ITV3

ITV3 was launched on the terrestrial (Freeview), cable (Virgin Media) and digital satellite (Sky) on 1 November 2004 at 9 pm, with the UKTV premiere of Ian Rankin's Rebus. It is also available on TalkTalk TV IPTV and Freesat. ITV3 came about when ITV took full control of Granada Sky Broadcasting, and ceased broadcasting the Granada Plus channel, thereby allowing ITV3 to take the channel number and bandwidth, meaning all platforms could receive the channel from launch. ITV3 was also the only channel in the ITV brand not to simulcast CITV breakfast, until ITV launched two channels in 2014, ITVBe and ITV Encore.

The channel had been available from launch on UPC Ireland, but was withdrawn on 22 March 2006. This is believed to have been at the request of ITV plc, which had previously barred Irish newspapers from publishing details of ITV channels and regions other than UTV and Men & Motors. The channel had already been (and remains) available to Irish viewers on free-to-air satellite for some time, however it has not been listed in the Sky electronic programme guide since its removal on 25 January 2006. ITV3 returned to UPC Ireland in the Republic of Ireland on 4 January 2010.

As Freeview announced plans for a retune on 30 September 2009, ITV3 moved to an alternative multiplex. Viewers in areas that have completed switchover who receive their signal from a local relay transmitter not carrying the commercial multiplexes were no longer be able to receive ITV3.[2] It was moved back on 28 March 2018.

On 1 April 2011, ITV3 was removed from UPC Ireland along with ITV2 and ITV4 due to the expiry of a carriage agreement between UPC and ITV.[3] UPC Ireland claim that ITV is not in a position to renegotiate the deal because ITV had struck a deal with another channel provider to provide it with exclusive rights to air certain content from the channels. Conversely, UPC Ireland also claims to have been in discussions right up to the last moment in order to continue broadcasting the channels.[4] ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 were restored to the UPC Ireland line-up on 20 December 2011. TV3 and its sister channel 3e already hold carriage agreement to air certain ITV content within the Republic of Ireland,[5] alternatively UTV is available within the Republic. ITV2 is available along with ITV3 and ITV4 within Switzerland, all three channels are available on SwisscomTV and UPC Cablecom.[6]

It was announced by ITV on 20 September 2017 that reruns of classic episodes of Coronation Street will air twice on weekdays.[7] The repeat run began on 2 October 2017 with the episodes originally broadcast on 15 and 20 January 1986. The episodes air from 2:40 pm on weekday afternoons and are repeated at 6:00 am the following day (except Friday's episodes, which are repeated on the following Monday). To mark the 60th Anniversary of Coronation Street between 7 December and 11 December 2020 at 10:00pm-11:05pm ITV3 re-aired special episodes of the soap including: Episode 1 (Coronation Street), the tenth anniversary episode from December 1970, two episodes from the twentieth anniversary in December 1980, two episodes from the thirtieth anniversary in December 1990, the Coronation Street Live (2000 episode) from the fortieth anniversary in December 2000, and the fiftieth anniversary episode Coronation Street Live (2010 episode) which was re-transmitted after a repeat of The Road to Coronation Street.[8]

It was announced by ITV on 5 January 2019 that reruns of classic episodes of Emmerdale will air twice on weekdays. Two classic episodes were retransmitted between Mondays to Fridays at 1:45 pm until 2:40 pm from 21 January 2019.They are repeated at 7:00 am the following day (except Friday's episodes, which are repeated on the following Monday) The reruns began with episode 1403 (originally shown on 14 November 1989) which was when the title changed from Emmerdale Farm to Emmerdale.[9]

The ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards were first held on 3 October 2008, and were broadcast on ITV3 three days later. ITV3 controller Emma Tennant devised the awards to "cement ITV3's reputation as the home of great storytelling and, in particular, great crime thrillers".[10] In 2009, the awards were merged with the Crime Writers' Association Daggers.

The channel is mainly aimed at the over-35 audience, and much of its output consists of reruns of older ITV drama series and sitcoms. The company are hoping to use it, and extra investment into its ITV2 channel, to triple non-terrestrial revenue within five years and this has led to the network purchasing the exclusive terrestrial television rights to a number of newer and in some cases popular US drama series, such as NUMB3RS and more recently Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

During the 2007 Rugby World Cup, ITV3 broadcast some of the matches while ITV1 (now ITV) and ITV4 were showing live European football matches which were being played at the same time and in the days when ITV4 was an evenings only service, ITV3 broadcast live weekend coverage of the Tour de France, and more recently, the ITV Racing.[19]

The following is a list of the ten most watched broadcasts on ITV3 since launch, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB.[20]

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  First ITV3 logo, used from 1 November 2004 to 15 January 2006
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  Second ITV3 logo, used from 16 January 2006 to 13 January 2013
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  Third and current ITV3 logo used since 14 January 2013

• ITV3 at itv.com