ITV plc is the company formed from the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada, which began trading on 2 February 2004.
ITV plc currently owns the following ITV franchises in the UK:
Former Granada-owned franchises:
Former Carlton-owned franchises:
ITV plc also owns 50% of the ITV national breakfast television franchise GMTV, as well as interests in the Scottish Media Group, the Irish broadcaster TV3 and Granada Sky Broadcasting (a joint venture with BSkyB). It also wholly owns and operates ITV2 Limited, the second ITV television channel, and owns a 40% stake in Independent Television News Limited. It also owns 65% of the ITV News Channel, which is operated by ITN for ITV.
The CEO of ITV plc is Charles Allen. Sir Peter Burt is the Chairman. ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange plc's Offical List. It was created through a share swop, Granada shareholders exchanged their shares for ITV shares at a rate of 1:1, Carlton shareholders at a rate of almost 2:1. Thus the former Granada shareholders own almost 2/3rds of the new company.
ITV plc also owns the largest cinema advertising business in the UK and Ireland, Carlton Screen Advertising.
