Night Network

Night Network, Night Time and Night Shift were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the companies broadcasting through the night by 1988. At first, individual companies began to create their own services, however before too long, many of the smaller ITV station began simulcasting or networking services from others.

From this, numerous services began each offering their own distinct take on programmes, with regions taking one of the services on offer. As each franchise was taken over however, the services became fewer in number. Today, all of the ITV plc regions (except ITV Channel Television and UTV for legal reasons), show teleshopping or ITV Nightscreen, followed by repeats of daytime programming and the ITV Nightscreen service. STV broadcasts its own strand, After Midnight and Teleshopping.

Up until the mid-1980s, all British television stations closed down for the night at around 12:30am, sometimes up to an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights. Some of the ITV companies wanted to expand their broadcasting hours in the belief there was an untapped market for television through the night. As early as 1983, London Weekend Television (LWT) was experimenting with extra hours on Friday and Saturday nights during its Nightlife strand, which pushed back closedown until after 2am.

Towards the latter part of the decade, Channel 4 had extended late night broadcasting hours and transmission staff for the ITV regional companies were required to playout the network's commercial breaks, even if the main ITV station had already closed down. There was also speculation of a threat from the Independent Broadcasting Authority to franchise overnight hours to a new company as had been done with breakfast television (TV-am) in 1983. Within just over two years of ITV's first overnight experiment (at Yorkshire Television in 1986), the entire network had commenced 24-hour transmission.

On 9 August 1986, Yorkshire Television became the first ITV company and the first British terrestrial television station to offer 24-hour broadcasting. This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station Music Box for a three-month trial, as permitted by the IBA. The all-night simulcasts continued until Friday 2 January 1987 – shortly before Music Box ceased operations as a broadcaster. Thereafter, Yorkshire ran a teletext-based Jobfinder service for one hour after close-down with a Through Till Three strand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights introduced a few months later.

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