ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British news television channel of ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since continued to produce all news programmes on ITV. The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and BAFTAs. Between 2004 and 2008, the ITV Evening News held the title of "RTS News Programme of the Year". The flagship ITV News at Ten has won numerous BAFTA awards, and also being named "RTS News Programme of the Year" in 2011, 2015, 2021 and 2022.
ITV News has the second-largest television news audience in the United Kingdom, second only to BBC News (and followed by other broadcasters such as Sky News, Channel 4 News and Channel 5 News). Initially, all national news programmes on ITV carried ITN's own brand. As the ITV network consolidated from the mid 1990s onwards, ITN branding of news programmes was eventually dropped on 8 March 1999 following the introduction of the ITV News brand. ITN remains the producer of all the national ITV News programmes.
History
1955–1969: Early years ITN was set up by the Independent Television Authority to provide a new type of news service for the upcoming commercial television service Independent Television (ITV). Both ITN and ITV were launched on 22 September 1955, and the news service immediately broke new ground by introducing in-vision newscasters and reporter packages (incidentally, the first roster of regular ITN newscasters and reporters included marathon runner Christopher Chataway, Robin Day, and Reginald Bosanquet).
The unique, probing reporting style of Robin Day caused shock among politicians, finding themselves questioned continually for information – this had never been the case with the BBC. ITN also boasted the first British female newsreader, Barbara Mandell, in 1956. Into the 1960s, reporters such as George Ffitch, Alastair Burnet, Gordon Honeycombe, Huw Thomas and Sandy Gall emerged as aspiring newscasters, under the leadership of editor Geoffrey Cox.
The original ITN logo, featuring a large "T" flanked either side by "I" and "N" (all encased within an outlined circle), was used from 1955 up to 1970. The original ITN theme tune was an excerpt of Non-Stop, a piece of light music composed by John Malcolm, used from 1955 up to 1982. As the years went on, full-length ITN news programmes were launched with their own theme music and particular branding (first News at Ten, then First Report, and finally News at 5.45), meaning that by its end, Non-Stop was only in use on generic news bulletins mainly at weekends.
1969–1972: Launch of News at 10 In 1967, ITN editor Geoffrey Cox suggested launching a half-hour news bulletin for ITV, every weeknight. ITV executives, however, were sceptical of that idea, because it was thought that viewers would not want a full 30 minutes of news every Monday to Friday (there had only been one half-hour news programme in Britain previously – BBC2's Newsroom, launched in 1964). However, the idea was approved on the condition it ran for a 13-week trial, and News at Ten was born on 3 July 1967. ITN's head newscasters – Alastair Burnet, Andrew Gardner, and George Ffitch – presented the first News at Ten, and the bulletin became so popular with viewers that it was kept in the schedules after its initial 13 weeks. The programme's titles used an excerpt of The Awakening, a piece of dramatic music composed by Johnny Pearson. The famous chimes of the Westminster Clock Tower – affectionately known as the bongs – separated each headline as it was read out. The early opening title sequences were simplistic; for the first two years, the ITN symbol faded into a wide studio shot showing the two newscasters at the desk, with the caption News at 10. Then, in 1969, a new title sequence was introduced: a slow pan of the Houses of Parliament was followed by a sharp zoom into the face of "Big Ben" showing the time of 22:00. The text "Independent Television News" was shown at the start of the sequence, followed by the individual words "NEWS", "at" and "TEN", which appeared in time to the title music. The sequence was amended a year later to feature the new ITN logo at the beginning. The logo, introduced in 1970, was a simple sans-serif outline of the phrase "ITN". The basic concept of the logo remains today.
1972–1999: Expansion of news output
On 16 October 1972, a twenty-minute lunchtime bulletin was introduced into the ITV schedule – First Report, which was hosted by Robert Kee and ran from 12:40 to 13:00. This was followed on 6 September 1976 by the introduction of a new evening bulletin, the News at 545, which ran from 17:45 to 18:00; Michael Nicholson and Leonard Parkin alternated in the newscaster chair. By this time, with three regular ITN bulletins throughout the day – and each having their own look and specially composed music – the original ITN Non-Stop theme music was only seen on generic summaries and weekend bulletins. In 1982, it was finally replaced with a synthesised alternative.
First Report was moved to 13:00 on 30 September 1974 and retitled News at One in 1976; Leonard Parkin and Peter Sissons alternated in the presenter's chair. Michael Nicholson continued as main newscaster of the News at 545, with Martyn Lewis replacing Parkin as the relief presenter. In 1986, Nicholson left newscasting to return to war reporting and was replaced by Alastair Stewart. Leonard Parkin retired in 1987, and Peter Sissons became a main newscaster for ITN's Channel 4 News (before moving to the BBC in 1989) – it was at this point that the programme revamped. It was moved to 12:30, and appropriately became the News at 12:30. Julia Somerville joined ITN from the BBC's Nine O'Clock News to host the new programme, with John Suchet and Jon Snow acting as relief presenters. In 1988, the programme returned to its original slot and once again became the News at One; the presenting line-up remained unchanged. In 1989, Somerville left the programme to become a main presenter of News at Ten, leaving Suchet to become the main lunchtime newscaster – the programme was revamped once more. In 1991, the programme moved back to the 12:30 slot, but retained the studio setting. In 1993, graphics were relaunched to bring it in line with other ITN news bulletins.
