Gerry Robinson, chairman of Granada, confirmed today that the group has made a successful bid for Yorkshire Tyne Tees television. The move has been expected for months; Granada chose to act now because the two companies have reached agreement on the price, set at £525 million or £11.75 a share. The deal has been agreed by the boards of both companies. There are still a number of other issues to be finalised, such as how YTTV will operate within Granada, and the bid has to be authorised by the ITC.
Granada will not be exceeding the 15% audience share limit set by the ITC for each ITV company, but it will have to prove to the ITC that it will safeguard the regional identity of YTTV.
By expanding its media interests there has been renewed speculation that Granada will separate its media division from its other leisure interests. Robinson admitted that this was a possibility, but unlikely at the moment.
Looking at ITV as a whole, Robinson hopes to see Channel 3 become a single entity at some point in the future. He believes that this is the only way ITV will be able to operate effectively in the competitive global markets. Although, he acknowledged that this issue was not a top government priority and would be unlikely to happen in this term of office. Robinson sees changes in the licence fee funding arrangements for ITV and Channel 4 as higher up on the governments’ list of priorities and believes that changes will start to happen soon.
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