This is a timeline of the history of the British television network

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 ...

(originally known as Independent Television).

1950s

* 1954 ** 30 July – 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 ...

paves the way for the launch of commercial television in the UK and the first franchises are awarded by the newly formed

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 (TV network), ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA exi ...

(ITA). ** 26 October – The first ITV franchises are awarded. They are for the London, Midlands and North of England regions. * 1955 ** January – A consortium of the initial four Independent Television broadcasting companies launch ITN, which will provide ITV with its news service. ** 22 September –

is launched when the first contractor,

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, ...

, goes on air, broadcasting to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on weekdays. ** 24 September – ATV London launches as the London weekend contractor. * 1956 ** 6 January – The first edition of '' This Week'' is broadcast. ** 17 February – ATV Midlands launches ITV in the Midlands and the following day the Midlands’ weekend contractor

ABC Weekend TV ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one ...

broadcasts for the first time. ** 3 May –

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 ...

launches ITV in the north of England and two days later the north of England's weekend contractor

broadcasts for the first time. * 1957 ** 13 May – ITV transmits a television programme for schools for the first time. It is broadcast by London's ITV contractor

. ** 31 August – ITV starts broadcasting in central

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

–

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 ...

(STV) is the franchise holder. * 1958 ** 14 January –

Television Wales and the West Television Wales and the West (TWW) was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for a franchise area that initially served South Wales and West of England (franchise awarded 26 October 1956, started transmissions o ...

(TWW) starts broadcasting to South

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and the West of England. ** 30 August –

Southern Television Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as 'Southern Television Limited' and the title 'Southern Television' was con ...

launches. * 1959 ** 15 January –

Tyne Tees Television ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from stud ...

launches. ** 27 October –

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 ...

launches. ** 31 October – ITV launches in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

when

Ulster Television UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1) is the ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the area. It is run by ITV plc an ...

starts broadcasting.

1960s

* 1960 ** 31 January –

's broadcast area expands when it begins broadcasting to

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

following the

granting Southern the right to broadcast to

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...

. ** 9 December – The first edition of ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' is broadcast. * 1961 ** 29 April –

Westward Television Westward Television was the first ITV franchise-holder for the South West of England. It held the franchise from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a popular, distinctive and highly regar ...

launches. ** 1 September –

Border Television ITV Border, previously Border Television and commonly referred to as simply Border, is the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 service provided by ITV (TV channel), ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Anglo-Scottish border, England/Scotland border region, ...

launches. ** 30 September –

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 and ...

launches. * 1962 ** 1 September –

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 ...

launches. ** 14 September – The final part of the United Kingdom gets an ITV service when Wales (West and North) Television launches in West and North Wales as ''Teledu Cymru''. ** 22 September –

becomes the first ITV company to show football highlights on a regular basis when it launches ''Match of the Week'', which shows highlights of matches from around

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

. Over the next few years, other ITV companies begin showing regular

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

highlights programmes. * 1963 ** 7 January – The first edition of ''

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 ...

'' is broadcast. * 1964 ** 26 January – Wales (West and North) Television stops broadcasting after going bankrupt. It is replaced by TWW. However the ''Teledu Cymru'' on-air identity is retained. ** All of the ITV contractors are given three-year extensions to their licence. This is later extended by a further year. * 1965 ** 2 January – The first edition of '' World of Sport'' is broadcast. ** 26 March –

begins broadcasting to the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

. ** 1965 sees the end of regular lunchtime programming on ITV. Most regions had broadcast a weekday lunchtime entertainment show since the earliest days of ITV. * 1966 ** No events. * 1967 ** 3 July – '' News at Ten'' is launched as a 13-week trial of a nightly 30-minute bulletin. The programme is soon made a permanent feature of the schedules. * 1968 ** 4 March – TWW stops broadcasting five months before its contract was due to expire. The ITA provides an interim service called

Independent Television Service for Wales and the West Independent Television Service for Wales and the West or ITSWW was a temporary emergency service provided by the ITA in light of the early termination of service of the previous franchise holder, TWW after they lost their ITV franchise in 1967 ...

until 20 May when the new contractor,

Harlech Television 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, ...

, takes over. ** 29 July – *** ATV starts broadcasting to the Midlands seven days a week and Granada starts broadcasting across the north west seven days a week. In both cases, ABC loses the right to broadcast. ***

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 ...

launches following the decision to split the north region into two resulting in a new franchise being created for the Yorkshire area. ** 30 July –

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 ...

replaces

as the holder of the London weekday franchise although Redivision retains a 49% stake in the new company. ** 2 August —

London Weekend Television 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 ...

(LWT) replaces ATV as London's weekend franchise. ** 3 August – A technicians' strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary service with no regional variations. The strike ends on 18 August. ** 21 September — The ''

TVTimes ''TV Times'' is a British television listings magazine published by Future plc. It was originally published by Independent Television Publications, owned by the participating ITV companies. The magazine was acquired by IPC Media in 1989, whic ...

'' is launched as a national magazine to provide listings for the ITV network. * 1969 ** 15 November – ITV starts broadcasting in

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

from some transmitters, although it was not until 1976 that colour signals were available in every region.

