Commercialbroadcasting in the Midlands and the North was delayed by the failure of a Post Office proposal that ITA transmitter aerials could be placed on BBC masts, on the grounds that the new ITA aerials would be impossible to accommodate structurally.
Within weeks the IBA, led by Director-General Sir Brian Young, had arrived at the concept of a channel that would buy its programmes; would have a responsibility to embrace minority interests; and would be required to be innovative, educational, and not to duplicate the type of programmes broadcast on ITV.
The IBA processes that had led to these changes were criticized in the press and within the industry as unnecessarily secretive and apparently arbitrary.
The physics of VHF broadcasting meant that a comparatively small number of transmitters could cover the majority of the population of Britain, if not the bulk of the area of the country.
The Sound Broadcasting Act 1972 gave the ITA responsibility for organising commercial radio in the UK, and reconstituted the ITA as the IndependentBroadcastingAuthority (IBA).
The IBA was subsequently replaced by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) under the provisions of the Broadcasting Act 1990, which itself was replaced by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) at the end of 2003.
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