Timeline of Ulster Television

This is a timeline of the history of Ulster Television (now known as UTV).

1950s
  • 1953
    • 1 May – Television becomes available in Northern Ireland for the first time although initially from a temporary transmitter, brought into service in time for the Queen's Coronation. A permanent mast at Divis is brought into service on 21 July 1955.
  • 1958
    • September – The Independent Television Authority, advertises the franchise for Northern Ireland.[1] Two consortia apply and the ITA eventually persuaded both applicants to merge their bids to obtain the new franchise, on the provision that a greater stake of investment in the station was offered to Catholic sources.
  • 1959
    • 31 October – Ulster Television launches at 4.45 pm.

1960s
  • 1960
    • No events.
  • 1961
    • No events.
  • 1963
    • 18 February – The Strabane transmitter opens, bringing coverage to the west of Northern Ireland for the first time.
  • 1964
    • Newsview replaces Roundabout as Ulster's regional news programme.
    • Ulster is given a three-year extension to its licence. This is later extended by a further year.
  • 1965
    • No events.
  • 1966
    • No events.
  • 1968
    • August – A technicians strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary ITV Emergency National Service with no regional variations.
    • 14 September – The final edition of Ulster Television's listings magazine TV Post is published. Listings are subsequently carried in an Ulster edition of TVTimes which now becomes a national publication on 21 September.
  • 1969
    • UTV Reports replaces Roundabout as Ulster's regional news programme.

1970s
  • 1970
    • 14 September – Ulster launches a colour television service, but only from the Divis transmitter. To mark the change, the logo is redesigned.[2]
  • 1971
    • No events.
  • 1972
    • 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service.
  • 1973
    • No events.
  • 1974
    • The 1974 franchise round sees no changes in ITV's contractors as it is felt that the huge cost in switching to colour television would have made the companies unable to compete against rivals in a franchise battle.
  • 1975
    • No events.
  • 1976
    • No events.
  • 1977
    • No events.
  • 1979
    • Good Evening Ulster replaces UTV Reports/Reports as Ulster's regional news programme. It becomes the UK's first hour-long regional news programme.[3]
    • 10 August – The ten week ITV strike forces Ulster Television off the air. The strike ends on 24 October.

1980s
  • 1980
    • 31 October – To celebrate their 21st anniversary, Ulster commissions a new ident featuring a model the station logo embedded on four faces of a cube, coated in silver with a pole skewering the top and bottom of the cube. The logo is nicknamed "The Lollipop".[4]
  • 1981
    • No events.
  • 1982
    • Ulster restores all-day broadcasting hours. For the last few years it had broadcast reduced hours, not coming on air until 12 noon during the week when no schools programmes were being broadcast, and closing down every evening at 23:30.
  • 1983
    • 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service TV-am launches. It is a UK-wide service and therefore contains no Northern Irish-specific content. Consequently, Ulster's broadcast day now begins at 9:25 am.
  • 1984
    • No events.
  • 1985
    • 3 January – The last day of transmission using the 405-lines system.
  • 1986
    • No events.
  • 1987
    • 7 September –
      • To coincide with the launch of the station's evening magazine programme, Six Tonight, a new ident was used to introduce the programme, featuring a computer animated silver station logo on a blue/green backdrop.[5]
      • Following the transfer of ITV Schools to Channel 4, ITV provides a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins.
  • 1988
    • 3 October – Ulster begins 24 hour broadcasting.[6] Ulster had planned to commence 24-hour transmissions a month earlier but it was delayed because of a last minute decision to take the overnight service provided by Granada and not that provided by Central.
  • 1989
    • 1 January – A revised computer animation is introduced and is the last to feature the logo first seen in 1970.[7]

1990s
  • 1990
    • No events.
  • 1991
    • 16 October – Ulster retains its licence. There were three applicants for the licence and the other two had tabled higher bids. However Television Northern Ireland (TVNI) was rejected because of its business plan and Lagan Television failed to meet the quality threshold.
  • 1992
    • No events.
  • 1993
    • 4 January – Ulster's news service is renamed UTV Live. The programme broadcasts for 60 minutes, instead of 30.
    • 4 June –
      • At 6 pm, UTV unveils a new logo to co-inside with the station now being known as UTV. Since the start of 1993, continuity announcements and trailers referred increasingly to "UTV" It also drops ITV network promotions and introduces locally produced trails.[8]
      • The station's news service is rebranded as UTV Live.
  • 1994
    • No events.
  • 1995
    • No events.
  • 1996
    • 11 November – UTV introduces a new series of idents which showcase scenic locations in Northern Ireland. These include the Giant's Causeway, a waterfall at Glenarriff, and Portaferry harbour. Some of the idents featured UTV personalities.[9]
  • 1997
    • No events.
  • 1998
    • 12 January – The 1996 logos are supplemented with a set of idents featuring people playing the UTV jingle on various musical instruments.[10]
    • 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place.
  • 1999
    • 8 March – Following the introduction of the ITV Evening News, UTV Live is brought forward by half an hour to start at 17:30. The first half-hour sees feature reports, light-hearted stories and the weather forecast branded as part of a separate programme, UTV Life, which airs before the main evening news which starts at 18:00 and is branded as UTV Live at Six.
    • 28 June – Ulster launches a second television channel, TV You. It is available only to viewers of digital terrestrial television and NTL cable.

