ITV Choice

ITV Choice is a satellite and cable television channel owned and operated by ITV plc. It is available in the Middle East, Africa, Cyprus, Malta, and across Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia. The channel was launched in 1997 by Granada Media under the name Granada UKTV, and was available in New Zealand until 2002, when it was dropped by Sky Network Television.

It primarily carries ITV and other UK programming, produced by ITV Studios and other independent production companies. Key programmes include Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Dancing on Ice, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, The Jonathan Ross Show, Doc Martin and others.

The service was expanded and relaunched as Granada TV during 2008, when ITV announced plans to offer the channel to cable and satellite operators in Asia.

ITV Choice broadcasts on the following platforms: in Hong Kong on now TV channel 517, in Indonesia on Skynindo channel 27 and TelkomVision channel 503, in Malaysia on Astro channel 735, in Malta on GO (Malta) Channel 305 and Melita Cable channel 309, in the Middle East on Star TV's Star Select service, as well as on Orbit Showtime Network OSN channel 47 and Arab Digital Distribution in the Middle East, in Taiwan on Chunghwa Telecom channel 82 and in Thailand through Cable Thai Holding to thousands of homes. It is also available on satellite ABS 1 across Asia and Middle East. The channel broadcasts on Star TV's Star Select service and Arab Digital Distribution in the Middle East, on Melita Cable and GO in Malta, and now on a range of cable platforms across Asia.

ITV2

ITV2, is a 24-hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998 and is available digitally via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial (Freeview) platforms. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a claim now held by its sister service ITV3 both of which are freely available to a majority of households.

The channel is known for American programming such as Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries; repeats of recently aired episodes of soap operas and other entertainment programming from ITV such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale; spin-off shows such as I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!, The Xtra Factor and Britain's Got More Talent, and original programming such as Celebrity Juice and The Only Way Is Essex (now on ITVBe).

History

Prior to the launch of Channel 4 in 1982, the name "ITV2" had sometimes been used to refer informally to an envisioned second commercial network in the UK. However, the name resurfaced in the late 1990s for very different reasons. The launch of digital terrestrial television services in the UK saw each existing analogue terrestrial broadcaster given a slice of bandwidth with which to carry their existing service after analogue switch-off with space left over for new channels. Whilst strictly speaking this space belonged to each regional contractor for use within their own region, ITV had undergone a series of buy-outs earlier on in the decade, the three players operating the majority of the network, Granada, Carlton and United News & Media jointly launched ITV2 in 1998 to be broadcast to most of the country as a uniform service. Whilst free-to-air, it was marketed alongside their own subscription based ONdigital platform. Other ITV licensees, SMG, UTV and GMTV launched their own services in the space (see below).

ITV4

ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-orientated line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action series of the 1960s and 1970s. ITV4 is broadcast on digital terrestrial, satellite, cable and IPTV platforms.

History

It was expected that ITV4 would replace the existing Men & Motors channel in the same way Granada Plus was rebranded into ITV3, until ITV plc stated that the two channels would run alongside each other, forcing the ITV News Channel on Freeview to timeshare with ITV4. ITV replaced the failing News Channel with CITV. Both channels were on Freeview until ITV plc took Men & Motors off Freeview (although it remained on other platforms for some time until April 2010) and replaced it with the live quiz channel ITV Play. Some programming from Men & Motors were transferred to ITV4. ITV4 was the first channel to use the new on-screen look that was rolled out across the rest of ITV plc's channels on 16 January 2006. Red Bee Media designed the new logos and presentation for the entire corporation that saw the end of the yellow and blue squared look designed for ITV, ITV2 and the cube look for ITV3. An ITV annual report revealed that an old style logo was designed for the channel but was never used on air.

ITV 50

ITV 50 was a special event around September 2005, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ITV terrestrial television network's launch; the official anniversary was stated as being 22 September, the anniversary of the first ITV region, Associated-Rediffusion, beginning broadcasts.

Other regions, though not launched in 1955, were also involved in the celebrations, broadcasting network and local ITV50 celebration programming. All ITV plc regions received ITV50 presentational material including branded graphics and station idents. STV (then Scottish and Grampian) and UTV screened much of the networked ITV 50 content, using some of the ITV 50 presentation.

Introduction

In September 2005, the ITV network celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a season of ITV 50 programming that was run on the network, including a run down of ITV's 50 top programmes, a World of Sport retrospective, a seven-week Gameshow Marathon presented by Ant & Dec, the launch of an "Avenue Of The Stars", and most notably a five-part documentary series made by Melvyn Bragg, which chronicled ITV's history. The regional companies owned by ITV plc also aired special regional retrospectives (even though none of them were themselves fifty years old), as well as using special ITV 50 station identification. While Scottish Television, Grampian Television, and UTV aired the network ITV 50 programming, they did not themselves air regional programmes of this sort, nor did they use the special identification. ITN also celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with special features in its programming.

Choice

Choice involves mentally making a decision: judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one or more of them. One can make a choice between imagined options ("what would I do if ...?") or between real options followed by the corresponding action. For example, a traveller might choose a route for a journey based on the preference of arriving at a given destination as soon as possible. The preferred (and therefore chosen) route can then follow from information such as the length of each of the possible routes, traffic conditions, etc. If the arrival at a choice includes more complex motivators, cognition, instinct and feeling can become more intertwined.

Simple choices might include what to eat for dinner or what to wear on a Saturday morning - choices that have relatively low-impact on the chooser's life overall. More complex choices might involve (for example) what candidate to vote for in an election, what profession to pursue, a life partner, etc. - choices based on multiple influences and having larger ramifications.

Choice (comics)

Choice is a fictional character that appeared in Malibu Comics Ultraverse line of comic book series. Her first appearance was in Hardcase #2, and appeared mainly in that title.

Amy Tran Kwitny was the young woman who went on to become Choice. The Choice Corporation's desire to create a corporate spokesmodel to compete with Ultratech's corporate symbol, Prototype, led to the creation of Choice. Amy Tran was a former subject of Aladdin experiments and considered an ideal subject. She was reacquired by the agency to be their test subject.

Aladdin and NuWare pooled their resources to make Amy Tran the first bioenhanced ultra. Sections of her brain were replaced with wetware implants created from the brain tissue of Forsa and Starburst, former members of the Squad. A period of testing and mental conditioning ensued, and Choice, as Amy Tran was now called, was turned over to CEO Bob Dixon, who used her as a spokesmodel and mistress.

A media sensation, Choice endorsed the Choice Corporation's products. They planned to later reveal her ultra powers, thereby skyrocketing her popularity. Unfortunately, her mental conditioning began to break down due to Dixon's sexual abuses. Choice was moved to Brazil to be reconditioned, but escaped.

Choice (Australian consumer organisation)

CHOICE is an Australian not for profit consumer organisation, previously known as the Australian Consumers Association. It is a non-partisan organisation that was founded in 1959 which researches and campaigns on behalf of Australian consumers. It is similar to the Consumers Union in the United States and Which? in the United Kingdom, which are considered sister organisations.

The aim of the organisation is to provide up-to-date information across a wide range of consumer issues that allows individuals to make informed consumer decisions. It also lobbies for change on behalf of consumers when required. CHOICE tests and rates a range of products and services, including appliances, baby products, electronics and home entertainment, computers, food and health and financial products and services. More than 170,000 people subscribe to CHOICE.

CHOICE buys all the products it tests on the open market and does not accept advertising. Its income is derived from subscriptions and from the sale of its publications and products. It does not receive ongoing funding from commercial, government or other organisations.