GMTV

GMTV was the Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting from 1st January 1993 to 3rd September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. GMTV won the licence for the breakfast Channel 3 franchise from 1993, outbidding the previous licence holder, TV-am, in the 1991 franchise round for £34 million, backed by LWT, Scottish Television, The Walt Disney Company, and the Guardian Media Group. GMTV promised a cheerful morning and with more information – termed the F-factor.

Carlton Communications bought a 20 pecent stake in the consortium in November 1991. GMTV was first intended to be called ‘Sunrise Television’ but as Sky News breakfast programming also went by that name (and still does to this day), Sky protested, resulting in the change of name. Within months the company was criticsed by the ITC and continued to do so for many years. GMTV finally received a windfall in 1998, the ITC reduced the amount the station had to pay to the treasury from £50 million to £20 million, which allowed GMTV to strengthen its programming, including children’s programming at the weekends. These actions resulted in an increase of viewership by 1999, which continued for a good few years.