ITV warns it could stop being a PSB

[Humphrey Hacker]

This is true. The much maligned 1990 act and 1991 franchise round ultimately was set up to prepare ITV for the competition emerging from satellite and cable television. It would be folly to suggest the 80s ITV model could have survived the multichannel era let alone the digital and streaming ones. Now the competition is from streaming services, and unlike in the 90s you're not tied to a contract to get that extra content. So whatever happens it has to leave Channel 3 able to be a fit and healthy player.

The Act did prove that there was room for another kind of network Sky's (and briefly BSB) pan-national genre specific channels provided an alternative to the cozy ITV system and Post 1993 was I feel the beginning of the end.