Independent Television Commission

Independent Television Commission

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003.

In this context, 'independent' indicates freedom from the BBC, rather than the government, as the latter is taken as being read.

The ITC was formed by the Broadcasting Act 1990 to replace the television regulation functions of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (formed by the Broadcasting Act 1954) and Cable Authority. From 1 January 1991 it regulated the existing ITV network.

The 1990 Act also established the Channel Four Television Corporation to run Channel 4, regulated by the ITC. There was no fan-fare, as control was passed from Channel Four Television Company Limited.

The establishing Act required the auction of Channel 3 licences for the fifteen ITV regions and nationwide breakfast time. Most of the Channel 3 licences were awarded to the incumbent ITV companies; however there were some controversial decisions:

• Carlton Television outbid Thames Television for the London Weekday licence.

• GMTV (changed to Good Morning Television as the bid name 'Sunrise Television' was already used by Sky News) outbid TV-am for the Breakfast television licence.

• Television South and Television South West were deemed to have overbid for their licences, and hence their franchises were awarded to lower bidders Meridian Broadcasting and Westcountry Television, respectively.

On 1 January 1993 these new arrangements came into force, and the ITC began its job of 'light touch regulation'. During this time, the ITC regulated the Channel 3 system as well as Channel 4. It issued licences to new satellite broadcasters and awarded the Channel 5 licence in the late 1990s. It also regulated cable TV.

In the early 2000s, the British government, in a White Paper, declared its intention to merge the ITC with the Radio Authority, Office of Telecommunications, and Radiocommunications Agency. This merger, under the Communications Act 2003, took effect on 29 December 2003. Most powers of the ITC are now exercised by the Office of Communications (Ofcom), making some powers – and the ITC itself – defunct. At this point, technical standards regulation, previously carried out in accordance with the IBA engineering "Code of Practice", seems to have disappeared from the regulatory landscape.