93-450: The Shell Winter Tournament was an invitation professional golf tournament. The event consisted of a series of single round competitions, all played on Saturdays from 4 November to 9 December, with TV coverage on ITV's World of Sport . There were four qualifying rounds, two semi-finals and a final. The final was planned for 9 December but was postponed because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak and eventually played on 20 April 1968. The event
186-504: A central service under the STV brand. The company had several disputes with ITV plc in the late 2000s and early 2010s over network programming. STV aimed 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 , Midsomer Murders and Lewis . Despite STV's explanation of expense, ITV plc were angered by
279-554: A classical symphony composed by Wayne Hill and Earl Ward, which was used between 1971 and 1983. It originally featured on The British Isles , an LP of orchestral arrangements of traditional and characteristic national tunes of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The album was released on the De Wolf label in 1971. ITV's service for the UTV region is available in HD – like most other ITV regions – but UTV
372-411: A considerable amount of syndicated unscripted US programmes in daytime during the 90s, such as Judge Judy and The Jerry Springer Show . By 1996, ITV had been quiet with US series in primetime, particularly as Channel 4 and Sky One increased the competition for securing the most popular US dramas and sitcoms. However, that summer, ITV debuted the primetime soap Savannah , in a 9pm Friday slot. It
465-500: A corporate reorganisation which saw UTV shareholders swap their shares for shares in a new holding company, UTV Media plc, which took over UTV plc's shareholdings in the new media and radio subsidiaries. UTV Ltd. – the original Ulster Television Limited, now a wholly owned subsidiary of UTV Media – returned to being solely the operating company for the ITV franchise. On 19 October 2015, UTV Media announced that it would sell its ITV franchise and
558-488: A couple of hours after midnight, replacing gambling broadcasts: the time between the news and the shopping is usually kept for re-runs, with ITV repeating its primetime entertainment shows, films, or sports programming from ITV4. ITV continues with its regular scheduled programming after the shopping service finishes at around 3am with showbiz news bulletin FYI Extra and repeats, many of which have on-screen BSL signing for
651-654: A deal with ITV Digital. UTV Ireland was a short-lived sister station to UTV's Northern Ireland service, broadcasting to the Republic of Ireland . The new channel launched on New Year's Day 2015, following approval by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland . UTV Ireland was broadcast from the company's Dublin base at Macken House and carried a large amount of ITV's networked programming (including Emmerdale and Coronation Street , previously broadcast by TV3) alongside some bespoke programming, including Ireland Live ,
744-410: A decision to switch permanently to network continuity. The last known announcement, voiced by Porter, aired at 5.59 am on Thursday 2 April 2020. In April 2021, a local voice-over started to be used over the ident before some local programmes. A new bumper with the UTV logo and the tagline "Part of ITV" was also shown for a short time before some – but not all – commercial breaks. In common with
837-400: A dedicated CITV programming block now broadcasting on ITV2 every morning, from 2 September 2023. Schools programming on the network began in 1957 in some regions and expanded as more regions began broadcasting. It was a contractual obligation for some ITV companies to broadcast schools programming, and this was initially broadcast as part of the normal scheduling. The programmes were moved into
930-558: A film consisting of thirty images from across Northern Ireland produced by John Loder (then- Governor of Northern Ireland and Lord Wakehurst ), followed by A Shilling for the Evil Day (a play by Irish writer Joseph Tomelty , as part of Armchair Theatre ). At launch, Ulster Television employed a staff of 100 people including six presenters: Ivor Mills and Anne Gregg were chosen as the presenters of local magazine programme Roundabout , Adrienne McGuill, James Greene and Brian Durkin were
1023-529: A late minute decision to switch to Granada Television 's sustaining feed, Night Time , led to a month-long delay. At the company's annual general meeting in Belfast on 26 May 2006, the registered company name was changed from 'Ulster Television plc' to 'UTV plc'. The company believed that the existing name no longer reflected the full scope of the company's business. In a further change in October 2007, UTV underwent
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#17331054517321116-521: 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 : Central Independent Television, for example, paid only £2,000—despite holding
1209-402: 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
1302-711: 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
1395-571: A new broadcast centre at City Quays 2 in the Belfast Harbour Estate from 1 July 2018. Local continuity announcements ended in April 2020, effectively rebranding the channel as ITV in line with all other ITV plc regions. This change was made permanent in November 2020. The ITV channel (including UTV) rebranded as ITV1 in November 2022. The UTV name continues to be used for local programming, notably
