This is a timeline of the history of regional news on the British television network ITV.
1950s
1955 22 September – The first news bulletin is broadcast at 10pm on ITV's launch night.
1956 17 February – ITV begins broadcasting in the Midlands - 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 across the north of England. 7 May – The first broadcast of ATV Midlands News takes place. It is a short daily summary of regional news with stories often sourced directly from the Birmingham Evening Despatch, a local newspaper.ATV Today – A Midland Montage , transdiffusion.org Film footage is later added with footage shot by Birmingham Commercial Films. It was not until 1959 that ATV set up its own film unit for its regional news service.
1957 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. 8 October – ITV broadcasts its first election results programme to provide ITV with live coverage of the results of the 1959 United Kingdom general election. 27 October – Anglia Television launches, bringing ITV to east England. 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. 2 June – About Anglia launches as a twice-weekly programme accompanying the 10-minute regional evening news bulletin on weekdays. Its success prompted it to be extended to four nights a week the following September and then, every weeknight.Dinosaurs - Anglia Television
1961 Southern opens studios in Dover and launches localised news opt-outs for the east of the region, becoming the first broadcaster in the UK provide such a service. 4 April – Southern launches a weeknight 30-minute regional news programme called Day By Day. 29 April – Westward Television launches, bring ITV to south west England. 1 September – Border Television launches and the opening day sees Border broadcast the first edition of its regional news magazine Lookaround. 30 September – Grampian Television launches.
1962 1 September – Channel Television launches. 14 September – The final part of the UK gets an ITV service when Wales (West and North) Television launches in West and North Wales as Teledu Cymru.
1963 No events.
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. 30 March – Tyne Tees introduces a nightly regional news programme called North East Newsview. Previously, regional news had consisted of short bulletins and a weekly Friday night programme called North East Roundabout. 5 October – Following pressure from the Independent Television Authority to improve regional coverage, ATV introduces a nightly news magazine programme, ATV Today. It runs for 20 minutes and follows the teatime 15 minute-long ATV Midlands News bulletin. Later ATV Today is later expanded to the full 30 minutes and the news bulletin is subsumed into the main programme. 9 October – Southern launches a weekly news magazine for South East England called Friday on Ten. This is shown instead of the Friday edition of regional news magazine Day by Day. Newsview replaces Roundabout as Ulster's regional news programme.
1965 26 March – Border Television begins broadcasting to the Isle of Man.
1966 No events.
1967 No events.
1968 4 March – TWW stops broadcasting five months before its contract was due to expire. The ITA provides an interim service called Independent Television Service for Wales and the West until 20 May when the new contractor, Harlech Television, takes over. The change in contractor the launch of a full half-hour evening news programme, Y Dydd (The Day) in Welsh and Report Wales in English, broadcast to south Wales and the West of England. Previously, TWW had provided short evening bulletins known as TWW Reports, presented jointly from studios in Cardiff and Bristol, where the station ran a joint news operation covering the two areas. 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. The new contractor launches its own news operation under the title of Calendar . 30 July – Thames Television replaces Associated-Rediffusion as the holder of the London weekday franchise. 2 August — London Weekend Television (LWT) replaces ATV as London's weekend franchisee.
1969 Tyne Tees’ regional news programme is renamed Today at Six. UTV Reports replaces Roundabout as Ulster's regional news programme.
1970s 1970 June – A separate HTV West service is launched, as is a full evening news programme for the region called Report West.
1971 No events.
1972 11 September – Scottish television launches Scotland Today, although the programme is only broadcast for ten months each year. Magazine programmes are shown during the summer break.
1973 Granada's nightly news programme is relaunched as Granada Reports. The nightly news programme had previously had various titles, including Northern Newscast, Scene at Six Thirty, Newsview and People and Places.
1974 No events.
1975 No events.
1976 6 September – Northern Life replaces Today at Six as Tyne Tees’ regional news programme.
1977 Due to the popularity of weekly magazine programme Scene South East, Southern launches Scene Midweek. This replaces part two of the Wednesday edition of Day by Day. 5 September – Thames launches a lunchtime regional news bulletin. 12 September – Thames Television axes Today and replaces it with a more conventional news magazine Thames at Six.
1978 Grampian Television becomes the first British television station to adopt ENG video cameras for news coverage - a move which finally allows its regional news programme, Grampian Today, to extend from three to five nights a week. Scotland Today’s annual summer break is scrapped and consequently the programme is now on air all year round.
