''Night Network'', ''Night Time'' and ''Night Shift'' were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the companies broadcasting through the night by the end of 1988. At first, individual companies created their own services, however before too long, many of the smaller ITV stations began simulcasting or networking services from others.
From this, numerous services began each offering their own distinct take on programmes, with regions taking one of the services on offer. As each franchise was taken over however, the services became fewer in number. Today, all of the
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom.
ITV plc is listed on the ...
regions (except
ITV Channel Television and UTV for legal reasons), show teleshopping, followed by repeats of daytime programming and then ''Unwind with ITV'' (previously the ''
ITV Nightscreen'' service was shown until October 2021).
STV broadcasts its own strand, ''Teleshopping and Nightvision''.
History
Up until the mid-1980s, all British television stations closed down for the night at around 12:30am, sometimes up to an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights. Some of the ITV companies wanted to expand their broadcasting hours in the belief there was an untapped market for television through the night. As early as 1983,
London Weekend Television (LWT) was experimenting with extra hours on Friday and Saturday nights during its ''Nightlife'' strand, which pushed back closedown until after 2am.
Towards the latter part of the decade,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
had extended late night broadcasting hours and transmission staff for the ITV regional companies were required to playout the network's commercial breaks, even if the main ITV station had already closed down. There was also speculation of a threat from the
Independent Broadcasting Authority to franchise overnight hours to a new company as had been done with breakfast television (
TV-am) in 1983.
Within just over two years of ITV's first overnight experiment (at Yorkshire Television in 1986), the entire network had commenced 24-hour transmission.
Early experiments
On 9 August 1986,
Yorkshire Television became the first ITV company and the first British terrestrial television station to offer 24-hour broadcasting. This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station
Music Box for a three-month trial, as permitted by the IBA. The all-night simulcasts continued until Friday 2 January 1987 – shortly before Music Box ceased operations as a broadcaster. On 13 January 1987, Yorkshire became the second region to launch a teletext-based ''Jobfinder'' service for one hour after close-down (Central had launched a Jobfinder service the previous April) with a ''Through Till Three'' strand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights introduced in April.
On 25 April 1987,
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
began extending its programming hours to 3am on weeknights and 4am at weekends, airing its own schedule of films, series and hourly ''
Central News'' bulletins entitled ''More Central''. The station's ''Jobfinder'' service (launched a year beforehand) was expanded from a single hour after close-down to fill the remainder of the night until TV-am took over at 6am. Meanwhile,
Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
took a more restrictive approach – during 1987, the station introduced a ''Nightlife'' strand, which saw programming hours extended until around 3am on Friday and Saturday nights only. A short-lived joint schedule was introduced by Central, Granada and
Scottish Television
Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the ...
when the companies began full 24-hour transmission on 13 February 1988, but was abandoned within a few months. During this time, all three stations provided local presentation. Central continued to air its own overnight service until 1994, when it briefly took Carlton's ''Nightime''
icservice (with opt-outs for regional programming until circa 2003).
In August 1987,
Anglia Television,
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...
and
LWT
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...
began 24-hour broadcasting. Thames's ''Into the Night'' strand began in June 1987 with broadcasts originally running until around 4am, extending to a full service on Monday 17 August 1987. Anglia originally opted to air ''Night Network'' on weekends alongside its own overnight schedule on weeknights while LWT filled the post-''Night Network'' slot with a short-lived ''Thru to 6'' strand.
Tyne Tees Television also experimented with 24-hour transmission when in December 1987, it began airing its own teletext ''Jobfinder'' service between close-down and 6am. This continued until Granada's ''Night Time'' service launched on Tyne Tees the following September.
TVS, which also aired ''Night Network'' at weekends, started its own ''Late Night Late'' strand on Monday 25 January 1988, gradually extending its broadcast hours until a full 24-hour service began on 30 May 1988 – the strand was the first to be simulcast on another ITV station, (
Channel Television).
HTV Wales and
HTV West began broadcasting its own ''Night Club'' service on 22 August 1988. Both ''Late Night Late'' and ''Night Club'' took on a different approach to the practice of in-vision continuity – incorporating viewers' letters, competitions and live studio guests – such features were also used by Thames and Anglia's regional overnight strands.
One constant of all the overnight services, regardless of their differing schedules, was overnight news bulletins provided by
ITN
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...
