ITV (TV channel)

The ITV channel consists of thirteen regional franchises in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which each broadcast regional news and other local programming to its area. Many franchise areas in England have sub-regions providing separate regional news bulletins. For example, the Anglia region is divided into West and East. This arrangement was suspended in February 2009, when ITV implemented plans to save the company £40m a year on the amount it spent making local news, but was reinstated (with slightly fewer sub-regions) on 16 September 2013.

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 2014, when the West region merged with the Westcountry region to form the West Country franchise).

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 channel branding and continuity:

Broadcast area	Pre-ITV1 branding	Post-2014 franchise	Post-ITV1 branding	ITV-branded franchises 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	ITV/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 was 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 Cymru Wales name is name check only by local ITV promos and ITV announcers;
• The STV branding is used throughout the day from 9:25 am to 6 am daily;
• The UTV branding is only used for local programming.

ITV network areas without full ITV channel 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.[4] 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).[5] 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.[6] Meanwhile, in the Westcountry, viewers in Devon and Cornwall also saw a return to a more localised service.

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.[7][8] With its debut on Freeview HD, the channel was re-branded as ITV1 HD in December 2009.[9]

ITV was not consistently promoted as a brand name until 1989 although the name was in common public use. Independent Television, shortened to ITV, was the collective and generic name for the companies which held commercial television franchises.

The name referred to the initial regulator the Independent Television Authority (ITA). It was keen to use this name for its franchisees to highlight the fact they were also public services and not simply commercial broadcasters. In the early years, the network was sometimes referred to as the "ITA network", and the companies as "ITA contractors" or "ITA stations".

The companies were principally identified on air using by their own names though some did make reference to ITV too. There were also specific uses of the ITV name - for instance, ITV Schools, ITV Sport and Children's ITV were used for programming strands.

ITV logo used from 1 September 1989 to 4 October 1998

In 1989, the first real efforts were made to turn ITV into a brand.

The ITV Association commissioned a generic presentation package for each of the individual companies. It included both a national logo and regional versions which included an element based on each company's own symbol.

Some regions made full use of the package - effectively leading to dual branding. However around half the regions made little or no use of it while some others later reverted to using their own local identities alone.

However the generic national logo was often seen within programmes.

The last region to drop the 1989 ident was Grampian Television which used it right up until the national logo was changed in 1998. All other regions had dropped their local versions by 1993.

ITV logo, used from 5 October 1998 to 10 August 2001

The second attempt at consistent network branding came in 1999, using the new national logo introduced a year earlier.

A series of idents were created under the theme, "TV from the Heart". Like the 1989 attempt, a version was created for every franchise holder and it effectively led to dual branding.

This look was only taken by nine of the fifteen ITV broadcasters, two of which later resorted to other designs which still kept the dual branding.

The Carlton-owned regions had their own dual branded idents while the two Scottish regions and UTV made no use of ITV branding.

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

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. This was to help show that the main channel was by then part of a suite of channels including ITV2. The existing "Hearts" idents were simply re-edited.

The biggest single change to on-screen presentation came on 28 October 2002. Regional continuity and idents were dropped in the English regions while the service in Wales was rebranded ITV1 Wales.

At this time all English regional continuity announcers were replaced with a single team of national continuity announcers - initially there were six but the number was later 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.

ITV1 logo used from 16 January 2006 to 8 April 2010 ("itv" letters were white until 12 November 2006)

ITV1 logo used from 9 April 2010 to 13 January 2013

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.[13]

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.[14] The channel launched on 11 January 2011.

On 9 April 2010, the ITV1 logo became 3D. The logo launched with four new idents following the launch of ITV1 HD 1 week ago.

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.

ITV channel logo from 2013 to 2018. As of 2022, ITV plc continues to use this logo.

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.[15][16]

On 1 January 2019, ITV refreshed its on-air presentation.

The logo and trailers were modified to use a different colour scheme, but the main change was to the idents. In a project known as ITV Creates, a new set of idents were used weekly. They were built around interpretations of the ITV logo commissioned from British visual artists. The first artist featured was Ravi Deepres.

Since 2020 this has continued but with a mixture of new commissions and previous ones.

UTV continued with its 2013-era idents until it adopted ITV continuity and trails in 2020. However it used the new on-air presentation on trails with a tweaked version to accommodate the UTV logo.[17][18]

In October 2022, it was announced that ITV would revert to ITV1 ahead of the launch of ITVX on 20 November.[19] It was also announced that the ITV family of channels and services (excluding ITV News and CITV) would be receiving a rebrand, dropping the "ITV Reem" font.[20]