ITV is a British free-to-air
public broadcast
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to
BBC Television (established in 1936).
ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the
Broadcasting Act 1990
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, initiated in part due to a 1989 European Council Directive (89/552), also known as the Television Without Frontiers directive. The aim of the Act was to liberalise and deregulate the B ...
, it has been
legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time,
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, ...
,
BBC2 and
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 ...
.
ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies:
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 ...
, which runs
the ITV1 channel, and
STV Group
STV Group plc (formerly known as Scottish Television plc, Scottish Media Group plc and SMG plc) is a media company based in Glasgow, Scotland. Beginning as a television broadcaster in 1957, the company expanded into newspapers, advertising and r ...
, which runs
the STV channel.
The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of
Granada plc
Granada plc (previously called Granada Ltd, Granada Group plc, and Granada Media plc) was a British conglomerate best known as the parent from 1954 to 2004 of the Manchester-based Granada Television.
The company merged with Carlton Communicatio ...
and
Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 broadcasting licences for every region except for central and northern Scotland, which are held by STV Group.
Today, ITV plc simply commissions the network schedule centrally – programmes are made by its own subsidiary ITV Studios and independent production companies. Regional programming remains in news and some current affairs series.
In Northern Ireland, ITV plc used the brand name
UTV as the name of the channel until April 2020; it is still, however, used for local programming being shown here. This was the name used by former owner UTV Media (now known as
Wireless Group
Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...
). ITV plc bought UTV in 2016.
Although the ITV network's history goes back to 1955, many regional franchisees changed over the years. Some of the most important names in the network's past – notably
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
,
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and
ATV – have no connection with the modern network.
History
The origins of ITV lie in the passing of the
Television Act 1954
The Television Act 1954 was a British law which permitted the creation of the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom, ITV.
Until the early 1950s, the only television service in Britain was operated as a monopoly by the Briti ...
, designed to break the monopoly on television held by the
BBC Television Service.
The act created the
Independent Television Authority
The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" ( ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA existed from 1954 un ...
(ITA, then IBA after the Sound Broadcasting Act) to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London, the
Midlands and the North of England, with separate franchises for Weekdays and Weekends.
The first ITV service to launch was London's
Associated-Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...
on 22 September 1955, with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches, the ITA awarded more franchises until the whole country was covered by fourteen regional stations, all launched by 1962.
The network has been modified several times through franchise reviews that have taken place in 1963,
1967, 1974, 1980
and 1991,
during which broadcast regions have changed and service operators have been replaced. Only one service operator has ever been declared bankrupt,
WWN in 1963, with all other operators leaving the network as a result of a franchise review. Separate weekend franchises were removed in 1968 (with the exception of London)
and over the years more services were added; these included a national breakfast franchise from 1983 onward—operating between 6:00 am and 9:25 am—and a teletext service.
The
Broadcasting Act 1990
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, initiated in part due to a 1989 European Council Directive (89/552), also known as the Television Without Frontiers directive. The aim of the Act was to liberalise and deregulate the B ...
changed the nature of ITV; the then regulator the
IBA was replaced with a light-touch regulator, the
ITC; companies became able to purchase other ITV regional companies and franchises were now being awarded based upon a highest-bidder auction, with few safeguards in place.
This heavily criticised part of the review saw four operators replaced, and the operators facing different annual payments to the
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...
: Central Television, for example, paid only £2,000—despite holding a lucrative and large region—because it was unopposed, while Yorkshire Television paid £37.7 million for a region of the same size and status, owing to heavy competition.
Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. By 2004, the ITV network was owned by five companies, of which two,
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 ...
and
Granada
Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
had become major players by owning between them all the franchises in England, Wales, the Scottish borders and the Isle of Man.
That same year, the two merged to form ITV plc
with the only subsequent acquisitions being the takeover of
Channel Television
ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the ...
, the Channel Islands franchise, in 2011;
and UTV, the franchise for Northern Ireland, in 2015.
Organisation (other networks)
The ITV network is not owned or operated by one company, but by a number of licensees, which provide regional services while also broadcasting programmes across the network. Since 2016, the fifteen licences are held by two companies, with the majority held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc.
