Independent Television News
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Independent Television News (ITN) is the main supplier of news broadcasts to two British television groups: ITV and Channel 4. The service also provides radio bulletins to many UK commercial radio stations through its IRN Service.
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History
ITN was founded in 1955 as part of the British commercial TV network ITV. It was formed as a consortium of the initial franchise holders, with former Labour MP Aidan Crawley as Editor-in-Chief. Associated-Rediffusion TV offered the new company studio space in their headquarters in Aldwych. The first ITN 'newscaster' to present their first broadcast was the champion athlete Christopher Chataway.
It has provided the main national news bulletins for the ITV network since that date. News was always branded as ITN until 1999 when the Carlton and Granada partnership which were important stakeholders renamed it simply as ITV News. From this point, the name ITN was gradually phased out, and now only appears in the production caption. The main ITV News bulletins are currently at 5.30am, 12.30pm, 6.30pm and 10.30 pm.
Even though national coverage is produced by ITN it has no role in the regional coverage provided for each individual region's newsroom, with the exception of the news for ITV1 London, which has been run by ITN since early 2004, coinciding with the Carlton and Granada merger.
When the two large ITV companies merged, regional identities were lost, leading to national and regional news programmes in the ITV plc regions having one consistent identity. But this also meant that regional individuality was gone in these areas, with all regional news programmes having the same music and titles to tie in with the national news.
With the expansion of TV channels in the United Kingdom in 1982, it commenced providing national bulletins for Channel 4. The news on Channel 4 is shown at 7pm and a smaller bulletin News at Noon is also aired at 12pm. This lunchtime bulletin is also simulcast on S4C analogue in Wales. Channel 4 launched digital channel More 4 in 2005 and ITN has also supplied the More 4 News programme after the Channel 4 News finishes at 8pm.
In August 2000, the organisation launched its own 24 hour news channel in the UK, which was broadcast on satellite, cable and digital terrestrial. It was 50% owned by ITN and 50% owned by NTL. Carlton and Granada gradually bought out the two stakes and renamed the channel the ITV News Channel. Due to poor ratings in comparison to BBC News 24 and Sky News, and ITV's desire to reuse the channel's allocation on Freeview, the ITV News Channel closed down at 6pm on 23 December 2005.
ITN's "stranglehold" of the UK terrestrial commercial channel news output was eroded somewhat from January 2005 when Sky News begun to supply news bulletins to Five. ITN had provided news services to Five since its launch in 1997, when it was known as Channel 5. Sky also bid to supply network news to ITV as part of a consortium, but failed when in 2001 ITN was awarded a contract extension to 2008. However, ITV plc has plans to produce news in-house if it does not have full ownership.
Operations
ITN began its own 'World News' bulletins in the late 1980s, which were shown around the world on local television channels, particularly on PBS in the US, where presenter Daljit Dhaliwal (now with CNN) enjoyed cult status. These were discontinued in 2001, in the face of competition from dedicated news channels such as BBC World, although it still provides footage to CNN International. Its ITV Evening News bulletin was shown on the Newsworld International cable channel in the US.
In the 1990s, under new ownership, it was accused of abandoning its previous news style, which was broadsheet in style, to mid-market tabloid, with news stories that focused on personalities in the news rather than heavy news coverage. The change in style matched changes in the nature of news coverage on the ITV network, which saw the axing of the long-running and award winning World in Action current affairs and investigative journalism news programme in 1998. ITN's most famous news programme, News at Ten was also controversially replaced by an 11pm news bulletin in 1999, in order to allow ITV to broadcast films without the interruption of a 10 o'clock news bulletin. News at Ten was subsequently re-instated in 2001 after heavy public criticism over the change. The restored News at Ten, was, however, ten minutes shorter than its predecessor and carried less in-depth news coverage. It also was broadcast at a later time at least one day a week, which meant it was often referred to as "News at When?". Since March 1999, the name ITN and its logo no longer features in the opening credits of the organisation's bulletins, with the term ITV News assuming prominence instead. The ITN name is now only seen at the end of bulletins.
There was increasing speculation that News at Ten will once again be moved permanently, after under-performing against the Ten O'Clock News on BBC One which is broadcast every weekday and on Sundays at 10:00pm. In October 2003, the Independent Television Commission gave ITV approval to move News at Ten to a 10:30pm slot.
The new ITV News at 10.30pm launched on 2 February 2004 (the day that ITV in England and Wales came under the ownership of a single company) and was presented by Sir Trevor McDonald. The programme is longer than its predecessor and carries an integrated regional bulletin. ITV News editors say that they are aiming at a more upmarket audience and the new programme carries a nightly sports roundup, more business stories and a preview of the next day's newspapers. In a large rebranding of ITV and its channels, the news at 10:30 was rebranded on 16 January 2006 as the Nightly News (though the name is not used on-screen) and is presented by Mark Austin (following Trevor McDonald's departure on 15 December 2005).
Similarly, ITN's 24-hour news channel (launched some distance behind the wake of Sky News and BBC News 24) was jointly bought by the main ITV companies Carlton and Granada, and subsequently renamed and re-branded as the ITV News Channel. This had a key economic advantage: the news channel shared ITV1's news studio and broadcast simultaneously the main ITV1 news programmes until its closure in December 2005.
As of 2 February 2004, all ITV bulletins carry graphics based on the Big Ben clock face, but in ITV's logo colours of blue and yellow, and use a theme tune based on the original News at Ten theme. A small ITN logo appears at the end of each bulletin. This design has been changed to a white-on-yellow one with another variation of the News at Ten theme.
In the early to late-mid 1990s, the ITN bulletins on ITV regularly attracted more viewers compared to their BBC counterparts. However, from 1999, since News at Ten was first axed, the Early Evening News moved from 5:40pm to 6:30pm, and an improved BBC daytime schedule, all of the BBC bulletins have overtaken their ITN counterparts, and continue to lead over them. In addition, the BBC sometimes gets double the viewing figures that ITV gets for special news reports such as the September 11, 2001 attacks, or the death of the Queen Mother.
In March 2004 ITN took over production of ITV London's regional news programmes, which relocated from their previous South Bank studios to ITN's Gray's Inn Road base.
ITN operates a radio news service on behalf of Independent Radio News, and between 1996 and 2002 owned a share of London News Radio, which was based at ITN's Gray's Inn Road HQ and operated the LBC and News Direct London radio stations.
ITN manages a television news archive, headquartered in London with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Paris, Toronto and Sydney. Its clients are predominantly broadcast production based with other business from advertising, the corporate sector and increasingly new media. ITN Archive's content partners make it arguably the largest archive operation in the world and include Reuters, Channel 4, Granada, British Pathe, Fox News and Fox Movietone.
Ownership
ITN is owned by ITV plc (40%,) Reuters (20%,) Daily Mail & General Trust (20%) and United Business Media plc (20%.) ITV's ownership of 40% of ITN made the 2001 bid from Sky for ITV bullletins highly unlikely to succeed, the network having a vested interest to see ITN continue. The merger between Carlton and Granada to create ITV plc prompted calls for a review of ITN's ownership; as the two companies which exercised control of 20% of shares each would become one company with 40%, effectively taking control of the group.
External links
- ITN Corporate Website
- ITV News Website
- Channel 4 News Website
- Independent Radio News Website
- ITN Archive Website
| ITV British television | Channels |
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Regions
North Scotland: Grampian TV |
Central Scotland: Scottish TV |
Scottish/English Border: Border |
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Breakfast: TV-am, GMTV | Teletext: ORACLE, Teletext Ltd | News: ITN, ITV News |
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ITA |
IBA |
ITC |
Ofcom |