SMG prepared to fight for ITV name

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else - although I've not really looked very hard, so that may explain it.

Everyone has (correctly, it seems) assumed that when Carlton and Granada finally sort out the terms of their merger, the newly unified company will be called ITV. However, SMG doesn't think should be allowed, and is prepared to shout very loudly about it.

SMG argues that the ITV brand is the collective property of all of the Independent Television franchises, and that Carlton and Granada cannot assume ownership of the brand solely because they are majority franchise holders. It seems that SMG isn't terribly happy about the merger anyway, and is prepared to make life difficult for the newly merged Granalton. SMG is currently considering its legal arguments, while Carlton and Granada predictably refuse to be drawn on the matter.

A similar, if somewhat smaller, battle ensued when ONdigital became ITV Digital; Carlton and Granada were forced to pay nominal reparations to some (not sure if it was all) other franchise areas, including SMG. Whether SMG will be so submissive this time around remains to be seen.

Haven't SMG already mounted and lost a legal battle over use of the ITV brand?

Have they?! When was this?

I can't remember, but it has happened. The ITC (IIRC) basically said 'Shut up SMG'.

In my opinion all the franchises should merge together with carlton owning x%, granada owning z%, smg owning v% and channel and utv owning the rest, it would be much simpler and less bickering so to speak between the franchisee's then we might see a uniformed itv across the whole of britain, it would certainly look better for the image of the company

'The Company'? ITV isn't a company, it's a concept and a brand name for a network. Carlton and Granada want to steal that for themselves and make it a company, that is SMG's argument.

Well apparently they're not shutting up - most of the detail above was printed in last week's Broadcast .

www.business.scotsman.com/media.cfm?id=1291892003 - this is from last Sunday

cwathen, why don't you use the 'Quote' button when you quote text?
- that way it is attributed automatically to the person who wrote it, rather than just saying 'Quote:' each time

I thought SMG, along with Channel and UTV were being essentially "paid off" for the ITV Digital name? I'm sure there was some money involved for the case not to go to court ...

Yes, I mentioned that in my original post at the top... the issue persists, however, over the ownership of the ITV brand itself.

Sorry, late to this forum.

Isn't this a bit rich from SMG? When the ITV rebrand was launched, SMG said that the Scottish and Grampian brands were better known North ofthe Border and they wanted no part of it.

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

I don't think it's a bit rich at all. Scottish and Grampian wanted no part in rebranding their stations as ITV1, fighting to be able to retain collective ownership of the ITV brand is an entirely different issue.

ITV as a brand they are arguing (and I don't even know why this needs to be fought - SMG are just stating what is surely a fact) is the collective property of all of the ITV stations and should be used to brand the network uniformly when required. Carlton and Granada however just want to take it and make it their own name for their own company - and use it in non ITV network applications (as they allready do; ITV2 and ITV News Channel are not really a part of ITV (nor was ITV Digital, or ITV Sport Channel, or ITV Select, nor will be ITV Kids or ITV Gold), they are private Carlton and Granada companies which carry the ITV brand).

Crucially, this means that they could end up owning all rights to the brand, preventing anyone else from ever using ITV again.

This should not be allowed. The regulator should have safeguarded the use of the ITV brand restricting it to network use and external ventures where all franchise holders are participating. The dominant ITV companies should never have been able to just decide that they own the brand and walk off with it.