111-711: ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting ) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England . The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South , and is owned and operated by ITV plc , under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. Meridian Broadcasting Ltd was one of several (but not all) ITV plc-owned regional companies to have its legal name changed on 29 December 2006, when it became ITV Meridian Ltd. This company is, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed with Companies House as
222-558: A " Dormant company ". The company broadcasts to the region from transmitters at Hannington , Midhurst , Rowridge , Whitehawk Hill , Hastings, Heathfield , Tunbridge Wells, Bluebell Hill , Dover and, since 2015, Oxford (previously part of the ITV Central region), as well as associated relays. Today, ITV Meridian operates from studios in Whiteley , Hampshire , producing regional news services for three sub-regions, covering
333-476: A Mystery , The Vanishing Man , Jane Austen 's Emma , William and Mary and Eye of the Storm for older children. Drama became a successful genre for the station, with Peter Kosminsky 's No Child of Mine , tackling the emotionally difficult subject of child abuse, winning Meridian a BAFTA award. Meridian presents Mary Wesley's two novels: Harnessing Peacocks and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew . Later,
444-511: A central service under the STV brand. The company had several disputes with ITV plc in the late 2000s and early 2010s over network programming. STV aimed to broadcast more Scottish programmes at peak times and so removed several key ITV plc programmes from their schedule in July 2009 including The Bill , Midsomer Murders and Lewis . Despite STV's explanation of expense, ITV plc were angered by
555-549: A condition of the deal. As a result, the television assets of UNM were sold to Granada , however due to regulations stating that the company could not control that large an audience share, the broadcasting arm of HTV was sold to Carlton in exchange for Central's 20% stake in Meridian. In 2005 UBM re-focused on two principal businesses: PR Newswire, a global news distribution business; and CMP, an international events, print and online publishing business. It disposed of NOP which
666-411: A considerable amount of syndicated unscripted US programmes in daytime during the 90s, such as Judge Judy and The Jerry Springer Show . By 1996, ITV had been quiet with US series in primetime, particularly as Channel 4 and Sky One increased the competition for securing the most popular US dramas and sitcoms. However, that summer, ITV debuted the primetime soap Savannah , in a 9pm Friday slot. It
777-571: A consortium that bid for the ITV south and south east area, which formed Meridian Broadcasting in 1991. MAI began to expand following the successful launch of Meridian: in 1994 the company bought Anglia Television , the ITV franchise for the east of England, and the following year became a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for Channel 5 . In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers (via an agreed takeover by United) to form United News & Media (UNM) . The resulting company owned
888-493: A couple of hours after midnight, replacing gambling broadcasts: the time between the news and the shopping is usually kept for re-runs, with ITV repeating its primetime entertainment shows, films, or sports programming from ITV4. ITV continues with its regular scheduled programming after the shopping service finishes at around 3am with showbiz news bulletin FYI Extra and repeats, many of which have on-screen BSL signing for
999-400: A dedicated CITV programming block now broadcasting on ITV2 every morning, from 2 September 2023. Schools programming on the network began in 1957 in some regions and expanded as more regions began broadcasting. It was a contractual obligation for some ITV companies to broadcast schools programming, and this was initially broadcast as part of the normal scheduling. The programmes were moved into
1110-433: A fee of $ 972 million. In November 2014 UBM plc CEO, Tim Cobbold, announced a new Events First strategy By 2015, UBM had rebranded itself as primarily focused on B2B events. Reflecting this, 82 percent of its business in 2016 derived from events and only 18 percent from other marketing services. In December 2015, UBM announced the sale of PR Newswire to Cision for $ 841 million, subject to regulatory approval. UBM had owned
1221-461: A form-up of their logo. From their launch this featured an exploding mix of orange, yellow and blue, which came together to form the distinctive sun/moon face logo. The unusual logo design was reportedly inspired by maritime images (the sun/moon face is a recurring feature on compasses, sextants and other nautical artefacts used in the navigation of ships), appropriately reflecting the south's long seafaring history. The name "Meridian", which derives from
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#17327874847491332-529: A light-touch regulator, the ITC ; companies became able to purchase other ITV regional companies and franchises were now being awarded based upon a highest-bidder auction, with few safeguards in place. This heavily criticised part of the review saw four operators replaced, and the operators facing different annual payments to the Treasury : Central Independent Television, for example, paid only £2,000—despite holding
1443-402: A lucrative and large region—because it was unopposed, while Yorkshire Television paid £37.7 million for a region of the same size and status, owing to heavy competition. Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. By 2004, the ITV network
1554-420: A merger between UNM and rival Carlton Television ; however, these talks failed when it appeared that Meridian Broadcasting would have to be sold off as a condition of the deal. As a result, the television assets of UNM were sold to Granada ; however, due to regulations stating that the company could not control that large an audience share, the broadcasting arm of HTV was sold to Carlton Television in exchange for
