Regional franchise

A regional franchise in television is a company that broadcasts a television network to a specific region or community. Network Six is split into seventeen regional areas across the UK and Republic of Ireland, operated by eighteen regional contractors (the eighteenth being the duplicate London contract which is awarded to two operators in a weekday/weekend manner). Each regional franchisee has an obligation to broadcast all network programming played out centrally, in addition to part networked and regional programming.

The regional franchises are generally not obliged to opt out of national franchises, except in the instance of emergency or regional news as part of a contract with the national franchise holder.

In Network Six, one company can own up to three franchises, regional or national. Generally, viewers can only relate to the network via a regional franchise, and as such, the on air identity of the regional franchise is more commonly known than the name of the network. Competing ITV Network in England and Wales previously was related to in a similar way, but is slowly loosing its regional recognition to the more unified brand of ITV1.

Network Six regional structure
The below is a brief guide to the regional franchise areas of Network Six. It gives an idea of the transmission areas of which the Network serves, however there are many overlap areas where two or more regional services may be received. Both analogue and digital terrestrial services follow the same structure.