ITV1

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ITV1
Launched	September 22, 1955
Owned by	ITV Network Limited (consisting of ITV plc, SMG plc, UTV plc, Channel Television Ltd.)
Audience share	ITV Network - 20.0% (September '06, Source:[1])
Formerly called	ITV (until August 11, 2001), Independent Television
Website	www.itv.com
Availability
Terrestrial
UK analogue	Normally tuned to 3
Freeview	Channel 3
Satellite
Sky Digital	Channel 103
SES Astra
Cable
NTL:Telewest	Channel 103
NTL Ireland	Channel 107
Chorus Digital (Republic of Ireland)	Channel 7

ITV1 is the name, in England, Wales and the Scottish borders, for a terrestrial, free-to-air television channel, broadcast in the United Kingdom by the ITV network. In Northern and Central Scotland, the channel is known as stv and in Northern Ireland, it is known as UTV. Together, the three channels form the oldest and most popular commercial television offering in the UK.

Together with GMTV and the channel's Teletext service, Analogue ITV1 forms part of what is officially referred to as Channel 3.

This article deals with the ITV1 channel as it is broadcast at present. For information on the long history of the UK-wide network, see the separate article, ITV.

1 Programming
2 Organisation
3 Current franchise holders
4 Name and Branding
5 External Links

[edit] Programming

ITV1 offers a broad range of daytime programming including their flagship daytime show, This Morning, CITV and The Price Is Right.

Early evening is dominated by soap operas, with the long running Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and police drama The Bill. Late evening is often used to broadcast original British drama, typically of the murder mystery or romance genre.

ITV1 produces relatively little comedy when compared to its terrestrial rivals, however shows such as 2DTV, Harry Hill's TV Burp and Monkey Trousers are recent exceptions.

ITV1 covers many popular sports. The channel emphasises coverage of football (it holds the UK terrestrial rights to the UEFA Champions League). The channel shares coverage of international football events such as the World Cup with the BBC. It also covers Formula 1 racing and other motorsport, rugby, and other sports. The channel won the rights to broadcast The Boat Race in 2004.

ITV1 has a full news service. The channel is required under the Broadcasting Act 1990 to put its news contract out to a nominated news provider. Since the channel's opening, Independent Television News Limited has held the contract. News bulletins are broadcast at 5:30am, 1:30pm, 6:30pm, and 10:30pm. For more details on ITV News, see the separate article on ITN.

The regional ITV companies provide local programmes tailored for the regional audiences. All the ITV companies provide a main local bulletin at 6pm (preceded in the UTV region by a more features-based programme at 5:30pm), as well as other local features and sport programming. The regional programmes in England and Wales have however been drastically reduced in recent years. See the separate articles on each ITV regional company for details of what programmes they provide.

As of early next year, ITV1 will show the US drama Six Degrees. This will be the first US import to air on the network during prime-time in nine years.

[edit] Organisation

Unlike practically all other TV channels in the United Kingdom, ITV1 is not owned by one single company until 2006, although it has come close in recent years. The UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) licences fifteen companies to provide regional Channel 3 services in various areas of Britain, with a separate franchise for the national breakfast service between 6:00am and 9:25am. The licences were last put out to full tender in 1991, since then they have been renewed on a rolling basis. All the companies are members of ITV Network Limited (formerly the Independent Television Companies' Association Limited), a not-for-profit body. It is this body that commissions programmes for the network, and schedules the network programming.

In practical terms, ITV plc, which owns eleven of the fifteen licences (all except Scottish Television, Grampian Television both now known as stv, UTV, Channel Television and GMTV (which it still partially owns) dominates the system nowadays.

