- Granada Ltd.
Granada Limited (previously called Granada plc, Granada Group plc and Granada Media plc) is a former British media and previously
catering conglomerate, best known as the former parent ofGranada Television Limited. It is now known asITV plc following its merger withCarlton Communications plc.Businesses
At the time of the merger with Carlton Communications plc, Granada was mainly involved in the
television business. It owned sevenITV companies –Granada Television ,London Weekend Television ,Yorkshire Television ,Tyne Tees Television ,Meridian Broadcasting ,Anglia Television andBorder Television . It also owned theITV Digital Channels Ltd pay-TV business, which at the time offered two channels,Men and Motors andGranada Plus , as well as 50% shares inITV2 and theITV News Channel , and a 20% share ofIndependent Television News . It also owned 45% ofTV3 Ireland .Charles Allen was chief executive of Granada until2 February 2004, when he became chief executive of the newly-createdITV plc , a post he retained until1 October 2006.History
Media business
Granada has its origins in
Sidney Bernstein 's Granada Theatres Ltd., a cinema company founded inDover in 1930. The company has been listed on theLondon Stock Exchange in one form or another since 1935. It was awarded the North of EnglandITV franchise in 1954. For more details on the history of that part of Granada's business, seeGranada Television . Granada also established a chain of television rental shops from 1959 onwards.During the 1980s, Granada became involved in the
British Satellite Broadcasting satellite television company. This went on air in March 1990, but merged withSky Television in November 1990, to form British Sky Broadcasting, in which Granada had a minority shareholding for some time. In 1991, Granada Theatres Ltd was sold to Bass. In 1994 Granada acquiredLondon Weekend Television . In 1997 it acquired Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc, forming Granada Media Group plc. It also bid together withCarlton Communications plc andBritish Sky Broadcasting for the UKDigital terrestrial television licence. They won the licence, though BSkyB was excluded from the company, ONdigital for competition grounds. It went on air in 1998.Catering business
Aside from media, Granada's other main strength was in the
catering business. It opened its first motorway service area in 1965, and established a chain of service areas across the Britishmotorway network. In the 1990s it expanded into other areas of catering, including most notably the acquisition ofForte Group .Granada Rentals
Until the late 1990s there was a wide spread high street chain called "Granada Rentals" in the UK and in Canada. This was an electrical rentals chain similar to the likes of
Radio Rentals andRediffusion . However due to changes in the consumer trend from renting electrical goods to buying electrical goods this had resulted in the decline of this chain which becameBox Clever following a merger with Radio Rentals in 2000. This successor company had since withdrawn from the high street and now only has an internet presence.Merger and De-merger with
Compass Group In 2000 Granada merged with
Compass Group plc to form Granada Compass plc. At the same it spun off the Granada Media Group as Granada Media plc, retaining 80% of the shares initially. The merger did not last long, and in 2001 Compass and Granada once again went their separate ways, Compass taking all of Granada's food and hospitality business with it. The de-merged Granada was a pure media company.Later events, and merger with Carlton
In 2000, Granada Media purchased United News & Media's television interests, though it was forced to sell the
HTV broadcasting business (to Carlton) for competition reasons, though it held onto HTV's network production business. It also acquiredBorder Television , selling its radio interests to Capital Radio plc.In 2002 ITV Digital, the renamed ONdigital, collapsed. Speculation now began to centre on when, not if, Carlton and Granada would merge. In 2003 a merger was agreed between the two companies, with Granada shareholders owning two-thirds of the new company. That the new company was in effect a takeover by Granada of Carlton was admitted in the first annual report of the new company,
ITV plc , which treated the company as effectively a continuation of Granada plc (with the Carlton merger regarded as an acquisition) for accounting purposes.The Granada name remains as the name of the North-West ITV franchise, and is used to brand productions of ITV plc companies on channels other than ITV branded channels in the
United Kingdom , where ITV Productions is used instead. For details on the company's history after2 February 2004 , seeITV plc .ee also
*
Granada Television
*Granada Productions External links
* [http://www.granadamedia.com Granada Productions]
* [http://www.ketupa.net/granada2.htm History of Granada Group]
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