1665-737: A monthly political programme, most non-news regional programming in the English regions was dropped by ITV plc in 2009, although it continues in Wales and the Channel Islands, as well as on STV and UTV and ITV Border in Scotland from 2014 to cover mainly Scottish politics whilst ITV Border in England broadcast network programming . On 14 January 2013, ITV plc regional news programmes titles were discontinued in favour of more generic branding under
1776-568: A number of regional and networked programmes itself. As its parent company MAI became a significant shareholder in Channel 5 , Meridian supplied a number of the new channel's programmes for the network such as sports programme Turnstyle , youth programme The Mag and children's show Havakazoo . Meridian also geared a large amount of its network output towards younger viewers, with independent commissions including Wizadora for pre-school children, plus ZZZap! , The Ruth Rendell Mysteries , It's
1887-485: A public service broadcaster, the ITV network is obliged to broadcast programming of public importance, including news, current affairs, children's and religious programming as well as party election broadcasts on behalf of the major political parties and political events, such as the Budget. The network also needs to produce accessible output containing subtitles, signing and audio description. In exchange for this programming,
1998-500: A regional newspaper publisher, making acquisitions such as Yorkshire Post Newspapers in 1969. It acquired PR Newswire in 1982. In 1985, it bought Express Newspapers and continued to publish the Daily Express for some 15 years. Also in 1985, it bought US trade magazine and book publisher Miller Freeman . It changed its name to United News & Media in 1995, sold its regional papers in 1998, and bought CMP Media ,
2109-489: A segment for broadcast during the day in the 1960s, under the banner Independent Television for Schools and Colleges and from 1987 were broadcast on Channel 4 in the ITV Schools on Channel 4 segment. In 1993, this segment became Channel 4 Schools and later in 2000 4Learning . These strands of programming consisted of schools programming from all the ITV companies or from independent sources. The schools strand itself
2220-462: A sign language service within the broadcast as part of its quota and licence requirements. ITV's strong daytime line-up helped by programmes such as This Morning , Loose Women , Dickinson's Real Deal and game shows Tipping Point and The Chase are very popular, achieving the highest audience share during the daytime slot. In recent years the network has tried to use formats that ITV Studios own outright (whether they have originated in
2331-594: A studio within the sub region. These regions were: The services remained without major modification until 2001 when the Newbury complex was closed and the Meridian West studio operation was moved to the Southampton headquarters; Newsgathering remained the same as previously. When the company moved to Whiteley in 2004, presentation of all three editions of Meridian Tonight moved with the company, resulting in
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#17327874847492442-468: A technology-focused trade media company, in 1999 for $ 920 million. In 2000, it sold the Daily Express to Richard Desmond , sold most of Miller Freeman to VNU and Reed Elsevier and adopted the name of United Business Media . United Business Media acquired the trade publisher Aprovia UK (owner of The Builder ) in 2003 and the medical publishing company MediMedia in 2004. MAI was part of
2553-425: Is not owned or operated by one company, but by a number of licensees, which provide regional services while also broadcasting programmes across the network. Since 2016, the fifteen licences are held by two companies, with the majority held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc. The network is regulated by the media regulator Ofcom who is responsible for awarding the broadcast licences. The last major review of
2664-453: Is now defunct, with no particular branding segment used. ITV was originally very reliant on broadcasting American series, with westerns such as Gunsmoke and Rawhide in particular being considerable successes for the network during its earlier years. Action drama The Fugitive and sci-fi anthology The Twilight Zone were also broadcast by various regions in the early 1960s, with Batman and I Dream of Jeannie shown later on in
2775-573: Is used for ITV News Meridian . The other is used for weather forecasts for the three sub-regions. The move was due to the cancellation of the lease at its former Whiteley premises. In addition to Meridian's Southampton headquarters, the company operated other studios and news bureaux. Upon launch, the South East output came from The Maidstone Studios before moving to a purpose-built studio centre at New Hythe near Maidstone in Kent in 1994. Following
2886-717: The Daily Express newspaper, Meridian, Anglia, and a large shareholding (through the Yorkshire Post ) in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television , the owners of Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television . The stake in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television was sold to Granada , allowing them to take control of the two franchises in 1997. In November 1997 UBM also launched the now defunct satellite TV Channel Rapture TV which focussed on dance music and extreme sports. The channel
2997-567: The ITV News title with the region listed as the subheading. However some "heritage" brand names were retained including Calendar , Granada Reports and Lookaround . On 28 June 2014, ITV News Cymru Wales returned to its historic name of Wales at Six . The network broadcasts children's programming under the CITV (Children's ITV) strand. Children's programming was originally provided during weekday afternoons and weekend mornings, however following
3108-500: The Yorkshire Post ) in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television , the owners of Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television . The stake in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television was sold to Granada Television , allowing them to take control of the two franchises in 1997. United News & Media later agreed to buy Scottish Television 's 20% stake in HTV and on 28 June 1997, HTV was taken over fully by UNM for £370 million. In 1999, plans emerged of
