Alternative History

HTV is an ITV regional service that serves as the ITV franchise for Wales. HTV is owned by ITV under the licensee HTV Limited. HTV also served the West of England until 2009, when ITV's West and South West regions merged into a single region. This meant that stating in 2009, Westcountry Television began broadcasting programmes to viewers in both the South West and the West of England and HTV West of England was merged into Westcountry Television.

HTV's licence relates to a 'dual region', meaning that the franchise area was divided into two regions, each of which must be served by distinct and separate ITV programme services as more fully defined within the licence. Today, HTV's Wales service is known as HTV (or HTV Cymru Wales) and it is provided by ITV plc which owns and operates the service through its subsidiary HTV Ltd.

From 2009, the dual-region licence was split in two, with HTV for Wales and Westcountry Television (which has been serving the South West of England since 1993) now covering the West of England. In effect, HTV West was completely absorbed into Westcountry Television. HTV's Wales license remains held by HTV Limited.