The network is regulated by the media regulator
Ofcom who is responsible for awarding the broadcast licences. The last major review of the Channel 3 franchises was in 1991, with all operators' licences having been renewed between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2014 without a further contest. While this has been the longest period that the ITV network has gone without a major review of its licence holders, Ofcom announced (following consultation) that it would split the
Wales and West licence from 1 January 2014, creating a national licence for Wales and joining the newly separated West region to
Westcountry Television
ITV Westcountry, formerly known as Westcountry Television and Carlton Westcountry, was the ITV franchise holder for the south west of England, covering Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, southern and western Somerset and western Dorset. The co ...
, to form a new licence for the enlarged South West of England region.
All companies holding a licence were part of the non-profit body ITV Network Limited, which commissioned and scheduled network programming, with compliance previously handled by ITV plc and
Channel Television
ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the ...
. However, due to amalgamation of several of these companies since the creation of ITV Network Limited (and given Channel Television is now owned by ITV plc), it has been replaced by an affiliation system.
Approved by Ofcom, this results in ITV plc commissioning and funding the network schedule, with
STV and
UTV paying a fee to broadcast it.
All licensees have the right to opt out of network programming (except for the national news bulletins), however many do not due to pressures from the parent company or because of limited resources.
Prior to the affiliate system being introduced, STV would frequently (and sometimes controversially) opt out of several popular network programmes – such as the original run of the first series of ''
Downton Abbey
''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States o ...
'' – citing the need to provide more Scottish content to its viewers.
As a public service broadcaster, the ITV network is obliged to broadcast programming of public importance, including news, current affairs, children's and religious programming as well as party election broadcasts on behalf of the major political parties and political events, such as the Budget. The network also needs to produce accessible output containing subtitles, signing and audio description. In exchange for this programming, the ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of the
EPG
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
of all providers.
Since the launch of the platform in 1998, all of the ITV licensees have received gifted capacity on the
digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...
platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc owned
ITV2,
ITV3,
ITV4
ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classic ...
and
CITV
CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...
in their region. UTV and STV (formerly
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 th ...
and
Grampian Television
Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands (except Fort William a ...
) previously broadcast their own services –
UTV2
UTV2 was a television channel, owned by Ulster Television plc (now UTV Media). The channel was on digital terrestrial television and NTL cable in Northern Ireland.
The channel launched on 28 June 1999 as ''TV You'', but was rebranded as ''UTV2'' ...
in Northern Ireland and
S2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, when they adopted the ITV plc channels. Despite this, STV was given a broadcasting licence for what would become the
STV2 channel in 2013, however this was short-lived and the channel closed in 2018. The broadcasters all make use of the
Digital 3&4
Digital 3&4 is a consortium consisting of ITV plc, STV Group plc and the Channel Four Television Corporation, which operates a multiplex broadcasting from a number of transmitter sites in the United Kingdom, carrying television and radio channels ...
multiplex, shared with
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 ...
.
ITV Encore
ITV Encore was a British drama pay television channel in the United Kingdom that was owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was exclusive to Sky's digital satellite platform, Sky Go, Now TV, and Sky Store.
The ...
launched in June 2014 and
ITVBe
ITVBe, stylized as itvBe, is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first announced on 12 February 2014 and launched on 8 October 2014. ITVBe broadcasts reality and unscri ...
launched in October 2014.
ITV Box Office
ITV Box Office was a pay-per-view channel from ITV plc launched in February 2017, and ceased operations in January 2020. The channel was available in HD-only on Sky, and events were also available on demand only on Virgin Media (UK) and TVPlaye ...
launched in February 2017.
On 13 September 2022,
ITV confirmed that on during the day of Monday 19 September, the day of the state funeral for Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
, all programming schedules on ITV's digital channels will be scrapped, with the main ITV News coverage being shown live and uninterrupted on every channel.
This was the first time ITV decided to do this, with the company keeping their digital channels' schedules mostly as advertised in the run up to the funeral (with a few amendments for cancelled sporting events on ITV4) and all royal coverage being on their main channel.
ITV plc
ITV plc owns thirteen of the fifteen franchises and broadcasts to England, Wales, southern Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland through its subsidiary company ITV Broadcasting Limited.
The company also owns the
breakfast television licence, which as of January 2020, broadcasts across the network between 6:00 and 10:00am each morning using the ''
Good Morning Britain'' (previously ''
Daybreak'') and ''
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...