3219-583: The ITV News brand. ITN has long been respected in the news industry as a source of reliable information and news, and as a result the service has won many awards for their programmes, the latest being in May 2011 when News at Ten was named best news programme by the Royal Television Society and BAFTA . The ITV National Weather forecast was first broadcast in 1989, using data supplied by
3330-459: The Met Office , and was presented by a number of weather forecasters. The forecasts are sponsored with the sponsor's message appearing before and after the forecast. The forecasts are made immediately after the main national news bulletins. Prior to the creation of the national forecast, each regional company provided its own regional forecast. The regional forecasts today are incorporated into
3441-462: The Unwind slot, but this was eventually phased out and replaced with the aforementioned news and information service. This overnight programme service is very different to what used to be shown on the network in the years after 24-hour broadcasting was introduced - this included new entertainment, imports, sports and other information programmes, and, in some regions, a job finder service, however due to
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3552-906: The Unwind with ITV sequences to fill small pieces of time before this. Teleshopping on ITVBe starts at 01:00 and continues until 07:00. There are some occasions when other coverage means this cycle of programmes get misplaced, for example a live event overnight, such as the Super Bowl or the Oscars , both of which ITV started airing in 2024, or, over Christmas, failing to sell Teleshopping slots, meaning more repeats, films and long Unwind sequences are used as filler instead. Overnight, STV broadcasts an overnight rolling news and information service, mixing reports from STV News and other information-based services, instead of ITV's shopping slot and Unwind . Due to STV opt-outs, this service can start later than or earlier than ITV's teleshopping. STV originally simulcast
3663-515: The 19th century, including Building magazine, launched in 1843 by Joseph Hansom, as well as Chemist & Druggist . The company was founded in 1918 as United Newspapers by David Lloyd George to acquire the Daily Chronicle and Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper . In 1929, the company merged with Provincial Newspapers, an owner of regional papers in the north; the next year, it sold its national papers. The company continued for decades as
3774-559: The 20% stake that Central Independent Television held in Meridian Broadcasting. In 2002, Granada Television and Carlton Television decided to consolidate the separate brandings for the ITV franchises that they controlled, changing the name of the region to ITV Meridian, with the on screen name of ITV1 used before all non-regional programming. The consolidation became further pronounced when Carlton Television and Granada Television merged to form ITV plc in 2004. 2004 also saw
3885-667: The 75% limit as possible. The group cut the number of regional news programmes offered from 17 in 2007 to 9 by 2009, resulting several regions being merged to form one programme, including the Border and Tyne Tees regions, the Westcountry and West regions and the removal of sub regional programming, with some regions only represented by pre-recorded segments. Sub-regions were restored in 2013. STV Group plc owns two franchises, covering central and northern Scotland, through subsidiary companies STV Central and STV North, broadcasting
3996-468: The Channel 3 broadcasting licences for every region except for central and northern Scotland, which are held by STV Group. Today, ITV plc simply commissions the network schedule centrally; programmes are made by its own subsidiary ITV Studios and independent production companies. Regional programming remains in news and some current affairs series. In Northern Ireland, ITV plc used the brand name UTV as
4107-483: The Channel 3 franchises was in 1991, with all operators' licences having been renewed between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2014 without a further contest. While this has been the longest period that the ITV network has gone without a major review of its licence holders, Ofcom announced (following consultation) that it would split the Wales and West licence from 1 January 2014, creating a national licence for Wales and joining
4218-418: The ITV franchise for the east of England, in 1994. The following year, MAI became a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for Channel 5 . In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers (via an agreed takeover by United) to form United News & Media (UNM). The resulting company owned the Daily Express newspaper, Meridian Broadcasting, Anglia Television, and a large shareholding (through
4329-760: The ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of the EPG of all providers. Since the launch of the platform in 1998, all of the ITV licensees have received gifted capacity on the digital terrestrial television platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc owned ITV2 , ITV3 , ITV4 and ITVBe in their region. UTV and STV (formerly Scottish Television and Grampian Television ) previously broadcast their own services – UTV2 in Northern Ireland and S2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, when they adopted
4440-855: The ITV plc channels. Despite this, STV was given a broadcasting licence for what would become the STV2 channel in 2013, however this was short-lived and the channel closed in 2018. The broadcasters all make use of the Digital 3&4 multiplex, shared with Channel 4 . CITV launched in March 2006 (closed September 2023). ITV Encore launched in June 2014 (closed May 2018) and ITVBe launched in October 2014. ITV Box Office launched in February 2017 (closed January 2020). On 13 September 2022, ITV confirmed that during
4551-573: The Latin meridionālis meaning "of the south", may also be linked to the Prime Meridian (the boundary between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres of the globe, and a key landmark in the measurement of time), which passes through the middle of the region, although this has not been confirmed. On 2 September 1996, this ident was replaced by one with a deep purple/blue background and an emphasis on
