ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ITV Broadcasting Limited for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is transmitted from Crystal Palace in the London Borough of Bromley.
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👉 ITV London in the context of London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the home counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5:15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 until 1982) to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights (there was no handover back to Thames on Mondays, as from 1968 to 1982 there was no programming in the very early morning, and from 1983, when a national breakfast franchise was created, LWT would hand over to TV-am at 6:00am, which would then hand over to Thames at 9:25am). From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities (although occasionally a Thames-to-LWT-style handover would appear).
Like most ITV regional franchises, including Carlton's, the London weekend franchise is now operated by ITV plc. The "London Weekend" franchise was renewed by Ofcom in 2015 for ten years and is still separately licensed, but is no longer distinguished on air. LWT is now managed with Carlton Television as a single entity (ITV London), although the name for the London Weekend licence on the Ofcom site is still "LWT". London Weekend Television Ltd is now (along with most other former regional companies owned by ITV plc) listed at Companies House as a "dormant company".
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ITV London in the context of Media in London
London is a major international communications centre with a virtually unrivalled number of media outlets. Almost all of the major media organisations in the UK are based in London. Much of the British media is concentrated in London and is sometimes accused of having a "London bias". All the major television networks are headquartered in London including the BBC, which remains one of the world's most influential media organisations, and the largest broadcaster in the world. Partly to counter complaints about London bias, the BBC announced in June 2004 that some departments are to be relocated to Manchester. Other networks headquartered in London include ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, CNN International and Sky UK. Like the BBC, these produce some programs elsewhere in the UK, but London is their main production centre. Local programming, including news, is provided by the regional services of the main networks: e.g. BBC London News on BBC One and ITV London on ITV.
There is a huge choice of radio stations available in London. Local citywide stations include music-based stations such as Absolute Radio, Capital London, Smooth London, Kiss, Magic Radio, Heart London, Radio X and Greatest Hits Radio London. Popular news/talk stations include BBC Radio London, LBC and LBC News.
ITV London in the context of Carlton Television
Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Television as a single entity (ITV London), but the two companies are still separately licensed. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of "ITV Broadcasting Limited". Carlton has been branded on air as "ITV1" since 28 October 2002 ("ITV" between 14 January 2013 and 14 November 2022). Carlton Television Ltd, the original holder of the licence (renamed Carlton Broadcasting Limited on 1 February 1997), has since been dissolved. Carlton UK Television Limited however is now known as ITV Consumer Limited and legally operates ITV plc's websites. As Carlton's name has no relation to its region, its on-screen identity has been completely removed (along with those of HTV, LWT and GMTV). Other regions have kept their original company name as a region name and in their local news name.