ITV Digital Channels Limited (formerly known as Granada Sky Broadcasting) is a

wholly owned subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company. Unl ...

of British broadcaster

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV (TV network), ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc ...

. It was set up in 1996 and operated until 2004 as a joint venture between

Granada plc Granada plc (previously called Granada Ltd., Granada Group plc, and Granada Media plc) was a British conglomerate best known as the parent from 1954 to 2004 of the Manchester-based Granada Television. The company agreed a corporate takeover of ...

and

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers a ...

to launch a range of television channels broadcasting the

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

and LWT archives on the Sky

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

platform, as well as other digital platforms such as

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

(closed on 1 May 2002),

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications ...

and

Telewest Telewest (previously Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications) was a cable internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was also ...

(both later merged to form

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

). On 2 February 2004, Granada plc merged with

Carlton Communications Carlton Communications plc was a British media company. It was led by Michael P. Green and listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1983 until 2 February 2004, when it was bought by Granada plc in a corporate takeover to form ITV plc. Carlton s ...

to form

, which fully purchased ITV Digital Channels in November of that year.

History

1996–2002: Launch, digital expansion and rebrands

In 1996,

and

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

agreed to create a joint venture to operate four services on Sky and other cable platforms. The services were: * Granada Plus, an archive channel using the

and LWT archives (de-branded from Granada on 9 September 2002) * Granada Men & Motors, a channel aimed at men, focused on motoring and erotic content (de-branded from Granada on 12 August 2001) * Granada Good Life, a women's lifestyle channel (renamed to Breeze on 1 May 1998) * Granada Talk TV, a talk shows channel (closed on 31 August 1997 due to low ratings) The GSkyB portfolio greatly increased its reach with the launch of ONdigital, which Granada and Carlton, another dominant ITV rights holder, were funding, in October and November 1998. 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

and

. Throughout 2001 and 2002, the channels began to disassociate from Granada branding. Men & Motors received a major rebrand in August 2001, and the Granada brand was dropped from Plus in September 2002.

2003–2004: Uncertain future

In late November 2003, the future of GSkyB was thrown into uncertainty as Granada and Carlton – soon to merge as

– 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 ITV3 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first launched on Monday 1 November 2004 at 9 pm, replacing Plus (British TV channel), Plus ...

, 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 Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information fo ...

space on some Sky Digiboxes. It was later announced with carriage on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

and

, 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

channel which replaced Plus on the same day. 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. On 2 May 2005, Men & Motors launched as a free-to-air channel on the

digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV, DTT, or DTTB) is a technology for terrestrial television, in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital signal, digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technologica ...

service. It was rumoured that ITV plc would replace it with

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which first aired on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV plc. The channel focuses primarily on general entertainment programming targeting a male audience, including action series and films, ...

, 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, both channels continued and ITV plc cut the hours of the ITV News Channel to make way for ITV4 and

CITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...

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

until 7 November. Because of this, some ITV4 sports programming was

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

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. In April 2006, Men & Motors left Freeview to make way for the launch of ITV Play, and much of its content was moved over to ITV4. ITV intended to dispose of the channel as a non-core asset, but it ultimately closed on

on 25 March 2010, and finally closed on Sky and

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...

on 1 April, to make way for a permanent EPG position for ITV HD. In 2014, ITV's portfolio of channels was expanded with the launch of ITV Encore, a drama channel, and

ITVBe ITVBe was a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. Launched on 8 October 2014, the channel was positioned as a spin-off of ITV2 targeting a female audience, focusing primarily upon reality an ...

, 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 online service. 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 wider brief for producing factual content. The CITV channel closed on 1 September 2023, with programming moved to streaming service

ITVX ITVX is a British Over-the-top media services, over-the-top and ad-supported Streaming television, streaming service operated by ITV plc. The service offers original content from the broadcaster, livestreams of the ITV television channels, Free ...

. A daily programming block was introduced on ITV2 from 2 September 2023, from 05:00 to 09:00, using the "CITV" brand.

Channels

Current

ITV operates the following digital television channels: *

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

(including ITV2 +1 and HD) – General entertainment and reality *

(including ITV3 +1 and HD) – Drama and movies *

(including ITV4 +1 and HD) – Sports and entertainment *

ITV Quiz ITV Quiz is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV plc. The channel was first announced on 16 April 2025 and launched on 9 June 2025, replacing ITVBe. The channel primarily airs reruns of game shows produced for ITV. History ...

– Quiz shows and entertainment

Former

* Plus – Launched as ''Granada Plus'' on 1 October 1996, showing entertainment programmes from the archives of

, LWT and its subsidiaries. Closed on 1 November 2004 to allow

to launch on Sky. * Granada Breeze – Launched as ''Granada Good Life'' on 1 October 1996, a lifestyle channel divided into four 3-hour segments: 'Food & Wine', 'Health & Beauty', 'TV 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 Play – Interactive gaming channel launched in April 2006. It closed in March 2007 * 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

in January 2019. *

ITV Box Office ITV Box Office was a pay-per-view channel from ITV plc launched in February 2017, and ceased operations in January 2020. The channel was available in HD-only on Sky, and events were also available on demand only on Virgin Media (UK) and TVPlayer ...

– A pay-per-view sports channel. Closed on 24 January 2020. * Merit – A short-lived lifestyle channel. Sold to

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

on 20 August 2020. *

– For children under 12 years old. Closed as a channel on 1 September 2023. Programming moved to

and a daily morning slot on ITV2. *

(including ITVBe +1 and HD) – Reality television and lifestyle launched in 2014 as a spinoff of ITV2. The channel closed on 9 June 2025 and was replaced by an all quiz channel.

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
{{BSkyB ITV (TV network) Mass media companies of the United Kingdom Satellite television 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom Mass media companies established in 1996