1970s

* 1970 ** 31 May-21 June – ITV introduces a studio panel, joining presenters Brian Moore and Jimmy Hill to analyse the latest action in the 1970 World Cup. This is the first time a studio panel of pundits had been seen as part of UK sporting coverage. ** 13 November – The

Colour Strike The Colour Strike was a period of industrial action by technicians at all ITV companies from 13 November 1970 to 8 February 1971 (although some shows made during this period in black-and-white were having their first transmission as late as Dec ...

begins when

staff refuse to work with colour television equipment following a dispute over pay with their management. The strike lasts for nearly three months. ** 23 November – The first edition of ''

Engineering Announcements ''Engineering Announcements for the Radio and Television Trade'', sometimes abbreviated to ''Engineering Announcements'', was a weekly magazine of news and information intended for technicians and salespeople in the United Kingdom, produced and ...

'' is broadcast. * 1971 ** 15 April – The Bilsdale UHF transmitter, on the border between

and

and much disputed over, begins broadcasting Tyne Tees Television. * 1972 ** 12 July – The

Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television (ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Authorit ...

(IBA) replaces the

. ** 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service. As part of the new service the first edition of ''

Emmerdale Farm ''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, '' ...

'' is broadcast and ITV's first lunchtime news programme, '' First Report'', is shown.

ITV Schools ITV Schools (full name: Independent Television for Schools and Colleges) was the educational television service set up in 1957 by the Independent Television Authority, broadcasting learning programmes for children ages 5 to 18 across ITV-affil ...

transfers to a new morning slot. * 1973 **17 December – The British government imposes early close downs of all three television channels in the UK including ITV from 17 December 1973 in order to save electricity during the Three Day Week crisis. The early close downs forced ITV to end their broadcasting day at 10:30pm, thus losing the network a lot of advertising revenue. The restrictions were lifted temporarily on Christmas Eve to allow the public to enjoy festive programming. The restrictions recommenced on Monday 7 January 1974. The restrictions ended on 8 February 1974. * 1974 ** The 1974 franchise round sees no changes in contractors. However the Belmont transmitter in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

is switched from

. * 1975 ** 23–26 May – A strike over the payments agreed before the government-imposed pay freeze came into force results in many ITV companies being unable to broadcast for 72 hours, apart from at

and

where ACTT members ignored the strike. However normal programming did not resume until 30 May, apart from at

where the strike continued until 9 June. * 1976 ** 26 July –

becomes the final ITV region to begin broadcasting in colour although it isn't until the following year that all of its local programmes are made in colour. ** 6 September – '' News at One'' replaces ''First Report'' and the teatime news bulletin programme is extended by five minutes and renamed ''News at 5.45''. * 1977 ** 28 March –

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

and Tyne Tees begin a nine-week trial of breakfast television. **''

'' moves from daytime to a peak time (7 pm) slot although five regions –

/ TSW,

and

– aired the programme at 5:15pm. * 1978 ** ITV's

teletext A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...

service

ORACLE An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

launches. * 1979 ** 10 August – A ten-week strike forces ITV off the air. Only Channel Television in the Channel Islands remained on air, as they had separate arrangements with the unions. Channel Television provided an emergency service each day running from 5:00pm until 11:00pm, filled with local programming, local news, imported films, and repeats from the ITV archive. The only programme shown on the rest of the network was the weekly edition of ''Engineering Announcements''. The strike ends on 24 October. ** 25 September – '' This Week'' ends its first run. It is replaced for the next seven years by ''TV Eye''. ** The

begins broadcasting its own test card on ITV instead of

Test Card F Test Card F is a test card that was created by the BBC and used on television in the United Kingdom and in countries elsewhere in the world for more than four decades. Like other test cards, it was usually shown while no programmes were being ...

1980s

* 1980 ** 28 December – The IBA announces the new contractors to commence on 1 January 1982. The Midlands region will be split into two and dual regions will be created for Wales and the West and the South and South East. ATV is reawarded its contract for the Midlands although there are several conditions attached, including more regional content and increased production facilities in the Midlands. It is also told to rename itself and it chooses the name

Central Independent Television 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 ...

lost its licence for the South of England, in favour of

Television South Television South (TVS) was the ITV (TV network), ITV franchise holder in the South East England, South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, ini ...

(TVS) and

also lost its licence for South West England, to be replaced by

Television South West Television South West (TSW) was the ITV franchise holder for the South West England region from 1 January 1982 until 31 December 1992, broadcasting from studios at Derry's Cross in Plymouth, Devon. History Origins and Launch On 28 Decembe ...

(TSW). The IBA also announces that

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 ...

has been awarded the contract to provide a national breakfast television service, with a provisional launch in spring 1983. ** 29 December – ITV launches its first branded children's slot when it launches '' Watch It!''. The programmes are broadcast on weekdays between 4:15pm to 5:15pm and are presented live by the duty continuity announcer in each ITV region. * 1981 ** 11 August – TSW takes over

but continues to use the Westward name until 1 January 1982. ** 31 December – ATV, Southern and Westward stop broadcasting at the end of their day's programming – i.e. shortly after midnight. * 1982 ** 1 January – ***

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 ...

, TVS and TSW start broadcasting. ***The Bluebell Hill transmitter in

is transferred from

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 ...

