Launched on Friday 1 January 1982, replacing ATV Today, Central News was initially a pan-regional service based in Birmingham airing a 6pm programme on weeknights alongside shorter weekday bulletins after ITN's News at One and News at Ten. During the rest of the decade, the region was eventually broken up into three sub-regions, receiving their own news service.
Separate services for the West and East of the region were planned to begin from day one, but an industrial dispute over the launch of the East Midlands service – and the opening of new studios in Nottingham – resulted in the entire region continuing to receive a sole pan-regional programme from Birmingham.[1] The launch of the Nottingham-based service was initially delayed for a month,.[2][3] but the dispute was not resolved until September 1983, when the news service for the East Midlands was finally introduced. Within a few months, Nottingham operations were moved from a temporary set-up at Giltbrook to Central's new complex at nearby Lenton Lane.[4]
Originally, the main weekday evening programme did not have a different title from other bulletins. This finally changed on 8 March 1999, when the title Central News at Six was adopted – coinciding with being rescheduled from 6.25pm to 6pm. By Monday 24 July 2006, the 6pm programme had been renamed again, to Central Tonight (except for the South Midlands edition, which retained the Central News at Six name until its final 6pm programme on 1 December 2006). By December 2006, Central News bulletins during GMTV had become pan-regional across all three sub-regions. Weekend bulletins became pan-regional across the West and East Midlands earlier in the year, whilst the South Midlands retained its own weekend bulletins right up until the end of Central News South on 3 December 2006.
ITV Central is located in Gas Street, Birmingham
December 2006 – February 2009
On 4 December 2006, the South Midlands sub-region was disbanded, as follows:
Central News bulletins during GMTV were now pan-regional across the West Midlands and East Midlands only. Meanwhile, in what had now become the ITV Thames Valley region, bulletins during GMTV were pan-regional across the entire combined ITV Meridian and ITV Thames Valley regions (i.e., the entire South and South East of England), and branded as GMTV News. While weekend Meridian News bulletins were pan-regional in the South and South East sub-regions, Thames Valley Today/Tonight continued to produce its own weekend bulletins.
Central Tonight branding from November 2009– January 2013
February 2009 – September 2013
As of 23 February 2009, lunchtime and early evening bulletins in the West and East Midlands on weekdays became pan-regional. The final sub-regional 6pm editions of Central Tonight were broadcast on Friday 20 February 2009.
The previous sub-regional elements were:
A 6-minute opt-out during the main 6pm programme
Localised weather forecast during the 6pm programme
The full 8-minute late weeknight bulletins
Both sub-regional editions utilise the same presenter(s) and studio, therefore one of the two opt-outs (depending on the days news) is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before broadcast.[7]
On Monday 14 January 2013, the news service was relaunched and rebranded as ITV News Central.[8]
September 2013 – present
On 23 July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved – latterly, ITV News Central extended the East and West opt-out services from 6 minutes to at least 20 minutes during the half hour 6pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two sub-regions.[citation needed] The late night bulletins are also retained.[9]
In the former Thames Valley region, plans were approved for a 10-minute opt out within the 6pm edition of ITV News Meridian for the south of England and a late night bulletin after News at Ten. The expanded sub-regional service launched on Monday 16 September 2013.
Central News East
Anne Davies, until December 1992, married fellow presenter David Bowden in June 1992[10]
Related Research Articles
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network that is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland where it is branded as STV. 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: BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4.
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.
ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands. It was created following the restructuring of ATV and began broadcasting on 1 January 1982. The service is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. Historically Central made a major contribution to the ITV network schedule – especially in entertainment and drama – but today its main responsibility is the regional news service.
ITV Meridian is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. Meridian Broadcasting Ltd was one of several ITV plc-owned regional companies to have its legal name changed on 29 December 2006, when it became ITV Meridian Ltd. This company is, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed with Companies House as a "Dormant company".
ITV News Tyne Tees is a British television news service produced by ITV Tyne Tees & Border and broadcasting to the Tyne Tees region.
The history of ITV, the United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies "Independent Television" commercial network, goes back to 1955.
Scotland Today was a Scottish regional news programme covering Central Scotland, produced by STV Central. Despite its name suggesting a national remit, the programme was actually limited to stories around STV's Central Belt franchise. North Tonight covered STV's North Scotland region, until both programmes were renamed STV News at Six in March 2009.
ITV News Meridian is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian.
ITV News Anglia is a British television news service for the East of England, broadcast and produced by ITV Anglia. Also available via ITVX.
ITV West Country is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the South West England franchise area on the ITV network. Previously, between 2009 and 2013, the area was a non-franchise region, branded with the same name, incorporating the former ITV Westcountry franchise area and the ITV West sub-region of the ITV Wales & West franchise. The two companies which make up the new region - ITV Wales & West Ltd and Westcountry Television Ltd - each still legally exist; the former holding company for ITV Wales and West was however dissolved on 7 February 2023.
ITV Thames Valley was a non-franchise ITV news region covering the Thames Valley area of the United Kingdom from 4 December 2006 until 8 February 2009. Owned and operated by ITV plc, it served the south/south-eastern area of the legal Central franchise and the north/north-western area of the legal Meridian franchise. In its first year, its flagship news programme Thames Valley Tonight won the Royal Television Society's Southern Centre Award for News Magazine Programme of the Year for its coverage of the 2007 summer floods.
Thames Valley Tonight was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2009.
GMTV News was the brand name for the regional news service in the south coast of England and the Thames Valley, from 5 December 2006 until 6 February 2009.
ITV News West Country is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV West Country.
This is a timeline of the history of the British television network ITV.
This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Central Independent Television. It has provided the ITV service for the Midlands since 1982.
This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Meridian Broadcasting. It has provided the ITV service for the South and South East of England since 1993.
This is a timeline of television in London.
This is a timeline of the history of regional news on the British television network ITV.
References
↑ TV firm's launch disrupted by dispute. By Kenneth Gosling. The Times, Saturday, 2 Jan 1982; pg. 3
↑ TV launch delayed again. From Arthur Osman. The Times, Thursday, 11 Feb 1982; pg. 2.
↑ Television dispute 'may take months to resolve'.From Arthur Osman. The Times, Wednesday, 24 Feb 1982; pg. 3
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
