ITV (TV channel)

ITV consists of thirteen franchises in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which broadcast regional news and other local programming to its area. Many franchise areas in England previously had sub-regions providing separate regional news bulletins. For example, the Anglia region was divided into West and East. This arrangement came to an end in February 2009, when ITV implemented plans to save the company £40m a year on the amount it spent making local news.

Since 27 October 2002, on all ITV plc-owned franchises, regional programming has been preceded or plugged by an oral regional announcement, in the format ITV1 regional brand; e.g. ITV1 Granada. In English regions, up until 13 November 2006, regional names were also superimposed (post-production) on these idents below the ITV1 logo, but this practice has since ceased. ITV Wales remains unaffected, and still continues to use dual-branding across all of its on-screen presentation. Despite the lack of regional names on screen, the regional name is usually spoken by the continuity announcer prior to local programmes. After ITV's unification in 2002, the two London franchises, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television were merged into a single entity, ITV London, while the Wales and West franchise lost its official identity, and instead was substituted with ITV Wales and ITV West on-air, with no reference linking the two together (the licence was formally split in two by Ofcom from 1 January 2015).

Channel Television adopted the ITV1 brand on-air prior to the 2011 ITV plc takeover of the channel. UTV was purchased by ITV plc in 2016, but did not adopt national continuity until April 2020 (see above).

Areas with full ITV branding and continuity:

Broadcast area	Pre-ITV1 branding	Post-2015 franchise	Post-ITV1 branding	Post-2015 franchise map
English-Scottish border	Border Television	ITV Border	ITV
Isle of Man		ITV Granada
North West England	Granada Television
North East England	Tyne Tees Television	ITV Tyne Tees
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire	Yorkshire Television	ITV Yorkshire
The Midlands	Central Independent Television	ITV Central
East of England	Anglia Television	ITV Anglia
London (weekdays)	Carlton Television	ITV London (weekdays)
London (weekends)	LWT	ITV London (weekends)
South and South East England	Meridian Broadcasting	ITV Meridian
Channel Islands*	Channel Television	ITV Channel Television
South West England	Westcountry Television	ITV West Country
West of England	HTV West
Northern Ireland	UTV	UTV
Wales	HTV Wales	ITV Cymru Wales	ITV Cymru Wales

* ITV +1 is not available in the main channels (e.g. channel 203 on Sky, channel 34 on Freeview, channel 112 on Freesat), and may be in the regional variation channels instead (e.g. channel 973 on Sky).

In the English regions, the channel has been known from 2006 until 2013 as ITV1, and since 14 January 2013 as ITV at all times. Regional references no longer appear before any programming at all in these areas.

• The ITV Wales name is not used overnight;
• The STV branding is used throughout the day from 9:25 am to 6 am daily;

Areas without full ITV branding and continuity:

In June 2007, ITV plc executive chairman Michael Grade hinted at a possible re-structure of the ITV regional layout, stating the existence of smaller regional services "no longer makes sense" relative to the regional audience they serve.[3] The plan was confirmed in September 2007, reducing the number of regional news programmes from 17 to just 9, saving around £35 to £40 million each year, and affecting every ITV plc regional company with the exception of ITV London, ITV Wales, and ITV Granada. These changes were implemented in early 2009. All sub-regional news programmes ceased; ITV Border's Lookaround programme was merged with ITV Tyne Tees' North East Tonight programme, ITV Westcountry's Westcountry Live merged with ITV West's The West Tonight programme, and ITV Meridian's Meridian Tonight south and south east editions merged with ITV Thames Valley's Thames Valley Tonight.

On 16 September 2013, ITV reverted to a more localised system, as was the case prior to a shake-up in 2009, with 14 news regions (rather than eight).[4] This meant people in the Borders, for example, saw a return to a Border-only news service, with all stories covered solely on Southern Scotland and Cumbria, similar to the pre-Tyne Tees merger in February 2009.[5] Meanwhile, in the Westcountry, viewers in Devon and Cornwall also saw a return to a more localised service.

• ITV Nightscreen
• Motorsport
• The Store
• Ideal World
• AEW Dynamite

A high-definition simulcast of ITV, ITV HD, debuted on 7 June 2008, with the technical launch of the Freeview HD service. The channel has its roots in ITV HD, which began as a trial service in 2006 on a low-power digital terrestrial (DVB-T) channel from London's Crystal Palace transmitting station, and on Telewest TV Drive cable service. The channel was revived on 7 June 2008, in time for the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, this time exclusively available on the Freesat digital satellite service.[6][7] With its debut on Freeview HD, the channel was re-branded as ITV1 HD in December 2009.[8]

