''ITV News Central'' is a British television news service for The

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

, broadcast and produced by

ITV Central ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands. It was created following the rest ...

History

Launched on Friday 1 January 1982, replacing ''

ATV Today ''ATV Today'' was a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ATV, serving the English Midlands. The programme aired from 5 October 1964 until 31 December 1981 – the final day of broadcasting from ATV before the co ...

'', ''Central News'' was initially a pan-regional service based in Birmingham airing a 6pm programme on weeknights alongside shorter weekday bulletins after ITN's ''News at One'' and '' News at Ten''. During the rest of the decade, the region was eventually broken up into three sub-regions, receiving their own news service. Separate services for the West and East of the region were planned to begin from day one, but an industrial dispute over the launch of the East Midlands service – and the opening of new studios in Nottingham – resulted in the entire region continuing to receive a sole pan-regional programme from Birmingham. The launch of the Nottingham-based service was initially delayed for a month,. but the dispute was not resolved until September 1983, when the news service for the East Midlands was finally introduced. Within a few months, Nottingham operations were moved from a temporary set-up at Giltbrook to Central's new complex at nearby Lenton Lane. On Monday 9 January 1989, a separate South Midlands service covering

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

and parts of

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, north

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, north

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

and

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The t ...

was launched from a new computerised news centre in Abingdon. The first programme was infamous for the failure of the studio's electronic video system resulting in a calamitous broadcast. Thereafter, the Birmingham edition covered solely the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

region (

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

(Except

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, the

and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

). Originally, the main weekday evening programme did not have a different title from other bulletins. This finally changed on 8 March 1999, when the title ''Central News at Six'' was adopted – coinciding with being rescheduled from 6.25pm to 6pm. By Monday 24 July 2006, the 6pm programme had been renamed again, to ''Central Tonight'' (except for the South Midlands edition, which retained the ''Central News at Six'' name until its final 6pm programme on 1 December 2006). By December 2006, ''Central News'' bulletins during ''

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

'' had become pan-regional across all three sub-regions. Weekend bulletins became pan-regional across the West and East Midlands earlier in the year, whilst the South Midlands retained its own weekend bulletins right up until the end of ''Central News South'' on 3 December 2006. ITV Central Headquarters Gas Street

December 2006 – February 2009

On 4 December 2006, the South Midlands sub-region was disbanded, as follows: *The parts of

served by Central South joined the majority of the county already covered by

ITV West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV (TV network), ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, ...

and receiving ''

The West Tonight ''The West Tonight'' was a regional news programme for the West of England, produced by ITV West. History The launch of Harlech Television in May 1968 led to the launch of a full half-hour evening news programme, ''Report'', broadcast to South W ...

'' broadcast from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. *

and

was now covered by the West Midlands edition from Birmingham. *In the rest of the region (

and the

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

area), news operations merged with Meridian West, to form the non-franchise ''

ITV Thames Valley ITV Thames Valley was a non-franchise ITV news region covering the Thames Valley area of the United Kingdom from 4 December 2006 until 8 February 2009. It served the south/south-eastern area of the legal Central franchise and the north/north-w ...

'' service, broadcasting '' Thames Valley Today/Tonight'' from the existing Meridian West studio in

Whiteley Whiteley is a community in the county of Hampshire, England, near Fareham. The development straddles the boundary between two council districts: the Borough of Fareham to the south and east, and the city of Winchester to the north and west. L ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. The new programme, which also covered

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

and parts of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and

retained Central's Abingdon newsroom as the main newsgathering base for the new region but the studio was closed. ''Central News'' bulletins during ''GMTV'' were now pan-regional across the West Midlands and East Midlands only. Meanwhile, in what had now become the ''ITV Thames Valley'' region, bulletins during ''GMTV'' were pan-regional across the entire combined ''ITV Meridian'' and ''ITV Thames Valley'' regions (i.e., the entire South and South East of England), and branded as '' GMTV News''. While weekend ''Meridian News'' bulletins were pan-regional in the South and South East sub-regions, ''Thames Valley Today/Tonight'' continued to produce its own weekend bulletins.