, referred to as simply the ''ITN News Headlines''. These were no-frills bulletins, originally proceeded by a variant of the ITN animation of the time set over a dusk sky background (as opposed to the usual light blue); these bulletins would lead into the ''
ITN Morning News'', and typically the anchor of that day's edition of the ''ITN Morning News'' would also anchor the short updates. The headlines were aired at different times depending on the schedule; both the bulletins and the Morning News debuted on 15 February 1988. Thames also briefly aired editions of ''
CNN Headline News
HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming.
The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...
'' before the ITN World News in 1988.
''Night Network''
''Night Network'' was ITV's first major experiment into the area of overnight broadcasting beginning on Friday 28 August 1987, originally for the ITV regions covered by LWT, TVS and Anglia, before expanding to other regions during the summer of 1988. Whereas overnight broadcasts are commonplace today, back in the late 1980s, ITV decided it would take a more cautious approach with ''Night Network'' only initially broadcasting between 1am and 4am in the Friday and Saturday night schedules, and between 1am and 3am in the Sunday night schedule.
The show was produced for ''Night Network Productions'' and LWT by Jill Sinclair who had been the producer of
BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
's ''Pop Quiz'' and Channel 4's ''
The Tube'' at Tyne Tees Television, aiming for a similar audience to that of these two shows. The format of ''Night Network'' was similar to Channel 4's ''
Network 7
''Network 7'' was a short-lived but influential youth music and current affairs programme screened on Channel 4 over two series in 1987 and 1988. The series was created by Jane Hewland and Janet Street-Porter, who was also editor of the first se ...
'', or even a late night adult version of Saturday morning kids TV, as it was a mixture of quizzes, celebrity guests, imported serials and bands.
Feature segments included ''Street Cred'' with Paul Thompson, ''Video View'' with Steve Allen and Kate Davies,
Rowland Rivron
Rowland John Rivron (born 28 September 1958) is a British writer, comedic actor and television personality.
Early career
Rivron played the comic character "Dr Martin Scrote" on the Jonathan Ross chat show ''The Last Resort'', and also played Scr ...
in ''The Bunker Show'',
Tim Westwood's ''N-Sign Radio'',
Emma Freud
Emma Vallencey Freud (born 25 January 1962) is an English broadcaster and cultural commentator.
Early life
Freud was born in London on 25 January 1962 and is the daughter of politician and broadcaster Sir Clement Freud (1924–2009) and June ...
's chat segment ''Pillow Talk'',
Geoffrey Cantor
Geoffrey N. Cantor (born 1943) is Emeritus Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds and Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. He h ...
's video segment ''The Axeman'',
Barbie Wilde
Barbie Wilde is a Canadian-born British actress and writer, perhaps best known for appearing as the Female Cenobite in '' Hellbound: Hellraiser II'' (1988) – the second of ten Hellraiser films based on Clive Barker's novella, ''The Hellbound ...
's video review for ''The Small Screen'', and quiz show ''The All New Alpha Bet Show'' hosted by
Nicholas Parsons
Christopher Nicholas Parsons (10 October 1923 – 28 January 2020) was an English actor, straight man and radio and television presenter. He was the long-running presenter of the comedy radio show '' Just a Minute'' and hosted the game show '' ...
, whilst cult TV series ''
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' and ''
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
'' were also frequently seen. Originally, on Sunday nights, classic movies were shown but this was only until the programme was expanded to other ITV regions on Friday 2 September 1988.
Although it proved a success, ''Night Network'' was never broadcast nationally – companies such as Central opted out of the entire programme from the start to provide its own schedule. With more programmes (be it imports, repeats or original output) competing for the overnight slots, the Sunday edition was eventually dropped in Autumn 1988. Around the same time, the first hour of Night Network became a regional ''For London Only'' segment on LWT while the remaining two hours continued to air across other regions, albeit in differing timeslots depending on the stations' preferred schedules.
''Night Network'' was broadcast for the last time on Friday 31 March 1989.
''Night Time'' from Granada
On 2 September 1988, four of the smaller ITV companies (Border, Grampian, Tyne Tees and TSW – joined from 3 October 1988 by Ulster – began 24-hour broadcasting with the introduction of ''Night Time'', a part-networked service provided by Granada Television's presentation department in Manchester and intended to help the smaller ITV stations who were unable to provide a service of their own.
This new late night line up consisted mainly of films, and syndicated American shows such as ''America's Top Ten'' (presented by
Casey Kasem), ''
American Gladiators'' (the popularity of which prompted LWT to commission
their own equivalent series in 1992), ''
WCW Worldwide'' (which would later be promoted to
British wrestling
Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom spans over one hundred years but became popular when the then new independent television network ITV Network, ITV began showing it in 1955, firstly on Saturday afternoons and then also in a late-night mi ...
