Template:Infobox ITV franchisee GMTV (Good Morning Television) is the national ITV breakfast television contractor,^[1] broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It is owned by GMTV Ltd, comprising ITV plc (75%) and The Walt Disney Company (25%).

Overview

GMTV has held the licence for the breakfast Channel 3 franchise since 1993, when it outbid the previous 6:00 - 9.25 am Channel 3 licence-holder, TV-am. The first show was broadcast on Friday 1 January 1993 and was presented by Eamonn Holmes and Anne Davies, both of whom have since left. It was first intended to be called Sunrise Television, but as Sky News's breakfast programming also went by that name (and still does to this day), Sky protested, resulting in the change of name. STV Group plc (then known as SMG plc), owner of two of the three Channel 3 regional licences for Scotland (Scottish Television and Grampian Television) previously owned 25% of the company; however, this stake was purchased by ITV plc for £31 million in 2004.

GMTV broadcasts from Studio 5 at The London Studios on the South Bank; as of 2005, the station claims to have the highest breakfast-time audience in Europe.

The station claims to reach approximately 13 million viewers a week, transmitting daily from 6.00 am until the regional Channel 3 franchises (the ITV Network) take over at 9.25 am. Since the switchover is now practically seamless and the station is 'surrounded' in the most part by ITV Network continuity on either side of transmission, most viewers perceive GMTV simply as a programme on ITV; however, due to Disney's minority stake in the station, it essentially remains an independent broadcaster with its own news-gathering operation, sales and management teams and in-house production team. Very occasionally, in the event of a major sporting fixture or such-like occurring early in the morning, the ITV Network may seek permission from the regulator, Ofcom, to broadcast during GMTV's airtime, although GMTV always reclaims such time from ITV (normally on the Sunday, following such an event).

GMTV's main rivals include BBC Breakfast (which is more news-oriented), Sky News's Sunrise, and Channel 4's morning schedule (which includes Friends). Until fairly recently, GMTV has been the most watched television channel in its timeslot. It is now regularly beaten in the ratings by the more serious BBC Breakfast on BBC One. Due to its part-Disney ownership, it also occasionally finds itself in conflict with its own majority owner; for example, it was reported that ITV plc's year-long negotiations to launch a children's channel with Nickelodeon were ultimately thwarted by GMTV, who felt that the viewing figures for its own children's programming would be threatened by such a venture. The plans were scrapped, and when ITV eventually launched the CITV Channel, it placated GMTV by contracting the company to sell the advertising in the channel's airtime (making it the only ITV-owned channel not sold by the in-house advertising sales division). ITV plc has attempted to buy out Disney's stake in GMTV, in order to secure 24-hour control of Channel 3 in England and Wales, but has so far been unsuccessful.

In 2005, main male anchor Eamonn Holmes decided not to renew his contract because he considered GMTV to be 'celebrity-oriented', and stated that the channel did not broadcast sufficient news and current affairs output; he also supposedly disagreed with how the managing editors ran the programmes. He joined Sky News's Sunrise in October 2005.

2009 revamp

GMTV is set to overhaul its branding, with the new look on-screen in January 2009. This is to coincide with the departure of main presenter Fiona Phillips and weather presenter Andrea McLean. In November 2008, after much speculation, it was announced that Sky TV business presenter Emma Crosby would replace Phillips, and the BBC's Kirsty McCabe would replace McLean as weather presenter.^[2]

Background

As a nationally available analogue terrestrial station, GMTV is required, by the terms of its licence, to fulfil various public service commitments, including substantial broadcasting of news and current affairs output, as well as the aforementioned children's programmes, and also party political broadcasts over election periods. It has been criticised for its poor journalistic quality (for instance placing a soap opera storyline in its headline news) and an over-reliance on phone-in competitions.

Programmes

The team

Breakfast time on Channel 3

As a Channel 3 licensee, GMTV also has the right to broadcast during the same slot alongside ITV's digital channels; its sister service, GMTV2, follows the same broadcast slot with mostly children's programming, except at weekends from 9:00 am when Teleshopping takes over. GMTV2 was broadcast on the same channel number as ITV plc-owned digital channel ITV2 until March 16, 2008, where the slot moved to ITV4. The company also has broadcasting rights on the same frequency as ITV3 (and even holds a 'GMTV3' license), but has so far foregone its chance to launch a third station, preferring to sell its airtime to ITV plc, to allow ITV3 to broadcast around the clock.

Most recently, GMTV has acquired a further channel slot in the form of the CITV Channel, whose programming between 6:00 and 9.25 am is simulcasted with that of GMTV's children's output on its other two stations: on GMTV2 throughout the week, and on GMTV1 at weekends. GMTV also sells advertising time for the entire output of the channel. Since its involvement with the CITV Channel, GMTV has adopted CITV branding on all its CITV-simulcast children's output over GMTV1 and GMTV2, in order to simplify the simulcasts, leading to the disappearance of any on-screen reference to GMTV during these times.

Online

The GMTV website has more than 800,000 unique users and attracts more than 8 million page impressions a month. In May 2007, gm.tv teamed up with Reuters to provide 24/7 news and showbiz headlines.^[5] On September 01 2008, gm.tv relaunched, however not fully, as GMTV are phasing in various new look sections.

Controversy

tag On 23 April 2007, a BBC Panorama investigation disclosed that callers to GMTV's phone-in competitions may have been defrauded out of around £40 million, because the telephone system operator, Opera Interactive Technology, had determined the winners before the phone lines had closed. GMTV responded by suspending the phone-in quizzes, and while they initially claimed that "it was confident it had not breached regulators' codes", they subsequently terminated their contract with Opera Interactive after their own investigations discovered "irregularities". Opera Interactive also denied any wrongdoing.^[6]

On 26 September 2007, as a result of an Ofcom investigation, GMTV was handed a record £2m fine for their role in the competition phone-in debacle.^[7]

Time changes

The channel is usually broadcast from 06:00-09:25 daily, but has had to change times on several occasions due to live sport events clashing with this timeslot. During the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the channel was moved to a later slot, and on more than one occasion, the channel did not broadcast at all. GMTV is also heavily affected by Formula One races which are live from Asia, which also push GMTV back to a later time - normally it broadcasts on these Sundays from 10:00-12:00. This is entirely taken up by the Toonattik cartoons slot. Owing to live coverage of the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix, the channel broadcast Toonattik from 09:05-10:20