The Independent Television Authority was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television", the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA existed from 1954 until 1972. It was responsible for determining the location, constructing, building, and operating the transmission stations used by the ITV network, as well as determining the franchise areas and awarding the franchises for each regional commercial broadcaster. The Authority began its operations on 4 August 1954, a mere four days after the Television Act received Royal Assent, under the Chairmanship of Sir Kenneth Clark. The Authority's first Director General, Sir Robert Fraser was appointed by Clark a month later on 14 September. The physics of VHF broadcasting meant that a comparatively small number of transmitters could cover the majority of the population of Britain, if not the bulk of the area of the country. The ITA determined that the first three franchise areas would cover the London area, the English Midlands, and the North of England. All three franchise areas would be awarded on a divided weekday/weekend basis, and it was planned that the franchise holders for these areas would produce the great bulk of network programmes, while the companies given the smaller franchises would produce mainly local programmes for their area only.
Franchises
The ITA awarded franchises to applicant companies, selecting between applicants on the basis of the financial soundness and structure of the company, the proposals for the service to be offered, and often on connections between the applicant company and the area to be served. Franchises were awarded initially between 1954 and 1961, with the new television stations usually beginning their broadcasting one-to-two years later. During September 1963 the ITA invited new applications for franchises to operate from July 1964 for three years or until the arrival of ITV2, whichever came first, but in fact no changes were made to any franchise holders at that time, except for confirming the merger of the South Wales and the West franchise held by TWW and the Wales West and North franchise held by WWN following the financial collapse of WWN.
In January 1955 the ITA authorised the creation of ITN, a company owned and operated by the ITV companies collectively, to provide a news service for the new network. On 22 September 1955 the ITV service opened in the London area, where the ITA transmitter could reach a population of nearly 12 million. The first commercial on British television was for "Gibbs SR" toothpaste.
Franchises awarded in 1956
The Central Scotland franchise was awarded to Scottish Television, from three applications.
The franchise for the Channel Islands was awarded to Channel Television, from two applications, following the extension of the Television Act 1954 to the Islands by Order in Council, as it normally would not apply there.
The franchise for the English-Scottish Border and the Isle of Man was awarded to Border Television, from two applications.
The franchise for West and North Wales was awarded to the Wales Television Association, Teledu Cymru, transmitting as WWN, Wales Television.
When WWN went on the air on 14 September 1962, the ITV Network was completed. However, due to the late commissioning of two of WWN's three transmitters, the company never received more than half the projected income and the company failed in January 1964; the two Welsh franchises were consequently merged, with TWW broadcasting to the whole of Wales.
Franchise review 1967
The 1967 franchise review involved substantial changes:
All weekday/weekend split franchises were ended except in London.
Most controversially, TWW lost its franchise for Wales and the West of England to Harlech Television'', which soon became known as HTV.
The 1967 franchises were subsequently extended in stages to expire in 1976, then 1979, and finally to expire on 31 December 1981. See the entry for the IBA for details of the 1981 and 1991-2 franchise rounds.