's old Saturday afternoon slot) and ''
Donahue Donahue is the Americanized version of Irish surname Donohoe, which, in turn, is an Anglicized version of the ancient Irish name "Donnchadh" (sometimes "Donncha").
Donncha was a common “first name” in 9th Century Ireland, and when the use of ...
''. There was also a limited number of home-produced programming such as Granada's ''Nightbeat'', ''The Other Side of Midnight'' (hosted by Factory Records'
Tony Wilson
Anthony Howard Wilson (20 February 1950 – 10 August 2007) was a British record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager, impresario and a journalist for Granada Television, the BBC and Channel 4.
As a co-founder of ...
), ''
The Hitman and Her
''The Hitman and Her'' is a British television dance music programme hosted by Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan. The programme was produced for Granada Television and ran from September 1988 until December 1992 on ITV's Night Network.
The ...
'' (and replacement ''BPM''), ''Quiz Night'', ''
Movies, Games and Videos
''Movies, Games and Videos'' (originally called ''Movies, Movies, Movies'') was a television programme shown on ITV in the United Kingdom throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s. The show reviewed new releases of movies, games, and videos ...
'', ''Get Stuffed'', ''Stand Up'' and LWT's ''Cue the Music''.
Traditionally,
Grampian would opt out of the overnight networked service by providing its own regional schedule on
Hogmanay
Hogmanay ( , ) is the Scots word for the last day of the old year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year's Day (1 January) or i ...
night into New Year's Day morning - with the exception of 1988 and 1997, as Grampian carried the network schedule through the night as normal after their hogmanay output had finished broadcasting to their region respectively,
Border Scotland would also carry
STV's hogmanay show on a yearly basis too, but didn't provide a regional schedule of their own afterwards, so they too carried the overnight network schedule as normal.
Granada's ''Night Time'' service was wound down during 1995 – with programming carried from LNN from January onwards before presentation was handed over to the London service on 5 June.
''Night Shift'' from Yorkshire
On 29 May 1988, Yorkshire Television reintroduced a full through-the-night service, this time consisting of films, imports, series and networked original programming including YTV's ''The
James Whale
James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: ''Fran ...
Radio Show'', simulcast locally with
Radio Aire
Radio Aire was an Independent Local Radio station, serving Leeds and West Yorkshire.
The station was merged and relaunched as Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020.
History
Radio Aire was launched at 6am ...
. Following Yorkshire's buyout of Tyne Tees Television in 1992, a new overnight service for both stations was launched entitled ''Night Shift'', broadcast across both regions from YTV's transmission centre in Leeds with pre-recorded continuity from the station's announcing staff. Separate overnight presentation for the YTV and Tyne Tees areas was introduced two years later.
Both regions aired the same schedule of imports, films, local programming and Bollywood movies although for a short while, YTV refused to air more adult programming such as ''The Good Sex Guide'' and ''God's Gift'' – while such output continued to air on Tyne Tees. The service remained locally originated (despite the introduction of networked idents in 1997) until 8 March 1998. YTV continued to opt out of the network for its regular ''Jobfinder'' programme at 5am until around 2005.
''ITV Night Time'' from Thames/LWT
During 1991, Anglia, HTV and TVS discontinued their own overnight strands and began carrying a new ''ITV Night Time'' service from London, provided by Thames from Monday to Thursday and LWT from Friday to Sunday. For the first time, both London companies utilised the same on-screen branding throughout the week – the only notable difference being LWT's near non-use of a continuity announcer at the weekend.
Around this time, original programming for the network included LWT's ''Cue the Music'', ''Dial Midnight'', ''...in Profile'', ''The Big E'', ''Noisy Mothers'', ''One to One'', ''
In Bed With Medinner'', ''
Night Shift'', ''
Get Stuffed
''Night Network'', ''Night Time'' and ''Night Shift'' were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the ITV (TV network), ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, w ...
'' and Thames's ''Video Fashion'', albeit airing in differing timeslots depending on each strand's schedule. Imported output increased with featured shows including ''
Night Heat
''Night Heat'' is a Canadian police crime drama series that aired on both CTV in Canada and CBS in the United States. Original episodes were broadcast from 1985 to 1989. ''Night Heat'' was the first Canadian original drama series that was also ...
'', ''
Soap
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...
