This is a timeline of the history of the British television network ITV (originally known as Independent Television).
1950s 1954 30 July – The Television Act 1954 paves the way for the launch of commercial television in the UK and the first franchises are awarded by the newly formed Independent Television Authority (ITA). 26 October – The first ITV franchises are awarded. They are for the London, Midlands and North of England regions.
1955 January – A consortium of the initial four Independent Television broadcasting companies launch ITN, which will provide ITV with its news service. 22 September – ITV is launched when the first contractor, Associated-Rediffusion, goes on air, broadcasting to London on weekdays. 24 September – ATV London (Associated Television) launches as the London weekend contractor.
1956 6 January – The first edition of This Week is broadcast. 17 February – ATV Midlands launches ITV in the Midlands and the following day the Midlands’ weekend contractor ABC Weekend TV broadcasts for the first time. 3 May – Granada Television launches ITV in the north of England and two days later the north of England's weekend contractor ABC Weekend TV broadcasts for the first time.
1957 13 May – ITV transmits a television programme for schools for the first time. It is broadcast by London's ITV contractor Associated-Rediffusion. 31 August – ITV starts broadcasting in central Scotland – Scottish Television (STV) is the franchise holder.
1958 14 January – Television Wales and the West (TWW) starts broadcasting to South Wales and the West of England. 30 August – Southern Television launches.
1959 15 January – Tyne Tees Television launches. 27 October – Anglia Television launches. 31 October – ITV launches in Northern Ireland when Ulster Television starts broadcasting.
1960s 1960 31 January – Southern Television's broadcast area expands when it begins broadcasting to Kent and East SussexSouthern - The Broadcasting Years following the Independent Television Authority granting Southern the right to broadcast to South East England. 9 December – The first edition of Coronation Street is broadcast.
1961 29 April – Westward Television launches. 1 September – Border Television launches. 30 September – Grampian Television launches.
1962 1 September – Channel Television launches. 14 September – The final part of the United Kingdom gets an ITV service when Wales (West and North) Television launches in West and North Wales as Teledu Cymru. 22 September – Anglia Television becomes the first ITV company to show football highlights on a regular basis when it launches Match of the Week, which shows highlights of matches from around East Anglia. Over the next few years, other ITV companies begin showing regular football highlights programmes.
1963 7 January – The first edition of World in Action is broadcast.
1964 26 January – Wales (West and North) Television stops broadcasting after going bankrupt. It is replaced by TWW. However the Teledu Cymru on-air identity is retained. All of the ITV contractors are given three-year extensions to their licence. This is later extended by a further year.
1965 2 January – The first edition of World of Sport is broadcast. 26 March – Border Television begins broadcasting to the Isle of Man. 1965 sees the end of regular lunchtime programming on ITV. Most regions had broadcast a weekday lunchtime entertainment show since the earliest days of ITV.
1967 3 July – News at Ten is launched as a 13-week trial of a nightly 30-minute bulletin. The programme is soon made a permanent feature of the schedules.
1968 4 March – TWW stops broadcasting five months before its contract was due to expire. An interim service called Independent Television Service for Wales and the West is provided by TWW under Harlech management until 20 May when the new contractor, Harlech Television, takes over. 29 July – ATV starts broadcasting to the Midlands seven days a week and Granada starts broadcasting across the north west seven days a week. In both cases, ABC loses the right to broadcast. Yorkshire Television launches following the decision to split the north region into two resulting in a new franchise being created for the Yorkshire area. 30 July – Thames Television replaces Rediffusion as the holder of the London weekday franchise. Rediffusion retains a 49% stake in the new company. 2 August — London Weekend Television (LWT) replaces ATV as London's weekend franchise. 3 August – A technicians' strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary service with no regional variations. The strike ends on 18 August. 21 September — The TVTimes is launched as a national magazine to provide listings for the ITV network.
1969 15 November – ITV starts broadcasting in colour from some transmitters, although it was not until 1976 that colour signals were available in every region.
1970s 1970 31 May-21 June – ITV introduces a studio panel, joining presenters Brian Moore and Jimmy Hill to analyse the latest action in the 1970 World Cup. This is the first time a studio panel of pundits had been seen as part of UK sporting coverage. 13 November – The Colour Strike begins when ITV staff refuse to work with colour television equipment following a dispute over pay with their management. The strike lasts for nearly three months. 23 November – The first edition of Engineering Announcements is broadcast.
1971 15 April – The Bilsdale UHF transmitter, on the border between Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television and much disputed over, begins broadcasting Tyne Tees Television.
1972 12 July – The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) replaces the Independent Television Authority. 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service. As part of the new service the first edition of Emmerdale Farm is broadcast and ITV's first lunchtime news programme, First Report, is shown. ITV Schools transfers to a new morning slot.
