This is a timeline of the history of Ulster Television (now known as UTV). It provides the ITV network service for Northern Ireland.

1950s 1958 September – Five years after television came to Northern Ireland, The Independent Television Authority, advertises the franchise for Northern Ireland. Two consortia apply and the ITA persuades the applicants to merge their bids to obtain the new franchise, on the provision that a greater stake of investment in the station was offered to Catholic sources.

1959 31 October – Ulster Television launches at 4:45pm. However, only one main transmitter, Black Mountain, is operational meaning that coverage is not widespread, especially in western areas.

1960s 1960 No events.

1961 No events.

1962 Ulster opens a second studio at its Havelock House, Belfast base.

1963 18 February – The Strabane transmitter opens, bringing coverage to the west of Northern Ireland for the first time.

1964 Newsview replaces Roundabout as Ulster's regional news programme. Ulster is given a three-year extension to its licence. This is later extended by a further year.

1965 No events.

1966 No events.

1967 The Independent Television Authority renews Ulster's licence for a further seven years.

1968 3 August – A technicians strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary ITV Emergency National Service with no regional variations. The strike ends on 18 August. 14 September – The final edition of Ulster Television's listings magazine TV Post is published. Listings are subsequently carried in an Ulster edition of TVTimes which became a national publication on 21 September.

1969 UTV Reports replaces Roundabout as Ulster's regional news programme.

1970s 1970 14 September – Ulster launches a colour television service, but only from the Divis transmitter. To mark the change, the logo is redesigned.TV Live: UTV

1971 The music used as part of the station's daily start-up routine is changed when The Antrim Road, a classical symphony composed by Wayne Hill and Earl Ward, replaced Seamus, written by the American musician, composer and bandleader Van Phillips, which had been used since the station's launch.

1972 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service.

1973 No events.

1974 The 1974 franchise round sees no changes in ITV's contractors as it is felt that the huge cost in switching to colour television would have made the companies unable to compete against rivals in a franchise battle.

1975 1 December – The Limavady transmitting station starts broadcasting a colour service to the north west of Northern Ireland, with additional coverage provided by the Londonderry transmitter. Consequently, colour broadcasts from Ulster Television are now available in the North West.

1976 No events.

1977 No events.

1978 Ulster starts broadcasting in colour from the Brougher Mountain transmitter.

1979 Good Evening Ulster replaces UTV Reports as Ulster's regional news programme. It becomes the UK's first hour-long regional news programme. 10 August – The ten-week ITV strike forces Ulster Television off the air. The strike ends on 24 October.

1980s 1980 31 October – To celebrate its 21st anniversary, Ulster commissions a new ident featuring a model of the station logo embedded on four faces of a cube, coated in silver with a pole skewering the top and bottom of the cube. The logo is nicknamed "The Lollipop".TV Live: Ulster Television 1980-1988

1981 No events.

1982 Ulster restores all-day broadcasting hours. For the last few years, it had broadcast reduced hours, not coming on air until 12pm during the week when no schools programmes were being broadcast and closing down every evening at 11:30pm.

1983 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service TV-am launches. It is a UK-wide service and therefore contains no Northern Irish-specific content. Consequently, Ulster's broadcast day now begins at 9:25am.

1984 No events.

1985 3 January – Ulster's last day of transmission using the 405-lines system.

1986 No events.

1987 7 September To coincide with the launch of the station's evening magazine programme, Six Tonight, a new ident was used to introduce it, featuring a computer-animated silver station logo on a blue/green backdrop. Following the transfer of ITV Schools to Channel 4, ITV provides a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins.

1988 3 October – Ulster begins 24-hour broadcasting.TV Ark: ITV Overnight Services They had planned to commence 24-hour transmissions a month earlier but a last minute decision to take the overnight service provided by Granada, rather than that provided by Central, caused the delay.

1989 1 January – A revised ident is introduced and is the last to feature the logo first seen in 1970.

1990s 1990 No events.

1991 16 October – Ulster retains its licence. There were three applicants for the licence and the other two had tabled higher bids. However, Television Northern Ireland (TVNI) was rejected because of its business plan and Lagan Television failed to meet the quality threshold.

1992 No events.

1993 4 January – Ulster's news service is renamed UTV Live. The programme broadcasts for 60 minutes, instead of 30. 4 June At 6pm, UTV unveils a new logo to coincide with the station now being known as UTV. Since the start of 1993, continuity announcements and trailers increasingly referred to the channel as "UTV". It also drops ITV network promotions and introduces locally produced trails. Ulster's extended studios at Havelock House are formally opened by former UTV newsreader Gloria Hunniford.

1994 No events.

1995 No events.

1996 11 November – UTV introduces a new series of idents which showcase scenic locations in Northern Ireland. These include the Giant's Causeway, a waterfall at Glenarriff, and Portaferry harbour. Some of the idents also featured UTV personalities.

1997 No events.

1998 12 January – The 1996 logos are supplemented with a set of idents featuring people playing the UTV jingle on various musical instruments. 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom takes place.