1488-481: 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,
1581-483: A segment for broadcast during the day in the 1960s, under the banner Independent Television for Schools and Colleges and from 1987 were broadcast on Channel 4 in the ITV Schools on Channel 4 segment. In 1993, this segment became Channel 4 Schools and later in 2000 4Learning . These strands of programming consisted of schools programming from all the ITV companies or from independent sources. The schools strand itself
1674-462: A sign language service within the broadcast as part of its quota and licence requirements. ITV's strong daytime line-up helped by programmes such as This Morning , Loose Women , Dickinson's Real Deal and game shows Tipping Point and The Chase are very popular, achieving the highest audience share during the daytime slot. In recent years the network has tried to use formats that ITV Studios own outright (whether they have originated in
1767-513: A twice nightly national news programme airing at 5.30 pm and 10 pm. Ratings and advertising revenue were disappointing which meant the costs of the new station were greater than UTV Media had expected. This played a part in the company's decision to sell the whole television business to ITV plc. In July 2016, the channel was sold on by ITV to TV3 Group (now known as Virgin Media Television ) which then, effectively, closed it. It
1860-454: A wrestling programme, the 1949 American war film Task Force , and an episode of The Florian Zabach Show . Olivier would then close Ulster Television's inaugural broadcast with an excerpt from Joseph Addison's "The Spacious Firmament" . On that night, some residents from Dublin (which falls outside the station's intended broadcast area) called the station to report poor picture reception. The following evening, UTV aired Rich and Rare ,
1953-528: Is branded as STV . It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition, eliminating what had been the monopoly of BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990 , it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time: BBC1 , BBC2 and Channel 4 . ITV
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#17331054517322046-425: 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
2139-453: Is now defunct, with no particular branding segment used. ITV was originally very reliant on broadcasting American series, with westerns such as Gunsmoke and Rawhide in particular being considerable successes for the network during its earlier years. Action drama The Fugitive and sci-fi anthology The Twilight Zone were also broadcast by various regions in the early 1960s, with Batman and I Dream of Jeannie shown later on in
2232-558: 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 . The network broadcasts children's programming under the CITV (Children's ITV) strand. Children's programming was originally provided during weekday afternoons and weekend mornings, however following
2325-612: The Duke of Abercorn and the other led by the Earl of Antrim . The ITA eventually awarded the franchise to the Antrim consortium on 4 November by having the Whig and Telegraph among the franchise shareholders, while also having sufficient Roman Catholic representation. With a reluctant MacQuitty as the franchise's founding managing director, the newly-formed group, Ulster Television Limited, set out to launch
2418-565: 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 . The ITV National Weather forecast was first broadcast in 1989, using data supplied by
2511-453: The Met Office , and was presented by a number of weather forecasters. The forecasts are sponsored with the sponsor's message appearing before and after 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
2604-458: The Unwind slot, but this was eventually phased out and replaced with the aforementioned news and information service. This overnight programme service is very different to what used to be shown on the network in the years after 24-hour broadcasting was introduced - this included new entertainment, imports, sports and other information programmes, and, in some regions, a job finder service, however due to
2697-896: The Unwind with ITV sequences to fill small pieces of time before this. Teleshopping on ITVBe starts at 01:00 and continues until 07:00. There are some occasions when other coverage means this cycle of programmes get misplaced, for example a live event overnight, such as the Super Bowl or the Oscars , both of which ITV started airing in 2024, or, over Christmas, failing to sell Teleshopping slots, meaning more repeats, films and long Unwind sequences are used as filler instead. Overnight, STV broadcasts an overnight rolling news and information service, mixing reports from STV News and other information-based services, instead of ITV's shopping slot and Unwind . Due to STV opt-outs, this service can start later than or earlier than ITV's teleshopping. STV originally simulcast
2790-657: 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 and Tyne Tees regions, the Westcountry and West regions and the removal of sub regional programming, with some regions only represented by pre-recorded segments. Sub-regions were restored in 2013. STV Group plc owns two franchises, covering central and northern Scotland, through subsidiary companies STV Central and STV North, broadcasting
2883-529: 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
