Timeline of ITV Digital Channels

This is a timeline of the British company ITV Digital Channels and its predecessors Granada Sky Broadcasting and Carlton Communications , and digital channels of other ITV-related companies. The timeline does not include events related to ITV network's flagship channel (ITV1 / STV / UTV).

1990s

• 1996
  • 2 September – Carlton Food Network launches. It broadcasts on weekday afternoons on cable.
  • 1 October – Granada Sky Broadcasting, in conjunction with BSkyB, launches four channels. They are Granada Plus which shows programming from the archives of Granada Television and London Weekend Television, lifestyle channel Granada Good Life which is split into four three-hour segments, Granada Food & Wine, Granada Health & Beauty, Granada TV High Street and Granada Home & Garden, men's channel Granada Men & Motors and Granada Talk TV which broadcasts debates and chat shows.
  • 1 November – A joint venture between Scottish Television and BSkyB results in the launch of Sky Scottish.

• 1997
  • 14 February – Entertainment channel Carlton Select is launched. It broadcasts during the evening, sharing space with Carlton Food Network and is also only broadcast on cable. It replaces SelecTV which Carlton acquired from Pearson Television. It had been broadcasting on cable since June 1995.
  • 31 August – Granada Talk TV stops broadcasting.

• 1998
  • 1 May – Granada Good Life is renamed Granada Breeze and the change sees the abolition of the four segments.
  • 31 May – Sky Scottish stops broadcasting because the channel had failed to meet its financial targets. ^[1]
  • 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place with the launch of ONdigital and as part of the 19-channel line-up, Carlton creates three new channels for the platform, Carlton Cinema, Carlton Kids and Carlton World and Granada, in conjunction with Littlewoods, opens Shop!.
  • 7 December – ITV2 is launched but only in England and Wales. It operates as a single service with no regional content. It is a mixed genre channel and as well as being available on ONdigital, it is also carried on cable.

• 1999
  • 4 January – GMTV2 launches during the breakfast downtime of ITV2. ^[2]
  • 30 April – Scottish Television launches S2.
  • 28 June – Ulster Television launches TV You (later UTV2).
  • September – Champions ON 28 and Champions ON 99 launch on the ONdigital service to provide live and recorded coverage of the UEFA Champions League.

2000s

• 2000
  • 31 January – Carlton Kids stops broadcasting. ^[3]
  • 1 February – Carlton World stops broadcasting. ^[4]
  • 1 March – Carlton Select stops broadcasting. ^[5] Its hours are given over to Carlton Food Network (CFN), enabling it to become a full-time channel.
  • 1 May – ONrequest launches to provide pay-per-view content for OnDigital viewers.
  • 1 August – The ITN News Channel goes on the air.
  • September – ONsport launches. It replaces Champions on 28 and Champions on 99 which had reflected the channel numbers these were broadcast on. These channels were rebranded respectively as ONsport 1 and ONsport 2 after ONdigital had purchased rights to the ATP Masters Series tennis. Whilst ONsport 1 broadcasts 24 hours a day, ONsport 2 timeshares with Carlton Cinema and is only on air to provide coverage of an alternate Champions League match.

• 2001
  • May – Following the signing of a joint venture with supermarket chain Sainsbury's, Carlton Food Network is renamed Taste CFN. ^[6]
  • 11 July – Carlton and Granada relaunch OnDigital as ITV Digital in an attempt to better compete with Sky. ^[7]
  • 27 July – S2 closes and consequently ITV2 starts broadcasting in Scotland.
  • 11 August – The ITV Sport Channel launches. It replaces ONsport and is a premium service rather than an add-on for ITV Digital customers. It fails to get carriage on Sky and Telewest but is available on NTL.
  • 1 December – Taste CFN stops broadcasting.

• 2002
  • 22 January – UTV2 stops broadcasting. Consequently, ITV2 launches in Northern Ireland.
  • 8 April – Shop! closes.
  • 23 April – ITV Select, launched originally as ONrequest, closes.
  • 30 April – Granada Breeze stops broadcasting.
  • 12 May – Following the collapse of ITV Digital, ^{[8] [9]} the ITV Sports Channel stops broadcasting.
  • 30 September – ITV purchases ITN's 65% stake in its news channel and relaunches it as the ITV News Channel.

• 2003
  • 31 March – Carlton Cinema stops broadcasting. ^[10]

• 2004
  • April – The newly created ITV plc purchases NTL's 35% stake in the ITV News Channel.
  • 1 November – ITV3 launches, replacing Plus which closes a few hours prior to ITV3's launch. Earlier that day, ITV had bought out BSkyB's stake in Granada Sky Broadcasting.
  • 8 November – ITV Digital Channels Ltd is formally launched following the closure of Granada Sky Broadcasting.

• 2005
  • 1 November – ITV4 launches but only as a part-time channel. Consequently, ITV2 relaunches as an entertainment channel following the transfer of sports coverage from ITV2 to the new channel.
  • 23 December – ITV News Channel stops broadcasting at 6pm. Poor ratings in comparison to BBC News 24 and Sky News and ITV's desire to reuse the channel's allocation on Freeview were cited as the reasons. ^[11]

• 2006
  • 11 March – The CITV Channel launches on Freeview, Home Choice and Telewest. It starts broadcasting on Sky on 8 May and on NTL on 6 June.
  • 19 April – ITV Play launches.
  • June – ITV launches a trial high-definition channel, primarily to show matches from the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
  • 30 October – ITV2 and ITV3 launch +1 channels.
  • 30 November – The ITV HD trial broadcast ends.

