ITV News is the name given to news broadcasts on the British television network ITV. It has one of the largest television audiences for news in the United Kingdom. It has been produced by Independent Television News (ITN) since 1955 - ITV's news bulletins were more commonly known under the ITN News name until March 1999, when the ITV News brand was launched. ITN and ITV News have a 50-year history of television reporting, from the 1969 Apollo moon landing right up to the recent Gulf war. It has won numerous awards, including "RTS News Programme of the Year 2008" for the ITV Evening News.
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ITN was set-up by the Independent Television Authority to provide a new type of news service for the upcoming commercial television service (ITV). ITN (and ITV) were both launched on 22 September 1955. The first roster of regular ITN newscasters and reporters included marathon runner Christopher Chataway, Robin Day, and Reginald Bosanquet. ITN also boasted the first British female newsreader, Barbara Mandell, in 1956. Into the 1960s, reporters such as George Ffitch, Alastair Burnet, and Gordon Honeycombe emerged as aspiring news anchors.
The original ITN logo, featuring the letters "I" and "N" with an oversized "T" (all in the centre of a circle), was used from 1955 up to 1969 and the advent of colour television. The original ITN theme tune was an excerpt of Non-Stop, a piece of light music composed by Malcolm John Batt, used from 1955 up to 1982. By its end it was only used on generic bulletins, with each of the other regular ITN bulletins - First Report, News at 545 and News at Ten - having its own look and feel.
In 1967, ITN editor Geoffrey Cox suggested launching a half-hour news bulletin for ITV, every weeknight. ITV executives, however, were skeptical 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 utilised 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; a (live) night-time camera pan across the Houses of Parliament, followed by a sharp zoom into the face of "Big Ben" showing the time of 10:00pm.
15 November 1969 saw the beginning of colour television. As such, a new ITN logo was introduced - it was simply a sans-serif outline of the phrase "ITN". In 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 12:40pm to 1:00pm. This was followed in 6 September 1976 by the introduction of a new evening bulletin, the ITN News at 545, which ran from 5:45pm to 6:00pm; 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 or weekend bulletins. In 1982, it was finally replaced with a synthesised alternative.
First Report was replaced with the News at One in 1981. Leonard Parkin and Peter Sissons alternating in the presenter's chair. 1987 saw News at One revamping, mainly due to Parkin's retirement and Sissons' defection to the BBC. Julia Somerville joined ITN from the BBC to host the new News at 12:30. Somerville later became a main presenter of News at Ten (in 1989), and John Suchet took over the lunchtime presenting role. In 1990, Suchet and the News at 12:30 moved back to 1:00pm, until 1992.
News at 545 was replaced by the News at 540 in 1989 (following the introduction of the ITV 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 1992.
News at Ten to rate as the highest viewed news bulletin on television. In 1987, the programme took on 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 1980 now included Alastair Burnet, Sandy Gall, Leonard Parkin, Alastair Stewart, Trevor McDonald, Julia Somerville, Carol Barnes, Fiona Armstrong, John Suchet, Nicholas Owen, and many more famous names.
1992 saw ITN news programmes revamping and moving to be presented from the ITV newsroom, foremostly to show the impressive atrium in the newly-purchased ITN building at Gray's Inn Road, London (with the except 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 now used for ITN bulletins).
News at One was renamed the Lunchtime News in 1992 and moved back to 12:30pm. The main newscasters were Nicholas Owen and Carol Barnes. Sonia Ruseler and Julia Somerville would also co-present the bulletin at times.
News at 540 was renamed the Early Evening News in 1992 and presented, like all of the other bulletins (except the lunchtime programme), from the ITV newsroom in the ITN atrium. John Suchet was the main newscaster for the Early Evening News, and relief presenters included Carol Barnes and Dermot Murnaghan.
News at Ten underwent a revamp following the retirement of Alastair Burnet in 1992. A new studio was specially created for the programme, featuring television monitors, a video screen, and a large oval-shaped desk with the "News at Ten" name written into the desk. Trevor McDonald became the sole newscaster of the programme; his inimitable style and authority ensured he became a national treasure. John Suchet, Dermot Murnaghan, and Julia Somerville were relief presenters for the bulletin.
In 1995, all ITN programmes (with the exception of News at Ten) relaunched with a unified look, using blue colours (the corporate colour of ITN at the time). A special studio was created in the atrium, next to the ITV newsroom. A large oval desk (inspired by News at Ten) with a coloured light strip (red/yellow) in the desk was the main feature; the walls were coated in blue-coloured perspex. The left wall showed an impressive look into the lobby of ITN's building, whilst the right showed the busy atmosphere of the ITV newsroom. The programme's theme music separated each bulletin. 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.
