ICM - Leeds Design Agency

On this day, 54 years ago, a new channel was launched in the UK by the ITA (Independent Television Authority) called Independent Television, which today we know as ITV.

This new commercial channel was to end the 16 year monopoly that the BBC had in the UK. The channel was not funded by a licence fee but instead funded by advertisements and was the first commercial channel in the UK.

This Gibbs SR toothpaste commercial was the very first advert shown on the channel.

This is so different to what we are used to today, adverts are now shorter so they can fit as many into the commercial breaks as possible. It would be very hard to imagine now our televisions only having three channels too, most homes have access to at least 100 channels through the likes of Sky and Freeview.