Any merger between two companies that gives the new business a 52 per cent market share is going to raise eyebrows at a competition authority. So it is a measure of just how much the British government wanted a single ITV television network that Granada Media and Carlton Communications have been allowed to merge despite the protests of advertisers.

ITV remains Britain's biggest - and only commercial - mass television network. Although BBC1, the corporation's main channel, now gets more viewers, ITV is the only commercial network with the "water cooler" effect. In an age of increasingly fragmented audiences, an ITV show may still provoke gossip the following day.