 The act has sometimes been described, both as praise and as criticism, as a key enabling force for Rupert Murdoch's ambitions in Britain.It reformed the system of awarding ITV franchises, which proved controversial when Thames Television was replaced by Carlton Television, for what some felt were political reasons (see "Death on the Rock"), and when TV-am, admired by Mrs Thatcher for its management's defiance of the trade unions, lost its franchise to GMTV (the now-former Prime Minister personally apologised to the senior TV-am executive Bruce Gyngell).It also allowed companies holding ITV franchises to merge with each other starting in 1994, beginning the process which eventually led to all franchises in England and Wales coming under the control of ITV plc in 2004.