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
Ericsson Television Much earlier, in 1987, Tandberg Television and the IBA's E&D and Satellite Engineering groups had worked together to build a satellite broadcasting system for the UK based on the ill-fated MAC system operated by Sky's rival British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB). BSB and Sky merged in 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) which has become a significant broadcaster in the UK. Since 1999, Tandberg Television has acquired four U.S-based digital media companies. In October 2005, they acquired Los Angeles-based Goldpocket Interactive, an interactive technology provider for digital television, the Internet and wireless/mobile networks. Further, in February 2006, they acquired SkyStream