'', ''
Three's Company'', ''
The Time Tunnel
''The Time Tunnel'' is an American color science fiction TV series written around a theme of time travel adventure starring James Darren and Robert Colbert. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science-fiction television series and ...
'', ''
Too Close for Comfort'', ''
The Equalizer
''The Equalizer'' is an American spy thriller multimedia franchise initially co-created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim, and originating with a CBS television series from 1985 to 1989, starring Edward Woodward. The concept was thereafte ...
'' and American sporting programmes.
Following the loss of Thames' franchise on 31 December 1992, Anglia and HTV began taking Granada's ''Night Time'', leaving LWT with its own overnight presentation – the network-branded ''3 Nights'', which featured some of LWT's local programming.
''Nightime''
On 1 January 1993, the new ITV franchise holder for London weekdays,
Carlton
Carlton may refer to:
People
* Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname
* Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy
* Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...
introduced a new ''Nightime''
'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''service, airing from Monday – Thursday nights and simulcast by Meridian and Channel Television. It was also briefly simulcast by Central between 1994 and 1995.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, Meridian & Channel broadcast its own version of ''Nightime'', presented in-vision from Southampton by ex-''Late Night Late'' presenter Graham Rogers. Both Carlton and Meridian/Channel services utilised the same on-screen branding and presentation throughout the week. Around this time, programming largely consisted of output airing on the other services as well as imports including French soap ''Riviera'' and in the case of Meridian, regional programming, including ''World Of Sailing'' and ''Freescreen'', an experimental series featuring viewers' videos and social action features.
''ITV Night Time'' from LNN
From 13 February 1995, London News Network (a subsidiary of Carlton & LWT) launched a revamped overnight service featuring new neon-themed presentation (without any station-specific branding) and a year later, a brand slogan – ''Television with Attitude''. Initially broadcast in London only, the service expanded on 5 June to most of the regions formerly served by Granada's version of ''Night Time'' (which had been following the same schedule as LNN's service since the start of the year).
New original programming was also produced for the network including ''Bonkers!'', ''Bushell on the Box'', ''
Carnal Knowledge'', Club @vision, ''Cyber Cafe'', ''
Cybernet
''Cybernet'' (also known as Interactive) was a weekly video gaming magazine programme, originally broadcast overnight on the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The programme was commissioned by ''Yorkshire Television'' and produced by ''Capricorn ...
'', ''Curtis Calls'', ''
Hotel Babylon Hotel Babylon may refer to:
Television
* Hotel Babylon (BBC series), a 2000s BBC drama series
* Hotel Babylon (music programme), a 1990s ITV late night music programme
Literature
* ''Hotel Babylon'' (novel), a novel by Imogen Edwards-Jones
* ...
'', ''
God's Gift'','' Late and Loud'', ''The Paul Ross Show'', ''Pyjama Party'', ''The Lads'' and ''Rockmania''. Although less reliant on imports than before, shows including ''Coach'' and ''Box Office America'' continued to feature within the schedules.
''NightTime''/''The Edge'' from Meridian
Following the launch of the LNN service over much of the ITV network, Meridian's overnight service expanded to seven days a week in February 1995 and began airing in the Anglia region. Overnight continuity links were discontinued in favour of announcer-less idents and presentation.
Meridian's programming was also adopted in January 1996 by HTV and Westcountry, who opted to run separate local presentation from HTV's presentation centre in Cardiff. The arrangement continued when Meridian revamped and relaunched the service as ''The Edge'' in September 1996. The service largely carried the same programmes provided by LNN with some regional opt-outs for programmes such as Meridian’s ''World of Sailing'' and ''Freescreen''.
In 1998, ''The Edge'' was dropped and replaced by a set of idents using generic ITV branding. These idents were amended later that year to reflect the change of ITV's generic logo and continued to be used until May 2000, by which time, Meridian had adopted the generic overnight branding used by the rest of the network since November 1999.
1999 – 2000s
With 24-hour programming becoming the norm on British television, ITV phased out the ''Night Time'' logos and presentation on overnight shows by late 1999 with generic network branding taking its place in most regions and ''
ITV Nightscreen'' starting to take up timeslots towards the end of the night. From 2001 onwards, many of the former overnight programmes associated with the old ''Night Network'' and ''Night Time'' services were replaced with repeats of networked daytime shows (many of these including on-screen
BSL signing for the deaf). By 2005, the only original ''Night Time'' programme still airing was the offbeat cookery show ''
Get Stuffed
''Night Network'', ''Night Time'' and ''Night Shift'' were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the ITV (TV network), ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, w ...
