
ITV Network
ITV1
STV
UTV
United Kingdom, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man ITV Network Limited 1955 ITV plc
STV Group plc
UKIB/ITV
ITV (Channel 3) companies
ITV Anglia East of England ITV Broadcasting Limited 1959 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/ANG
ITV Border England–Scotland border ITV Broadcasting Limited 1961 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/BTV
ITV Central Midlands[Note 2] ITV Broadcasting Limited 1956 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/CEN
ITV Channel Television Channel Islands ITV Broadcasting Limited 1962 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/CHA
ITV Granada North West England[Note 3] and Isle of Man[Note 4] ITV Broadcasting Limited 1956 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/GRA
ITV London (Carlton) London Weekday ITV Broadcasting Limited 1955 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/LDN
ITV London (LWT) London Weekend ITV Broadcasting Limited 1955 ITV plc
ITV Meridian South and South East England ITV Broadcasting Limited 1958 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/MER
ITV Tyne Tees North East England ITV Broadcasting Limited 1959 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/TTT
ITV Wales Wales ITV Broadcasting Limited 1958 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/WALES
ITV West West of England ITV Broadcasting Limited 1958 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/WEST
ITV West Country South West England ITV Broadcasting Limited 1961 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/WES
ITV Yorkshire Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and North Norfolk ITV Broadcasting Limited 1956 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/YTV
STV Central Central Scotland STV Central Limited 1957 STV Group plc UKIB/STV
STV North North of Scotland STV North Limited 1961 STV Group plc UKIB/STVN
UTV Northern Ireland UTV Limited 1959 ITV plc UKIB/ITV/UTV
Channel 4
Channel 4 England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland[Note 5] Channel 4 1982 Channel Four Television Corporation UKIB/C4
S4C
S4C Wales Sianel 4 Cymru/Channel 4 Wales 1982 S4C Authority UKIB/S4C

Digital channels

[edit]

Besides the main ITV, Channel 4, and S4C channels, there are several digital-only channels (ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, CITV and ITVBe) owned by ITV plc and E4, More4, Film4, 4seven and 4Music operated by Channel 4.

Eurovision Song Contest

[edit]

The United Kingdom's entries in the Eurovision Song Contest have been entered by the BBC each time. However, the United Kingdom's Junior Eurovision Song Contest entries were broadcast and selected by ITV from 2003 to 2005, before ITV withdrew in 2006 due to low viewing figures. ITV were also set to host the 2004 contest in Manchester, but pulled out of hosting due to financial and scheduling issues, as well as the previous years poor viewing figures. The contest was eventually held in Lillehammer, Norway.[7]

S4C announced on 9 May 2018 that Wales would debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 held in Minsk, Belarus.[8] However, S4C withdrew from the contest in 2020, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for their withdrawal, and have not returned since.[9] On 25 August 2022, it was confirmed that the United Kingdom would return to the contest in 2022 in Yerevan, Armenia, with the BBC replacing ITV as the country's broadcaster.[10]

Notes and references

[edit]

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ First broadcast in that region and not since the first franchises were held
  2. ^ Up to 1968, the service for the Midlands region was provided by ATV from Monday to Friday and by ABC Weekend TV at weekends.
  3. ^ Up to 1968, the service for a single Northern area consisting of both the current North West region and most of the current Yorkshire region was provided by Granada Television from Monday to Friday and by ABC Weekend TV at weekends.
  4. ^ Coverage was transferred from ITV Border and Tyne Tees to ITV Granada following digital switch-over in the Isle of Man in July 2009.
  5. ^ Now available in Wales but is designated for the rest of the United Kingdom

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Barnard, Stephen (2000). Studying Radio. London: Arnold. p. 76. ISBN 9780340719664.
  2. ^ "Facts - History". 31 May 2015. Archived from the original on 31 May 2015.
  3. ^ "european-broadcasting-union-ebu-directory-cullen-international". yumpu.com.
  4. ^ "2007 EBU Directory". 21 May 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ "BFI Screenonline: 1990 Broadcasting Act". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  6. ^ "Channel 3 (ITV)". Ofcom. Retrieved 27 September 2007.
  7. ^ "Confirmation of Manchester as original host". 4 October 2012. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012.
  8. ^ "Chwilio am Seren". junioreurovision.cymru. S4C. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  9. ^ Farren, Neil (14 July 2020). "Wales: Withdraws From Junior Eurovision". Eurovoix. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  10. ^ "United Kingdom returns to Junior Eurovision". Junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 25 August 2022.
[edit]