'' names. The company broadcasts a centralised service under the
ITV1
ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...
brand. In Northern Ireland, ITV used the UTV brand name as the name of the channel until April 2020.
The group also owns
ITV Studios
ITV Studios is a British multinational television production and distribution company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadca ...
, the production arm of the company and formed from an amalgamation of all the production departments of the regional licences they own. The company produces a large proportion of ITV's networked programming (around 47%, but previously as high as 66% according to some reports), with the rest coming primarily from independent suppliers (under the Broadcasting Act 1990, at least 25% of ITV's total output must be from independent companies).
ITV plc hopes to increase the amount of in-house programming to as close to the 75% limit as possible.
The group cut the number of regional news programmes offered from 17 in 2007 to 9 by 2009, resulting several regions being merged to form one programme, including the
Border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
and
Tyne Tees regions, the
Westcountry
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...
and
West
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 ...
regions and the removal of sub regional programming, with some regions only represented by pre-recorded segments.
STV Group
STV Group plc
STV Group plc (formerly known as Scottish Television plc, Scottish Media Group plc and SMG plc) is a media company based in Glasgow, Scotland. Beginning as a television broadcaster in 1957, the company expanded into newspapers, advertising and r ...
owns two franchises, covering central and northern Scotland, through subsidiary companies STV Central and STV North, broadcasting a central service under the
STV brand.
The company has had several disputes with ITV plc in recent years over network programming. STV aims to broadcast more Scottish programmes at peak times and so removed several key ITV plc programmes from their schedule in July 2009 including ''
The Bill
''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983.
The programme focused o ...
'', ''
Midsomer Murders'' and ''
Lewis
Lewis may refer to:
Names
* Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname
Music
* Lewis (musician), Canadian singer
* "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
''. Despite STV's explanation of expense, ITV plc were angered by the decision, as a recent schedule change had made ''The Bill'' central to their programming, and broadcast the programmes on
ITV3 as well to ensure Scottish viewers could see the programmes. On 23 September ITV plc was reported to be in the process of suing STV for £20 million, as ITV felt dropping the shows constituted a breach of network agreements; STV subsequently
counter-sued
In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against th ...
ITV plc for £35 million.
The dispute was ended in 2011 with STV agreeing to pay ITV plc £18 million. The signing of the new affiliation deal has resulted in STV paying a flat fee for all networked programming, and so to drop any programmes is unlikely due to the large costs involved.
Current licensees
There are fifteen regional licences, covering fourteen regions (there are separate weekday and weekend licences for the London region), and one national licence for the breakfast service. All licences listed here were renewed until the end of 2024. Licences in England and Wales were held by the individual regional ITV plc owned companies prior to November 2008.
The appointment to provide national news for Channel 3 is also subject to approval by Ofcom. This appointment has been held by
ITN since the channel's inception, and has also been approved through the end of 2024.
Programming
For over 60 years of ITV, its homegrown programmes have become among the best remembered as well as being extremely successful. Before the 1990s, nearly all of the content for the channel was produced by the fifteen franchise licensees: the regional companies.
However, following legislation in the
Broadcasting Act 1990
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, initiated in part due to a 1989 European Council Directive (89/552), also known as the Television Without Frontiers directive. The aim of the Act was to liberalise and deregulate the B ...
imposing a 25% quota for commissioning of independent productions,
the number of programmes from independent production companies not connected to the traditional ITV network, has increased rapidly. Notable examples include
Talkback Thames
Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames ...
(one half of which,
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
, was itself a former ITV franchisee), producers of ''
The Bill
''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983.
The programme focused o ...
'' and co-producers of ''
The X Factor
''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...
'', and 2waytraffic (previously
Celador), producers of ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...
''.
From the late 1990s, ITV's long-standing commitment to strong
current affairs and documentary programming began to diminish with the ending of productions such as ''
World in Action
''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its product ...
'' (
Granada Television), ''
This Week'' (
Rediffusion London
Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...
/
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
), ''First Tuesday'' (
Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
), ''
Network First
''Network First'' is a wide-ranging documentary strand broadcast on ITV in the U.K. from January 1994 to December 1997, and was a part replacement for First Tuesday.