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 ...

to TVS, to increase the size of TVS's new South East sub-region.Peter Fiddick "ITV's framework for survival in the eighties", ''The Guardian''; 25 January 1980; p.2 ***

extends its coverage on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border when transmitters covering

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax. In 2011 it had a population of 15,481. Todm ...

and

Walsden Walsden (; ) is a large village in the civil parish of Todmorden in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England, though historically partially administered in Lancashire (the Walsden Water as tributary to the Calder servin ...

were transferred from the Granada region. ***The Kendal transmitter, covering much of southern Cumbria, is transferred from Granada to

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 ...

. * 1983 ** 3 January –

Children's ITV 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 ...

is launched, replacing ''Watch It!''. Programmes begin 15 minutes earlier, at 4 pm – the extra fifteen minutes being filled by a repeat of one of the pre-school programmes shown at lunchtime the same day. The slot is presented on a national basis and programmes are linked by an in-vision presenter. ** 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service

launches, broadcasting between 6 AM and 9:15 am. It has been beaten to air by the BBC which launched '' Breakfast Time'' two weeks previously. ** 17 May – ''

'' is broadcast on ITV for the final time. The programme transfers to

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 ...

and continues until July 1990. ** 23 May –

changes its broadcasting hours. It now begins during the week at 6:25 am, with a later start at the weekend. However TV-am is now able to stay on air until 9:25 am due to the automation of the switching process from national to regional programming. ** September –

finally launches its

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

service. An industrial dispute had prevented Central from launching its East Midlands service until 21 months after Central actually launched. ** 2 October – ITV shows a live top flight football match for the first time since 1960. This marks the start of English football being shown on a national basis rather than on a regional basis, resulting in ''

The Big Match ''The Big Match'' was a British football television programme, screened on ITV between 1968 and 1992. ''The Big Match'' originally launched on London Weekend Television (LWT) – the ITV regional station that served London and the Home Countie ...

'' becoming a fully national programme. * 1984 ** 16 October – ''

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 on ...

'' launches as a regular programme, just over a year after a one-off episode – '' Woodentop'' – was shown. * 1985 ** 3 January – *** The last day of transmission using the 405-lines system. ***

expands its broadcasting hours. Weekday programmes begin ten minutes earlier during the week, at 6:15 am and weekend programmes begin at 6:55 am. ** 28 September – The final edition of '' World of Sport'' is broadcast. * 1986 ** 2 April – The first in-vision

service is seen on ITV when

launches its '' Jobfinder'' service which broadcasts for one hour after the end of the day's programming. Many other regions launch their own Jobfinder service later in the 1980s. ** 9 August –

launches an experimental overnight service, simulcasting the satellite TV channel

Music Box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or ''lamellae'') ...

. ** 11 September – After a seven-year hiatus, current affairs programme '' This Week'' returns. * 1987 ** 3 January – Closedowns reappear on

when its experiment with 24-hour television is put on hiatus. ** 30 January – *** Super Channel launches. The channel is majority owned by all but one of the ITV companies. Within a year the ITV companies sold their stake to the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Marcucci family, owners of Italian music channel

Videomusic Videomusic was an Italian music channel and one of the first music channels in Europe. It was launched in early 1984 and was owned by Marialina Marcucci and Pier Luigi Stefani (VM's Managing Director). It used to air from a location called "Il Ci ...

. ***Yorkshire becomes the second ITV region to launch a '' Jobfinder'' service, broadcasting for an hour after closedown. ** The first weeks of 1987 sees many of the larger ITV companies start broadcasting into the night. ** 25 April – Central becomes the first station to keep its transmitters on air all night when it launches ''More Central''. Programmes are shown until around 3am on weekdays and 4am at the weekend, with the rest of the night filled by its '' Jobfinder'' service. ** 1 June –

launches ''Thames Into the Night''. Consequently, the channel now stays on air until 4 am. ** 29 June – Schools programmes are broadcast on ITV for the last time. ** 20 July – The lunchtime news programme moves to 12:30pm and is renamed accordingly. ** 17 August –

becomes the first ITV company to launch a full 24-hour service. ** 28 August –

and Anglia begin 24-hour transmissions. ** September –

recommences broadcasting each day from 6 am. ** 7 September – ITV launches a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins. ** 14 September –

transfers to

and S4C. ** 7 December – Tyne Tees begins 24-hour broadcasting. It does so by launching a '' Jobfinder'' service which broadcasts each night from its usual close-down time until the start of

at 6am. Tyne Tees launches a full 24-hour service on 2 September 1988. * 1988 ** 1 January – From this day, each programme on

is no longer preceded by the identifier of the regional company that had produced the show. ** 6 January – After more than 15 years on air, for the first time ''

'' is shown by all ITV regions in a peak time slot of 6:30pm. ** 15 February – An early morning 60-minute news programme – '' ITN Early Morning News'' – is launched but is only available in areas which have 24-hour broadcasting. The first 30 minutes of the programme includes a full broadcast of ITN's international news bulletin ''

ITN World News ''ITN World News'' was a newscast shown during the late 1980s and most of the 1990s. It was either shown on cable or satellite television, or shown internationally. The newscast was broadcast from London, England, and was produced by Independen ...

''. In addition, brief news summaries are broadcast at various points through the night. The launch coincides with three of the major ITV companies – Scottish,

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 ...

– beginning 24-hour transmission. ** 7 March – The lunchtime news returns to the 1pm slot. ** 4 April – After nearly 24 years on air, the final edition of ''

Crossroads Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...