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2976-697: The ITV network but after an upgrade local material including adverts started to be played out in HD. In May 2011, the presentation infrastructure was upgraded to become fully HD-capable in readiness for the digital switchover in 2012. A delayed version of the full ITV1 service for the UTV region is available on Freeview and Virgin Media. The timeshift service – branded UTV+1 before the station adopted ITV branding in 2020 – launched at 8pm on 11 January 2011 on Freeview and Virgin Media . UTV +1 however didn't launch on Sky and Freesat until 21 May 2018. On 13 April 2021, ITV stopped broadcasting UTV +1 on satellite. ITV +1 Granada
3069-749: The ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of the EPG 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 platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc owned ITV2 , ITV3 , ITV4 and ITVBe in their region. UTV and STV (formerly Scottish Television and Grampian Television ) previously broadcast their own services – UTV2 in Northern Ireland and S2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, when they adopted
3162-778: 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 multiplex, shared with Channel 4 . CITV launched in March 2006 (closed September 2023). ITV Encore launched in June 2014 (closed May 2018) and ITVBe launched in October 2014. ITV Box Office launched in February 2017 (closed January 2020). On 13 September 2022, ITV confirmed that during
3255-898: 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 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
3348-617: The STV channel . The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc 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
3441-545: 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 have still been acquired from other companies abroad. Currently ITV are behind the formats for Dancing on Ice , The Voice UK (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. Since
3534-434: The UTV brand to ITV plc for £100 million, subject to regulatory approval. ITV plc CEO Adam Crozier welcomed the news by saying: "UTV Television's strategic objectives are closely aligned with our own and we are very pleased that they are joining the ITV family." The acquisition was finalised the following February. ITV stated that they intended to retain the UTV brand in Northern Ireland. The former UTV Media group
3627-443: The area. It is run by ITV plc and is responsible for the regional news service and programmes made principally for the area by the UTV production team. It currently uses the network ITV1 channel with an opt-out service for local advertising and on-air promos for local programming. The present day TV service, ITV1 , is directly descended from the ITV network, which originally consisted of independent regional companies which were once
3720-412: The brand name UTV as the name of the channel, until the ITV channel was rebranded as ITV1; it is still, however, used for local programming shown there. This was the name used by former owner UTV Media (now known as News Broadcasting ). 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
3813-400: 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
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3906-399: 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), but, unlike
3999-451: The day of Monday 19 September, the day of the state funeral for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II , 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
4092-547: The deaf community. Replacing the information-based ITV Nightscreen 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. These three channels continue programming until around 02:30, sometimes using
4185-400: The decade. Due to the varying schedules of many ITV regions, acquired content was not broadcast by some franchises. By the 1970s, most ITV regions were airing the likes of Hawaii Five-O , Happy Days , and The Brady Bunch . 1972 also saw the beginning of ITV's daytime programmes at lunchtime, a slot that would become associated with the many Australian soap operas that were broadcast in
4278-436: 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 ITV plc for £35 million. The dispute
4371-456: The early 1980s it broadcast reduced hours when no schools programmes were being broadcast coming on air at 12 noon during the week, and closing down every evening at 23:30 – this remained in place until 1982. In October 1988, the station began 24-hour broadcasting – the last station in the ITV network to do so. UTV was originally scheduled to take a service provided by Central in Birmingham, but
4464-411: The end of 2024. 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 imposing a 25% quota for commissioning of independent productions,
4557-475: The end of 57 years of local transmission. Two of UTV's longest-serving announcers, Julian Simmons and Gillian Porter , were retained to pre-record out-of-vision continuity – with Aidan Browne providing relief cover – until 2 April 2020, when the channel began taking ITV-branded network presentation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic . In November 2020, it was reported the announcing team had left UTV following
4650-485: The end of their runs. A heavy emphasis on action, fantasy and science fiction series was also placed by ITV during this 1980s, with The A-Team , Buck Rogers in the 25th Century , and Airwolf being broadcast by the network, as well as the likes of Baywatch and SeaQuest DSV by the 1990s. ITV also picked up a glut of older-skewing CBS dramas through that period, including Murder, She Wrote and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman . In February 1989, in tandem with