[edit] Current franchise holders

The following companies hold the licences that make up the ITV network:

Area	Franchise holder	Ultimate owner	On-air name
Central Scotland	Scottish Television Ltd	SMG plc	stv
North Scotland	Grampian Television Ltd	SMG plc	stv
Northern Ireland	UTV plc	UTV plc	UTV¹
Scotland/England border and Isle of Man	Border Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 Border²
North East England	Tyne Tees Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 Tyne Tees²
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire	Yorkshire Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 Yorkshire²
North West England	Granada Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 Granada²
Wales and the West of England	HTV Group plc	ITV plc	ITV1 Wales¹/ ITV1 West²
The Midlands	Central Independent Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 Central²/ ITV1 Thames Valley²
East Anglia	Anglia Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 Anglia²
London Weekday	Carlton Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 London (Weekdays)²
London Weekend	London Weekend Television Ltd	ITV plc	ITV1 London (Weekends)²
South and South East England	Meridian Broadcasting	ITV plc	ITV1 Meridian²/ ITV1 Thames Valley²
South West England	Westcountry Television	ITV plc	ITV1 Westcountry²
The Channel Islands	Channel Television Ltd	Channel Television Limited	ITV1 Channel Television²
National breakfast time	GMTV Ltd	ITV plc / The Walt Disney Company	GMTV

1. ITV1 Branding is used overnight
2. Branding is usually just "ITV1"

On 6 June 2006, ITV plc announced they would be merging the network's two smallest sub-regions, Central South and Meridian's Thames Valley sub-region to create a new entity, named ITV Thames Valley which launched 4 December 2006. The move axed 20 jobs from Central South's studios, but increased the number of regional programmes within the network from 16 to 17. As a result, ITV West's coverage area would be increased to serve the areas of Gloucester and Cheltenham. [2].

[edit] Name and Branding

Main article: ITV Idents and Presentation

From its founding in 1955 the channel was known nationally as Independent Television (later ITV) and locally by the regional branding of the local ITV franchise operator. (For the history of the channel, see the main ITV article). Up until 1989, only the local regional name would regularly be seen on-air however. In 1989, the network introduced dual branding on-air for the first time, with a common ident featuring the ITV logo designed for all the stations, although in the event less than half of them used it. Under dual-branding, the ITV name and logo was used alongside the existing regional name and logo. In 1998, a new ITV logo was launched and in 1999, a second common ident (once again using dual-branding) was launched, under the theme, "TV From The Heart". This was used by most stations in England and Wales, although the stations owned by Carlton used a different package with the same "heart" theme, but with the Carlton branding more prominent. The network was renamed ITV1 on 11 August 2001, with the increased uptake of digital TV and the existence of ITV2. Initially this entailed re-edits of the existing dual-branded idents.

Example of an ITV1 breakbumper used since November 2006

However from 28 October 2002, in England and the Scottish Borders (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 "local" identification remains in the form of ITV1 Wales. At this time all regional continuity announcers were replaced with a team of six ITV Network Continuity Announcers. Since the re-brand of 2006, that team has been reduced to just four.

Local programmes are often preceded in England by ITV1 (Region Name) outside of London, e.g. ITV1 Central or ITV1 Tyne Tees. However, the process of consolidation within the ITV plc company means that these names are themselves being phased out, with, for example, Tyne Tees productions increasingly seen credited to ITV Yorkshire.

Wales, Scotland (with the exception of the Borders) and Northern Ireland have different branding on the channel, reflecting the national audiences they serve. In Wales, the local licensee, HTV (also owned by ITV plc) broadcasts under the name "ITV1 Wales". In the Scottish Television (Central Scotland) and Grampian Television (Northern Scotland) regions the channel is known as stv, and UTV (Northern Ireland) uses the name UTV before all programmes. None of these licensees are owned by ITV plc.

On 1 November 2005, the channel adopted a new on-air look to coincide with the launch of ITV4. The new look was designed mainly to improve cross-channel promotion across the ITV network. Another entirely new logo was introduced in early 2006, bringing ITV1, ITV2 and ITV3 in line with ITV4's. The new look had already been spotted on various billboard ads in the UK when the new identity was first used on-screen on 16 January 2006.

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 (video), with Basketball and Pavement Art currently in development and which are due to be added in the near future. They were created by Blink Productions for ITV, unlike the old idents which were masterminded by Red Bee (previously BBC Broadcast). 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. [3]