Catalogue description Records of the Independent Television Authority and the Independent Broadcasting Authority

The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was constituted under the provisions of the Television Act 1954, with the function of providing television broadcasting services additional to those of the BBC; and under the provisions of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 the Postmaster General granted the ITA a broadcasting licence. In March 1971 in Command paper Cmnd 4636 the government signalled the introduction of commercial radio broadcasting, and its intention to expand the remit of the ITA to cover commercial radio, and to rename it the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). In November 1983 the government announced that it did not intend to licence operators other than British Telecommunications and Mercury to provide basic telecommunications over fixed links, whether cable, radio or satellite, both domestically and internationally, during the following seven years. The policy subsequently became known as the duopoly policy. In November 1988 in Command paper Cm 517 the government signalled the establishment of the Independent Television Commission, to supervise a more liberal approach to delivery of television services, and of a Radio Authority for radio services.