:''This article deals with the ITV1 brand name as it is broadcast at present. For information on the UK-wide network and its programmes see
ITV, or for its history see
History of ITV.''
'ITV1' is the generic on-screen brand name used by twelve franchises of the
ITV Network in the
United Kingdom. The brand was introduced in 2001 by
Carlton- and
Granada-owned franchises, initially used alongside the local regional name. However, it became the sole on-air identity in 2002 when the two companies decided to create a single unified playout of the channel, with regional references only used prior to regional programming. Carlton and Granada went on to
merge in 2004, creating
ITV plc which now owns eleven of the fifteen regional ITV licences.
The ITV1 name was only used in
England,
Wales,
Southern Scotland and
Isle of Man until
Channel Television adopted the name in January 2006, bringing it to the
Channel Islands. It should be noted, however, that as national continuity is often used on Channel Television, ITV1 national branding had been seen on the station for several years previously.
The franchises that use the ITV1 brand are
Anglia Television,
Border Television,
Carlton Television,
Central Independent Television,
Channel Television,
Granada Television,
HTV,
London Weekend Television,
Meridian Broadcasting,
Tyne Tees Television,
Westcountry Television and
Yorkshire Television.
HTV is the only exception using the name ''ITV1 Wales'' at all times for the
Welsh part of its broadcast area, as it has a higher regional commitment. Non ITV plc-owned franchises on the network generally do not refer to the ITV1 name.
The companies which represent ITV1 produce programming under the
ITV Productions and Granada brands.
Corporate unification
ITV1 share of viewing 1992-2007 BARB figures
ITV1 was formed by the unification of eleven of the ITV licenses. The
Broadcasting Act 1990 changed many of the rules regulating the ITV Network, which most notably relaxed franchise ownership and hours of production. However as far back as 1974, Yorkshire Television and its
North East neighbour, Tyne Tees Television, formally created
Trident Television, a merged entity of the two companies. By 1981 due to regulation, the company was forced to de-merge, however they resumed their alliance in 1993 as
Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television, which therefore owned the two franchises and integrated the two company's assets more than its predecessor.
However, the intense race to own more of the ITV Network began in 1994 when the
London weekday broadcaster,
Carlton Television, took control of
Central Independent Television in the
Midlands. Literally days afterwards,
Granada Television of the
North West purchased
London Weekend Television.
Meridian's owner,
Mills and Allen International, then went on to purchase
Anglia Television in the same year, before merging to become
United News and Media (UNM) in 1995. UNM then went on to purchase
Wales and
West broadcaster,
HTV in 1996, while Carlton purchased
Westcountry Television later that year. Granada then agreed a deal to take over
Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television in 1997, giving the broadcaster access to both
Yorkshire and
North East franchises.
There was no movement in the take-over of franchises until 2000 when
Border Television and all of its
radio assets were sold to
Capital Radio Group, who consequently sold the television broadcasting arm to Granada Media Group. Granada then went on to purchase all of UNM's television interests (including its ITV franchises), which brought Meridian, Anglia and HTV into its power, however due to regulation Granada was forced to sell HTV to Carlton. By this time, all of the franchises in
England and
Wales were owned by either Carlton or Granada.
In 2004, Granada officially merged with Carlton Television, creating
ITV plc, although it was a takeover by Granada in effect.
Name and Branding
Main articles: ITV television presentation
LWT's dual-branded ITV1 package 2000-2002
Carlton's ITV1 dual branded ident 1999-2002
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 franchisee'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, however 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 when it was purchased by the company in 2001. Carlton, owner of three ITV licenses 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, however 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 to coincide with digital channel
ITV2. 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 2005, ITV plc introduced the new 'ITV Day' brand, used to identify the channel between 9.25am and 5.00pm, replacing "ITV1". 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.
In January 2006, the channel adopted a new on-air look to coincide with the launch of
ITV4, 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.
[1]
On the 3rd
September 2007, ITV Launched a new set of Idents, featuring 'Bubbles', 'Fountains', 'Garden' and 'Windows'
Regional variations
ITV1 consists of eleven franchises in England and Wales which broadcast regional news and other local programming to its area. Many franchise areas have sub-regions with separate regional news (for example, the Anglia area is divided into Anglia West and Anglia East).
On
6 June,
2006, ITV plc announced that the news operations two of the network's smallest sub-regions,
Central South and
Meridian's Thames Valley sub-region would merge to form
ITV Thames Valley, although regional programming was not affected. The Thames Valley "sub-region" therefore stretches across two franchise areas.
Since
27 October 2002, all ITV plc-owned franchises, regional programming is either preceded or plugged by an oral regional announcement, in the format ITV1 ''regional brand'', e.g. ITV1 Central. In English regions up until
13 November 2006, regional names were also superimposed (post-production) on these idents below the ITV1 logo, however 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
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.
Although Channel Television have adopted the ITV1 brand on-air, announcements are still referred to "Channel Television". Channel Television is the only franchise not owned by ITV plc to use the brand.
Areas with full ITV1 branding and continuity:
★ Part of each of the Central and Meridian regions share a regional news programme
Areas without full ITV1 branding and continuity:
★
★ Channel Television use the ITV1 logo on all idents, promotions, ECPs, etc.
★
★
★ UTV uses the ITV1 branding from around midnight until the beginning of GMTV daily.
References
1. ITV1 rolls out more idents
External links
★
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