• 2007
  • 13 March – ITV announces that ITV Play will permanently close down following recent concerns over participation television. ^[12] On 16 March, its slot on Freeview is taken by the recently launched ITV2+1.

• 2008
  • 5 February – ITV4 becomes a 24-hour channel.
  • 17 July – ITV HD launches as a full-time service. ^[13]
  • 1 December – ITV4 +1 launches.

• 2009
  • No events.

2010s

• 2010
  • 1 April – Men & Motors and the full-time version of ITV HD stop broadcasting.
  • 2 April – the HD version of ITV1 launches.
  • 7 October – ITV2 HD launches.
  • 15 November – ITV3 HD and ITV4 HD launch.

• 2011
  • 11 January – ITV +1 is launched.
  • 14 November – ITV and JML Direct launch home shopping channel The Zone.

• 2012
  • No events.

• 2013
  • 1 October – The Zone becomes The Store. ^[14]

• 2014
  • 2 June – STV launches the first of its local television channels, STV Glasgow.
  • 9 June – ITV Encore launches, showing recent ITV drama productions.
  • 8 October – Reality channel ITVBe launches. Consequently, ITV2 is repositioned as a youth-focused entertainment channel.

• 2015
  • 1 January – UTV Ireland launches in the Republic of Ireland.
  • 12 January – STV launches its second local television channel, STV Edinburgh.
  • March – STV is awarded three more local licenses, to cover Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee.

• 2016
  • No events.

• 2017
  • 1 January – UTV Ireland closes and is replaced by be3.
  • 4 February – Following ITV's return to covering live boxing, the channel launches a pay-per-view channel ITV Box Office. ^[15]
  • 24 April – STV merges its local channels and relaunches them as a single channel called STV2. ^[16]

• 2018
  • 1 May – ITV Encore closes as a linear channel after four years on air. It continues as an on-demand service. ^[17]
  • 30 June – STV2 stops broadcasting following That's TV's acquisition of the assets of STV's STV2 channel. ^{[18] [19]}

• 2019
  • January – ITV and JML Direct close The Store.

2020s

• 2020
  • 24 January – ITV announces that it has closed its pay-per-view service ITV Box Office. ^[20]
  • 29 July – Merit launches as an evening service showing gardening and cookery programmes ^[21] but less than a month after its launch, ITV sells the channel to Sky Group. ^[22]

• 2021
  • No events.

• 2022
  • 8 December — ITVX launches.

• 2023
  • 1 September – The CITV channel closes as part of ITV's plans to transition its children's output to a predominantly online model. A morning block of children's programming is introduced on ITV2, using the "CITV" brand, serving primarily to promote the online ITVX offering. The LittleBe strand within ITVBe continues. ^{[23] [24]}

• 2024
  • No events.

• 2025
  • 9 June – ITVBe is replaced by ITV Quiz. Many of its programmes, which had mostly been reality shows, moved back to ITV2 as a result. ^{[25] [26]}

See also

• Timeline of ITV

References

1. "Scots Sky Shuts". The Times. Times Newspapers Limited. 8 April 1998.
2. thesearethedays (25 February 2018). "GMTV2 starts Monday 4th January 1999" . Retrieved 8 May 2019– via YouTube.
3. "Discovery channels boost ONdigital". The Independent . 22 December 1999.
4. "Discovery channels boost ONdigital". The Independent . 22 December 1999.
5. "Carlton makes unhappy Discovery". The Guardian . 22 December 1999.
6. "Sainsbury's to front digital TV". MediaWeek. 28 September 2000. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
7. "Ondigital 'faces relaunch'". 23 April 2001 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
8. Richardson, Tim (1 May 2002). "ITV Digital RIP" . Retrieved 2 October 2020.
9. "Race to find digital broadcaster". 1 May 2002 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
10. Deans, Jason (4 December 2002). "Carlton finally drops digital channel". Theguardian.com.
11. Conlan, Tara (14 December 2005). "ITV News Channel axed". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 20 April 2020.
12. Deans, Jason (13 March 2007). "ITV Play digital channel axed". Media Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
13. "Confirmed: ITV HD is Freesat exclusive". Digital Spy. 6 May 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2008.
14. "ITV brand to launch 24-hour shopping channel" . The Independent. 17 September 2013. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
15. "ITV to show Eubank Jnr World Title fight". ITV. 13 December 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
16. New channel STV2 to launch in April, stv.tv, 10 April 2017
17. Gill, James (18 November 2017). "ITV Encore to close as a channel and move on demand only". Radio Times. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
18. "Struggling STV 2 to be taken off air in online shift". The Drum. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
19. "STV2 axed". a516digital. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
20. "ITV Box Office Closure notice" . Retrieved 25 January 2020.
21. "RXTVinfo - Merit launching on Freeview channel 34". RXTVinfo. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
22. "Merit". Ofcom. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
23. Wilkes, Neil (2023-03-10)."ITV to close down CITV Channel this autumn", Media Mole
24. ITV to supercharge kids offering on ITVX
25. McIntosh, Steven (16 April 2025). "Television channel ITVBe to become ITV Quiz, with The Only Way Is Essex moving to ITV2". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
26. TOWIE and Real Housewives to move to a Supercharged ITV2