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ITV News is the name given to news broadcasts on the British television network ITV. It has one of the largest television audiences for news in the United Kingdom. It has been produced by Independent Television News (ITN) since 1955, and ITV's news bulletins were more commonly known under the banner ITN News until March 1999, when the ITV News brand was launched. ITV News has a 50-year history of television reporting, from the 1969 Apollo moon landing right up to the recent Gulf war. It has won many awards including "RTS News Programme of the Year 2008" for the 6:30pm ITV Evening News.

History

1955-1967

ITN was set-up by the Independent Television Authority to provide a new type of news service for the upcoming commercial television service (ITV). ITN (and ITV) were both launched on September 22, 1955. The first ITN roster of regular newscasters and reporters included marathon runner Christopher Chataway, Robin Day, Reginald Bosanquet, and Barbara Mandell. Into the 1960s, reporters such as George Ffitch, Alastair Burnet, and Gordon Honeycombe emerged as aspiring news anchors.

The original ITN logo, featuring the letters "I" and "N" with an oversized "T" (all in the centre of a circle), was used from 1955 up to 1969 and the advent of colour television. The original ITN theme tune was Non-Stop, a piece of light music composed by Malcolm John Batt, used from 1955 up to 1982. By its end it was only used on generic bulletins, with each of the regular bulletins having its own look and feel.

1967-1992

In 1967, ITN launched a full half-hour news bulletin for ITV: News at Ten. ITV executives initially were skeptical of the idea, because it was thought that viewers would not want 30 minutes of news every night. Subsequently, it was given a 13-week trial. ITN's up-and-coming anchors - Alastair Burnet, Andrew Gardner, and George Ffitch - hosted the first News at Ten, and the bulletin became so popular with viewers that it was kept in the schedules after its 13 weeks. The programme's titles utilised an excerpt of The Awakening, a piece of dramatic music composed by Johnny Pearson. The famous chimes of the Westminster Clock Tower - affectionately known as the bongs - separated each headline as it was read out.

1969 saw the beginning of colour television. As such, a new ITN logo was introduced - it was simply a sans-serif outline of the phrase "ITN". In 1972, a twenty-minute lunchtime bulletin was introduced into the ITV schedule - First Report, which was hosted by Robert Kee and ran from 12:40pm to 1pm. This was followed in 1976 by the introduction of a new evening bulletin, the ITN News at 545, which ran from 5:45pm to 6:00pm and was hosted by, among others, Michael Nicholson and Leonard Parkin. By this time, with three regular ITN bulletins throughout the day - and each having their own look and specially-composed music - the original ITN Non-Stop theme music was only seen on generic summaries and weekend bulletins. In 1982, the Non-Stop theme was finally replaced with a synthesised alternative. First Report was replaced with the News at One in 1981, with Leonard Parkin and Peter Sissons alternating in the presenter's chair. In 1987, the programme revamped upon Parkin's retirement and Sissons' departure, and made several moves to 12:30pm and back to 1:00pm, before finally settling at 12:30pm in 1992. By this time, Julia Somerville, Jon Snow, John Suchet, Nicholas Owen, and Sonia Ruseler had all presented News at One/News at 12:30/The Lunchtime News. The News at 545 was replaced by the News at 540 in 1989 (following the introduction of the ITV National Weather forecast), whilst News at Ten took on specially-made computer generated opening titles (but retained the famous theme music) featuring a travel through London, up the River Thames until the camera stops at the 'Big Ben' clockface.

ITN's regular team in the 1980s now included Alastair Burnet, Sandy Gall, Leonard Parkin, Alastair Stewart, Trevor McDonald, Julia Somerville, Carol Barnes, Fiona Armstrong, John Suchet, Nicholas Owen, and many more famous names.

1992-2004

1991 and 1992 saw the majority of ITN news programmes getting revamps of sorts (with the exception of the Lunchtime News) to show the impressive view of the atrium in the newly-purchased ITN building at Gray's Inn Road, London (previously occupied by a newspaper group). News at Ten underwent a revamp following the retirement of Alastair Burnet, and Trevor McDonald became the sole newscaster of the programme, where he became a national figure.

In 1995 all ITN programmes (with the exception of News at Ten) relaunched with a unified blue look, with only a coloured light strip (red/yellow) in the desk and the programme's theme music separating each bulletin. Design firm Lambie-Nairn devised the new look, which saw the famous News at Ten music being used on all other bulletins (in special arrangements for each).