'' is broadcast. It is briefly revived in 2001. ** 29–30 May – The first

ITV Telethon The ITV Telethons were three charity telethons organised and televised in the United Kingdom by the ITV network. They took place in 1988, 1990 and 1992. Each lasted for 27 hours and all were hosted by Michael Aspel. The final telethon in July 1 ...

takes place over the spring bank holiday weekend. ** 30 May – TVS and

Channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

begin 24-hour broadcasting and

recommences 24-hour broadcasting. ** 22 August – HTV begins 24-hour broadcasting. ** 2 September – TSW,

Grampian Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...

and

begin 24-hour broadcasting. ** 3 October – ***

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

becomes the final region to start broadcasting 24 hours a day. *** The first edition of '' This Morning'' is broadcast. ** 30 October – Following the signing of a new four-year deal to show exclusive live coverage of top flight English football, ITV begins showing a live game every Sunday afternoon. * 1989 ** 9 January –

launches a third sub-region – Central South. It covers

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. These areas were previously served by the Central West sub-region. ** 13 February – For the first time ITV starts broadcasting a national weather forecast. Previously each company had aired its own regional weather forecast which they had broadcast at the end of their local news programmes and at closedown. ** 1 September – ITV introduces its first official logo as part of an attempt to unify the network under one image whilst retaining regional identity. ** ''

'' is sold to

IPC Media TI Media (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of its tit ...

1990s

* 1990 ** The roll-out of broadcasting ITV programmes in NICAM digital stereo begins and by the end of the year the majority of transmitters and their relays are broadcasting in stereo. ** 27–28 May – ITV broadcasts its second

Telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...

. ** 24 September –

launches a third sub-regional opt-out for

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

and north

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. * 1991 ** 1 January – The

Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...

(ITC) replaces the IBA as the regulator of all non-BBC television broadcasting. ** March – Following the conclusion of the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, the '' ITN Early Morning News'' is halved in length and now goes on air at 5:30pm. From this point, the ''

'' is no longer broadcast as part of the bulletin. ** 3 October–2 November – ITV shows full live coverage of the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

, beginning a relationship with the tournament which lasts to this day. ** 16 October – The (ITC) announces the results of the franchise round. Following 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 ...

, the ITC had to conduct a franchise auction whereby contracts would be given to the highest bidder, subject to fulfilling a programming ‘quality threshold.’ TSW lost the South West of England franchise 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 ...

controversially lost the London weekday franchise to Carlton Television, TVS lost the South of England franchise to

Meridian Broadcasting ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned ...

lost the national breakfast television franchise to Sunrise Television, which changed its name to

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 ...

before launch because of a dispute with

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

over the name 'Sunrise', and

lost the National Teletext franchise to

Teletext Ltd Teletext Ltd was the provider of teletext and digital interactive services for ITV, Channel 4 and Five in the United Kingdom. Origins ''Teletext Ltd'' started providing teletext services for ITV and Channel 4 on 1 January 1993, replacing t ...

. * 1992 ** 2 March – The News at 5.40 is renamed '' ITN Early Evening News''. ** 18 May – Sky outbids ITV for the live rights to the newly formed football

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. Sky bids £304 million, as opposed to ITV's £262 million. ITV subsequently purchases live rights to the newly formed

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and the second tier of English football, showing the latter on a regional basis until those rights passed to Sky in 1996. ** June – Yorkshire and Tyne Tees television merge, beginning a process that would see the consolidation of ITV over the next decade. ** 18–19 July – ITV broadcasts its third and final

. ** 1 November – The satellite TV channel

UK Gold Gold is a British pay television channel from the UKTV network that was launched in late 1992 as UK Gold before it was rebranded UKTV Gold in 2004. In 2008, it was split into current flagship channel Gold and miscellaneous channel, W, with clas ...

, run by the BBC with

, starts broadcasting. Thames gets involved with this service ahead of it losing its ITV franchise. ** 17 December – Ahead of the loss of its franchise, the final edition of the

-produced current affairs series '' This Week'' is broadcast. ** 31 December – ITV sells off companies

, TVS, TSW and teletext service

to were all broadcast for the final time. * 1993 ** 1 January – At the stroke of midnight,

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 ...

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

and

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 ...

start broadcasting and at 6am

goes on air for the first time. Also

Teletext A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...

launches as ITV's new teletext service. ** 28 June – The final

broadcasts take place. ** 6 September –

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 ...

's afternoon slot is extended to start at 3:30 pm, when ITV network centre decided to move the pre-school children slot from 12:10 pm. Around the same time, the Children's ITV name is changed to CITV, having been used in some form or another since the previous year. ** ITV Sells off Anglia, Border, Channel, LWT, Tyne Tees, HTV, Grampian, Scottish Television, UTV and CITV * 1994 **

buys

, Carlton Television takes over

and

takes over

. * 1995 ** No events. * 1996 ** Carlton Television buys

and increased its stake in

to 81%. ** 1 September – Carlton Food Network launches. ** 1 October –

Granada Sky Broadcasting ITV Digital Channels Limited (formerly known as Granada Sky Broadcasting) is a wholly owned subsidiary of British broadcaster ITV plc. It manages all of the company's television channels with the exception of ITV, which is part of the entir ...

