Throughout ITV's history and until Channel 4 finally became a reality, a perennial dialogue existed between the GPO, the government, the ITV companies and other interested parties, concerning the form such an expansion of commercial broadcasting would take.

In other countries the format was copied – most notably in the United Kingdom with the BBC's Breakfast and ITV's Good Morning Britain, in Canada with Canada AM on CTV and in Australia with the Sunrise ( TV program ) on the Seven Network.

Neither did it neglect other responsibilities: it established the long-running Sunday lunchtime political series Weekend World and ITV's most famous arts programmes Aquarius, and its replacement The South Bank Show ( cancelled by ITV after 30 years ).

His other television roles include: Hagath in the episode " Business as Usual " in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ; Stilgar in the 2003 miniseries Children of Dune ; a gangster ( Mr Wiltshire ) in episode 8 of the BBC's Hotel Babylon series ; a lawyer ( Freddie Eccles ) in an episode of ITV's Marple entitled By the Pricking of My Thumbs ; and Adolf Hitler in the mini-series War and Remembrance, role he originally baulked at taking, primarily on moral grounds ; he later relented.

ITV's licence to produce Pop Idol has since expired, meaning that other channels could theoretically acquire the series.

The channel used to broadcast live UEFA Champions League football matches whenever two English teams were playing simultaneously, with the other game being shown on the ITV Network, if ITV2 ( ITV's former secondary channel to show Champions League games ) had a full schedule.

Between 1965 and 1985 Grandstand faced competition from ITV's World of Sport, but ITV eventually decided to drop Saturday afternoon sport in favour of other programmes.

There were by now other, more hard-hitting consumer investigation programmes being broadcast ( such as ITV's The Cook Report and the BBC's own Watchdog, and several others ), and the always slightly uneasy mix of hard-hitting and comical articles of the show was by now seen by many as very awkward and somewhat dated.

She has also presented other programmes including ITV's 2005 Super Bowl coverage.

While ITV franchise Thames TV wanted to propose Interceptor for another ITV network commission in 1990, Thames was already responsible for a very large section of ITV's prime-time shows and other companies wanted a greater proportion.

From March 2009 the company has been fully rebranded as ITV Studios Limited, which has also been extended to some productions for other UK broadcasters ( such as Channel 4's Countdown ) and to ITV's US arm, ITV Studios, Inc.

Phillips has also presented other programmes, including as the celebrity lifestyle show OK! TV, Baby House and Room to Rent, Carlton's entertainment guide Good Stuff, LWT's Friday evening entertainment show Start the Weekend, ITV's Sunday Night and the Rich and Famous series.

Its creation was thought by many to be the BBC's response to the growing success of ITV's Tiswas-although at the time the latter was only broadcast in the ATV region in the Midlands and had yet to be taken up by other ITV franchises around the country.

The other 10 % was entirely non-BBC content, including ITV's Primeval, and Channel 4's The Naked Chef and Misfits.

It has been claimed that the series was axed partially because Anglia was one of ITV's smaller companies, with relatively little power within network negotiations ; some have claimed that a lingering resentment over this was the reason why Anglia was still showing Emmerdale Farm out of peaktime after all other regions had moved it into the peak hours ( also, Anglia may have resented the fact that Yorkshire Television, makers of that series, had replaced it as the company broadcasting from the Belmont transmitting station ).

In 1998 he worked as a script editor on ITV's other long-running soap, Emmerdale, moving across to write several episodes himself the following year.

From 1999-2009, McDonald hosted ITV's flagship current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald.

* The Premiership, ITV's flagship football programme from 2001-2004

Dimbleby was the main presenter of the BBC's flagship 1980s political series This Week Next Week, broadcast on Sunday early afternoons from 1984 to 1988, as a competitor to ITV's long-running Weekend World series.

In 1972 he joined ITV's flagship current affairs programme This Week.

Between June and December 2010, Callard was a recurring panellist on ITV's flagship show Loose Women.

The Queen Vic ( short for the Queen Victoria ) is the pub in EastEnders, the major soap on BBC One, while The Bull in the Radio 4 soap opera The Archers and the Woolpack in ITV's Emmerdale are also important meeting points.

Otley is " Hotton " in the ITV television soap opera Emmerdale, and appears in ITV's Heartbeat where Otley Courthouse is the old Police Station.

After less than two years in this role, it was announced in late 2009 than Collinson would be leaving the BBC to take over as producer of ITV's top-rated soap opera Coronation Street.

Simon Fenton has since gone on to appear in several well-known television dramas, such as ITV's police soap opera The Bill ( in 2002 ) and Steven Spielberg's Band of Brothers ( 2001 ).

Howards ' Way debuted on BBC One in 1985, the same year that the BBC launched their first ongoing soap opera EastEnders as a challenge to the ratings supremacy of ITV's Coronation Street.

The following year he co-starred with Stephanie Beacham and Pam Ferris in ITV's rag-trade soap drama, Connie.

Nikki Ann Sanderson ( born 28 March 1984 in Blackpool, is an English actress and glamour model who is best known for playing Candice Stowe in the television soap opera Coronation Street and Dawn Bellamy in ITV's Heartbeat.

He first found fame playing the role of Billy Walker, wayward son of publican Annie, in ITV's long-running soap opera, Coronation Street.

The soap was launched as part of ITV's new early evening line-up with enormous pre-publicity and trailers and at first it rated well, even drawing comparisons to shows such as Twin Peaks.

Raymond " Ray " Fearon ( born 1 June 1967 ) is a British actor who has worked extensively in theatre, and is known for playing garage mechanic Nathan Harding on ITV's long-running soap opera Coronation Street.

Well-known to television audiences, Anthony ’ s numerous credits include ITV's Murder in Suburbia, Agatha Christie's Poirot, a regular role in the award winning soap opera Night & Day ( ITV ), Hotel!

Caroline Milmoe ( born 11 January 1963 ) is an English stage, film and television actress best known for playing Julie in the first two series of Carla Lane's Liverpool-based BBC sit-com Bread and Lisa Duckworth in ITV's long-running soap opera Coronation Street.

Shelley Victoria Unwin ( previously Barlow ) is a fictional character who appeared in ITV's British soap opera Coronation Street.

His return in late 2003 was watched by over 16 million viewers, putting EastEnders back at number one in the rating war with the ITV's rival soap Coronation Street.

Growing out of what was originally intended to be no more than a six-week serial ( entitled Calling Nurse Roberts ), the series became ITV's first twice-weekly evening soap opera.

Her many credits include the BBC soap drama EastEnders and also ITV's The Bill.

Roberts has worked on some of the most popular British soap operas, including Channel 4's now-defunct Brookside as a scriptwriter ( 1999 – 2003 ), and as a story associate on ITV's Coronation Street in 1997.

He was also a key character in ITV's soap Night and Day, who had an affair with the underage main character Jane Harper before her disappearance.

At the end of 1981, a restructure of ITV's broadcast franchises saw ATV win back the franchise for the Midlands on condition of changes in management, regional output and branding.

Then, after a stint in ITV's I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here saw him attain new-found popularity, Fashanu left the club, which by now was in a perilous financial state.

The following year, on 28 March 1988 a revamp in ITV's daytime schedules saw the bulletin moved back to 1: 00pm and became News at One again.

Both have recently been merged in a restructuring of ITV's international arm, which saw the new entity firstly named ITV Worldwide and now ITV Studios Global Entertainment.