February 2009 – September 2013

As of 23 February 2009, lunchtime and early evening bulletins in the West and East Midlands on weekdays became pan-regional. The final sub-regional 6pm editions of ''Central Tonight'' were broadcast on Friday 20 February 2009. The previous sub-regional elements were: *A 6-minute opt-out during the main 6pm programme *Localised weather forecast during the 6pm programme *The full 8-minute late weeknight bulletins Both sub-regional editions utilise the same presenter(s) and studio, therefore one of the two opt-outs (depending on the days news) is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before broadcast. On Monday 14 January 2013, the news service was relaunched and rebranded as ''ITV News Central''.

September 2013 – present

On 23 July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved – latterly, ''ITV News Central'' extended the East and West opt-out services from 6 minutes to at least 20 minutes during the half hour 6pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two sub-regions. The late night bulletins are also retained. In the former Thames Valley region, plans were approved for a 10-minute opt out within the 6pm edition of ''

ITV News Meridian ''ITV News Meridian'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian. Overview The news service is produced and broadcast from ITV Meridian's studios in Whiteley, near Fareham with reporters also based at bureaux in ...

'' for the south of England and a late night bulletin after ''News at Ten''. The expanded sub-regional service launched on Monday 16 September 2013.

Notable current on air staff

Sameena Ali-Khan Sameena Ali-Khan (born 30 December 1967) is a British media personality who is known as a television presenter, journalist and newsreader. She is also a published author. Since commencing her media career in 1997 for the BBC, Ali-Khan has worke ...

* Steve Clamp *

Des Coleman Desune Franklin Coleman is a Northern Irish actor, singer and weather presenter. He has appeared in numerous stage musicals, and played the role of Lenny Wallace in BBC's ''EastEnders''. In 2007, he became the weatherman for BBC's ''East Midlan ...

Notable former on air staff

Kate Garraway Kathryn Mary Draper Garraway (born 4 May 1967) is an English broadcaster and journalist. In the 1990s, Garraway was a journalist for ITV News Central and later a co-presenter of ITV News Meridian. From 2000 to 2010, she co-presented GMTV. Cu ...

* Lucy Holleron née Kite * Louisa James *

Joanne Malin Joanne Malin (born 22 March 1967) is a British radio and television presenter. She is a presenter on ''Midlands Today''. Biography Joanne Malin was born in 1967 to parents Kenneth and Dorothy and has two siblings. Malin is married but has no c ...

Sarah-Jane Mee Sarah-Jane Mee (born 10 July 1978) is a Sky News presenter and the anchor of ''The Sarah-Jane Mee Show''. From October 2016 until October 2019, Mee anchored ''Sunrise''. Career After graduating from the University of Manchester, Mee joined Sky ...

Matt Teale Matthew James "Matt" Teale (born 7 March 1975 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire) is an English broadcast journalist employed by ITV Meridian. Broadcasting career Matt Teale was with ITV in the Midlands from 1997 until 2022 before becoming one of ...

Philippa Tomson Philippa "Pip" Tomson (born 30 August 1977) is an English journalist and presenter. She is a news correspondent for '' Good Morning Britain'' on ITV Breakfast. Career At the age of 18 she trained as a journalist and later became the chief repor ...

Bob Warman Robert Paul Warman (born 11 October 1946) is an English retired television presenter. Early life Warman was born on 11 October 1946 in the Chuckery district of Walsall, Staffordshire.Shropshire Star Weekend supplement article, by Simon Penfold ...

Central News East

* Anne Davies, until December 1992, married fellow presenter David Bowden in June 1992''Nottingham Evening Post'' Friday 14 February 1992, page 14

References

External links

* {{ITV News Nations & Regions 1982 British television series debuts 1990s British television series 2000s British television series 2010s British television series 2020s British television series English-language television shows ITV regional news shows Television news in England Television shows produced by Central Independent Television