, in conjunction with BSkyB, launches four channels –

Granada Plus Plus was a digital channel run by Granada Sky Broadcasting. It was launched on 1 October 1996 under the original name of Granada Plus, and during its availability it underwent successive rebrands as G Plus, G+ and then simply Plus. However, it ...

Granada Good Life Granada Breeze was a lifestyle channel operated by Granada Sky Broadcasting, a joint venture between Granada Television and British Sky Broadcasting. The channel was launched as Granada Good Life on 1 October 1996. Programming It was aimed a ...

, Granada Men & Motors and

Granada Talk TV Granada Talk (alternatively Granada Talk TV) was a short-lived TV channel owned and operated by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, Granada Sky Broadcasting, a joint venture between BSkyB and Granada Television. It launched on 1 October 1996 with the oth ...

** 1 November – A joint venture between

and BSkyB results in the launch of

Sky Scottish Sky Scottish was a short-lived satellite television channel operating on the analogue service broadcasts between 6.00pm and 8.00pm. History The service was a joint venture between British Sky Broadcasting and ITV franchise Scottish Televisio ...

. * 1997 ** More consolidation takes place.

acquires

Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television was a British broadcasting company, which is now part of ITV plc. History The company was created in June 1992 from the merger of the Independent Television broadcasters Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television ...

, Scottish Media Group ( SMG), which owned

, acquires

and

United News and Media UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its pr ...

, the owner of Meridian Broadcasting and Anglia Television, purchased HTV. ** 31 January – Carlton Television,

and satellite company

(BSkyB), create British Digital Broadcasting (BDB) as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

and apply to operate three

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' ...

(DTT) licences. ** 14 February –

Carlton Select Carlton Select was a British digital television channel, owned by Carlton Television. It was originally launched in June 1995 as SelecTV, by the independent production company of the same name, before being purchased by Carlton in 1997 who re ...

is launched. It had been on air sine June 1995 as SelecTV, which was acquired by Carlton from

Pearson Television Pearson Television was the British-based television production and distribution arm of a British company Pearson PLC. History In 1994 after a bidding war, Pearson PLC bought the former British ITV franchisee Thames Television. Then in 1995 i ...

. ** March – ITV takes over as the broadcaster of

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

motor racing. It shows full coverage of qualifying as well as the race itself, something that the previous rights holder, the BBC, generally did not do. ITV also obtains the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

and England International football highlights rights from the BBC at around the same time, resulting in the return of the FA Cup to ITV screens for the first time since 1988. ** 25 June – The ITC awards the sole DTT broadcast licence to British Digital Broadcasting – a consortium consisting of Carlton Television,

and BSkyB. ** 31 August –

stops broadcasting. ** 20 December – The ITC awards three

pay-TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...

digital multiplex licences to BDB. * 1998 ** 14 January – ''

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 ...

'' is shown for the first time. ** 1 May –

is renamed Granada Breeze. ** 31 May –

stops broadcasting. ** 29 July – BDB rebrands as

ONdigital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television Broadcasting, broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada ...

after the ITC forced BSkyB out of the consortium on competition grounds, although Sky was still required to provide key channels such as

Sky Movies Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema ...

and

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

to ONdigital. ** 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place with the launch of

OnDigital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television Broadcasting, broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada ...

and as part of the 19-channel line-up, Carlton creates three new channels for the platform – Carlton Cinema, Carlton Kids and

Carlton World Carlton World was a British digital television channel, launched on 15 November 1998 and closed down on 1 February 2000. Its sister channels were Carlton Kids, Carlton Food Network, Carlton Select and Carlton Cinema. It was carried on ONdigi ...

and Granada, in conjunction with Littlewoods, opens Shop! ** 7 December – ***

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

is launched, but only in England and Wales. *** After 35 years on air, ''

'' is broadcast for the final time. * 1999 ** 4 January –

2 launches during the breakfast downtime of

. ** 5 March – ''

ITV News at Ten ''ITV News at Ten'' (or more commonly ''News at Ten'') is the flagship evening news programme on British television network ITV, produced by ITN and founded by news editor Geoffrey Cox in July 1967. The bulletin was the first permanent 30-mi ...

'' is broadcast for the final time. ** 8 March – Major changes to ITV's news programmes take place, including different times for the channel's news programmes and the programmes were referred to as ITV News rather than ITN News. The main bulletin of the day is now considered to be the '' Early Evening News'' and is moved from 5:40pm to 6:30pm and the evening news is controversially pushed back to 11pm although the following year the ITC forces ITV to move the late evening news back to 10pm on three nights each week. Also ITV's lunchtime news bulletin is relaunched as ''

ITV Lunchtime News The ''ITV Lunchtime News'' is the afternoon news programme produced by ITN on the British television network ITV. It airs Monday to Friday from 1:30pm, covering British national and international news stories and is presented by Nina Hossain. ...

''. ** 8 April – The first edition of ITV's new current affairs series ''

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 ...

'' is broadcast. ** 30 April –

launches S2. ** 28 June –

launches TV You (later

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'' ...

) ** 6 September – Carlton Television drops the Central Independent Television and Westcountry Television names from their on-air presentation, instead branding these regions as Carlton Television, and using the same presentation for all three regions. ** 8 November – A new, hearts-based on-air look is introduced.