ITV Meridian - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-581: The Meridian West and Central South sub regions were merged to form the non-broadcast region ITV Thames Valley . This new service was broadcast from Whiteley, using Central 's Abingdon base as the main newsgathering centre. Under cost-cutting plans announced by ITV in September 2007 and agreed to by the UK's broadcasting regulator Ofcom in October 2008, the region's three sub-regions would be replaced with one programme. This new programme would be split between
4773-892: The North of England, with separate franchises for Weekdays and Weekends. The first ITV service to launch was London's Associated-Rediffusion on 22 September 1955, with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches, the ITA awarded more franchises until the whole country was covered by fourteen regional stations, all launched by 1962. The network has been modified several times through franchise reviews that have taken place in 1963, 1967, 1974, 1980 and 1991, during which broadcast regions have changed and service operators have been replaced. Only one service operator has ever been declared bankrupt, WWN in 1963, with all other operators leaving
4884-527: The South Coast of England, the South East of England and the Thames Valley . ITV Meridian was formed as Meridian Broadcasting in 1991. The company consisted of a consortium between Mills & Allen International (MAI), Selectv (15%) and Central Independent Television (20%), the latter of whom advised the consortium. Central Independent Television, along with Selectv, were instrumental in winning
4995-448: The South East and a combined South/Thames Valley region for the first half of the programme, and joined as one for the remainder of the programme. One of the opt out segments would be pre-recorded depending on the regions news. The new programme began on 9 February 2009, presented by Sangeeta Bhabra and Fred Dinenage. Pan-regional bulletins including morning ones during Daybreak , which are branded Daybreak Meridian News , are also used in
5106-401: The South and South East with opt-outs within the main 6pm programme extended slightly to 20 minutes. In the former Thames Valley region, plans were also approved for a ten-minute opt out within the 6pm programme for the south of England and a full late night bulletin on weekdays after News at Ten . During Meridian's years as an independent broadcaster their on-screen idents typically featured
5217-545: The UK with their Lifted Entertainment company or have come from production companies they own abroad), though some popular programme formats like The Masked Singer have still been acquired from other companies abroad. Currently ITV are behind the formats for Dancing on Ice , The Voice UK (the format originally coming from their Dutch production company) and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! , while forthcoming music game show Walk The Line has been co-developed by Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment and ITV. Since
5328-607: The US and Asian versions of EE Times, EDN, ESM, Embedded, EBN, TechOnline and Datasheets.com . In January 2018 Informa announced the acquisition of the company for £4 billion. The transaction was completed in June 2018. In January 2019, Informa sold several of the UBM Life Sciences publications (including Spectroscopy and Psychiatric Times ) to MJH Associates. UBM was a global B2B events organizer. Its businesses included UBM Asia , UBM EMEA and UBM Americas . It
5439-569: The United Kingdom. In September 2010, Canon Communications announced that it had agreed to be acquired by UBM. In May 2011, United Business Media officially changed its name to UBM plc. In February 2012 Yankee Group sold its annual 4G World telecoms and wireless trade show to UBM plc where it was incorporated into its UBM Tech division. Briefing Media acquired UBM plc's UK agriculture and medical general practitioner portfolios for £10 million in February 2012 while UBM plc announced
5550-670: The acquisition of four trade shows in Asia for 19.4 million in the same month, marking UBM plc's continuing transformation into an events and B2B marketing services company. In 2012, PA Group, the parent company of the Press Association , sold its 50% stake in Canada Newswire to joint venture partner UBM for £30.1 million. In April 2013, UBM's data services businesses were sold to Electra Partners . In October 2014, UBM announced it would acquire Advanstar Communications for
5661-400: The breakfast service. All licences listed here were renewed until the end of 2024. Licences in England and Wales were held by the individual regional ITV plc owned companies prior to November 2008. The appointment to provide national news for Channel 3 is also subject to approval by Ofcom. This appointment has been held by ITN since the channel's inception, and has also been approved through
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#17327874847495772-652: The closure of the New Hythe studio base, although newsgathering in the south-east was unaffected as journalists and reporters moved back to the Maidstone Studios. Despite this move not being uncommon in the broadcasting industry, some considered the move controversial, particularly as the Meridian South East programme would be presented 60 miles from the nearest part of the South East region and 160 miles from its furthest point. On 4 December 2006,
5883-421: The company since 1982. Some analysts interpreted this as a further step in the transition from a diverse media company to a B2B events company. In June 2016 UBM plc announced the completion of the sale of PR Newswire to Cision . In the same month UBM reached agreement to divest its electronics media portfolio to an affiliate of Arrow Electronics Inc. for a cash consideration of $ 23.5m. The portfolio comprised
5994-399: The creation of ITV Network Limited (and given Channel Television is now owned by ITV plc), it has been replaced by an affiliation system. Approved by Ofcom, this results in ITV plc commissioning and funding the network schedule, with STV and UTV paying a fee to broadcast it. All licensees have the right to opt out of network programming (except for the national news bulletins), but, unlike
