11 July 2001, complete with a major advertising campaign featuring Al (played by Johnny Vegas) and Monkey (voiced by Ben Miller), and an exclusive deal to air the Football League on the newly created ITV Sport Channel. However, the venture was still not bringing the results required and ITV Digital went into administration on 27 March 2002, left crippled by the burden of its £315 million contract with the Football League, with the ITV Sport Channel closing two months later. This led to criticism of Carlton Television and Granada Television from SMG, Ulster Television and Channel Television which objected to the ITV name being reduced following the collapse of the service, whilst several football clubs that were covered in the Football League deal were faced with financial difficulties for many years afterwards. 2002–present 2002-2005 From 2002, the ITV network began to consolidate again. On 28 October 2002, the Carlton Television and Granada Television regions adopted a new presentation package featuring the network's celebrities, which resulted in the regions becoming known as ITV1 at all times, the region names only appearing prior to regional programmes. This look also marked the centralisation of continuity in the Carlton Television and Granada Television regions to London, with the exception of Wales. The pinnacle of ITV's consolidation was the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada plc in 2004. The two companies had previously tried to merge twice before in the 1990s; however, the government and competition laws prevented this from occurring. But on 21 October 2003, the government announced that it would no longer prevent a merger from taking place, subject to safeguards being set in place to ensure the continued independence of SMG, Ulster Television and Channel Television. Carlton Television and Granada Television finally merged at the end of January 2004, with Granada Television shareholders owning 68% of the new company, ITV plc, and Carlton Television shareholders owning the remaining 32%. ITV plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol 'ITV' on 2 February 2004. The new company owned all the ITV regions in England, Wales and the Scottish Borders. The choice of the name "ITV plc" was controversial, since it could imply that the company ran the entire network, and an agreement had to be reached with SMG, Ulster Television and Channel Television before the name could be used. The day of the merger was marked by significant changes throughout