1999 saw the biggest and largest (to date) change to news bulletins on ITV. On March 8, 1999, all ITN programmes were rebranded under the name ITV News. Under the leadership of Granada chairman Charles Allen, the channel also controversially decided to axe the flagship News at Ten bulletin.[1] Replacing the 10:00pm bulletin (and in turn the old 5:40pm Early Evening News) as the flagship ITN programme was the ITV Evening News at 6:30pm (fronted by Trevor McDonald). The ITV Nightly News (anchored by Dermot Murnaghan) aired for 20 minutes every night at 11:00pm. However, viewing figures for all ITV News bulletins had dropped radically by the start of the year 2000 (in sharp contrast to the ITN-branded bulletins), and after a long battle with the regulating ITC, a half-hearted ITV News at Ten returned (with McDonald again hosting) in 2001, although only for 3 days a week in order to accommodate other programming. The programme returned with a massive 8 million viewers, but figures soon fell drastically. Also in 2001, 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.
With the outbreak of warfare in Iraq in 2003, 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. 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 12:00am to 6:00am every night on ITV.
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 and Wales, and ITV Sport. Its director is Mark Sharman, the former Channel 4 head of sport. Sharman is also responsible for ITV Sport.
On 2 February 2004, ITV News unveiled a £1 million virtual studio, with a rounded green screen (the set is nicknamed the "Theatre of News") for presenters to stand up and host reports with. As part of the revamp, the ITV News at Ten was axed due to low ratings and replaced with the News at Ten Thirty, hosted once again by McDonald (from Monday-Thursday), and by Mark Austin on Fridays. The new programme did not fare any better in the ratings; News at Ten had once gained audiences of 10 million or more, though ITV News at Ten Thirty now struggled to reach 2 million viewers on any one night (though the flagship ITV Evening News regularly attracted audiences of around 6 million). In addition, ITV abandoned its 24-hour news channel towards the end of 2005, saying it was not "commercially viable".
In 16 January 2006, to reflect the launch of the new ITV logo, ITV News revamped with a teal-coloured look. The music was remixed to become slightly 'heavier', and new opening titles were made based around the infamous clock face (see right). A specially-made VR view of the ITN atrium now adorned the "Theatre of News" screen (an earlier version had been used for ITV's Election 2005 a year previously). In November 2006, the teal-colours of the name-strap designs and other on-screen graphics (except the opening titles and stings) were replaced with blue; the atrium design was amended accordingly.
On 2 December 2007, ITV News and the ITV regional newsrooms switched from the traditional 4:3 format to 16:9 widescreen.[2]
In 2007, ITV plc's newly-appointed chairman Michael Grade was reported as saying that the axing of the original News at Ten was "the worst mistake ITV ever made";[3] not long afterwards, plans were made for the famous bulletin to return to ITV. News at Ten returned on January 14, 2008, with a revised version of the original theme tune, presented by Trevor McDonald (temporarily, until November of that year, after which point Mark Austin took over) and former Sky News presenter Julie Etchingham. The studio contains a VR view over night-time London, with black/deep blue being the primary colour scheme. VR glass 'sheets' also provide News at Ten logos on them.
Today ITV News' trademarks are the inclusion of the Clock Tower of the Houses of Parliament in its programme titles, along with the chimes of Big Ben (known popularly as the "bongs") between headlines. These however were originally used only for News at Ten, with most ITN bulletins using different studios and individual graphic sets. In 1995, ITN adopted a unified look for all ITV bulletins (except News at Ten, which itself was relaunched a few years prior, in 1992), extending the use of the Big Ben clockface to all ITV bulletins. A re-arranged version of the News at Ten theme tune, The Awakening (by Johnny Pearson), was used for the other ITV bulletins (the Morning News and the Lunchtime News utilised the same theme, whilst the Early Evening News used a slightly different arrangement. A further update was made in 1998 when the Early Evening News titles - featuring the Big Ben clock face - were dropped, replaced by a studio shot and a small musical sting).
In March 1999, the "ITV News" brand was introduced and, with the loss of News at Ten, the "bongs" were extended to all ITN bulletins (despite all but one of them starting on the half-hour). The ITN name was dropped from the start of bulletins and, in 2001, from reporter sign-offs. "The Awakening" was re-arranged again in February 2004 as part of a major revamp of ITV News, and again in January 2006 with a further revamp of ITV News bulletins (due to the introduction of a new ITV logo. A computer-generated view of the ITN atrium now fills the ITV News "theatre of news"). Despite the 2008 return of News at Ten, the other bulletins continue to use the "bongs".
