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GMTV

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GMTV (Good Morning Television) is the national ITV breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It is owned by GMTV Ltd, comprising of ITV plc (75%) and The Walt Disney Company (25%).

Overview

GMTV has held the licence for the breakfast Channel 3 franchise since 1993, when it outbid the previous 6:00 – 9.25 am Channel 3 licence-holder, TV-am. The first show was broadcast on Friday 1 January 1993 and was presented by Eamonn Holmes and Anne Davies, both have since left since its launch. It was first intended to be called Sunrise Television, but as Sky News's breakfast programming also went by that name (and still does to this day), Sky protested, resulting in the change of name. SMG, owner of two of the three Channel 3 regional licences for Scotland (Scottish Television and Grampian Television) previously owned 25% of the company; however, this stake was purchased by ITV plc for £31 million in 2004.

GMTV broadcasts from Studio 5 at The London Studios on the South Bank; as of 2005, the station claims to have the highest breakfast-time audience in Europe.

The station claims to reach approximately 13 million viewers a week, transmitting daily from 6.00 am until the regional Channel 3 franchises (the ITV Network) take over at 9.25 am. Since the switchover is now practically seamless and the station is 'surrounded' on both sides by ITV Network continuity, most viewers perceive GMTV simply as a programme on ITV; however, due to Disney's minority stake in the station, it essentially remains an independent broadcaster with its own news-gathering operation, sales and management teams and in-house production team. Very occasionally, in the event of a major sporting fixture or such-like occurring early in the morning, the ITV Network may seek permission from the regulator, Ofcom, to broadcast during GMTV's airtime, although GMTV always reclaims such time from ITV (normally on the Sunday, following such an event).

GMTV's main rivals include BBC Breakfast (which is more news-oriented), Sky News's Sunrise, and Channel 4's morning schedule (which includes Friends). For most of it's lifetime GMTV has been the most watched television channel in it's timeslot. However this is no longer the case. It is now regularly beaten in the ratings by the more serious BBC Breakfast on BBC One. Due to its part-Disney ownership, it also occasionally finds itself in conflict with its own majority owner; for example, it was reported that ITV plc's year-long negotiations to launch a children's channel with Nickelodeon were ultimately thwarted by GMTV, who felt that the viewing figures for its own children's programming would be threatened by such a venture. The plans were scrapped, and when ITV eventually launched the CITV Channel, it placated GMTV by contracting the company to sell the advertising in the channel's airtime (making it the only ITV-owned channel not sold by the in-house advertising sales division). ITV plc has attempted to buy out Disney's stake in GMTV, in order to secure 24-hour control of Channel 3 in England and Wales, but has so far been unsuccessful.

In 2005, anchor presenter Eamonn Holmes decided not to renew his contract because he considered GMTV to be 'celebrity-oriented', and stated that the channel did not broadcast sufficient news and current affairs output; he also supposedly disagreed with how the directors ran the programmes. He joined Sky News's Sunrise in October 2005.

Line-up

GMTV's programming is designed to reach a large cross-section of the viewing public. On weekday mornings the station attracts a largely female audience; following the News Hour from 6:00-7:00 am, the daily magazine show GMTV Today is aired, featuring a combination of news, human interest and showbiz items, as well as competitions; Lorraine Kelly usually takes over at 8:35 am (Mon-Thu) with fashion and celebrity items, while Fridays include Entertainment Today with Michael Underwood and Jenni Falconer. During Summer 2007, the main Today programme continued through until 9:25 am (Mondays-Thursdays) while on Fridays resident TV boffin Richard Arnold filled Ben and Jenni's shoes presenting his own self-titled show, aided by former Corrie star Debra Stephenson. At weekends, the focus moves to children, with the pre-school strand Wakey! Wakey! broadcasting 6:00 to 7.25 am, followed by Toonattik for older kids broadcasting 7.25 am to 9.25 am. As a nationally available analogue terrestrial station, GMTV is required, by the terms of its licence, to fulfil various public service commitments, including substantial broadcasting of news and current affairs output, as well as the aforementioned children's programmes, and also party political broadcasts over election periods. It has been critcised for its poor journalistic quality (for instance placing a soap opera storyline in its headline news) and an over-reliance on phone-in competitions.

