ITV Central
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.[1] 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.
Type
Region of television network
1 January 1982
14 April 1980
by Lew Grade (founder of ATV)
- "The One to Watch"
- "Even More"
- "The Shape of Television"
- "Central is ITV"
- "Central Just the ticket"
Sutton Coldfield, Waltham, Ridge Hill, The Wrekin
(formerly Oxford, Lichfield, Membury)
The Midlands and parts of the South West
England
lost on-air identity on 27 October 2002 (now known as ITV at all times)
- Central Independent Television
- Carlton Central
- ITV1 Carlton for Central England
- ITV1 for Central England
Central currently operates two sub-regions:
Initially, as a result of a long-running industrial dispute, Central broadcast a single pan-regional news service from Birmingham. The East Midlands service of news, local advertisements and presentation was launched in September 1983, leaving the Birmingham-based service to adopt its focus on the rest of the region. In January 1989, Central launched a third sub-region for the South Midlands (the Oxford and Ridge Hill transmitters previously served by Central West), carrying its own news service and local advertisements.
The Central South region was disbanded in December 2006 after 17 years in operation – with the eastern half of the area merging with Meridian's North region to form an ITV Thames Valley region.[55] At the same time, ITV West's broadcast footprint was expanded to cover North Gloucestershire from the West's Bristol studios, while Herefordshire and Ludlow re-joined Central News West from Birmingham. While all Thames Valley news programmes were broadcast from Meridian's studios in Whiteley in Hampshire, Central's former Abingdon base was retained as a newsgathering centre.
Further changes in February 2009 saw the end of wholly separate programmes for Central's East and West sub-regions. The pan-regional service included a short six-minute opt out within the 6 pm programme and separate late night bulletins for the two areas. In the former Central South area, ITV's Thames Valley operations were fully merged with those in Meridian's South sub-region[56][57] and its former territory – including Oxfordshire, Swindon and Buckinghamshire – was formally transferred to the Meridian region when the regional licence was renewed in 2014.
On 23 July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved by Ofcom – ITV News Central extended the East and West opt-out services from six minutes to twenty minutes during the half-hour 6 pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two sub-regions.[58] In the former Thames Valley region, plans were approved for a ten-minute opt out within the 6 pm edition of ITV News Meridian for the south of England.