2000s
  • 2000
    • TV You is rebranded as UTV2.
  • 2001
    • No events.
  • 2002
    • 22 January – UTV2 closes following a deal with ITV Digital to replace UTV2 with ITV2.[11]
    • UTV Live and UTV Life are merged into one hour-long programme, running from 17:30.
    • 28 October – UTV adopts the new ITV ‘Celebrity’ idents as network ITV1, on 28 October 2002. However these were gradually replaced with local versions featuring notable personalities and broadcasters from Northern Ireland.[12]
  • 2003
    • 20 November – UTV replaces its network-inspired graphics with a series landscape films of Northern Ireland in their idents, in the form of a panorama shot as the camera revolved around a location.[13]
  • 2004
    • No events.
  • 2005
    • No events.
  • 2006
    • 16 January – To coincide with the introduction of a new identity across ITV plc stations, UTV replaces its 2003 idents with a brand new set.[14] The new idents featured newly recorded films shot across Northern Ireland, again in the form of panoramas.[14] The landscape films used in these idents are updated in July 2007 and October 2008.
    • 26 May – The registered company name is 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.[15]
  • 2007
    • February – UTV Live and UTV Life are split into separate programmes and all bulletins outside of the main early evening programme are retitled UTV News. This continues until April 2009.
  • 2008
    • No events.
  • 2009
    • February – Mid-morning weekday and lunchtime weekend UTV Live bulletins are axed when the station is permitted to reduce their weekly news output from five hours and twenty minutes to four hours.[16]
    • 6 February – Cost-cutting measures and a reduction in regional programming at the station result in the end of UTV Life.
    • 27 April – UTV launches a 30-minute late evening news and current affairs programme, UTV Live Tonight, which follows the News at Ten on Monday – Thursday nights and incorporates the station's late news bulletin alongside extended political and business coverage.
    • Having scaled back in-vision to weekend evenings in recent years, UTV reintroduces in-vision continuity to weekday evenings.

2010s
  • 2011
    • 11 January – At 8 pm, UTV +1 launches.
  • 2012
    • 12 October – UTV launches a new set of idents.[18]
    • 23 October – At just after 11.30 pm, Digital switchover is completed in the UK when analogue television signals in Northern Ireland are switched off.[19]
    • 24 October – UTV HD launches on Freeview.
  • 2014
    • No events.
  • 2015
    • 1 January – UTV Ireland is launched.
    • 19 October – UTV Media announces that it will sell its ITV franchise and the UTV brand to ITV plc for £100 million, subject to regulatory approval.[21] The sale is completed on 29 February 2016.[22]
  • 2016
    • January – UTV Life returns as a weekly 30-minute Friday night programme, airing after the late UTV Live bulletin and presented by Pamela Ballantine.
    • 11 July – ITV plc sells UTV Ireland to Virgin Media Ireland for €10 million.[23]
    • 29 September – The 30-minute long UTV Live Tonight is axed and replaced by a shorter ten-minute bulletin and a Monday night hour-long current affairs programme called View from Stormont.[24] September also sees UTV Life returning to a weekly primetime slot at 20:00.[24]
    • 16 October – At 11.15 pm the last live in-vision announcement is made ahead of the launch the following day of a brand new look which sees an alignment of the UTV brand more closely with that of the ITV network.[25]
  • 2017
    • No events.
  • 2018
    • 1 July – ITV closes UTV's Havelock House studios and UTV begins broadcasting from a new broadcast centre at City Quays 2 in the Belfast Harbour Estate.[26]
  • 2019
    • No events.

2020s
  • 2020
    • 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 on staff at the Belfast studios.[27] This became officially permanent in November with the departures of the announcing team from the station.[28]

See also

References
  1. "Independent TeleWeb: Ulster Television – History". Users.zetnet.co.uk. 4 November 1958. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
  2. TV Live: UTV
  3. Ident Central: Good Evening Ulster 1979–1987
  4. TV Live: Ulster Television 1980-1988
  5. TV Live: UTV
  6. TV Ark: ITV Overnight Services
  7. TV Live: UTV
  8. TV Live: UTV
  9. TV Live: UTV
  10. TV Live: UTV
  11. "Northern Ireland gets ITV2". Media Guardian. 23 January 2002. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
  12. TV Live: UTV
  13. UTV Today: 2003–05 Scenery Idents (Old Soundtrack) Archived 6 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
  14. UTV Today: 2006–07 Scenery Idents: About These Idents Archived 6 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 1 April 2008.
  15. Archived 10 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  16. "UTV Life may face axe" Belfast Telegraph, 8 October 2008; accessed 18 January 2009
  17. "UTV HD launches on Virgin Media NI". Digital Spy. 5 October 2010.
  18. TV Ark: UTV 2012-2016
  19. "Northern Ireland completes UK digital TV switchover". BBC News. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  20. "UTV HD on satellite delayed – launch now expected by end of 2013". a516digital. 9 March 2013.
  21. "ITV confirms £100m takeover of UTV Media's television channels". The Guardian. 19 October 2015.
  22. McDonnell, Francess (29 February 2016). "UTV rebrands as Wireless Group and shifts focus to radio". Irish Times. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  23. "TV3 owner Virgin Media buys UTV Ireland for €10m".
  24. ITV axes UTV Live Tonight in network revamp, Belfast Telegraph, 10 August 2016
  25. UTV's new channel identity goes live, itv.com, 17 October 2016
  26. UTV to relocate from Belfast's Havelock House, bbc.co.uk, 14 October 2016
  27. https://twitter.com/cleanfeed_ttvr/status/1245410719912341509?s=21
  28. End of era at UTV as Julian Simmons and Gillian Porter exit, Belfast Telegraph, 26 November 2020
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