ITV News Channel

As ITN News Channel ITN announced in the late summer of 1999 that it was set to launch its own news channel, initially by the end of the year, with the aim of competing against BBC News 24, Sky News and CNN International. Taking a long time to launch the channel would undermine ITN's efficacy within a few years. The channel launched on 1 August 2000 as a joint venture between ITN and NTL as the ITN News Channel. The channel was touted as "the world's first multimedia news channel", with availability on digital radio and mobile phones, in conjunction to the existing television platforms. As ITV News Channel In June 2002, Carlton Television and Granada Television – the predecessors of ITV plc – bought out ITN's 65% stake. This led to a rebrand as the ITV News Channel in September 2002. From the February 2004 relaunch, the channel came into its own. Along with the rest of ITV News, the channel was presented from the so-called "theatre of news" set, a large virtual studio allowing presentation either from behind a desk or by presenters walking around, using the news wall to explain a story with the aid of graphics. For the first time, two presenters could present the channel together, which the management viewed as an improvement. In April 2004, the newly created ITV plc bought NTL's 35% stake to assume full control of the channel. Closure On 14 December 2005, it was confirmed that the channel would close down in 2006, in order to use its Freeview bandwidth (which was already timeshared with ITV4) to launch the CITV channel based on the existing CITV brand, and to use its funding to boost ITV News coverage on the main ITV network. ITV stated that it would launch new bulletins on ITV2 and ITV3, but this did not materialise. The closure was subsequently brought forward and the channel closed down on Friday 23 December 2005 at 18:00 (GMT). The reason given was that it would have been unfair to expect the channel's staff to work long hours over Christmas knowing that the channel would soon be closing. The schedule for the last day of transmission on the ITV News Channel: • 07:00 – The Scott Chisholm Show • 10:00 – ITV News Live with Alastair Stewart • 11:45 – The Scott Chisholm Show • 12:30 – ITV Lunchtime News simulcast • 13:30 – ITV News Live with Faye Barker • 15:00 – ITV News Live with Nicholas Owen and Nina Hossain • 16:00 – ITV News Live with Owen Thomas and Faye Barker • 17:30 – Special: Five Years of the News Channel, presented by Alastair Stewart At the end of the final programme, Alastair Stewart closed the channel with the words: The picture then faded out to a blank screen for three seconds before fading back in to the ITN end board. The station closed shortly afterwards. Post-closure On 15 June 2007, ITN chief executive Mark Wood said the company would not rule out launching another 24-hour TV news channel. There was also speculation that cable group Virgin Media was considering launching its own news channel to rival Sky News and BBC News, with some reports suggesting that it might look to partner with ITN. Later that year, Setanta Sports News was launched, a tie up between Virgin Media and ITN which lasted until Setanta was out into administration in June 2009. In July 2022, it was reported that the new streaming platform ITVX would feature an ITV News 24/7 service. The service would provide ITV News around the clock as well as providing an on-demand service for in-depth investigations, explanatory and eye-witness journalism. The service would not be a conventional rolling news channel but it would have occasional live programmes and bulletins. Instead, the service would focus on video on-demand content which would be continuously updated. ITVX began rolling out on 17 November 2022, and fully launched on 8 December 2022. == Programming and presentation==