Unlike other documentary series on ITV such as ''World in Action'', ''Network ...
'', ''
Survival
Survival, or the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things (or, hypotheti ...
'' (
Anglia Television
ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...
), and ''
Weekend World
''Weekend World'' is a British television political series, made by London Weekend Television (LWT) and broadcast from 1972 to 1988.
Created by John Birt, not long after he had joined LWT, the series was broadcast on the ITV network at midday ...
'' (
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 un ...
) and their replacement with populist shows such as ''
Tonight
Tonight may refer to:
Television
* ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC
* ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...
''. ''
News at Ten'' was also axed in 1999, although it was reinstated in 2001. In December 2009, the final edition of ITV's long-running arts programme, ''
The South Bank Show
''The South Bank Show'' is a British television arts magazine series originally produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new version of the series began 27 May 2012 on Sky Arts. Conceived, written, ...
'' was broadcast.
ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its soap operas, such as the flagship ''
Coronation Street'' and ''
Emmerdale
''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, ...
''. At the start of the 21st century, Independent Television faced criticism for including a large amount of "reality TV" programmes in the schedule, such as ''
Celebrity Fit Club
''Celebrity Fit Club'' is a reality television series that follows eight overweight celebrities as they try to lose weight for charity. Split into two competing teams of four, each week teams are given different physical challenges, and weighed t ...
'', ''
Celebrity Wrestling
''Celebrity Wrestling'' is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in 2005. It involved two teams of celebrities, competing against each other in wrestling style events. The series was presented by Kate Thornton and Rowdy Roddy Piper. ...
'' and ''
Celebrity Love Island
''Love Island'' (originally ''Celebrity Love Island'') was a British reality television programme that was aired on ITV in 2005 and 2006. In the show, twelve single celebrities spend five weeks on an island in Fiji. The final couple remaining w ...
''. In its defence, ITV does continue to show its major strengths in the fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and it continues to schedule national news in primetime.
Breakfast
Television has been broadcast on ITV at breakfast since 1 February 1983. It was initially run by an independent contractor -
TV-am
TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...
, and later GMTV - until
GMTV Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of
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 ...
in November 2009.
Historically, ITV aired breakfast programmes from 6am until 9.25am but ITV extended this to 10am on weekdays on 6 January 2020. and now broadcasts two breakfast programmes on weekdays - ''
Good Morning Britain'' and ''
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...
''. ''Good Morning Britain'' keeps viewers up to date with all the latest news, sports, features and weather, whilst ''Lorraine'' predominantly focuses on celebrity interviews, recipes, fashion and showbiz. At weekends, ITV Breakfast airs children's programming, a
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...
of
CITV Breakfast, under the
CITV
CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...
brand.
Daytime programming
ITV's strong daytime line-up helped by programmes such as ''
This Morning'', ''
Loose Women'', ''
Dickinson's Real Deal
''Dickinson's Real Deal'' is a UK modern antiques and collectables television programme that is broadcast on ITV and presented by David Dickinson. A US version of the show, produced by Zodiak USA and titled simply '' Real Deal'', was aired f ...
'' and game shows ''
Tipping Point'' and ''
The Chase'' are very popular, achieving the highest audience share during the daytime slot.
Entertainment
In recent years the network has tried to use formats that ITV Studios own outright (whether they have originated in the UK with their Lifted Entertainment company or have come from production companies they own abroad), though some popular programme formats like ''
The Masked Singer
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' have still been acquired from other companies abroad. Currently ITV are behind the formats for ''
Dancing on Ice'', ''
The Voice UK
''The Voice UK'' is a British singing competition television series. Created by John de Mol, it premiered on BBC One during the spring television cycle on 24 March 2012. Based on the original '' The Voice of Holland'', and part of ''The Voice ...
'' (the format originally coming from their Dutch production company) and ''
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!'', while forthcoming music game show ''Walk The Line'' has been co-developed by Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment and ITV.
National and international news
Since the network started,
Independent Television News
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 ...
Limited (ITN) has held the contract to produce news for the ITV network, with 30-minute national news bulletins currently broadcast at
1:30 pm, and 10:00 pm, and an hour-long bulletin at 6.30pm. These bulletins were broadcast under the ITN brand from 1955 until 1999, when a new network identity reinforced the ITV brand, resulting in the new bulletins being broadcast under the ITV News brand.