2000s

* 2000 ** 31 January – Carlton Kids stops broadcasting. ** 1 February –

stops broadcasting. ** 1 March –

stops broadcasting. ** 1 May – ONrequest launches to provide

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

content for OnDigital viewers. ** 1 August – The

ITN News Channel The ITV News Channel was a 24-hour television news channel in the United Kingdom which broadcast from 1 August 2000 to 23 December 2005. It was available on Sky, NTL:Telewest, ITV Digital (until 2002), Freeview (latterly only between 6:00 am ...

goes on the air. ** September – ONsport launches. It replaces Champions on 28 and Champions on 99, which had reflected the channel numbers these were broadcast on. These channels were rebranded respectively as ONsport 1 and ONsport 2, after ONdigital had purchased rights to the

ATP Masters Series The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...

tennis. Whilst ONsport 1 broadcast 24 hours a day, ONsport 2 timeshared with Carlton Cinema and was only on air to provide coverage of an alternate Champions League match. * 2001 ** May – Following the signing of a joint venture with supermarket chain

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

, Carlton Food Network is renamed Taste CFN. ** July – Granada buys

. ** 11 July – Carlton and Granada relaunch OnDigital as

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

in an attempt to better compete with Sky. ** 11 July – ITV relaunches OnDigital as

in an attempt to better compete with Sky. ** 27 July – S2 closes and consequently

starts broadcasting in Scotland. ** 11 August – *** The

ITV Sport Channel ITV Sport Channel was a short-lived digital sport television channel, that was owned by Carlton Communications and Granada plc. It was launched on 11 August 2001 and closed on 12 May 2002, precipitating ITV Digital's collapse over a month later. ...

launches. It replaces ONsport and is a premium service rather than an add-on for ITV Digital customers. *** ITV is renamed

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 ...

. ** 1 December – Taste CFN stops broadcasting. * 2002 ** 22 January –

stops broadcasting. Consequently,

launches in Northern Ireland. ** 27 March –

goes into administration. ** 23 April –

ITV Select ITV Select was a pay-per-view channel that was owned by Carlton Communications and Granada plc. The channel launched on 1 May 2000 as ONrequest and showed films, sport events and exclusive footage. As of July 2000, content was provided under a c ...

, launched originally as ONrequest, closes. ** 30 April –

Granada Breeze Granada Breeze was a lifestyle channel operated by Granada Sky Broadcasting, a joint venture between Granada Television and British Sky Broadcasting. The channel was launched as Granada Good Life on 1 October 1996. Programming It was aimed at ...

stops broadcasting. ** 1 May –

stops broadcasting. ** 12 May – Following the collapse of ITV Digital, the ITV Sports Channel stops broadcasting. ** 30 September – ITV purchases ITN's 65% stake in its news channel and relaunches it as the

ITV News Channel The ITV News Channel was a 24-hour television news channel in the United Kingdom which broadcast from 1 August 2000 to 23 December 2005. It was available on Sky, NTL:Telewest, ITV Digital (until 2002), Freeview (latterly only between 6:00 am a ...

. ** 28 October – On-air regional identities are dropped apart from when introducing regional programmes. * 2003 ** 31 March – Carlton Cinema stops broadcasting. ** 29 December –

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

replaces the ITC as the regulator of all non-BBC television broadcasting. * 2004 ** 2 February – ***Carlton and Granada merge to create a single England and Wales ITV company called

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 ...

. ***After several years of inconsistent scheduling of the '' late evening news'', the bulletin moves to a five nights a week 10:30pm start time. ** April – The newly created

purchases NTL's 35% stake in the

. ** 1 November – ITV3 launches, replacing

Plus Plus may refer to: Mathematics * Addition * +, the mathematical sign Music * ''+'' (Ed Sheeran album), (pronounced "plus"), 2011 * ''Plus'' (Cannonball Adderley Quintet album), 1961 * ''Plus'' (Matt Nathanson EP), 2003 * ''Plus'' (Martin Ga ...

which closes a few hours prior to ITV3's launch. Earlier that day ITV bought out BSkyB's stake in

. *2005 ** 11 February – The ''

'' is extended to last 60 minutes. ** 31 October – Regional logos are seen on ITV for the final time. ** 1 November –

ITV4 ITV4 is a Television in the United Kingdom, 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 (TV network), ITV network. The channel h ...

launches, but only as a part-time channel. ** 23 December –

stops broadcasting at 6pm. Poor ratings in comparison to

BBC News 24 BBC News (also known as the BBC News Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel for BBC News. It was launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 5:30 pm as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic telev ...

and

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

, and ITV's desire to reuse the channel's allocation on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

, were cited as the reasons. * 2006 ** 11 March –

CITV Channel 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 ...

launches on Freeview, Home Choice and Telewest. It starts broadcasting on

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

on 8 May and on NTL on 6 June. ** 19 April –

ITV Play ITV Play was a short-lived 24/7 participation television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV plc. The ITV Play name continued as a strand on the main ITV Network until December 2007. It was launched as a standalone channel on Freeview ...

launches. ** 30 May – STV launches across Scotland replacing the previously separate services of Scottish and Grampian. ** June – ITV launches a trial high-definition channel, primarily to show matches from the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. ** 4 September – The ''

'' reverts to being a 30-minute programme and its start time is moved back to 1:30pm. ** 30 October –

, and ITV3 launch +1 channels. ** 30 November – The

ITV HD ITV1 HD is a British free-to-air high-definition public broadcast television network operated by ITV plc, the company which is contracted to provide 13 ITV1 services across the UK. ITV1 HD simulcasts them in high-definition (excluding former Ch ...

