ITV REGIONAL COMPANIES

That this House welcomes the report, The Impact of Granada on the North West, produced by Manchester Business School; recognises the importance of ITV regional companies to their regional economies through jobs, tourism and their supply chains; notes the threat to the regional structure of ITV that is posed by the potentially unbalanced consolidation of some ITV franchises to create a north-south divide; and urges Her Majesty's Government to ensure that any consolidation does not undermine ITV's regional structure by allowing the emergence of a united bloc of southern ITV licences.