Franchises
The ITA awarded franchises to applicant companies, selecting between applicants on the basis of the financial soundness of the company, the proposals for the service to be offered, and often on connections between the applicant company and the area to be served.
Franchises were awarded initially between 1954 and 1961, with the new television stations usually beginning their broadcasting 1-2 years later. During September 1963 the ITA invited new applications for franchises to operate from July 1964 for three years or until the arrival of ITV2, whichever came first (in the event, "ITV2", the second commercial channel, did not begin until 1982, under the guise of Channel 4), but in fact no changes were made to any franchise holders at that time, except for confirming the merger of the South Wales and the West franchise held by TWW and the Wales West and North franchise held by WWN following the financial collapse of WWN.
Read more about this topic: Independent Television Authority