4743-467: The ending of productions such as World in Action ( Granada Television ), This Week ( Rediffusion London / Thames Television ), First Tuesday ( Yorkshire Television ), Network First , Survival ( Anglia Television ), and Weekend World ( LWT ) and their replacement with populist shows such as Tonight . News at Ten was also axed in 1999, although it was reinstated in 2001. In December 2009,
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#17331054517324836-662: The fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and it continues to schedule national news in primetime. Breakfast Television programmes have been broadcast on ITV at breakfast since 1 February 1983. It was initially run by an independent contractor - TV-am , and later GMTV - until GMTV Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc 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 . Good Morning Britain keeps viewers up to date with all
4929-497: The final edition of ITV's long-running arts programme, The South Bank Show was broadcast. ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its soap operas, such as the flagship Coronation Street and Emmerdale . At the start of the 21st century, ITV faced criticism for including a large amount of "reality TV" programmes in the schedule, such as Celebrity Fit Club , Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Love Island . In its defence, ITV does continue to show its major strengths in
5022-656: The first continuity announcers , and former rugby union international Ernest Strathdee was recruited as the station's sports presenter. Coverage of UTV spread to Western areas of Northern Ireland when the Strabane transmitter opened in February 1963. Ulster Television's UHF PAL colour service was launched with the opening of the UHF transmitter Divis in September 1970. This was followed by two additional transmitters at Limavady (opened in 1975 ) and Brougher Mountain (in 1978 ). In
5115-664: The first person to appear. During its first minutes on air, it featured children engaging in Halloween festivities, an introduction to Northern Ireland "in words and music" by Richard Hayward , and prerecorded messages from ITV talent. The first programmes to air on Ulster Television are (in order) an episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood , an ITN bulletin, an episode of African Patrol , an episode of Boy Meets Girls (a music programme now wiped ), an episode of 77 Sunset Strip , an episode of The Jewel and Warriss Show, another ITN bulletin,
5208-523: The franchise contract), UTV would do so in stages, with the twenty-minute weekday magazine programme Roundabout being the first local programme to be produced. Ulster Television would sign an affiliation agreement with another broadcaster, Associated British Corporation (also known as ABC Television Limited) , to supply the former with programmes and advertising. Ulster Television went on air at 4:45pm on 31 October 1959, with Laurence Olivier (then of Henry V , Hamlet , and Richard III fame) being
5301-500: The funeral (with a few amendments for cancelled sporting events on ITV4) and all royal coverage being on their main channel. 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
5394-472: The latest news, sports, features and weather, whilst Lorraine predominantly focuses on celebrity interviews, recipes, fashion and showbiz. Until 27th August 2023, the service would show a simulcast of the CITV channel, but since that service has closen has shown a mix of repeated programming whilst the CITV service that still exist broadcasts at breakfast time on ITV2 (which has the CITV block), ITV3, ITV4 and ITVBe from 7am show other repeats some of which provide
5487-512: The launch of the CITV channel in 2006, all children's programming, with the exception of the weekend ITV Breakfast slot, were relocated from the ITV line-up to the CITV channel in 2007, a move which was challenged by Ofcom in April 2007. In 2023, ITV announced that CITV would cease broadcasting as a linear channel, and would be replaced by ITVX Kids , a streaming media service which launched in July 2023. The CITV channel closed on 1 September 2023, with
5580-480: The launch of the country's first commercial television broadcaster, ITV (and subsequently, the beginning of commercial television broadcasts in the United Kingdom). On 2 September 1958, the ITA began searching for companies and entities interested in operating an ITV franchise for Northern Ireland. Among the candidates for the franchise are Associated-Rediffusion and Granada , as well as two consortia - one led by
5673-406: The leading 9 advancing to the semi-final stage. The qualifying contest at Long Ashton was reduced to 14 holes because of bad weather. Ties for qualifying places were decided on the last nine holes. The semi-finals were played on 11 and 18 November at Mere Golf Club, Mere, Cheshire and Whittington Heath Golf Club, Whittington, Staffordshire . Ten players qualified from each event. Brief coverage of
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#17331054517325766-420: The main regional news bulletins, and in the summer months, includes a pollen count. 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 only appearing on a monthly basis, typically on the last Tuesday of the month. The channel broadcasts a partnership teleshopping service for
5859-445: 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 changed the nature of ITV; the then regulator the IBA was replaced with