1999 saw the biggest and largest (to date) change to news bulletins on ITV. In March 1999, all ITN programmes were rebranded under the name ITV News. Under the leadership of Granada chairman Charles Allen, the channel controversially decided to axe the flagship News at Ten. Replacing the 10:00pm bulletin (and in turn the old 5:40pm Early Evening News) as the flagship ITN programme was the ITV Evening News at 6:30pm (fronted by Trevor McDonald). The ITV Nightly News (anchored by Dermot Murnaghan aired for 20 minutes every night at 11:00pm. However, viewing figures for ITV News bulletins had dropped radically by the start of the year 2000, and after a long battle with the regulating ITC, a half-hearted ITV News at Ten returned (with McDonald again hosting) in 2001, although only for 3 days a week in order to accommodate other programming. Also in 2001, the ITN name was removed from the voiceovers at the start of bulletins and reporter name-checks. The ITN name and logo is now only seen on the production slide.

With the outbreak of warfare in Iraq in 2003, ITV replaced ITV News at Ten with a special 45-minute long ITV News at Nine every night from Monday to Friday, hosted by Trevor McDonald in Kuwait City and John Suchet in the ITV News studio in London. The ITV Evening News was extended to 60 minutes, and various ITV news specials ran throughout the schedules. A simulcast of the ITV News Channel aired from 12:00am to 6:00am every night on ITV1.

2004-present

In January 2004, ITV News unveiled a £1 million virtual studio, with a rounded green screen (the set is nicknamed the "Theatre of News") for presenters to stand up and host reports with. As part of the revamp, the ITV News at Ten was axed due to low ratings and replaced with the News at Ten Thirty, hosted once again by McDonald (from Monday-Thursday), and by Mark Austin on Fridays. The new programme did not fare any better in the ratings; News at Ten had once gained audiences of 10 million or more, though ITV News at Ten Thirty now struggled to reach 2 million viewers on any one night (though the flagship ITV Evening News regularly attracted audiences of around 6 million). In addition, ITV abandoned its 24-hour news channel towards the end of 2005, saying it was not "commercially viable".

Since 2004, ITV plc's 40% stake in ITN has been held as part of (and the company's ITV News operations integrated into) the ITV News Group. The ITV News Group also comprises the ITV regions in England and Wales, and ITV Sport. Its director is Mark Sharman, the former Channel 4 head of sport. Sharman is also responsible for ITV Sport.

In 2007, ITV's newly-appointed chairman Michael Grade was reported as saying that the axing of the original News at Ten was "the worst mistake ITV ever made". Plans were made for News at Ten to return to ITV under Grade's direction. The bulletin returned to the channel, with its own set design and theme music, in January 2008, hosted by Trevor McDonald and former Sky News anchor Julie Etchingham.

'Big Ben' branding

Today ITV News' trademarks are the inclusion of the Clock Tower of the Houses of Parliament in its programme titles, along with the chimes of Big Ben (known popularly as the "bongs") between headlines. These however were originally used only for News at Ten, with most ITN bulletins using different studios and individual graphic sets. In 1995, ITN adopted a unified look for all ITV bulletins (except News at Ten, which itself was relaunched a few years prior, in 1992), extending the use of the Big Ben clockface to all ITV bulletins. A re-arranged version of the News at Ten theme tune, The Awakening (by Johnny Pearson), was used for the other ITV bulletins (initially, the ITN Early Morning News and the Lunchtime News utilised the same theme, whilst the Early Evening News used a slightly different arrangement. A further update was made in 1998 when the Early Evening News titles - featuring the Big Ben clockface - was dropped, replaced by a studio shot and a small musical sting).

In March 1999, the "ITV News" brand was introduced and the "bongs" were extended to all ITV bulletins. The ITN name was dropped from the start of bulletins and, in 2001, from reporter name-checks. "The Awakening" was re-arranged again in February 2004 as part of a major revamp of ITV News, with modifications in January 2006 in conjunction with updates to other aspects of ITV News branding (due to the introduction of the new ITV logo and branding. That version is currently still in use).

In 2007 The Guardian reported that ITV planned to take its news output "back to basics" by paring back graphics and having newscasters adopt a more formal style of presenting from behind the desk instead of standing in front of graphics.

News bulletins

ITV News has one of the largest television audiences for news in the UK, with its viewing figures for all of its main programmes counted in the millions. BBC News is the only other news provider that has higher audience figures. Other broadcasters such as Sky News, Channel 4 News and Five News count their audiences in hundreds of thousands.

• ITV Morning News is broadcast at 0530 for 30 minutes, seven days a week. Its main anchors usually come from the ITV London region.

• ITV Lunchtime News is broadcast at 1330 for 25 minutes, five days a week. Its main anchors are Katie Derham and Alastair Stewart.

• ITV Evening News is currently RTS News Programme of the Year and is broadcast at 1830 for 30 minutes, five days a week. Its main anchors are Mark Austin and Mary Nightingale.

• News at Ten is the channel's flagship news programme, broadcast at 2200 for 30 minutes, four days a week. Its main anchors are Trevor McDonald and Julie Etchingham.