6105-456: The day of Monday 19 September, the day of the state funeral for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II , all programming schedules on ITV's digital channels will be scrapped, with the main ITV News coverage being shown live and uninterrupted on every channel. This was the first time ITV decided to do this, with the company keeping their digital channels' schedules mostly as advertised in the run up to
6216-560: The deaf community. Replacing the information-based ITV Nightscreen slot in 2021 was Unwind With ITV , programming produced in association with the Campaign Against Living Miserably . At around 4am each night this mindfulness programme shows calming shots of natural landscapes and relaxing animations for around an hour, with versions of the footage also seen on ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. These three channels continue programming until around 02:30, sometimes using
6327-400: The decade. Due to the varying schedules of many ITV regions, acquired content was not broadcast by some franchises. By the 1970s, most ITV regions were airing the likes of Hawaii Five-O , Happy Days , and The Brady Bunch . 1972 also saw the beginning of ITV's daytime programmes at lunchtime, a slot that would become associated with the many Australian soap operas that were broadcast in
6438-436: The decision, as a recent schedule change had made The Bill central to their programming, and broadcast the programmes on ITV3 as well to ensure Scottish viewers could see the programmes. On 23 September ITV plc was reported to be in the process of suing STV for £20 million, as ITV felt dropping the shows constituted a breach of network agreements; STV subsequently counter-sued ITV plc for £35 million. The dispute
6549-533: The deep colours of the logo, as well as a smoother form-up. This ident was replaced on 5 October 1998 by one with a yellow background and featuring a small ITV logo underneath the Meridian name. On 8 November 1999, the emphasis was on the network's hearts logo, with a very small Meridian logo only featuring at the end of the form-up. This look was in use until October 2002 when ITV1 in England and Wales abandoned local continuity and idents. The only exceptions were ITV1 idents shown before regional programming, which featured
6660-477: The end of 2024. For over 60 years of ITV, its homegrown programmes have become among the best remembered as well as being extremely successful. Before the 1990s, nearly all of the content for the channel was produced by the fifteen franchise licensees: the regional companies. However, following legislation in the Broadcasting Act 1990 imposing a 25% quota for commissioning of independent productions,
6771-485: The end of their runs. A heavy emphasis on action, fantasy and science fiction series was also placed by ITV during this 1980s, with The A-Team , Buck Rogers in the 25th Century , and Airwolf being broadcast by the network, as well as the likes of Baywatch and SeaQuest DSV by the 1990s. ITV also picked up a glut of older-skewing CBS dramas through that period, including Murder, She Wrote and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman . In February 1989, in tandem with
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#17327874847496882-471: The ending of productions such as World in Action ( Granada Television ), This Week ( Rediffusion London / Thames Television ), First Tuesday ( Yorkshire Television ), Network First , Survival ( Anglia Television ), and Weekend World ( LWT ) and their replacement with populist shows such as Tonight . News at Ten was also axed in 1999, although it was reinstated in 2001. In December 2009,
6993-611: The entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc , which runs the ITV1 channel and the UTV channel – now branded as ITV1, and STV Group , which runs the STV channel . The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds
7104-534: The facilities were generally too big for Meridian. By 2004, ITV plc had decided that regional programming would be phased out in the years to come. In 2004, Meridian closed their Northam studios and moved to a unit in a business park in Whiteley . These new headquarters at Forum One, Solent Business Park, contained a newsroom plus the main technical production and transmission arms of the programmes including three small news studios. In summer 2008, Meridian's former studios at Southampton started to be dismantled, and it
7215-718: The fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and it continues to schedule national news in primetime. Breakfast Television programmes have been broadcast on ITV at breakfast since 1 February 1983. It was initially run by an independent contractor - TV-am , and later GMTV - until GMTV Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. Historically, ITV aired breakfast programmes from 6am until 9.25am but ITV extended this to 10am on weekdays on 6 January 2020. and now broadcasts two breakfast programmes on weekdays - Good Morning Britain and Lorraine . Good Morning Britain keeps viewers up to date with all
7326-497: The final edition of ITV's long-running arts programme, The South Bank Show was broadcast. ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its soap operas, such as the flagship Coronation Street and Emmerdale . At the start of the 21st century, ITV faced criticism for including a large amount of "reality TV" programmes in the schedule, such as Celebrity Fit Club , Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Love Island . In its defence, ITV does continue to show its major strengths in
7437-414: The former TVS South East division. Meridian took the opportunity to buy the Southampton studios from TVS. Meridian did put these studios to good use in the future; on some occasions, Meridian would hire its studios out to the independent companies to use for the programmes, and, under the ownership of United News & Media , some Channel 5 programmes were made there. However, as a publisher-broadcaster,
7548-476: The franchise as a low bidder. Meridian Broadcasting intended to operate as a publisher broadcaster, meaning that the majority of programmes would be commissioned from independent producers rather than produced in-house. In the ITV franchise auction of 1991, Meridian Broadcasting faced three other opponents in gaining the franchise, including the incumbent Television South and bids from Carlton Communications and CPV-TV . Meridian Broadcasting bid £36.5 million for