5952-514: The network between 6:00 and 10:00am each morning using the Good Morning Britain (previously Daybreak ) and Lorraine names. The company broadcasts a centralised service under the ITV1 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 , the production arm of the company and formed from an amalgamation of all
6045-526: The network launching its national weather forecast, and as part of a new early evening lineup which involved the shortening of Children's ITV, Australian soap Home and Away was acquired by ITV, particularly to compete with the success of rival Australian soap opera Neighbours on BBC One. ITV also broadcast Beverly Hills, 90210 beginning in early 1991, in the same Saturday teatime slot that Baywatch had occupied, although some episodes were broadcast in later time slots. It moved to Sky One beginning with
6138-473: The network started, Independent Television News 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
6231-733: The network's past – notably Thames , ABC and ATV – have no connection with the modern network. The origins of ITV lie in the passing of the Television Act 1954 , designed to break the monopoly on television held by the BBC Television Service . The act created the Independent Television Authority (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,
6324-474: The new station on Halloween 1959, giving them less than a year to construct facilities and hire needed personnel within a tight budget. The group would purchase Havelock House , then an abandoned linen factory on the Ormeau Road , for £17,000 and convert it into a television studio complex. Instead of providing six hours a week of local programming (inclucing a full news service) within year one (as stipulated in
6417-524: The newly expanded schedule, including The Sullivans and The Young Doctors . By the 1980s, more were added to the schedule, such as Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice . In primetime by the 1980s, ITV was broadcasting the likes of Hill Street Blues (which ITV began showing just one week after its debut on NBC in the United States) and L.A. Law . It was also early in the decade when Australian evening soap opera Prisoner: Cell Block H
6510-408: The newly separated West region to Westcountry Television , 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 . However, due to amalgamation of several of these companies since
6603-454: The news service UTV Live , and in on-air promotions for local non-news programmes. UTV's focus has always been on programmes made explicitly for viewers in Northern Ireland. But until the 1990s it also made a number of contributions to the ITV network and Channel 4 – many of which were in some way about the province. Before ITV branding was introduced in 2020, UTV/Ulster Television used a number of different logos, or idents on-screen over
6696-517: The number of programmes from independent production companies not connected to the traditional ITV network, has increased rapidly. Notable examples include Talkback Thames (one half of which, Thames Television , was itself a former ITV franchisee), producers of The Bill and co-producers of The X Factor , and 2waytraffic , producers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? . From the late 1990s, ITV's long-standing commitment to strong current affairs and documentary programming began to diminish with
6789-399: The only commercial TV broadcasters in their area. UTV held the licence for Northern Ireland and first went on the air on 31 October 1959. The company itself was formed in November 1958 to apply for the licence – advertised by the Independent Television Authority – and became the first indigenous broadcaster in Northern Ireland. The company later diversified and the UTV television operation
6882-540: The practice was restored to weekday evenings and presented by the entire announcing team. Following the sale of UTV, ITV plc transferred most of the station's presentation operations from the Havelock House studios in Belfast to Red Bee Media in Chiswick , which provides playout services for most of ITV's channels. The last live in-vision announcement was made by Simmons at 11.15 pm on Sunday 16 October 2016, marking
6975-454: The previous system, will receive no fee refund for doing so. Therefore many do not opt out 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 – citing the need to provide more Scottish content to its viewers. As
7068-504: 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
7161-504: The rest of the ITV Network, the station aired specially composed signature tunes as part of its daily start-up routine. From launch until 1971, the opening theme was Seamus by the American musician, composer and bandleader Van Phillips, who had earlier written the theme tune of the popular 1950s BBC radio science fiction drama Journey into Space . UTV's best-known theme was The Antrim Road ,
7254-469: The semi-finals was shown on ITV's World of Sport . Finlay Morris , who had competed at Mere, was killed in a road traffic accident returning home to Scotland. The final was planned for 9 December at St George's Hill Golf Club , Weybridge , Surrey , but was postponed because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak and eventually played on 20 April 1968. There was again coverage on World of Sport . There were two rounds of 9 holes with lunch in between. The final
7347-643: The small audience this was phased out and replaced by more relaxed and niche programming. Before 24-hour broadcasts, ITV's franchises simply closed down and restarted the following morning with ITV Morning News , followed by breakfast TV. 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