''. Scottish and Grampian (both branded overnight as "Nighttime TV") continued to run its own overnight schedule until around late 2004.
Quiz programming in the form of ''
Quizmania'' and later,
ITV Play output such as ''The Mint'' and ''Make Your Play'' aired overnight between December 2005 and December 2007.
Present
All ITV plc regions now carry the same schedule from London. ITV's current overnight schedule consists mainly of repeats of talk and lifestyle shows such as ''
Loose Women
''Loose Women'' (previously known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV1 weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about ...
'' and ''
ITV Nightscreen'', as well as the roulette strand ''
Jackpot247
Jackpot247 (formerly Challenge Jackpot) is an interactive gambling website owned by Betsson Group. From 2008 until 2019, the site had television segments on channels including ITV and Vox Africa. The "Challenge Jackpot" brand was dropped in S ...
''. STV in Northern & Central Scotland, UTV in Northern Ireland and ITV Channel Television opt out of the overnight schedule regularly for
teleshopping, alternative programming and ITV Nightscreen.
STV also continues to provide its own localised presentation overnight – in April 2010, the station introduced ''
The Nightshift'', a nightly strand consisting of interactive viewers' chat, local & national news and extracts from current and archived STV programming, linked by live out-of-vision announcers in Glasgow. Initially launched as a pilot in the Central Scotland region, the programme began airing a separate edition for Northern Scotland and later, separate editions for each of STV's four sub-regions. A single pan-regional programme was later broadcast across the STV North and STV Central regions at weekends.
''The Nightshift'' was axed in October 2015 and replaced by ''After Midnight'', a rolling service of regional news and local programming highlights from the
STV City channels.
From 1 August 2019, home shopping channel
Ideal World
Ideal World is a British TV shopping channel, broadcasting on Freeview, Satellite, Cable and online, with transactional websites, broadcast from studios in Peterborough.
History
Ideal World has its origins in the 1980s as a mail order compan ...
began simulcasting during part of the overnight period on ITV, including in the UTV and Channel regions which for legal reasons hadn't been able to carry the prior casino gaming strand in the slot (replacing it with repeated programmes and Nightscreen). STV began simulcasting Ideal World content from September 2021, having previously carried its own separate teleshopping content, After Midnight (until its cancellation following the demise of
STV2
STV2 was a British local television network in Scotland, operating five city-based TV licences serving Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Ayr. It was owned and operated by STV Group plc.
Initially broadcast as two separate stations ...
) and ITV Nightscreen - the latter in some cases for longer than in ITV-branded regions. (Due to schedule opt-outs, on some nights STV will join Ideal at a different point to ITV.) On 1 October 2021 ITV Nightscreen was scrapped and replaced by footage-and-music strand ''
Unwind With ITV
''Unwind with ITV'' (known as ''Unwind with STV'' on STV) is an ITV ambient television programme. It broadcasts time-lapse footage of either various peaceful environments or computer graphics, over soft ambient music or ASMR sound. Its introdu ...
'' (branded as 'Unwind With STV' in STV regions), produced by Rock Oyster Media.
In October 2022, STV launched their own overnight filler programme, called ''Nightvision'' in a simliar format to the former ''After Midnight'' programme, but only contains regional news on a loop throughout the allocated timeslot between roughly 3am and 5am.
Advertising
Most of the ITV stations experienced great difficulty in selling advertising slots for the overnight schedules – many companies were not convinced that the low viewing audiences were enough to justify buying airtime. In most cases, stations who were unable to sell advertising overnight simply replaced commercial breaks with
public information films
Public information films (PIFs) are a series of government-commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the United Kingdom. The name is sometimes also applied, ''faute de mieux'', to similar films from other countries, ...
or interval captions. Notably, LWT's ''Thru To 6'' service placed animated captions on-screen with music from the week's charts playing in the background. During the 1990s and early 2000s, an intermission took place between programming, with a message showing, simply "Back Soon" and music playing through.
By the 1990s, commercials for premium-rate phone chat lines and edited versions of infomercials for firms such as Teledisc and
Time–Life
Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...
became more prominent. Overnight commercial breaks on the ITV network now usually consist of programme trailers and promos, and more recently,
teleshopping commercials.
Regional variations
Regional services
Note:
* Central continued to have its own regional service at the weekends until early 1995.
Part-networked services
Timeline of services
NOTE: Area which had Granada Night Time service never changed over to the LNN until June 1995.
Notes
References
{{ITV
History of ITV
ITV (TV network) original programming