ITN has long been respected in the news industry as a source of reliable information and news, and as a result the service has won many awards for their programmes, the latest being in May 2011 when ''News at Ten'' was named best news programme by the
Royal Television Society and
BAFTA.
Weather
The ITV National Weather forecast was first broadcast in 1989, using data supplied by the
Met Office, and was presented by a number of weather forecasters. The forecasts are sponsored in which the sponsors message, would appear prior to and following the forecast. The forecasts are made immediately after the main national news bulletins.
Prior to the creation of the national forecast, each regional company provided its own regional forecast. The regional forecasts today are incorporated into the main regional news bulletins, and in the summer months, includes a pollen count.
Late-night programming
Currently only new episodes of long-form news and current affairs programmes like ''Exposure'', ''Peston'' and ''On Assignment'' are being scheduled after ''News at Ten'', with the latter title currently only appearing on a month-by-month basis. As the channel carries a simulcast of the
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 ...
shopping network for a couple of hours after midnight, the time between the news and the shopping is usually kept for re-runs, with ITV repeating its primetime entertainment shows or sports programming from ITV4.
ITV continues with its regularly scheduled programming after Ideal World at around 3am with showbiz news bulletin ''FYI Extra'' and repeats, many of which have on-screen BSL signing for the deaf community. Replacing the information based ''
ITV Nightscreen
''ITV Nightscreen'' was a scheduled programme on the ITV television network, consisting of a sequence of animated pages of information about ITV's upcoming programmes, features and special events, with easy listening music in the background. T ...
'' slot in 2021 was ''Unwind With ITV'', programming produced in association with the
Campaign Against Living Miserably. At around 4am each night this mindfulness programme shows calming shots of natural landscapes and relaxing animations for around an hour, with versions of the footage also seen on ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4.
Regional programming
The regional ITV companies are required to provide local news as part of their franchise agreement together with local weather forecasts, with the main local bulletin at 6pm and regional bulletins located after each national news programme. In addition to this, traditionally ITV companies would provide other regional programming based on current affairs, entertainment or drama. However, apart from a monthly political programme, most non-news regional programming in the English regions was dropped by ITV plc in 2009, although it continues in Wales and the Channel Islands, as well as on STV and UTV and ITV Border in Scotland from 2014 to cover mainly Scottish politics whilst ITV Border in England broadcast network programming .
On 14 January 2013, ITV plc regional news programmes titles were discontinued in favour of more generic branding under the ''
ITV News'' title with the region listed as the subheading. However some "heritage" brand names were retained including ''Calendar'', ''Granada Reports'' and ''Lookaround''. On 28 June 2014, ''ITV News Cymru Wales'' returned to its historic name of ''Wales at Six''.
Current regional news programmes
#Anglia: ''
ITV News Anglia
''ITV News Anglia'' is a British television news service for the East of England, broadcast and produced by ITV Anglia.
History
''Anglia News'' replaced the long-running news magazine programme ''About Anglia'' on Monday, 9 July 1990. Initially ...
'' (with East and West variations)
#Border: ''
ITV News Lookaround
ITV News ''Lookaround'' is a British television news service produced by ITV Tyne Tees & Border and broadcasting to the “Border” region.
Overview
The news service is produced and broadcast from studios at The Watermark, Gateshead with rep ...
''
#Central: ''
ITV News Central
''ITV News Central'' is a British television news service for The Midlands, broadcast and produced by ITV Central.
History
Launched on Friday 1 January 1982, replacing ''ATV Today'', ''Central News'' was initially a pan-regional service base ...
'' (with East and West variations)
#Channel: ''
ITV News Channel TV
''ITV News Channel TV'' (referred to as ''ITV News on Channel'' on air) is a British television news service for the Channel Islands broadcast and produced by ITV Channel.
Overview
ITV News has its main Channel Islands newsroom in Jersey as we ...
''
#Granada: ''
ITV News Granada Reports
ITV News ''Granada Reports'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Granada.
Overview
''Granada Reports'' is produced and broadcast from studios in the Orange Tower at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays.
Before this, th ...