On 1 September 2009, it was announced that ITV would get a one-hour timeshift on digital satellite and Virgin Media, on 1 October 2009, subject to the Competition Commission's ruling on the contract rights renewal system.[9][10] However, on 18 September 2009, it was announced that ITV1 +1 had been postponed until further notice.[11] Prior to this announcement, electronic programme guide (EPG) data for the service had appeared on satellite.[12]

The Competition Commission delayed the final decision in its review of ITV's Contract Rights Renewal undertakings to the end of February 2010, because it had to consider the "significant" submissions it has received.[13]

On 19 January 2010, the Competition Commission delivered its provisional findings, ruling that audiences for both ITV1 +1 and ITV1 HD will be accredited to ITV1's commercial impacts.[14] The Competition Commission recognised that the broadcaster had been deterred from launching new ways of delivering ITV1, because of the way media buying is currently conducted under the established contracts rights renewal (CRR) mechanism. However, the regulator rejected ITV's proposed removal of large elements of the "outdated" CRR Undertakings while maintaining an obligation on ITV to offer ITV1 airtime on "fair and reasonable" terms. The Competition Commission announced that such a change would leave the process too open to interpretation, and that they were "not likely to be either practicable or effective in addressing the adverse effects of the merger".

On 12 May 2010, the Competition Commission stood by its provisional decision to retain the contracts rights renewal system, but it added that the mechanism should be dropped at some point, and that the entire UK TV ad sales market needs a review.[15][16][17] "ITV1 remains a 'must have' for certain advertisers and certain types of campaign", said the chairman of the CRR review group at the Competition Commission, Diana Guy. "Despite all the changes in this market, no other channel or medium can come close to matching the size of audience that ITV regularly provides. So the essential reason for the CRR undertakings remains: to protect advertisers and other commercial broadcasters". The ITV chief executive, Adam Crozier, said that the ruling was "out of touch and damaging for the interests of creative Britain". He added that it was "unlikely" that ITV would look to seek a judicial review, but that ITV would redouble its lobbying campaign for a liberalisation of regulation and "urgent modernisation" of competition law. But the commission said there was "virtual unanimity" among advertisers, media agencies, commercial broadcasters, and trade bodies, that CRR should be kept "in some form". The commission confirmed that the CRR remedy should be broadened to include ITV+1 and ITV's high definition channels.

On 27 July 2010, the House Of Lords confirmed plans to launch an inquiry into the television advertising market, which "paid particular attention" to the CRR mechanism.[18] The Lords committee investigated the declining revenues that commercial broadcasters gain from the sale of advertising across their networks. The members also considered possible changes to current ad market regulation, including the CRR system, product placement rules, and the scheduling and sale of advertising. The committee wanted to hear evidence on the current levels of regulation, and what impact a relaxation of the rules could have had on the commercial broadcasting sector. Interested parties submitted written evidence to the inquiry on 24 September 2010, with oral evidence been heard in October. A written report was expected to follow in late 2010 or early 2011.

On 3 August 2010, ITV plc announced the launch of ITV1 +1 would take place in Q1 2011,[19] with Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB)] later reporting that the channel would be launched on 11 January 2011.[20] In December 2010, full testing of all six regions began on satellite.

ITV1 +1 was launched on 11 January 2011 on Freesat channel 112, Freeview channel 33, Sky channel 203, and Virgin Media channel 114.[21] ITV1 broadcasts 22 different editions of digital satellite, but the timeshift service originally only transmitted six macro regional variants:[22]

• London
• South East Macro (encompassing Meridian Broadcasting and Anglia Television)
• West Macro (encompassing Wales & West and Westcountry Television)
• Central
• Yorkshire/Tyne Tees Macro (encompassing Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television)
• Granada/Border Macro (encompassing Granada Television and Border Television)

On 1 March 2012, four additional variations were launched for the Anglia Television, Tyne Tees Television, West and Westcountry Television regions, with the South East Macro becoming Meridian Broadcasting, West Macro becoming Wales, and Yorkshire/Tyne Tees Macro becoming Yorkshire Television.

The channel was rebranded as ITV +1 on 14 January 2013, as part of the rebranding of ITV's television channels and ITV's online services.

From the founding of the ITV network in 1955, it was known nationally as Independent Television (later ITV) and locally by the regional branding of the local ITV franchise operator.

In 1989, the ITV Association set out a generic presentation package with a new ITV logo, which included idents, promotions, and general on- and off-air design, and an edit of this package was designed for each franchise holder. The dual branded idents included a large ITV logo, in which the V contained part of the franchise's logo, and written below the logo in a grey capitalised font was the name of the regional broadcaster. However, only half of the regional broadcasters opted to use the package, which had completely failed by 1997.