News at 545 was replaced by the News at 540 in 1989 (following the introduction of the ITV National Weather forecast), and a new presenting team was formed comprising Carol Barnes, Nicholas Owen, Trevor McDonald, Fiona Armstrong, and Alastair Stewart. The programme lasted until March 1992 when it was renamed and relaunched, in line with other ITN bulletins.
News at Ten continued to rate as the most popular news programme on television. In 1988, the programme launched specially made opening titles featuring a computer generated travel through London, up the River Thames until the camera stops at the "Big Ben" clockface.
ITN's regular newscasting team in the 1980s included Alastair Burnet, Sandy Gall, Leonard Parkin, Alastair Stewart, Trevor McDonald, Julia Somerville, Carol Barnes, Fiona Armstrong, John Suchet, Nicholas Owen, and a host of well-known reporters and correspondents.
1990–2001: ITN reforms In 1991, ITN moved into its new building at Gray's Inn Road, London (previously owned by The Sunday Times). From this year, ITN news programmes revamped and moved to be presented from the ITV newsroom, foremostly to show the impressive atrium in the newly purchased headquarters – with the exception of the lunchtime programme which continued with its own studio and music, but took on elements of the new revamp – such as the serif font style newly introduced for ITN bulletins. The News at 12:30 bulletin itself was renamed the Lunchtime News in 1992. The main lunchtime newscasters between 1992 and 1995 were Nicholas Owen and Carol Barnes. Dermot Murnaghan, Sonia Ruseler (who left in 1993) and Julia Somerville acted as relief newscasters until 1995, when Murnaghan and Somerville became the bulletin's regular newscasters.
News at 540 was renamed the Early Evening News on 2 March 1992 and presented from the ITV newsroom adjacent to the ITN atrium. John Suchet was the main newscaster for the Early Evening News, and relief presenters included Carol Barnes, Nicholas Owen and Dermot Murnaghan.
News at Ten underwent a revamp on 9 November 1992 after the departures of newscasters Alastair Burnet (in August 1991) and Sandy Gall (in early 1992, though he did remain at ITN filing special war reports for News at Ten). A new set was created for the programme, featuring television monitors, a large video screen, and a curved desk with "News at Ten" inscribed into it. Trevor McDonald became the sole newscaster of the programme. John Suchet, Dermot Murnaghan, and Julia Somerville were relief presenters for the bulletin. Initially, the new-look News at Ten was presented from the same studio as the Early Evening News, adjacent to the ITV newsroom.
In 1995, all ITN programmes relaunched with a unified look, using blue colours (the corporate colour of ITN at the time). A new set was created in the former Early Evening News studio, adjacent to the atrium and next to the ITV newsroom. The glass walls were coated in semi-transparent blue perspex; the left wall looked onto the lobby of ITN's building, whilst the right showed the busy atmosphere of the ITV newsroom. Different variations on the theme music distinguished the main bulletins. Design firm Lambie-Nairn devised the new look, which saw special arrangements of the famous News at Ten music being used for the other bulletins (as composed by Dave Hewson).
2001–2002: Second incarnation of News at 10 Whereas the 2001 ITV News at Ten was at 22:00 for only three nights a week, the BBC's Ten O'Clock News was a firm fixture at ten for six nights a week. ITV rarely started this incarnation of News at Ten on time; time starts ranging from 21:55 to 22:10 led to the programme being disparaged as "News at When?" and viewers soon switched to the BBC. In January 2002, the ITN name was removed from the voiceovers at the start of bulletins and reporter name-checks. The ITN name and logo is now only seen on the production slide, and is only used in ITV bulletins when referring to footage shot by ITN camera teams working for other clients (for example: the ITN name is used when both News at Ten and Channel 4 News broadcast the same piece of footage).
2003–2006 On 19 March 2003, with the outbreak of warfare in Iraq, ITV replaced the ITV News at Ten with a special 45-minute-long ITV News at Nine every Monday to Friday, hosted by Trevor McDonald in Kuwait City and John Suchet in the ITV News studio in London. The News at Nine proved to be very popular, reaching 9.1 million viewers on the first night in comparison to the 5 to 6 million for the BBC's late evening news. The ITV Evening News was extended to 60 minutes, and various ITV news specials ran throughout the schedules. A simulcast of the ITV News Channel aired from 00:00 to 05:30 every night on ITV1. ITN also managed to persuade big name newscasters to return to the organisation to present the special war coverage on ITV: Alastair Stewart, Carol Barnes, Angela Rippon, Jon Nicholson and Anne Leuchars were all back presenting news bulletins and regular slots on the ITV News Channel.
Since 2004, ITV plc's 40% stake in ITN has been held as part of (and the company's ITV News operations integrated into) the ITV News Group. The ITV News Group also comprises the ITV regions in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, as well as ITV Sport. Its director is Michael Jermey, formerly a programme editor with ITN.