trial broadcast ends. ** 4 December – The non-franchised region

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 ...

is launched. It incorporates the former Central South news service and the Meridian North service and both operate as their own sub-regions for non-news programming and for advertising. ** 13 December – The

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

transmitter transfers from

to Tyne Tees as part of the preparations for the digital switchover of the Border region in 2008. ** At the end of 2006,

ends on

after 24 years on air. Earlier in 2006 ITV had closed down its in-house children's production unit. * 2007 ** 8 January – The

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

East and Calendar South regions are merged to form a new Calendar South region covering central and east Lincolnshire, east and south east Yorkshire, east Nottinghamshire and north Norfolk. The Calendar North region, broadcasting from the

Emley Moor The Emley Moor transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on Emley Moor, west of the village centre of Emley, in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It is made up of a concrete tower and apparatus that began ...

transmitter continues as before. ** 5 March – ITV announces that all premium rate phone competitions and quizzes will be suspended while an audit takes place after a number of problems with premium rate services affecting ITV,

BBC One 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, p ...

and

come to light. Consequently, participation channel ITV Play is suspended. ** 13 March – ITV announces that

will permanently close down following the recent concerns over participation television. On 16 March, its slot on Freeview is taken by the recently launched ITV2+1. ** September – Major cost-cutting plans were announced which would see massive cutbacks to regional programming, including the reduction of regional news programmes from seventeen to nine. The changes took effect in February 2009. * 2008 ** 14 January – ''

'' returns to the schedules on four nights each week – the Friday edition remains at 11pm. ** 5 February –

becomes a 24-hour channel. ** 17 July –

launches as a full-time service. A trial broadcast had taken place during summer 2006. ** 1 December – ITV4 +1 launches. ** December – All non-news regional programming in England ends after

gives ITV permission to drastically cut back its regional programming. From 2009 the only regional programme is the monthly political discussion show. * 2009 ** February – ITV implements the major cutbacks to its regional news broadcasts in England. The separate sub-regional news programmes are merged into pan-regional programmes although more localised news continues to be broadcast as a brief opt-out during the early evening programme. ** 25 November – ITV takes full control of

. ** 15 December – With the exception of its travel and holiday sections, ITVs teletext service stops broadcasting on analogue TV. It had ended on Sky Digital the previous day. This puts Teletext Ltd in breach of its licence to broadcast.

later revokes Teletext's licence and imposes a fine.

2010s

*2010 ** 1 April –

Men & Motors Men & Motors was a men's lifestyle television channel in the UK. It was the last remaining station operated by the former Granada Sky Broadcasting joint venture, set up by Granada Television (now part of ITV plc) and satellite broadcaster Briti ...

stops broadcasting. ** 21 June – ITV's teletext service stops broadcasting altogether when it is removed from

. ** 31 August – After more than 25 years on air, the final episode of ''

'' is shown. ** 3 September – The final edition of

is broadcast. ** 6 September – The first edition of '' Daybreak'' is broadcast. ** 7 October –

ITV2 HD ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

launches. ** 15 November – ITV3 HD and ITV4 HD launch. *2011 ** 11 January – ITV +1 is launched. ** 23 November –

completes its purchase of

. **14 November – ITV, with

JML Direct JML Direct TV is a generic name for a series of British shopping channels broadcasting on the Sky, Freesat and Freeview platforms, owned by JML Direct Limited. JML Direct TV originally launched on Sky channel 664, on 1 October 2002 as JML Di ...

, launch home shopping channel The Zone. *2012 ** 21 December – The final edition of ITV's early morning news programme '' ITV News at 5:30'' is broadcast. Consequently, there is no longer any overnight news coverage on ITV. *2013 ** 14 January – After more than 11 years, the ITV1 brand is dropped and the main channel is known once again as ITV. ITV News introduces a new look. ** 16 September – Sub-regional news coverage is reintroduced across England. The weekday daytime, late evening and weekend bulletins as well as 20 minutes of the 6pm programme are once again more localised. ** 1 October – The Zone becomes The Store. *2014 ** 6 January – Following instructions from regulator

, ITV reopens

’s sub-regional service for southern Scotland. ** 25 April – The final edition of '' Daybreak'' is broadcast. ** 28 April – The first edition of '' Good Morning Britain'' is broadcast. ** 2 June – STV launches the first of its local television channels – STV Glasgow. ** 9 June –

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 ...

launches. ** 8 October –

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 ...

launches. *2015 ** 1 January –

UTV Ireland Virgin Media Three, also called Virgin Three, is an Republic of Ireland, Irish free-to-air television channel owned by Virgin Media Ireland, Virgin Media Television. The channel was first launched by Northern Irish broadcaster UTV Media on 1 ...

launches in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

. ** 12 January – STV launches its second local television channel

STV Edinburgh STV Edinburgh was a British local television channel based in Edinburgh which launched on 12 January 2015. It was owned and operated by STV Group plc in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University. The channel was closed on Sunday 23 April 2 ...