7659-469: The franchise in 1991, its plans were to purchase buildings, not unlike its current arrangement today: with a small studio for continuity and local news. This was planned because, being a publisher-broadcaster, it did not plan to make any programmes itself, instead buying in programmes from independent production companies. However, when TVS lost its franchise, TVS' plans were to become an independent production company based at Vinters Park, Maidstone , site of
7770-459: The franchise, lower than TVS's bid of £59.8 million; however, the bid made by TVS was rejected following an unsatisfactory business plan. As the highest qualified bidder, Meridian Broadcasting therefore won the franchise. Meridian Broadcasting took over from Television South at stroke of midnight on New Year's Day (1 January) 1993. At the stroke of midnight, following Westminster clock tower chimes, technicians switched from Television South to
7881-504: The funeral (with a few amendments for cancelled sporting events on ITV4) and all royal coverage being on their main channel. ITV plc owns thirteen of the fifteen franchises and broadcasts to England, Wales, southern Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland through its subsidiary company ITV Broadcasting Limited. The company also owns the breakfast television licence , which as of January 2020, broadcasts across
7992-464: The late-night weather forecast on 5 December 2004. On 1 February 2005, it was replaced with a generic "ITV Meridian" logo, the official name of the franchise. Since 2006, all idents have been generic to the entire network with no difference between regions and only the ITV1 name being used. On 14 January 2013, the station's on-air identity was changed to ITV , along with all other ITV plc-owned franchises. From September 2014, however, Meridian's identity
8103-472: The latest news, sports, features and weather, whilst Lorraine predominantly focuses on celebrity interviews, recipes, fashion and showbiz. Until 27th August 2023, the service would show a simulcast of the CITV channel, but since that service has closen has shown a mix of repeated programming whilst the CITV service that still exist broadcasts at breakfast time on ITV2 (which has the CITV block), ITV3, ITV4 and ITVBe from 7am show other repeats some of which provide
8214-503: The launch and the new company's logo was also incorporated into the product for the first advert shown on the station – the special edition Ford Fiesta Meridian, available through Southern Ford dealers. Six months after the launch of Meridian Broadcasting, the new company joined up with HTV , Westcountry Television , Channel Television and S4C to form a joint advertising company operated by Meridian Broadcasting and HTV. Shortly after, MAI began to expand by buying Anglia Television ,
8325-568: The launch of the CITV channel in 2006, all children's programming, with the exception of the weekend ITV Breakfast slot, were relocated from the ITV line-up to the CITV channel in 2007, a move which was challenged by Ofcom in April 2007. In 2023, ITV announced that CITV would cease broadcasting as a linear channel, and would be replaced by ITVX Kids , a streaming media service which launched in July 2023. The CITV channel closed on 1 September 2023, with
8436-420: The main regional news bulletins, and in the summer months, includes a pollen count. Currently only new episodes of long-form news and current affairs programmes like Exposure , Peston and On Assignment are being scheduled after News at Ten , with the latter title only appearing on a monthly basis, typically on the last Tuesday of the month. The channel broadcasts a partnership teleshopping service for
8547-711: The modern network. The origins of ITV lie in the passing of the Television Act 1954 , designed to break the monopoly on television held by the BBC Television Service . The act created the Independent Television Authority (ITA, then IBA after the Sound Broadcasting Act) to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London, the Midlands and
8658-457: The monopoly of BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990 , it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time: BBC1 , BBC2 and Channel 4 . ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies that provided regional television services and also shared programmes among themselves to be shown on
8769-424: The move of ITV Meridian from their previous Northam studio complex to a new studio base in Whiteley , Hampshire. In the subsequent years, ITV Meridian's workforce has been condensed slowly with its operations considerably downgraded. This came to a head when Michael Grade announced his intention to reduce the number of regional programmes from 17 to 9. As part of these plans, which were approved by Ofcom in 2008,
8880-563: The move of the studio to Whiteley, the complex closed with a south-east newsroom with producers and reporters being moved back to The Maidstone Studios . Additionally, Meridian originally opened and operated a new studio complex at Newbury for its Meridian West operation. This closed in 2001, when the studio was moved to Southampton. When Meridian launched, it divided its news operations into three separate sub regions. These regions were served by their version of news programme Meridian Tonight , presented by an individual team of presenters from
8991-469: The name of the channel, until the ITV channel was rebranded as ITV1; it is still, however, used for local programming shown there. This was the name used by former owner UTV Media (now known as News Broadcasting ). ITV plc bought UTV in 2016. Although the ITV network's history goes back to 1955, many regional franchisees changed over the years. Some of the most important names in the network's past – notably Thames , ABC and ATV – have no connection with
9102-448: The network as a result of a franchise review. Separate weekend franchises were removed in 1968 (with the exception of London) and over the years more services were added; these included a national breakfast franchise from 1983 onward—operating between 6:00 am and 9:25 am—and a teletext service. The Broadcasting Act 1990 changed the nature of ITV; the then regulator the IBA was replaced with
9213-527: The network between 6:00 and 10:00am each morning using the Good Morning Britain (previously Daybreak ) and Lorraine names. The company broadcasts a centralised service under the ITV1 brand. In Northern Ireland, ITV used the UTV brand name as the name of the channel until April 2020. The group also owns ITV Studios , the production arm of the company and formed from an amalgamation of all