• ITV Late News is broadcast at 2300 for 30 minutes every Friday evening. It is anchored by a presenter from a roster of newscasters.

• ITV Weekend News is broadcast in slots ranging from 10-20 minutes every Saturday and Sunday. It is anchored by a presenter from a roster of weekend newscasters.

• An ITV News Summary airs every weekday at 1110, during the light entertainment programme This Morning. This bulletin lasts around two minutes. It includes the main headlines of the day and a look ahead to the ITV Lunchtime News. The summary is usually fronted by one of the lunchtime newsreaders. An early morning ITV News Summary airs every day, at any time between 0200 and 0415 and is hosted by the presenter of the ITV Morning News. ITV News Summaries are also broadcast at lunchtimes at the weekend.

• In the event of a breaking news story, an ITV News Report will interrupt normal ITV programming to explain and give details on the story. If the story is somewhat serious, the ITV schedule will be replaced by ongoing news coverage.

On 2 December, 2007, ITV News and the ITV regional newsrooms (except ITV Westcountry) switched from the traditional 4:3 format to 16:9 widescreen.

Services

Uploaded

Uploaded was an ITV News feature which launched on Tuesday 31 July, 2007. The service, available on itv.com featured viewer's contributions to daily debates.

Candid pieces of comment and opinion from 'citizen correspondents' was then used across ITV News programmes in short clips edited to entice people to visit the website and to complement its TV reporting work.

The service is now unavailable on itv.com and it is thought that the service trial was unsuccessful with viewers.

NewsFix

During Summer 2007, ITN and ITV Mobile teamed up to launch NewsFix, short news updates sent directly to mobile phones. NewsFix bulletins are send twice per day. The service previously charged users £2, but has been free since October 2007. Users can unsubscribe at any time.

Controversy

In April 2007 ITN announced that ITV had awarded it a 6-year contract to produce ITV News, at a cost of £250 million. However, ITN announced that the new budget meant it would have to cut staff despite already operating on a smaller budget that its two main rivals BBC News and Sky News.

ITV's news budget is dwarfed by that of the publicly-funded BBC, which spends £89.5 million annually on newsgathering, plus a further £23.1 million on its rolling news channel BBC News.

Awards

ITV News has won many key industry awards for its news coverage during the past fifty years. It picked up Royal Television Society (RTS) and Broadcast awards for coverage of the Beslan school siege, and Alastair Stewart won the RTS Presenter of the Year award in 2006.

Legendary editor Geoffrey Cox was the recipient of ITN's very first award - a BAFTA in 1962. Since then BAFTA has gone on to present ITN with a total of 26 awards, for coverage on ITV ranging from Francis Chichester's home-coming in 1967 to the Northern Ireland troubles, the Iranian Embassy siege, wars in the Falklands, Lebanon and the Gulf, the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, the discovery of the Serb camps, the genocide in Rwanda, the storming of the Moscow White House, and the conflict in former Yugoslavia.

There have been over 70 RTS awards for both domestic and international coverage, with the first coming for the 1969 Apollo moon landing. Home based issues including the miners' strike, the Iranian embassy siege, the Tottenham riots, the Kings Cross fire, the death of Labour leader John Smith and coverage of Dunblane have all been voted the Best Journalism of the Year by the RTS. RTS awards for foreign coverage range from conflicts in Vietnam, Eritrea, Poland, El Salvador, Beirut, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Africa, Russia, Chechnya, Bosnia, Israel and Albania as well as humanitarian disasters including Romania, the Mozambique floods and the Asian tsunami.

From the United States there has been recognition of ITN's journalism, from the prestigious Emmy awards, the New York Television Programming Festival and the White House News Photographers' Association. ITN was the first non-US news broadcaster to win a News and Documentary Emmy when it was awarded top prize for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for the 1992 discovery of the Serb camps. The famous footage of emaciated men behind barbed wire went round the world and helped change the course of the conflict in Bosnia. Coverage on News at Ten of the Mozambique floods in 2000 also won an Emmy award.

In addition to many BAFTA, Emmy and RTS awards, ITN/ITV News has also claimed awards from the Monte Carlo Gold Nymphs, prizes from the News Festival of Angers in France, the Television and Radio Industries Club, the Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards and the Broadcasting Press Guild as well as many others.

Head anchors

Alastair Burnet held the position of Head anchor from 1967 until his retirement in 1991 (Burnet had left ITN for a two-year period in the 1970s, during which time the head anchor was Reginald Bosanquet). With Burnet's 1991 departure and subsequent relaunch of News at Ten, Trevor McDonald became the next ITN head anchor. McDonald held the position until his December 2005 retirement from ITV News, and was succeeded by Mark Austin. McDonald reclaimed the position of ITV News' head anchor when he returned to ITN to front the relaunched News at Ten, in January 2008.

References

External links

• ITN.co.uk