. ** March – STV is awarded three more local licences, to cover Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee. *2016 ** 21 February –

's broadcast hours are extended into the early evening with programmes continuing until 21:00 rather than 18:00. ** 29 March – ITV buys UTV. ** 17 October – UTV is rebranded to match ITV's current look. *2017 ** 1 January – ***ITV takes over from

as the exclusive terrestrial broadcaster of

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

. This is the first time since 1988 that the sport had been shown on ITV. ***

closes and is replaced by

be3 Virgin Media Three, also called Virgin Three, is an Irish free-to-air television channel owned by Virgin Media Television. The channel was first launched by Northern Irish broadcaster UTV Media on 1 January 2015 as UTV Ireland; it primarily ...

. ** 4 February – Following ITV's return to covering live

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

, the channel launches a

channel

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 ...

. ** 21 February – ITV announces plans to redevelop its headquarters at

The London Studios The London Studios (also known as The South Bank Studios, The London Television Centre, ITV Tower, Kent House and LWT Tower) in Lambeth, Central London was a television studio complex owned by ITV plc and originally built for London Weekend Te ...

. ** 24 April – STV merges its local channels and relaunches them as a single channel called STV2. *2018 ** 16 April – ITV moves production of its breakfast and daytime programming from The London Studios to the former

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for TV production, opera ...

White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football clu ...

. ** 1 May –

closes as a linear channel after four years on air. It continues as an on-demand service. ** 30 June – STV2 stops broadcasting following

That's TV That's TV is a national television network in the United Kingdom, broadcasting via Sky, Freesat and Freeview. That's TV started off as the owner of a number of Local television in the United Kingdom, local television licences in several conur ...

's acquisition of the assets of STV's STV2 channel. ** 9 October – ITV announces plans to sell

and abandon the five-year redevelopment programme for the building that was unveiled in February 2017. *2019 ** 1 January – ITV introduces its first rebrand since 2013. Called ''ITV Creates'', the new ident is an artist-led set of idents which will feature idents from a different artist each week of the year. ** January –

The Store The Store may refer to: * The Store (Bluffton, South Carolina), United States, a historic building * ''The Store'' (novel), a 1932 novel by Thomas Sigismund Stribling * The Store (TV channel), a British shopping TV channel See also * Store (di ...

closes. ** 15 May – ITV cancels ''

The Jeremy Kyle Show ''The Jeremy Kyle Show'' is a British tabloid talk show presented by Jeremy Kyle and produced by ITV Studios. It premiered on the ITV network on 4 July 2005, and ran for seventeen series until its cancellation on 10 May 2019. It was the most ...

'', following the death of a guest.

2020s

*2020 ** 6 January – ITV extends its breakfast programming to 10am on weekdays, thereby removing the historic 9.25am demarcation between breakfast and daytime programming that had existed since breakfast television launched on ITV in 1983. The change also sees '' Good Morning Britain'' and '' This Morning'' both were extended by 30 minutes with Good Morning Britain ending at nine o'clock and with This Morning starting at 10 o'clock. ** 24 January – ITV announces that it has closed its

service

. ** 2 April – UTV begins broadcasting full ITV branding and presentation from London including network announcements, idents, promos and end credit sequences, initially as a temporary measure due to the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

on staff at the Belfast studios. This became officially permanent in November with the departures of the announcing team from the station. ** 29 July –

Merit Merit may refer to: Religion * Merit (Christianity) * Merit (Buddhism) * Punya (Hinduism) * Imputed righteousness in Reformed Christianity Companies and brands * Merit (cigarette), a brand of cigarettes made by Altria * Merit Energy Company, ...

launches as an evening service showing gardening and cookery programmes but less than a month after its launch, ITV sells the channel to

Sky Group Sky Group Limited is a British media conglomerate, media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a division of Comcast, and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ital ...

. ** 26 November – Local continuity is officially abandoned with the departures of the announcing team in Northern Ireland.End of era at UTV as Julian Simmons and Gillian Porter exit
Belfast Telegraph, 26 November 2020 *2021 ** March – ITV announces that from April it will close some SD regional services on satellite. **9 April – Following the announcement of the death of Prince Philip, ITV cancels its scheduled programming for the remainder of the day to air ongoing news coverage. Overnight figures indicate its audience share to be 60% lower when compared to the same day the previous week. ** 1 October – ''

'' is broadcast for the final time, ending after nearly 24 years. It is replaced the following night by ''Unwind with ITV''/''Unwind with STV''. *2022 ** 7 March – ITV launches a revised early evening schedule which sees the ''

ITV Evening News The ''ITV Evening News'' is the evening news programme produced by ITN on the British television network ITV. It airs Monday to Friday from 6:30pm, covering British national and international news stories and is presented by Mary Nightingale. ...

'' at 6.30pm extended from 30 to 60 minutes. ''

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, '' ...

'' moves from 7pm to 7.30pm on weeknights, while ''

'' moves from six 30 minute episodes to three 60 minute episodes airing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm rather than 7.30pm and 8.30pm on those days. ** 1 November – The encryption is removed from the HD variants of ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. Consequently, the channels start broadcasting as free-to-air services. ** 15 November –

reverts its flagship channel's name back to ITV1 and their other channels (excluding

) get a refresh to coincide with the upcoming launch ITV's new streaming service

ITVX ITVX (formerly ITV Hub) is a British online video-on-demand service operated by ITV plc, ITV. The service offers predominantly features content from ITV1, as well as ITV Digital Channels, ITV Digital channels and some licensed content. The serv ...

References

{{ITV