ITV

ITV is a British commercial television network that launched on 22 September 1955 under the name Independent Television, established as competition for the BBC and becoming the oldest commercial network in the United Kingdom. It began as a group of independently owned regional companies that both broadcast and produced programming, starting with four companies operating six stations across three regions in 1955 and 1956 and expanding to seventeen stations across fourteen regions by 1962. Since the Broadcasting Act 1990 it has also been known by the legal designation Channel 3.