1999 8 March – Following the introduction of the ITV Evening News, UTV Live is brought forward by half an hour to start at 5:30pm. The first half-hour sees feature reports, light-hearted stories and the weather forecast branded as part of a separate programme, UTV Life, which airs before the main evening news which starts at 6pm and is branded as UTV Live at Six. 28 June – UTV launches a second television channel, TV You. It is available only to viewers of digital terrestrial and NTL cable.

2000s 2000 TV You is rebranded as UTV2.

2001 11 August – ITV's main channel is rebranded ITV1.

2002 22 January – UTV2 closes following a deal with ITV Digital to replace it with ITV2. UTV Live and UTV Life are merged into a single hour-long programme, running from 5:30pm. 28 October – UTV adopts the new celebrity idents from ITV1. However, these were gradually replaced with local versions featuring notable personalities and broadcasters from Northern Ireland.

2003 20 November – UTV replaces its network-inspired graphics with a series landscape films of Northern Ireland in their idents, in the form of a panorama shot as the camera revolved around a location.UTV Today: 2003–05 Scenery Idents (Old Soundtrack) . Retrieved 4 January 2009.

2004 No events.

2005 16 December – After more than 16 years on air, the final edition of UTV's regional talk and variety show Kelly is broadcast.Belfast Telegraph: "Curtain falls on the Kelly Show"; dated 1 September 2005, retrieved 11 January 2008 At around the same time, UTV axes the rest of its local entertainment programming as part of cutbacks to the station's local output.

2006 16 January – To coincide with the introduction of a new identity across ITV plc stations, UTV replaces its 2003 idents with a brand new set.UTV Today: 2006–07 Scenery Idents: About These Idents . Retrieved 1 April 2008. The new idents featured newly recorded films shot across Northern Ireland, again in the form of panoramas. The landscape films used in these idents are updated in July 2007 and October 2008. 26 May – The registered company name is changed from 'Ulster Television plc' to 'UTV plc'. The company believed that the existing name no longer reflected the full scope of the company's business.

2007 February – UTV Live and UTV Life are split into separate programmes once again and all bulletins outside of the main early evening programme are retitled UTV News. This continues until April 2009.

2008 No events.

2009 February – Mid-morning weekday and weekend lunchtime UTV Live bulletins are axed when the station is permitted to reduce their weekly news output from five hours and twenty minutes to four hours."UTV Life may face axe" Belfast Telegraph, 8 October 2008; accessed 18 January 2009 6 February – Cost-cutting measures and a reduction in regional programming at the station result in the end of UTV Life. 27 April – UTV launches a 30-minute late evening news and current affairs programme, UTV Live Tonight, which follows the News at Ten on Monday to Thursday nights and incorporates the station's late news bulletin alongside extended political and business coverage. Having scaled back in-vision continunity on weekend evenings in recent years, UTV reintroduces it full-time in that slot.

2010s 2010 5 October – UTV HD launches, but only on Virgin Media.

2011 11 January – At 8pm, UTV +1 launches.

2012 12 October – UTV launches a new set of idents.TV Ark: UTV 2012-2016 23 October – At just after 11:30pm, Digital switchover is completed in the UK when analogue television signals in Northern Ireland are switched off. 24 October – UTV HD launches on Freeview.

2013 4 November – UTV HD launches on Sky and Freesat.

2014 No events.

2015 1 January – UTV Ireland is launched and four days later, a news and current affairs programme for the channel, Ireland Live launches, broadcasting a half-hour early evening newscast and an hour-long programme at 10pm, also produces local news updates during UTV Ireland's simulcasts of Good Morning Britain.UTV Ireland to broadcast GMB with Ireland Live News , utv.ie, 30 January 2015 14 May – UTV Ireland begins broadcasting hourly Ireland Live news updates throughout the day. 19 October – UTV Media announces that it will sell its ITV franchise and the UTV brand to ITV plc for £100 million, subject to regulatory approval. The sale is completed on 29 February 2016.

2016 January – UTV Life returns as a weekly 30-minute Friday night programme, airing after the late UTV Live bulletin and presented by Pamela Ballantine. 11 July – ITV plc sells UTV Ireland to Virgin Media Ireland for €10 million. 29 September – The 30-minute long UTV Live Tonight is axed and replaced by a shorter ten-minute bulletin and a Monday night hour-long current affairs programme called View from Stormont.ITV axes UTV Live Tonight in network revamp, Belfast Telegraph, 10 August 2016 September also sees UTV Life returning to a weekly primetime slot at 8pm. 16 October – At 11:15pm, the last live in-vision announcement is made ahead of the launch the following day of a brand new look which sees an alignment of the UTV brand more closely with that of the ITV network.UTV's new channel identity goes live, itv.com, 17 October 2016

2017 9 January – UTV Ireland is closed and is replaced by a substantially new channel called Be3, focussing on children's and female-orientated programming. The closure also sees the ending after two years of UTV-produced news and current affairs programme for the channel, Ireland Live.

2018