Editing ITV Digital Channels (section)

==History==
{{For timeline}}
===1996–2002: Launch, digital expansion and rebrands===
[[File:ITV digital channels viewing share.png|thumb|300px|right|ITV digital channels viewing share between 2000 and 2008]]
In 1996, [[Granada plc]] and [[Sky UK|BSkyB]] agreed to create a joint venture to operate four services  on Sky and other cable platforms. The services were:
* [[Plus (British TV channel)|Granada Plus]], an archive channel using the [[ITV Granada|Granada]] and [[London Weekend Television|LWT]] archives (de-branded from Granada on 9 September 2002)
* [[Men & Motors|Granada Men & Motors]], a channel aimed at men, focused on motoring and erotic content (de-branded from Granada on 12 August 2001)
* [[Granada Breeze|Granada Good Life]], a women's lifestyle channel (renamed to Breeze on 1 May 1998)
* [[Granada Talk TV]], a talk shows channel (closed on 31 August 1997 due to low ratings)
The GSkyB portfolio greatly increased its reach with the launch of [[ITV Digital|ONdigital]], which Granada and Carlton, another dominant ITV rights holder, were funding, in October and November 1998. Granada Plus and Men & Motors performed well in ratings, but Breeze struggled to attract viewers, leading to budget cuts that resulted in original programming being cut and 60 jobs being lost. In December 2001, the decision was made to close the channel with a gradual closure across digital platforms. It was finally closed on 30 April 2002 to honour contracts with [[Telewest]] and [[NTL Incorporated|NTL]]. 

Throughout 2001 and 2002, the channels began to disassociate from Granada branding. Men & Motors received a major rebrand in August 2001, and the Granada brand was dropped from Plus in September 2002.

===2003–2004: Uncertain future===
In late November 2003, the future of GSkyB was thrown into uncertainty as Granada and [[Carlton Communications|Carlton]] – soon to merge as [[ITV plc]] – looked to increase their multichannel presence. ITV Gold was conceived as a new archive channel similar to Plus, but over time this evolved to [[ITV3]], with Plus' first run rights to archive drama being sought after for the new channel. ITV was also negotiating with Sky over carriage of ITV3, eventually reaching an impasse due to the lack of [[Electronic program guide|EPG]] space on some Sky Digiboxes. It was later announced with carriage on [[Freeview (UK)|Freeview]], [[NTL Incorporated|NTL]] and [[Telewest]], but with no Sky carriage. Many had expected GSkyB to either be sold or closed entirely, an option ITV considered as it began the sale of non-core assets. 

===2004–present: ITV plc control and multichannel expansion===
On 1 November 2004, ITV plc agreed to purchase BSkyB's stake in GSkyB for £10 million. The deal included the slot that [[Plus (British TV channel)|Granada Plus]] was broadcasting on, which ITV used to broadcast its new [[ITV3]] channel which replaced Plus on the same day.<ref name="ITV3">{{cite press release|title=ITV3 to launch on satellite today|publisher=[[ITV plc]]|date=1 November 2004|url=http://www.itvplc.com/itv/news/releases/pr2004/2004-11-01/|access-date=16 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015171022/http://www.itvplc.com/itv/news/releases/pr2004/2004-11-01/|archive-date=15 October 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> The negotiations that led to ITV plc taking sole control of GSkyB, closing Plus and launching ITV3 on digital satellite were apparently completed just hours before the new channel started broadcasting. On 8 November, Granada Sky Broadcasting was renamed ITV Digital Channels Limited, shortly after the closure of Granada Plus left [[Men & Motors]] as the sole survivor of the original four channels. As part of ITV's buy-out of Sky's shareholding, Sky would have received 49.5% of any proceeds (net of liabilities) from any future sale of Men & Motors.<ref name="ITV3" /> The newly renamed company was given the brief of running all of ITV's digital services, with the major difference from the former GSkyB operation being that its channels were now [[free-to-air]] and carried the ITV brand. 

On 2 May 2005, Men & Motors launched as a free-to-air channel on the [[Freeview (UK)|Freeview]] [[Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom|digital terrestrial television]] service. It was rumoured that ITV plc would replace it with [[ITV4]], another men's channel, when it launched later that year on 1 November, echoing the launch of ITV3 in 2004. However, after better than expected performance from Men & Motors as a free-to-air channel, both channels continued and ITV plc cut the hours of the [[ITV News Channel]] to make way for ITV4 and [[CITV]] instead. The news channel closed on 23 December of that year with its remaining bandwidth used for CITV.

Although ITV4 started broadcasting from the [[SES Astra|Astra]] satellite on 1 November, it was not placed on the Sky [[Electronic program guide|EPG]] until 7 November. Because of this, some ITV4 sports programming was [[simulcast]] on Men & Motors under the ''ITV4 on m&m'' strand. On 23 February 2006, despite the previous decision not to close Men & Motors, fresh rumours over the channel's future began to circulate due to poorer than expected performance from ITV4.<ref>
{{cite news|last=Wilkes|first=Neil|title=ITV "not happy" with ITV4 ratings|publisher=[[Digital Spy]]|date=23 February 2006|url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds29521.html|access-date=16 November 2006}}
</ref> In April 2006, Men & Motors left Freeview to make way for the launch of [[ITV Play]], and much of its content was moved over to ITV4. ITV intended to dispose of the channel as a non-core asset, but it ultimately closed on [[Virgin Media]] on 25 March 2010, and finally closed on Sky and [[Freesat]] on 1 April, to make way for a permanent EPG position for [[ITV1 HD|ITV HD]].

In 2014, ITV's portfolio of channels was expanded with the launch of [[ITV Encore]], a drama channel, and [[ITVBe]], a reality and lifestyle channel. The launch of the latter lead to ITV2's repositioning as a youth-focused entertainment channel. In 2018, ITV closed the Encore channel and repositioned its content to the ITV Hub online service. In 2021, commissions for ITV2, ITVBe and CITV were altered in that they would debut first on the ITV Hub, then on the linear channels, whilst ITV2 was given a wider brief for producing factual content.

The CITV channel closed on 1 September 2023, with programming moved to streaming service [[ITVX]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/66570523|title=CITV channel to close as ITVX Kids streaming service launches|date=22 August 2023|website=BBC News}}</ref> A daily programming block was introduced on ITV2 from 2 September 2023, from 05:00 to 09:00, using the "CITV" brand.