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UTV (formerly Ulster Television) is a commercial television broadcaster in Northern Ireland owned and operated by UTV Media plc as part of the UK-wide ITV Network.[1] Formed in November 1958 and appointed as programme contractor for the Independent Television Authority soon after, UTV was the first indigenous broadcaster in Northern Ireland[1]
On 19 October 2015, it was announced UTV would be sold to ITV plc for £100 million.[2]
UTV can be watched via the following methods:
The main transmitters which broadcast UTV's analogue and digital signals are based at Divis transmitting station outside Belfast,[3] Limavady transmitting station in County Londonderry[4] and Brougher Mountain transmitting station in County Tyrone.[5] Each transmitter has a series of relay stations.
UTV was the last of the ITV stations to cease broadcasting on analogue transmitters. The analogue signal was closed at just after 11:35 pm on Tuesday 23 October 2012.[6][7]
With the ITA request met, the group, under the name Ulster Television Limited, set out their plans for broadcasting; initially, the station would try to provide 20 minutes of locally sourced programmes per day, and the company arranged with ABC Television to sell advertising time and to maintain their studio premises at a former hemstitching warehouse in Havelock House on the Ormeau Road in Belfast.[9]
Ulster Television went on air at 4.45 pm on Saturday 31 October 1959.[10] The station's opening was overseen by Lord Wakehurst, then Governor of Northern Ireland, and Sir Laurence Olivier introduced the opening ceremony.[10] The station's first night of programming, introduced by duty announcer Adrienne McGuill, featured networked series such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and 77 Sunset Strip,[11] two news bulletins from ITN and the 1949 feature film Task Force. Sir Laurence Olivier delivered the station's first epilogue, an excerpt from Joseph Addison's "The Spacious Firmament".[11]
The following evening, UTV contributed a play to the Armchair Theatre series, A Shilling for the Evil Day, produced in association with ABC Television.[10] Earlier in the day, the station broadcast its first unofficial colour production – a film of images from across Northern Ireland was broadcast entitled Ulster Rich and Rare, produced by Lord Wakehurst.
At launch, Ulster Television employed a staff of 100 people including six presenters: Ivor Mills and Anne Gregg were chosen as the presenters of local magazine programme Roundabout, Adrienne McGuill, James Greene and Brian Durkin were the first continuity announcers, and former rugby union international Ernest Strathdee was recruited as the station's sports presenter.[12]
Initially, Ulster Television's programmes would only be available to viewers located within range of the Black Mountain transmitter near Belfast.[13] On the station's first night of programmes however, it was reported that some residents of Dublin, located over 100 miles away, had called the station to report poor picture reception.[9] Coverage of UTV spread to Western areas of Northern Ireland when the Strabane transmitter opened in February 1963.[13]
Ulster Television's UHF PAL colour service was launched with the opening of the UHF transmitter Divis in September 1970.[9] This was followed by two additional transmitters at Limavady (opened in 1975[9]) and Brougher Mountain (in 1978[9]). In October 1988 the station began 24-hour broadcasting. It was the last in the ITV network to begin 24-hour transmission, commencing overnight programming a month after the other smaller ITV stations started overnight broadcasting.[14]
At the company's
UTV Ireland is a sister station to UTV's Northern Ireland service, broadcasting to the Republic of Ireland. The new channel launched on 1 January 2015, following approval by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.[85] UTV Ireland broadcasts from the company's Dublin base at Macken House and carries a large amount of ITV's networked programming (including Emmerdale and Coronation Street, previously broadcast by TV3, alongside some bespoke programming, including Ireland Live, a twice nightly national news programme airing at 5.30 pm and 10 pm.[86][87][88]
On 4 January 2011, Freeview announced details for the launch of ITV1+1, together with the possibility that both STV and UTV will launch their own timeshift services, STV +1 and UTV +1 in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.[83] UTV later confirmed that it would launch UTV +1 at 8 pm on 11 January 2011.[84] The channel is available to Freeview viewers on channel 33 and Virgin Media cable customers on channel 114. The channel is not currently available on the Freesat and Sky satellite services.
In May 2011, the presentation infrastructure was upgraded to become fully HD-capable in readiness for the digital switchover in 2012.
Currently UTV's acquisition and presentation infrastructure is SD only; all HD content is line-fed to UTV in Belfast from Technicolor Network Services' transmission facility at Chiswick Park, with UTV's presentation and local content being upscaled and switched into the transmission chain for UTV HD using a simple A/B switcher.
UTV HD, a simulcast of UTV in high-definition, launched on Virgin Media channel 113 on 5 October 2010.[80] On 5 March 2012, UTV Media announced it had signed new network arrangements for the provision of Channel 3 programmes and services with ITV plc. Included in the agreement is a deal which ensured the distribution of UTV HD on Freeview when the digital switchover took place on 24 October 2012 and on Sky and Freesat on 4 November 2013.[81][82]
In common with the rest of the ITV Network, the station aired specially composed signature tunes as part of its daily start-up routine. From launch until 1971, the opening theme was Seamus by the American musician, composer and bandleader Van Phillips, who had earlier written the theme tune of the popular 1950s BBC radio science fiction drama Journey Into Space. UTV's best known theme was The Antrim Road, a classical symphony composed by Wayne Hill and Earl Ward, which was used between 1971 and 1983. It originally featured on The British Isles, an LP of orchestral arrangements of traditional and characteristic national tunes of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The album was released on the De Wolf label in 1971.
UTV is the only company in the ITV network to still broadcast in-vision continuity announcements, where the announcer appears in front of the camera to introduce the evening's programmes. Ballantine, Browne and Porter also have newscaster roles on the UTV Live Tonight show.
Since 1959, Ulster Television have used different logos, or idents on-screen:
On 19 October 2015, UTV Media announced that it would sell its ITV franchise and the UTV brand to ITV plc for £100 million, subject to regulatory approval. ITV CEO Adam Crozier stated that "UTV Television's strategic objectives are closely aligned with our own and we are very pleased that they are joining the ITV family." The acquisition, if approved, will leave STV Group as the only remaining independent owner of ITV franchises. ITV plans to retain the UTV brand in Northern Ireland, and not re-brand it under a standardised name (such as "ITV Northern Ireland"); as such, UTV Media, which will retain its radio properties, will adopt a new name.[2]
[16]
United Kingdom, Northern Ireland Executive, Sinn Féin, Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland Assembly
Liberty Global, Nasdaq, BT Group, Virgin Media Ireland, Virgin Group
Bbc, Premier League, Formula One, BBC Sport, The Football League
Northern Ireland, Irish language, S4c, Harry Potter, Sky Sports
Channel 4, ITV Breakfast, Bbc, Channel 5 (UK), UTV (TV channel)
Northern Ireland, Sky Sports, Tg4, UTV (TV channel), U.tv
STV Player, Virgin Media, PlayStation 3, Itv.com, Samsung Electronics
UTV (TV channel), ITV (TV channel), Sic, Grampian Television, U.tv
Carlton Television, ITV Wales & West, London Weekend Television, ITV Channel Television, ITV Anglia