On 26 June 1997, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc was acquired by Granada Group plc (now ITV plc). Granada's first move was to scrap the Channel 3 branding, from 9 March 1998. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later. In 1998, transmission operations and presentation for all of Granada's stations in the North of England moved to Yorkshire, with the creation of the Northern Transmission Centre. This highly automated server based system was the source to Border, Tyne Tees and Granada as well as the Yorkshire regional output. Continuity from Leeds ended in October 2002, after a unified presentation department for ITV1 in England was set up by London News Network. The transmission operation continues at the Kirkstall Road studios, under the ownership of Technicolor SA. Since 2004, the centre has also provided playout for ITV Central.