ITV gobbles up its breakfast
16 October 2004 tbs.pm/530
Media Guardian: ITV tightens grip on GMTV
The concept of a seperate franchise owning the 6-9:25am slot on Channel 3 is one wedded in history – a time when television wasn’t the 24/7 experience it is today. The desire therefore of ITV plc to take control of its breakfast counterpart is therefore understandable although whether Disney will join SMG in selling its 25% stake, still remains to be seen.
If they do, GMTV will come to an end. Not on air, but behind the scenes – another little quirk of the past will be buried away. If they don’t, GMTV will just end up essentially a production company pumping out ITV’s breakfast programmed – ablate a company mostly owned by the host network.
As another quirk of the past gets swept away, the question then to be asked is, what happens to those other ‘quirks’? Scottish, Grampian, UTV and Channel? That remains to be seen.