1973 17 December – The British government imposes early close downs of all three television channels in the UK including ITV from 17 December 1973 in order to save electricity during the Three Day Week crisis. The early close downs forced ITV to end their broadcasting day at 10:30pm, thus losing the network a lot of advertising revenue. The restrictions were lifted temporarily on Christmas Eve to allow the public to enjoy festive programming. The restrictions recommenced on Monday 7 January 1974. The restrictions ended on 8 February 1974.
1974 The 1974 franchise round sees no changes in contractors. However the Belmont transmitter in Lincolnshire is switched from Anglia Television to Yorkshire Television.
1975 23–26 May – A strike over the payments agreed before the government-imposed pay freeze came into force results in many ITV companies being unable to broadcast for 72 hours, apart from at London Weekend Television, Tyne Tees Television and Westward Television where ACTT members ignored the strike.The Times, Saturday, 24 May 1975; pg. 2 Blackout of most ITV programmes by technicians' strike By a Staff Reporter However normal programming did not resume until 30 May, apart from at Scottish Television where the strike continued until 9 June.
1976 26 July – Channel Television becomes the final ITV region to begin broadcasting in colour although it isn't until the following year that all of its local programmes are made in colour. 6 September – News at One replaces First Report and the teatime news bulletin programme is extended by five minutes and renamed News at 5.45.
1977 28 March – Yorkshire and Tyne Tees begin a nine-week trial of breakfast television. Emmerdale Farm moves from daytime to a peak time (7 pm) slot although five regions – Anglia Television, Thames Television, Westward Television/TSW, Grampian Television and Scottish Television – aired the programme at 5:15pm.
1978 ITV's teletext service ORACLE launches.
1979 10 August – A ten-week strike forces ITV off the air. Only Channel Television in the Channel Islands remained on air, as they had separate arrangements with the unions. Channel Television provided an emergency service each day running from 5:00pm until 11:00pm, filled with local programming, local news, imported films, and repeats from the ITV archive. The only programme shown on the rest of the network was the weekly edition of Engineering Announcements. The strike ends on 24 October. 25 September – This Week ends its first run. It is replaced for the next seven years by TV Eye. The Independent Broadcasting Authority begins broadcasting its own test card on ITV instead of Test Card F.
1980s 1980 28 December – The IBA announces the new contractors to commence on 1 January 1982. The Midlands region will be split into two and dual regions will be created for Wales and the West and the South and South East. ATV is reawarded its contract for the Midlands although there are several conditions attached, including more regional content and increased production facilities in the Midlands. It is also told to rename itself and it chooses the name Central Independent Television. Southern Television lost its licence for the South of England, in favour of Television South (TVS) and Westward Television also lost its licence for South West England, to be replaced by Television South West (TSW). The IBA also announces that TV-am has been awarded the contract to provide a national breakfast television service, with a provisional launch in spring 1983.Southern and Westward TV lose franchises and others to be restructured. By Kenneth Gosling. The Times, Monday, 29 December 1980; pg. 1 29 December – ITV launches its first branded children's slot when it launches Watch It!. The programmes are broadcast on weekdays between 4:15pm to 5:15pm and are presented live by the duty continuity announcer in each ITV region.
1981 11 August – TSW takes over Westward Television but continues to use the Westward name until 1 January 1982. 31 December – ATV, Southern and Westward stop broadcasting at the end of their day's programming – i.e. shortly after midnight.
1982 1 January – Central, TVS and TSW start broadcasting. The Bluebell Hill transmitter in Kent is transferred from Thames/LWT to TVS, to increase the size of TVS's new South East sub-region.Peter Fiddick "ITV's framework for survival in the eighties", The Guardian; 25 January 1980; p.2 Yorkshire extends its coverage on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border when transmitters covering Todmorden and Walsden were transferred from the Granada region.ITV's framework for survival in the eighties: Expectations of a harsh ... The Guardian (1959–2003); 25 January 1980;£5m for staff who seek TV franchise. By Kenneth Gosling. The Times, Monday, 12 May 1980; The Kendal transmitter, covering much of southern Cumbria, is transferred from Granada to Border.
1983 3 January – Children's ITV is launched, replacing Watch It!. Programmes begin 15 minutes earlier, at 4 pm – the extra fifteen minutes being filled by a repeat of one of the pre-school programmes shown at lunchtime the same day. The slot is presented on a national basis and programmes are linked by an in-vision presenter. 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service TV-am launches, broadcasting between 6 AM and 9:15 am. It has been beaten to air by the BBC which launched Breakfast Time two weeks previously. 17 May – Engineering Announcements is broadcast on ITV for the final time. The programme transfers to Channel 4 and continues until July 1990. 23 May – TV-am changes its broadcasting hours. It now begins during the week at 6:25 am, with a later start at the weekend. However TV-am is now able to stay on air until 9:25 am due to the automation of the switching process from national to regional programming.