In 2007 The Guardian reported that ITV planned to take its news output "back to basics" by paring back graphics and having newscasters adopt a more formal style of presenting from behind the desk instead of standing in front of graphics.[4]
ITV News has one of the largest television audiences for news in the UK, with its viewing figures for all of its main programmes counted in the millions. BBC News is the only other news provider that has higher audience figures. Other broadcasters such as Sky News, Channel 4 News and Five News count their audiences in hundreds of thousands.
| Title | Broadcast | On air | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ITV Morning News | 05:30-06:00 | Daily | During the summer and Christmas holiday period, the bulletin is replaced with a ten-minutes news summary to accommodate children's programming on early morning ITV1 (this summary runs from 5:50am to 6:00am) |
| ITV Lunchtime News | 13:30-13:55 | Daily | |
| ITV Evening News | 18:30-19:00 | Daily | Currently RTS News Programme of the Year, 2008 |
| News at Ten | 22:00-22:30 | Daily | The channel's flagship news programme |
| ITV Late News | 23:00-23:30 | Daily | The bulletin also airs on bank holidays (in place of News at Ten) for 15-20 minutes |
| ITV Weekend News | Various times | Sat-Sun | |
| ITV News Summary | Various times | Daily | A summary airs during the magazine programme This Morning, for two minutes at 11:15; a summary also airs early every morning at any time between 1:45am and 4:15am. News summaries are also broadcast at lunchtimes at the weekend, though in no specific time slot |
| ITV News Report | Interrupts normal ITV programming to explain and give details on the story. If the story is somewhat serious, the ITV schedule will be replaced by ongoing news coverage in the absence of the ITV News Channel |
Uploaded was an ITV News feature which launched on Tuesday 31 July 2007. The service, available on itv.com featured viewer's contributions to daily debates.
Candid pieces of comment and opinion from 'citizen correspondents' was then used across ITV News programmes in short clips edited to entice people to visit the website and to complement its TV reporting work.
The service is now unavailable on itv.com and it is thought that the service trial was unsuccessful with viewers.
During Summer 2007, ITN and ITV Mobile teamed up to launch NewsFix, short news updates sent directly to mobile phones. NewsFix bulletins are send twice per day. The service previously charged users £2, but has been free since October 2007. Users can unsubscribe at any time.[5]
In April 2007 ITN announced that ITV had awarded it a 6-year contract to produce ITV News, at a cost of £250 million.[6] However, ITN announced that the new budget meant it would have to cut staff despite already operating on a smaller budget that its two main rivals BBC News and Sky News.[7]
ITV's news budget is dwarfed by that of the publicly-funded BBC, which spends £89.5 million annually on newsgathering, plus a further £23.1 million on its rolling news channel BBC News.[8]
ITN has won many key industry awards for its news coverage on ITV during the past fifty years. It picked up both Royal Television Society (RTS) and Broadcast awards for coverage of the Beslan school siege, and Alastair Stewart won the RTS Presenter of the Year award in 2006. The 18:30 ITV Evening News currently holds the title of RTS Programme of the Year.
Legendary editor Geoffrey Cox was the recipient of ITN's very first award - a BAFTA in 1962. Since then BAFTA has gone on to present ITN with a total of 26 awards, for coverage on ITV ranging from Francis Chichester's home-coming in 1967 to the Northern Ireland troubles, the Iranian Embassy siege, wars in the Falklands, Lebanon and the Gulf, the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, the discovery of the Serb camps, the genocide in Rwanda, the storming of the Moscow White House, and the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
There have been over 70 RTS awards for both domestic and international coverage, with the first coming for the 1969 Apollo moon landing. Home based issues including the miners' strike, the Iranian embassy siege, the Tottenham riots, the Kings Cross fire, the death of Labour leader John Smith and coverage of Dunblane have all been voted the Best Journalism of the Year by the RTS. RTS awards for foreign coverage range from conflicts in Vietnam, Eritrea, Poland, El Salvador, Beirut, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Africa, Russia, Chechnya, Bosnia, Israel and Albania as well as humanitarian disasters including Romania, the Mozambique floods and the Asian tsunami. Coverage of the aforementioned Mozambique floods in 2000 also won an Emmy award.
From the United States there has been recognition of ITN's journalism, from the prestigious Emmy awards, the New York Television Programming Festival and the White House News Photographers' Association. ITN was the first non-US news broadcaster to win a News and Documentary Emmy when it was awarded top prize for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for the 1992 discovery of the Serb camps. The famous footage of emaciated men behind barbed wire went round the world and helped change the course of the conflict in Bosnia.
In addition to many BAFTA, Emmy and RTS awards, ITN/ITV News has also claimed awards from the Monte Carlo Gold Nymphs, prizes from the News Festival of Angers in France, the Television and Radio Industries Club, the Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards and the Broadcasting Press Guild as well as many others.[9]
| Person | Years |
|---|---|
| Alastair Burnet | 1967-1991 |
| Trevor McDonald | 1991-2005, 2008 |
| Mark Austin | 2005- |
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