Current presenters and reporters

Presenter Programme Regular Hours Notes
John Stapleton News Hour 0600-0658 Mon-Fri Relief Presenter, GMTV Today
Penny Smith News Hour, newsreader during GMTV Today 0600-0810 Mon-Fri Relief Presenter, GMTV Today
Ben Shephard GMTV Today 0658-0835 Mon-Wed
Fiona Phillips GMTV Today 0658-0835 Mon-Wed Occasional Thursday Presenter
Andrew Castle GMTV Today 0658-0835 Thu-Fri Relief Presenter, News Hour
Kate Garraway GMTV Today 0658-0835 Thu-Fri Relief Presenter, News Hour
Andrea McLean GMTV Today 0658-0835 Occasional Relief Presenter, GMTV Today
Lorraine Kelly LK Today 0835-0925 Mon-Thu
Michael Underwood Entertainment Today 0835-0925 Fri
Jenni Falconer Entertainment Today 0835-0925 Fri
Sue Monroe Wakey! Wakey! 0600-0725 Sat
Jamie Rickers Toonattik 0725-0925, Sat-Sun
Anna Williamson Toonattik 0725-0925, Sat-Sun
Steve Richards The Sunday Programme 0600-0725 Sun
Claudia Sermbezis Newsreader during The Sunday Programme 0600-0725 Sun

Reporters

Weather

GMTV Children's Programming

GMTV has catered for children's programming for many years.Screening these studio based shows on the weekend, until the launch of the CITV Channel which as allowed GMTV to have more screen time, GMTV also shows children's programmes on GMTV2 on ITV2 (known as GMTV Kids 2) every weekday morning. Most of the programming is from Disney as they own a percentage of the company, though formats and presenters have changed, programming and cartoons have always remained. The current show is Toonttik! it succeeds previous shows such as Up On The Roof, Diggin' It/Diggit, Disney Club and Saturday Disney. GMTV Kids have also split their programming into two Toonattik for the older children, and introdcuing Wakey Wakey! for younger children which is screened at a much earlier time.

Toonattik!

Wakey Wakey!

Past presenters

Breakfast time in Channel 3

As a Channel 3 licensee, GMTV also has the right to broadcast during the same slot alongside ITV's digital channels; its sister service, GMTV2, follows the same broadcast slot with mostly children's programming, except at weekends from 9:00 am when Teleshopping takes over. GMTV2 is broadcast on the same channel number as ITV plc-owned digital channel ITV2. The company also has broadcasting rights on the same frequency as ITV3 (and even holds a 'GMTV3' license), but has so far foregone its chance to launch a third station, preferring to sell its airtime to ITV plc, to allow ITV3 to broadcast around the clock.

Most recently, GMTV has acquired a further channel slot in the form of the CITV Channel, whose programming between 6:00 and 9.25 am is simulcasted with that of GMTV's children's output on its other two stations: on GMTV2 throughout the week, and on GMTV1 at weekends. GMTV also sells advertising time for the entire output of the new channel. Since its involvement with the CITV Channel, GMTV has adopted CITV branding on all its CITV-simulcast children's output over GMTV1 and GMTV2, in order to simplify the simulcasts, leading to the disappearance of any on-screen reference to GMTV during these times.

The GMTV website has more than 800,000 unique users and attracts more than 8 million page impressions a month. In May 2007, gm.tv teamed up with Reuters to provide 24/7 news and showbiz headlines.

Controversy

On 23 April 2007, a BBC Panorama investigation disclosed that callers to GMTV's phone-in competitions may have been defrauded out of around £40 million, because the telephone system operator, Opera Interactive Technology, had determined the winners before the phone lines had closed. GMTV responded by suspending the phone-in quizzes, and while they initially claimed that "it was confident it had not breached regulators' codes", they subsequently terminated their contract with Opera Interactive after their own investigations discovered "irregularities". Opera Interactive also denied any wrongdoing.

On 26 September 2007, as a result of an Ofcom investigation, GMTV was handed a record £2m fine for their role in the competition phone-in debacle.

In 2007, GMTV caused controversy when it cut from the Summer 2007 UK floods to go to Paris Hilton being released from prison.

In November 2007, Heather Mills gave an emotionally-charged interview on the show, fighting back against the media onslaught against her.

Time changes

The channel is usually always broadcast from 6:00 – 9:25 am, but has had to change times on several occasions. During the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the channel was moved to a later slot, and on more than one occasion, the channel sometimes never broadcast. GMTV is also heavily affected by Formula One races which are live from Asia, which also push GMTV back to a later time, normally it broadcasts on these Sundays from 10:00 am – 12 noon. This is entirely taken up by the Toonattik cartoons slot. Owing to coverage of of the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix Live, the channel broadcast Toonattik from 9.05am to 10.20am.

References

External links



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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 14:50:15 PDT (GMT -0700)
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