On 31 January 1997, Carlton Television, Granada Television and satellite company British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), together created British Digital Broadcasting (BDB) as a joint venture and applied to operate three digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences. They faced competition from a rival, Digital Television Network (DTN), a company created by cable operator CableTel (later known as NTL). On 25 June 1997, BDB won the auction and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) awarded the sole broadcast licence for DTT to the consortium. Then on 20 December 1997, the ITC awarded three pay-TV digital multiplex licences to BDB.