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 (230 watts) satellite was dropped, and no winner was precluded from buying a foreign satellite system. The IBA received five serious bids for the Direct Broadcast Satellite franchises. It also received submissions from The Children's Channel and ITN to make sure their programmes were used on any successful bid. British Satellite Broadcasting won the fifteen-year franchise on 11 December 1986 to operate the Direct Broadcast Satellite System, with a licence to operate three channels. BSB forecast 400,000 homes would be equipped during its first year, but some doubts were cast whether this was possible. The Cable Authority welcomed the service,