Granada plc another since 1935. It was awarded the North of England ITV franchise in 1954, broadcasting as Granada Television. The company also established a chain of television rental shops from 1959 onwards. Granada entered the publishing business in the 1960s: it combined its operations into the publisher Hart-Davis, MacGibbon in 1972. William Collins, Sons acquired Granada Publishing in 1983. During the 1980s, Granada became involved in the British Satellite Broadcasting satellite television company. This went on air in March 1990, but merged with Sky Television plc in November 1990, to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), in which Granada had a minority
British Satellite Broadcasting high definition TV but European TV manufacturers developed patented variants and successfully lobbied regulators such that it was adopted by the EU as the standard for all direct broadcast satellites. This had the effect that the low-cost non-European TV manufacturers would not only have to pay royalties to the EU manufacturers but would also not have direct access to the technology, and hence would always be behind with new developments. In the UK, the Independent Broadcasting Authority developed a variant, D-MAC, which had marginal audio channel improvements, and insisted on its use by the satellite service to be licensed by