In 1999, another second common presentation package (once again using dual-branding with the ITV name) was launched, under the theme, "TV from the Heart". Like the 1989 attempt, a version was created for every franchise holder, but it was only taken by nine of the fifteen ITV broadcasters, two of which resorted to other designs, being London Weekend Television, which actually used the look for a year but then adopted a more original look (claiming it "wasn't exciting enough"), and HTV which adopted Carlton's identity[Note 1] when it was purchased by the company in 2001. Carlton, owner of three ITV licences at the time, did not adopt the generic look, and instead used another package designed by Lambie-Nairn, which again followed the "TV from the Heart" theme, but with more emphasis on the Carlton corporate identity.

By 2001, all eleven franchises of England and Wales were owned by either Granada plc or Carlton Communications, and a new common name, ITV1, was launched on 11 August 2001 because of the secondary channel ITV2 on the air. The existing "Hearts" idents were simply re-edited.

However, from 28 October 2002, in England, the Scottish/English Border, and Isle of Man (where all the franchises are owned by ITV plc), the station dropped regional branding and identification before most programming and adopted a unified national branding of ITV1. In Wales, although the HTV name has been dropped, some regional identification remains in the form of ITV1 Wales. At this time all regional continuity announcers were replaced with a single team of six national continuity announcers. Since the re-brand of 2006, that team has been reduced to just four.

In January 2006, the channel adopted a new on-air look, designed mainly to improve cross-channel promotion across ITV's multichannel presence. The new logo brought ITV1, ITV2 and ITV3 in line with ITV4's, and had been observed on various billboard ads in the UK when the new identity was first used on-screen on 16 January 2006. The overhaul also put an end to the former ITV Day brand, which was axed in favour of a full-time ITV1 identity.

On 13 November 2006, a new set of idents replaced the previous set which debuted in January, the theme being "alive with colour". The initial set consisted of "Beach", "Bike", "Lake", and "Market"; "Basketball" and "Pavement Art" were added later in the year. They were created by Blink Productions for ITV, unlike the old idents which were masterminded by Red Bee Media. The logo remained the same in essence; only the "itv" lettering was inverted from its previous white state to black, to allow it to stand out against the yellow more.[24]

On 3 September 2007, four more idents were added to the set, featuring "Bubbles", "Fountains", "Garden", and "Buildings", and as of 19 September 2009, all now have "the brighter side" on their breakbumpers. On 9 April 2010, four more idents where added to the set, "Lanterns", "Sunflowers", "Snakes and Ladders", and "Dodgems", featuring an updated ITV1 logo as seen on ITV1 HD.

In September 2009, ITV plc announced that ITV1 +1, a one-hour time-shift version of ITV1, would launch in October 2009 from 10:25 am to 7 am daily. The hours covered by GMTV from 7 am to 10:25 am will not originally have been included in the relay.[25] The channel launched on 11 January 2011.

On 9 April 2010, the ITV1 logo was redesigned appearing to look 3D with a gloss effect. The logo launched with four new idents following the launch of ITV1 HD.

In 2005, ITV plc introduced a new channel branding called ITV Day, used to identify ITV1 between 9:25 am and 6 pm. ITV Day was treated as a separate entity to ITV1, and featured its own presentation set focusing using the colours of red, orange, and yellow, and featured scenes of typical "daytime" activities. Promotions were used in a similar format to ITV1, and all daytime programmes advertised within ITV1 hours were branded with the ITV Day logo. A similar "UTV Day" branding was adopted in Northern Ireland. The branding was scrapped in January 2006 when the ITV corporate rebrand took place.

On 14 January 2013, ITV unveiled a huge rebranding, including a new corporate logo inspired by handwriting, and the renaming of the flagship channel back from ITV1 to just ITV. Its colour schemes vary on-air to complement its surroundings; a practice referred to internally as "colour picking". Following the buyout in 2016, UTV also rebranded to these idents, using a tweaked version with the new UTV logo.[26][27]

On 1 January 2019, ITV launched a refresh of its current on-air presentation, with a more "crafted" appearance, and use of layered "cut-outs" of the logo. Idents were also changed as part of a project known as ITV Creates, under which a new set of idents will be used weekly, built around interpretations of the ITV logo created by a British visual artist. The first artist featured as part of the series was Ravi Deepres. UTV continued with its 2013-era idents, but used the new on-air presentation, with a tweaked version to accommodate the UTV logo.[28][29]

• 
  ITV logo used from 1 September 1989 to 4 October 1998.
• 
  ITV logo, used from
  5 October 1998 to 10 August 2001.
• 
  First ITV1 logo, a minor adjustment to the previous logo, used from
  11 August 2001 to 27 October 2002.
• 
  ITV1 logo, broken into blocks, used from
  1 November 2004 to 15 January 2006.
• 
  ITV1 logo used from
  16 January 2006 to 8 April 2010.
• 
  ITV1 logo used from 9 April 2010 to 13 January 2013.
• 
  ITV logo used from
  14 January 2013 to 31 December 2018.
• 
  ITV logo used from 1 January 2019.