7440-607: The third season. ITV reshuffled its daytime schedules in the Autumn of 1993, and just a few months prior, Central began broadcasting the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street . The revamp saw more ITV companies pick it up, with Scottish Television the only region to reject the series outright. Central also broadcast the Australian soap opera Echo Point around the same time, although no other franchises picked it up. ITV also aired
7533-492: The year prior. It saw nowhere near the same levels of success, and was dropped by the network after just three episodes. It later resurfaced in late night before moving to BBC One in 2000. UTV (TV channel) UTV (formerly Ulster Television , branded on air as ITV1 since 2020) 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
7626-483: The years. Until April 2020, UTV was one of two stations in the ITV network – and the only one owned by ITV plc – to have its own continuity announcers. UTV was also the last company in the network to retain in-vision continuity links, where the duty announcer appeared on-camera to introduce the evening's programmes. In later years, local continuity was generally restricted to evenings with in-vision links presented at weekends by senior announcer Julian Simmons . In 2009,
7719-455: Was a considerable success for ITV's standards, and it became the highest rated new American series of that year. Despite this success, ITV moved the show for its second season, no longer networking the series and moving to late night slots. ITV tried again at broadcasting an American drama series in September 1997, with the ABC legal drama The Practice , which ran in the same slot that Savannah had
7812-462: Was added to Sky in Northern Ireland to replace UTV +1. The channel was launched on June 28, 1999, originally named TV You. In 2000, it was rebranded as UTV2. Its programming mainly featured simulcasts with ITV2, which was broadcast in England, Wales, and the Scottish Borders. Additionally, the channel aired archive programs from UTV. It was free from advertising and eventually closed following
7905-438: Was bought by ITV, and was broadcast after News at Ten . By 1982, Channel 4 had launched, and despite originally being related to ITV, it competed against its parent network to screen popular American programmes such as St. Elsewhere and Cheers , although the latter did receive a single ITV broadcast as part of a night showcasing Channel 4 programmes. Both Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law had moved from ITV to Channel 4 by
7998-469: 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. There are fifteen regional licences, covering fourteen regions (there are separate weekday and weekend licences for the London region), and one national licence for
8091-481: Was for four decades a network of separate companies that provided regional television services and also shared programmes among themselves 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 , which runs the ITV1 channel and the UTV channel – now branded as ITV1, and STV Group , which runs
8184-428: Was one of the first stations in the ITV network to offer a full HD simulcast in its days as an independent company. UTV HD , a simulcast of UTV in high-definition , was launched on Virgin Media on 5 October 2010. It became available on Freeview when the digital switchover took place on 24 October 2012 and on Sky and Freesat on 4 November 2013. For the first few months, the only true HD content came from
8277-493: Was owned by five companies, of which two, Carlton and Granada 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 , the Channel Islands franchise, in 2011; and UTV, the franchise for Northern Ireland, in 2015. The ITV network
8370-673: Was restructured and rebranded as the Wireless Group , retaining its radio assets until June 2016, when the company was bought by Rupert Murdoch 's News Corp . On 11 July 2016, ITV plc announced that was selling the UTV Ireland service to Virgin Media Ireland for €10 million. Virgin Media Ireland was a subsidiary of Liberty Media and had already bought Ireland's TV3 in 2015). In October 2016, ITV announced plans to close UTV's Havelock House studios. UTV began broadcasting from
8463-557: Was sold by parent UTV Media plc (now known as Wireless Group and part of News UK ) to ITV plc in February 2016. In 1953, the BBC began its first television broadcasts in Northern Ireland, from a temporary relay transmitter in Glencairn that was hastily set up in time for the coronation of Elizabeth II . The following year, the UK Parliament passed the Television Act of 1954 , which led to
8556-407: Was sponsored by the retail market division of Shell-Mex & BP . First prize was £250 for the qualifying rounds, £500 for the semi-finals and £1,000 for the final. In addition there was an extra prize of £10, £20 or £40 for each stroke the winner finished ahead of the field. Two qualifying rounds were played on 4 November with two more played on 11 November. 20 players competed in each event with
8649-437: Was won by Brian Huggett with rounds of 35 and 33, a shot ahead of John Panton , who scored 34 and 35. Huggett won a total of £1,685, £125 in the qualifying round, £520 in the semi-final and £1,040 in the final. ITV (TV network) ITV , legally known as Channel 3 , is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it
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