ITV 50 was a special event around September 2005, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ITV terrestrial television network's launch; the official anniversary was stated as being 22 September, the anniversary of the first ITV region, Associated-Rediffusion, beginning broadcasts.
Other regions, though not launched in 1955, were also involved in the celebrations, broadcasting network and local ITV 50 celebration programming. All ITV plc regions received ITV 50 presentational material including branded graphics and station idents. STV (then Scottish and Grampian) and UTV screened much of the networked ITV 50 content, using some of the ITV 50 presentation.
Introduction
In September 2005, the ITV network celebrated its 50th anniversary with a season of ITV 50 programming that was run on the network, including a run down of ITV's 50 top programmes (presented by Phillip Schofield and Cat Deeley), a special edition of Ministry of Mayhem, a World of Sport retrospective, a seven-week Gameshow Marathon (presented by Ant & Dec), the launch of an "Avenue of the Stars", and most notably, a five-part documentary series presented by Melvyn Bragg which chronicled ITV's history.
The regional companies owned by ITV plc also aired special regional retrospectives (even though none of them were themselves 50 years old), as well as using special ITV 50 station identification. While Scottish TV, Grampian TV, and UTV aired the network ITV 50 programming, they did not themselves air regional programmes of this sort, nor did they use the special identification. ITN also celebrated its 50th anniversary with special features on ITV News programming.
Special products
There were a number of special products released to mark the anniversary. The Royal Mail issued special ITV 50 postage stamps. A book, ITV: The People's Channel, was published. Two CD compilations of music from ITV programmes were released.
Associated releases
Books
ITV: The People's Channel
ITV Culture: Independent Television Over Fifty Years
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition and reduce the current monopoly to the then BBC Television. ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time: BBC One, BBC Two, and Channel 4.
ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the network ITV schedule. Until November 2011, Channel Television was one of four ITV companies independent from ITV plc alongside the two STV regions in Scotland and UTV in Northern Ireland. The station has been owned by ITV plc since 2012 and the licence was transferred to ITV Broadcasting Limited in March 2017.
ITV1 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for the central and northern areas of Scotland where STV provides the service.
Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands Grampian, Tayside, and parts of north Fife.
ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a claim now held by its sister service ITV3 both of which are freely available to a majority of households.
UTV is the ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the area. It is run by ITV plc and is responsible for the regional news service and other programmes made principally for the area.
ITV Nightscreen is a scheduled programme on the ITV television network, consisting of a sequence of animated pages of information about ITV's upcoming programmes, features and special events, with easy listening music in the background. The programme was used to fill the station's overnight downtime, where a closedown would have once been used at the end of programmes. The programme was generally shown seven days a week with the typical weekday show airing from 4:05am to 5:05am daily. However, on ITV's digital channels, the amount of Teleshopping affects how much Nightscreen is broadcast. The programme was also broadcast on all of ITV's +1 channels.
Television in Scotland mostly consists of UK-wide broadcasts, with regional variations at different times which are specific to Scotland. The BBC and ITV networks both began broadcasting in the country during the 1950s. There were further expansions in the early 1960s with the arrival of Grampian, Border and BBC2 television.
The history of ITV, the United Kingdom "Independent Television" commercial network, goes back to 1955.
Night Network, Night Time and Night Shift were names given to the overnight 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 the end of 1988. At first, individual companies created their own services, however before too long, many of the smaller ITV stations began simulcasting or networking services from others.
The ITV television network in the United Kingdom began as a group of regional stations, each with their own identities. Each station used its own idents to create an individual identity.
STV is a Scottish free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the STV Group. It is made up of the Central Scotland and Northern Scotland Channel 3 public broadcaster licences, formerly known as Scottish Television and Grampian Television respectively.
Analogue terrestrial television in the United Kingdom was originally the method by which the significant majority of viewers in the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man received television. Analogue terrestrial television broadcasts have fully ceased in the UK with Northern Ireland being the last region to have ceased transmission analogue terrestrial television broadcasts. Northern Ireland switched off the last analogue television signals, making all of the United Kingdom only capable of receiving digital television, in the early hours of 24 October, 2012. It has been completely replaced by digital terrestrial television and other non-terrestrial means as of the end of 2012.
This is a timeline of the history of the British television network ITV.
This is a timeline of the history of Border Television. It provides the ITV service for most of Cumbria in England and the southern parts of Scotland.
This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Scottish Television. It provides the ITV network service for Central Scotland.
This is a timeline of the history of Ulster Television. It provides the ITV network service for Northern Ireland.
This is a timeline of the history of regional news on the British television network ITV.
This is a timeline of overnight television broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It focuses on programming between midnight and 6am and includes details of when channels began into the night and 24-hour broadcasting.
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