ITV News Channel
| ITV News Channel | |
|---|---|
ITV News logo (2004-2005)
|
|
| Launched | 1 August 2000 |
| Closed | 23 December 2005 |
| Owned by |
ITN/NTL (2000-2004); ITV plc (2004-2005) |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) |
| Audience share | 0.1% (Final figures from December 2005, BARB) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | ITN Studios, London |
| Formerly called | ITN News Channel (Aug. 2000-Sept. 2002) |
| Replaced by |
ITV4 (6pm-6am) CITV (6am-6pm) |
| Website | itv |
|
Availability (At time of closure)
|
|
| Terrestrial | |
| Freeview | Channel 81 |
| Satellite | |
| Sky | Channel 525 |
| Cable | |
| NTL:Telewest | Channel 617 |
The ITV News Channel was a 24-hour television news channel in the United Kingdom which broadcast from 1 August 2000 to 23 December 2005. It was available on Sky, NTL:Telewest, Freeview (latterly only between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm when ITV4 cut its hours to half day in 2005) and analogue cable, presenting national and international news plus regular business, sport, entertainment and weather summaries. Priority was usually given to breaking news stories. There was also an added focus on British stories, drawing on the resources of the ITV network's regional newsrooms.
The channel launched on 1 August 2000 as a joint venture between ITN and NTL as the "ITN News Channel". In June 2002, Carlton Television and Granada Television - the predecessors of ITV plc - bought out ITN's 65-per-cent stake. This led to a rebrand as the ITV News Channel in September 2002. In April 2004 the newly created ITV plc bought NTL's 35-per-cent stake to assume full control of the channel.
As the ITN News Channel, it was broadcast from a small studio with accommodation for only one presenter at a time. When relaunched as the ITV News Channel, it initially used the standard ITV News studio of the time, which was built for fixed length bulletins only, so the style of presentation was always more basic than that of its competitors.
From the February 2004 relaunch, the channel came into its own. Along with the rest of ITV News, the channel was presented from the so-called 'theatre of news' set, a large virtual studio allowing presentation either from behind a desk or by presenters walking around, using the news wall to explain a story with the aid of graphics. For the first time, two presenters could present the channel together, which the management viewed as an improvement.
As the channel shared facilities with ITV News bulletins on the ITV Network (which were also simulcast on the news channel), it had to move to other studios for around an hour before each ITV bulletin to allow for rehearsals. Initially a single locked-off camera studio was used at these times, which was very basic. Later the channel used a virtual reality studio at these times or, following ITN's takeover of the production of London Tonight, that studio.
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