9324-526: The network launching its national weather forecast, and as part of a new early evening lineup which involved the shortening of Children's ITV, Australian soap Home and Away was acquired by ITV, particularly to compete with the success of rival Australian soap opera Neighbours on BBC One. ITV also broadcast Beverly Hills, 90210 beginning in early 1991, in the same Saturday teatime slot that Baywatch had occupied, although some episodes were broadcast in later time slots. It moved to Sky One beginning with
9435-476: The network started, Independent Television News Limited (ITN) has held the contract to produce news for the ITV network, with 30-minute national news bulletins currently broadcast at 1:30 pm , and 10:00 pm, and an hour-long bulletin at 6.30pm. These bulletins were broadcast under the ITN brand from 1955 until 1999, when a new network identity reinforced the ITV brand, resulting in the new bulletins being broadcast under
9546-531: The newly expanded schedule, including The Sullivans and The Young Doctors . By the 1980s, more were added to the schedule, such as Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice . In primetime by the 1980s, ITV was broadcasting the likes of Hill Street Blues (which ITV began showing just one week after its debut on NBC in the United States) and L.A. Law . It was also early in the decade when Australian evening soap opera Prisoner: Cell Block H
9657-408: The newly separated West region to Westcountry Television , to form a new licence for the enlarged South West of England region. All companies holding a licence were part of the non-profit body ITV Network Limited, which commissioned and scheduled network programming, with compliance previously handled by ITV plc and Channel Television . However, due to amalgamation of several of these companies since
9768-517: The number of programmes from independent production companies not connected to the traditional ITV network, has increased rapidly. Notable examples include Talkback Thames (one half of which, Thames Television , was itself a former ITV franchisee), producers of The Bill and co-producers of The X Factor , and 2waytraffic , producers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? . From the late 1990s, ITV's long-standing commitment to strong current affairs and documentary programming began to diminish with
9879-454: The previous system, will receive no fee refund for doing so. Therefore many do not opt out due to pressures from the parent company or because of limited resources. Prior to the affiliate system being introduced, STV would frequently (and sometimes controversially) opt out of several popular network programmes – such as the original run of the first series of Downton Abbey – citing the need to provide more Scottish content to its viewers. As
9990-512: The production departments of the regional licences they own. The company produces a large proportion of ITV's networked programming (around 47%, but previously as high as 66% according to some reports ), with the rest coming primarily from independent suppliers (under the Broadcasting Act 1990, at least 25% of ITV's total output must be from independent companies). ITV plc hopes to increase the amount of in-house programming to as close to
10101-472: The programme Meridian – The First 10 Minutes , a 10-minute outside broadcast from Winchester Cathedral presented by Debbie Thrower and previewing the station's forthcoming output. Other launch day programmes included Michael Palin 's documentary First Night on Meridian and the first Meridian News bulletins for its three sub-regions. Meridian advertised their presence as the new ITV contractor heavily; promotions began appearing on TVS several weeks before
10212-430: The region. The sub-regions retain their own local advertisements. In 2013, following a network wide rebrand of ITV, the long-standing Meridian Tonight brand was retired and replaced by ITV News Meridian . On 23 July 2013, proposals to reintroduce some elements of the sub-regional services were approved by Ofcom. As a result, ITV News Meridian now also produces separate breakfast, lunchtime and weekend bulletins for
10323-684: The same production team tackled vicious childhood bullying in Walking on the Moon . Meridian's two-part production In the Name of Love in 1999 starred Tara Fitzgerald , Tim Dutton and Mark Strong , and was written by Sarah-Louise Hawkins and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax. Hornblower was a Sunday night success for the ITV network while another Sunday night favourite, Where the Heart Is , transferred production from Anglia Television to Meridian in 2002 –
10434-643: The small audience this was phased out and replaced by more relaxed and niche programming. Before 24-hour broadcasts, ITV's franchises simply closed down and restarted the following morning with ITV Morning News , followed by breakfast TV. The regional ITV companies are required to provide local news as part of their franchise agreement together with local weather forecasts, with the main local bulletin at 6pm and regional bulletins located after each national news programme. In addition to this, traditionally ITV companies would provide other regional programming based on current affairs, entertainment or drama. However, apart from
10545-403: The station's last major contribution at a network level. ITV (TV network) ITV , legally known as Channel 3 , is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is branded as STV . It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition, eliminating what had been
10656-623: The third season. ITV reshuffled its daytime schedules in the Autumn of 1993, and just a few months prior, Central began broadcasting the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street . The revamp saw more ITV companies pick it up, with Scottish Television the only region to reject the series outright. Central also broadcast the Australian soap opera Echo Point around the same time, although no other franchises picked it up. ITV also aired