''
#London: ''
ITV News London
''ITV News London'' is a British television news service broadcast on both ITV London and the ITV Hub. It is produced by ITN.
History
London News Network
The programme launched on Monday 4 January 1993 as ''London Tonight'', after Carlton T ...
''
#Meridian: ''
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 ...
'' (with South variation and a Thames Valley opt-out and South East variation)
#STV Central: ''
STV News'' (non-ITV plc) (with East and West variations)
#STV North: ''
STV News'' (non-ITV plc) (with a Dundee opt-out)
#Tyne Tees: ''
ITV News Tyne Tees
''ITV News Tyne Tees'' is a British television news service produced by ITV Tyne Tees & Border and broadcasting to the “ Tyne Tees” region.
Overview
The news service is produced and broadcast from studios at The Watermark, Gateshead wit ...
''
#UTV: ''
UTV Live
''UTV Live'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by UTV.
Overview
The main edition of ''UTV Live'' airs from 18:00 to 18:30 every weeknight, covering the day's news, current affairs and sport from across Northern Irel ...
''
#Wales: ''
ITV News Wales at Six''
#West Country: ''
ITV News West Country
''ITV News West Country'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV West Country.
Overview
''ITV News West Country''
is broadcast from studios in Brislington, Bristol, with district reporters and camera crews based i ...
'' (with East and West variations)
#Yorkshire: ''
ITV News Calendar
ITV News ''Calendar'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Yorkshire.
Overview
The news service transmits to Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, northwestern Norfolk and parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire areas of Engl ...
'' (with East and West variations)
Former programmes
*ATV: ''
ATV Midlands News
''ATV Midlands News'' was a regional television news programme, produced by ATV, serving the English Midlands.
First broadcast on Monday 7 May 1956, ''ATV Midlands News'' was one of the first daily regional news services on British television, o ...
'', ''
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 ...
''
*Anglia: ''
About Anglia
''About Anglia'' was a regional news magazine programme produced by Anglia Television in the east of England, broadcast for over thirty years from 2 June 1960 to 6 July 1990.
History
One of the first regional programmes of its kind in the ITV, ...
'', ''
Anglia News'', ''
Anglia News Tonight'', ''
Anglia Tonight''
*Carlton: ''
London Tonight
''ITV News London'' is a British television news service broadcast on both ITV London and the ITV Hub. It is produced by ITN.
History
London News Network
The programme launched on Monday 4 January 1993 as ''London Tonight'', after Carlton ...
''
*Central / Carlton (Central): ''
Central News'', ''
Central News at Six'', ''
Central Tonight
''ITV News Central'' is a British television news service for The Midlands, broadcast and produced by ITV Central.
History
Launched on Friday 1 January 1982, replacing ''ATV Today'', ''Central News'' was initially a pan-regional service base ...
''
*Channel: ''
Channel Report
''ITV News Channel TV'' (referred to as ''ITV News on Channel'' on air) is a British television news service for the Channel Islands broadcast and produced by ITV Channel.
Overview
ITV News has its main Channel Islands newsroom in Jersey as we ...
''
*Grampian: ''
North Tonight
''North Tonight'' is a Scottish nightly regional news programme covering the North of Scotland, produced by STV North (formerly Grampian Television).
History
During the late 1960s and 1970s, Grampian's regional news service consisted of daily ...
''
*Granada: ''
Northern Newscast'', ''
Scene at Six Thirty'', ''
Granada Tonight''
*HTV Wales / ITV Wales: ''
Report Wales/Y Dydd'', ''
Wales Tonight
ITV News'' Wales at Six'' is the evening news programme broadcast and produced by ITV Cymru Wales.
Overview
''Wales at Six'' and all other ITV Wales news programming is broadcast live from studios at Assembly Square in Cardiff Bay, with a Nort ...
'', ''
HTV News'', ''
ITV Wales News
ITV News'' Wales at Six'' is the evening news programme broadcast and produced by ITV Cymru Wales.
Overview
''Wales at Six'' and all other ITV Wales news programming is broadcast live from studios at Assembly Square in Cardiff Bay, with a Nort ...
''
*HTV West / ITV West: ''
Report West'', ''
HTV News'', ''
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 ...