1979 Thames News at Six is renamed Thames News. Good Evening Ulster replaces UTV Reports/Reports as Ulster’s regional news programme. It becomes the UK's first hour-long regional news programme.
1980s 1980 7 January – Grampian Today is relaunched as North Tonight as part of an effort to reflect all of northern Scotland. 28 April – A late night Thames News bulletin is launched. It had originally been planned to launch at the same time as the lunchtime bulletin but was delayed due to union problems.
1981 31 December – ATV, Southern and Westward stop broadcasting at the end of their day's programming and the day sees the final editions of the three companies’ regional news programmes - ATV Today, Day By Day and Westward Diary are broadcast for the final time.
1982 1 January – Central, TVS and TSW start broadcasting. TVS broadcasts the first main edition of its new regional news magazine Coast to Coast At first, the programme airs between 5:30pm & 6:30pm, consisting of two sub-regional segments at 5:30pm & 6:20pm, ITN's News at 545 bulletin and a pan-regional segment at 6pm. 8 January – Due to the earlier Friday start time for LWT, LWT becomes contractually responsible for providing a Friday London news service. Rather than launch its own news service, LWT pays Thames to provide a 15-minute insert into The Six O'Clock Show, LWT's Friday teatime magazine. The bulletin is called Thames Weekend News. Over the weekend, LWT's news coverage consists of LWT News Headlines, which are aired mid-afternoon and late evening. These bulletins usually consisted solely of the duty continuity announcer in-vision reading copy sourced from the Independent Local Radio station LBC, and later, from local wire agencies. Spring – The main evening edition of Coast to Coast is cut to a single 30 minute programme, beginning at 6pm. The change also sees the launch of fully separate editions for the south and south east. Report West is renamed HTV News. 31 October – Programmes in Welsh, including news bulletins, are broadcast on HTV for the final time as from the following day, all Welsh language programmes both on BBC Wales and HTV transfers to the new Welsh fourth channel S4C. 1 November – Following the launch of S4C, HTV Wales becomes a fully English language service and it renames its news programme to Wales at Six.
1983 September – Central finally launches its East Midlands service. An industrial dispute had prevented Central from launching its East Midlands service until 21 months after Central actually launched.
1984 8 October – Scotland Today is relaunched as a features-led magazine format with the news relegated to brief summaries before and after the programme.Kelly gets his eye in, Gavin Docherty, Evening Times, 8 October 1984
1985 No events.
1986 20 October – Following considerable criticism, including from the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the 1984 changes introduced by Scottish Television to Scotland Today are reversed and the programme once again becomes a news bulletin with the feature elements transferred to a new lunchtime programme called Live at One Thirty.
1987 20 July – The lunchtime news programme moves to 12:30pm and the regional news bulletins are moved accordingly, to 12:50pm. 7 September – ITV launches a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes hourly five-minute national and regional news bulletins. Ulster's evening news magazine programme is renamed Six Tonight. December – Thames Weekend News is broadcast by LWT on Friday evenings for the final time. TSW changes the name of its regional news programme from Today South West to Today.
1988 8 January – Following concern from the IBA over LWT's regional news output, LWT launches its own news service called LWT News. The service is outsourced and is provided by Screen NewsLondon Weekend Television item, Channel 4 News, 21 March 1988 until the start of 1990 when Chrysalis takes over the contract. Grampian launches weekend regional news bulletins and at the same time, all of Grampian's news bulletins are renamed as Grampian Headlines. 7 March – The lunchtime news returns to the 1pm slot with regional bulletins moving to 1.20pm. 5 June – For the first time, regional news bulletins are broadcast on Yorkshire Television at the weekend. Two bulletins are aired at the weekend, after the lunchtime and teatime ITN News bulletins. 12 December – TVS launches a new sub-region, providing viewers in Berkshire and north Hampshire, who are served by the Hannington transmitting station with a more localised news service as an opt-out from regional news magazine programme Coast to Coast.
1989 9 January – Central launches a third sub-region – Central South. It covers Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and parts of Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Wiltshire. These areas were previously served by the Central West sub-region.Central News South first edition, 9 January 1989 Border begins providing a sub-regional service for Scottish Borders viewers served by the Selkirk transmitter, consisting of a short opt-out during Lookaround each weeknight.