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UTV (TV channel)

UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1) 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.

This article is about the ITV channel in Northern Ireland. For its former parent company formerly known as UTV Media, see Wireless Group. For other uses, see UTV.

Country

United Kingdom

Northern Ireland

ITV

City Quays 2, Belfast, Northern Ireland

English

  • UTV +1 (Freeview & Virgin Media)
  • ITV1 +1 Granada (Freesat & Sky)

ITV plc

31 October 1959 (1959-10-31) (as Ulster Television)

  • Ulster Television
  • (until 4 June 1993)

itv.com/utv

  • Channel 3 (SD)
  • Channel 35 (+1)
  • Channel 103 (HD)

u.tv

www.itvhub.com

www.itv.com

The modern TV channel, ITV1, is directly descended from the ITV network, which originally consisted of independent regional companies which were once the only commercial TV broadcasters in their area. UTV held the licence for Northern Ireland and first went on the air on 31 October 1959.[1]


The company itself was formed in November 1958 to apply for the licence – advertised by the Independent Television Authority – and became the first indigenous broadcaster in Northern Ireland.[1] The company later diversified and the UTV television operation was sold by parent UTV Media plc (now known as Wireless Group and part of News UK) to ITV plc in February 2016.

(1987–1988)[32]

Password

1959 – The station's first on-screen logo was an pattern made up of seven dots joined by six lines. The logo animated to a jingle based on the local folk tune The Mountains of Mourne. According to UTV's website, the original logo was designed as part of a competition, and the winner among over 450 entrants was Mr Roy Irwin of Ballycarry.

oscilloscope

1970 – With the imminent launch of UHF colour broadcasts, Ulster Television redesigned its first logo – the oscilloscope pattern was retained; but the dots were removed, and the lines were encased in a television-screen shape. Monochrome and colour versions of this ident were produced, the colour using a yellow logo and text on a blue background, which were adopted as the station's colour scheme. UTV's ident at this time did not animate and was not accompanied by a jingle. The logo type introduced on this ident was retained until 1993.

1980 – To celebrate their 21st anniversary, UTV commissioned a new ident featuring a model of the station logo embedded on four faces of a cube, coated in silver with a pole skewering the top and bottom of the cube. This model was then filmed on video with a black cloth background as it revolved on a turntable. When it appeared on screen, it was accompanied by a synthesised jingle, and the words "Ulster Television" wiped on screen in yellow text. This ident made its on-screen debut on Halloween Day 1980, and it was used until New Year's Eve 1988.

1987 – On 7 September 1987, to coincide with the launch of the station's new evening magazine programme, Six Tonight, a new ident was used to introduce the programme, featuring a computer-animated silver station logo on a blue/green backdrop. After five seconds, the logo faded into the background as the titles of Six Tonight began. This ident, UTV's first attempt at a CGI ident, was later adapted as a temporary station ident in the last few months of 1988, with a video freeze used as the logo sank into the background.

1989 – On New Year's Day 1989 a revised was introduced and the last to feature the oscilloscope logo and the "Ulster Television" name.[66] The ident began with a panning shot over a huge plate with texture to make it look like frost or ice (possibly a white and gray cloudy texture), against a light blue background. Then, an oscilloscope rises out from the plate, and the lines of the oscilloscope pattern are formed with a wipe. In this ident, the lines of the oscilloscope are yellow, with the rest of the logo (the television screen shape) in blue. When the lines are formed, the logo turns and reveals on screen, as a grey banner flies in underneath bearing the words "Ulster Television" and settles underneath the station logo, waving like a flag. This ident was accompanied by a new jingle, and was used until 4 June 1993.

computer animation

HD and timeshift[edit]

ITV1 HD (UTV region)[edit]

ITV's service for the UTV region is available in HD – like most other ITV regions – but UTV was one of the first stations in the ITV network to offer a full HD simulcast in its days as an independent company.


UTV HD, a simulcast of UTV in high-definition, was launched on Virgin Media on 5 October 2010.[80] It became available on Freeview when the digital switchover took place on 24 October 2012 and on Sky and Freesat on 4 November 2013.[81][82]


For the first few months, the only true HD content came from the ITV network but after an upgrade local material including adverts started to be played out in HD.


In May 2011, the presentation infrastructure was upgraded to become fully HD-capable in readiness for the digital switchover in 2012.

ITV1 +1 (Services offered in Northern Ireland)[edit]

A delayed version of the full ITV1 service for the UTV region is available on Freeview and Virgin Media.


The timeshift service – branded UTV+1 before the station adopted ITV branding in 2020 – launched at 8pm on 11 January 2011 on Freeview and Virgin Media. UTV +1 however didn't launch on Sky and Freesat until 21 May 2018.


On 13 April 2021, ITV stopped broadcasting UTV +1 on satellite. ITV +1 Granada was added to Sky in Northern Ireland to replace UTV +1.[83]

at itv.com

UTV programmes

at itv.com

UTV News