Peter Brooke has announced this morning a relaxation in the ITV ownership rules which will allow a company to hold two regional licences in areas with the largest advertising revenue, but not the two London licences.
It had been expected that there would also be exceptions to the rules made to protect HTV and Scottish channels
However the ruling is still subject to approval of both Houses of Parliamnt. Peter Brooke said that the ruling has been brought in to enable ITV companies to compete more effectively in world markets.
However, he stressed that the conditions on regional programming will remain, even if there are ownership changes. In the longer term he said that ownership restrictions will continue to be reviewed, as will cross media ownership.
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