The ITV network is jointly owned by the owners of the local "Channel 3" stations throughout the United Kingdom, which since 2016 have been consolidated into two companies: ITV plc and STV Group plc. This means that officially, the stations own the network, rather than the network owning stations as is the case in most of the other countries listed here. However, since the 2004 creation of ITV plc, which since 2016 has owned and operated all of the Channel 3 licences serving England, Wales, southern Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, most of the operations of the network have been absorbed into that entity. Moreover, the separately owned station serving northern and central Scotland (STV) and the ITV plc-owned UTV often deviate significantly from the schedule of the ITV channel as programmed by ITV plc. As a result of this restructuring and other changes in the relationship between ITV and STV, the Channel 3 franchises owned by ITV plc could now be considered ITV owned-and-operated stations, with STV being comparable to an affiliate.