10767-443: The three editions of the news programme Meridian Tonight were replaced with a single edition with a pre-recorded opt out for either the South or South East of the region. The plans resulted in over half of Meridian's existing staff being made redundant; all employees wishing to remain with the company were obliged to re-apply for jobs. Some staff opted for voluntary redundancy and many others have been left without jobs. Strike action
10878-489: The three sub-regions (South, East and Thames Valley). However to maintain lower costs, the main half-hour programme at 6pm contains a minimum 20 minutes of regional news (10 minutes in the Thames Valley) and daily use of "shared content" from outside the region. The practice of broadcasting one programme live and pre-recording others, using the same presenting team and studio set, continues. When Meridian originally won
10989-404: The word "Meridian" below the ITV1 logo. However, even this did not last, and only a few years later these regional idents were dropped. Meridian for a while managed to retain some identity by featuring their (sun/moon face) logo on the local weather forecast, as well as the news desk of Meridian News and Meridian Tonight . However, the logo was completely removed in 2004, last seen at the start of
11100-484: The year prior. It saw nowhere near the same levels of success, and was dropped by the network after just three episodes. It later resurfaced in late night before moving to BBC One in 2000. UBM plc UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London , England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus
11211-458: Was a considerable success for ITV's standards, and it became the highest rated new American series of that year. Despite this success, ITV moved the show for its second season, no longer networking the series and moving to late night slots. ITV tried again at broadcasting an American drama series in September 1997, with the ABC legal drama The Practice , which ran in the same slot that Savannah had
11322-474: Was acquired by GfK for £383 million in 2005. In September 2006, NewBay Media acquired CMP Entertainment Media from United Business Media. The trade book operations of CMP were sold to Elsevier and Hal Leonard . It went on to acquire Commonwealth Business Media for $ 152 million in 2006. On 1 July 2008, as part of a reorganisation of the corporate structure of the Group, United Business Media Limited (UBML)
11433-438: Was bought by ITV, and was broadcast after News at Ten . By 1982, Channel 4 had launched, and despite originally being related to ITV, it competed against its parent network to screen popular American programmes such as St. Elsewhere and Cheers , although the latter did receive a single ITV broadcast as part of a night showcasing Channel 4 programmes. Both Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law had moved from ITV to Channel 4 by
11544-558: Was created as a new holding company and parent company of the Group. UBML is UK-listed and incorporated in Jersey. In 2010 the principal holding company of the United Business Media group (the "Group") was organised into five operating segments: Events, TD & M, Data Services, Online and Print. In 2008, UBM moved its tax headquarters to Ireland, but in 2012, the company announced its intent to move its tax base back to
11655-473: Was ended in 2011 with STV agreeing to pay ITV plc £18 million. The signing of the new affiliation deal has resulted in STV paying a flat fee for all networked programming, and so to drop any programmes is unlikely due to the large costs involved. There are fifteen regional licences, covering fourteen regions (there are separate weekday and weekend licences for the London region), and one national licence for
11766-650: Was on B2B events, but its principal operations included live media and business-to-business communications, marketing services and data provision, and it principally served the technology, healthcare, trade and transport, ingredients and fashion industries. UBM was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index . The history of the companies that made up UBM stretches back almost two hundred years. Up until its acquisition UBM businesses published many titles that were launched in
11877-498: Was owned by five companies, of which two, Carlton and Granada had become major players by owning between them all the franchises in England, Wales, the Scottish borders and the Isle of Man. That same year, the two merged to form ITV plc with the only subsequent acquisitions being the takeover of Channel Television , the Channel Islands franchise, in 2011; and UTV, the franchise for Northern Ireland, in 2015. The ITV network
11988-515: Was planned to build a multi-storey block of flats. In December 2010, the site was still lying empty after developer Oakdene fell into administration in 2009. Over the weekend of 22–23 October 2011, ITV Meridian moved to new premises in Fusion Three, on the same business park at Whiteley and across the road from its previous office. The new headquarters are again located in a conventional office building, and include two small studios, one of which
12099-439: Was put up for sale in 2001, and was eventually brought by Edinburgh-based company Power TV a year later, in April 2002. United News and Media later agreed to buy Scottish Television 's 20% stake in HTV and on 28 June 1997, HTV was taken over fully by UNM for £370 million. In 1999, plans emerged of a merger between UNM and rival Carlton , however these talks failed when it appeared that Meridian would have to be sold off as
12210-432: Was revived by an announcement (including the sub-region) immediately prior to the evening edition of ITV Meridian News . Meridian Broadcasting was originally intended to function as a publisher-broadcaster, commissioning most programmes from independent producers and with in-house production largely restricted to regional news, sport and current affairs. However, over time and as its ownership changed, Meridian began to make
12321-411: Was threatened as a result of the announcement. At present the only local programming that ITV Meridian provides for the region is regional news programming and a pan-regional monthly late-night 30-minute political discussion programme, The Last Word . In 2013 proposals were approved by Ofcom that reversed the 2009 consolidation of ITV Meridian's regional news programmes, resulting in the reinstatement of
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