'', ''
ITV West News'', ''
West Country Tonight''
*London Weekend Television / LWT: ''
LWT News
''LWT News'' was a regional news service provided by London Weekend Television, serving the Greater London area in various formats between January 1982 and 3 January 1993.
History
On Friday 1 January 1982, LWT began extending its broadcasting ...
'', ''
London Tonight
''ITV News London'' is a British television news service broadcast on both ITV London and the ITV Hub. It is produced by ITN.
History
London News Network
The programme launched on Monday 4 January 1993 as ''London Tonight'', after Carlton ...
''
*Meridian: ''
Meridian Tonight
''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 i ...
''
*Scottish Television / STV: ''
Scotland Today
''Scotland Today'' is a Scottish regional news programme covering Central Scotland, produced by STV Central (formerly Scottish Television). Despite its name suggesting a national remit, the programme was actually limited to stories around STV's C ...
''
*Southern: ''
Day by Day'' / ''
Scene South East'' (Dover Transmitter)
*Television South West / TSW: ''
Today South West'', ''
TSW Today
''TSW Today'' was the news programme on Television South West, the ITV licensee for South West England.
The programme began as ''Today South West'' on 4 January 1982, then in 1987 it was renamed ''Today'' and in 1989, it became ''TSW Today.''
W ...
''
*Television South / TVS: ''
Coast to Coast''
*Thames: ''
Thames News
''Thames News'' was the flagship regional news programme of Thames Television, serving the Thames ITV region and broadcast on weekdays from 12 September 1977 to 31 December 1992.
The news service was produced and broadcast from Thames TV's headq ...
''
*Thames Valley (Non-Franchise): ''
Thames Valley Tonight
''Thames Valley Tonight'' was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2 ...
''
*Tyne Tees: ''
Today At Six
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 193 ...
, ''
Northern Life'', ''
Tyne Tees Today'' / ''
Network North
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
'' (Bilsdale Transmitter), ''
North East Tonight
''ITV News Tyne Tees'' is a British television news service produced by ITV Tyne Tees & Border and broadcasting to the “ Tyne Tees” region.
Overview
The news service is produced and broadcast from studios at The Watermark, Gateshead with ...
''
*Ulster Television / UTV: ''
Good Evening Ulster'', ''Six Tonight''
*Westward: ''
Westward Diary''
*Westcountry / Carlton (Westcountry): ''
Westcountry Live
''Westcountry Live'' was the flagship regional news programme of ITV Westcountry, serving South West England.
History
The programme was first broadcast on Monday 4 January 1993 - four days after Westcountry Television took over the ITV regional ...
''
Sports
*
Football
**ITV holds joint rights for the
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
and the
UEFA European Championship
The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...
with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
and has shown every World Cup live since 1966, on a shared basis with the BBC. This arrangement has been in place since the 1960s. ITV shares the rights for the
with the BBC, having previously done so from 1955 to 1988. ITV also held the live rights to the competition from 1998 to 2001 and from 2008 until 2014.
*
**ITV other flagship sporting coverage is as the exclusive free to air home of British
. ITV's deal, which began on 1 January 2017, encompasses horse racing every Saturday Afternoon on ITV or ITV4.
*
'' banner and the sport was a regular fixture on ITV screens until the mid 1990s when ITV lost its two premier contracts to
In 2005, ITV returned to the ring when it reached an agreement to broadcast the main share of
Sports Network fights. This continued until 2008, and in 2010 ITV decided to stop covering the sport as ITV thought that boxing was no longer commercially viable. In the late 2010s ITV showed some boxing on a pay-per-view channel
. However ITV's boxing coverage is now restricted to
in 2002. Initially, live coverage was only broadcast at the weekend but since the 2010 Tour de France,
has broadcast daily live coverage of every stage. ITV also broadcasts the Women's Tour and
. ITV had previously extensively covered the sport and did so from 1972 until it decided to drop the sport in 1988. ITV resumed coverage of
in 2007 and since then it has gradually increased the number of events it shows.
*
and has shown the event extensively and in full since 2002. ITV also broadcasts highlights of the
. ITV had previously covered
live since 1991 and will show the 2023 tournament. ITV also broadcasts the
for the first time and the Under 20 World Cup. Since 2016, ITV has shared coverage of the
...