Everything about Itv2 totally explained
ITV2 is a 24 hour a day
free-to-air entertainment
television channel in the
United Kingdom owned by
ITV plc. It was launched on
7 December 1998, and is available on
digital television via satellite, cable,
IPTV and terrestrial (
Freeview) platforms. It is also available via analogue cable television.
The term can also refer to the continuum of proposals to create a second commercial television network, from the 1950s until the idea was realised with the start of
Channel 4 and
S4C in 1982 (see
Background).
The channel airs repeats of
ITV1 programming at a later time such as
Soap operas Coronation Street and
Emmerdale, imported American programming such as
Judge Judy and
Supernatural, extended coverage of
Reality television programmes such as
The X Factor and
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and original programming, with shows like
Secret Diary of a Call Girl and, to name but a few.
ITV2 won channel of the year at the Broadcast Digital Channel Awards 2007 on
9 June 2007, and on
25 August of the same year, ITV2 was named non-terrestrial channel of the year at the
Edinburgh International Television Festival.
The premiere episode of
Bionic Woman, starring British actress
Michelle Ryan rated over 2.5 million viewers, ITV2's largest audience in the history of the channel and beating the record previously held by
Torchwood on BBC Three for a non-sports digital channel.
Background
The concept of there being more than one independent television service dates back to the very origins of independent television itself, where ways of allowing the composite companies of ITV to compete directly with one another side-by-side were considered. When the first broadcasts went on air in
1955 there wasn't enough frequency space given for use by television to allow this to happen, so each competing company was allotted a part of the country, and in the large areas a period of the week (weekdays or weekend), in which to 'compete'. This arrangement wasn't seen as ideal however, and the
ITA continually pushed the government for the extra capacity to license a second set of franchises.
When transmissions began on
UHF in the early 1960s, the
GPO were afforded the task of allocating each transmitter region with a set of frequencies that would provide maximum coverage, and minimal interference; this was done in such a way that each area had four channels available for four services, one each for the existing BBC and Independent Television services (as already carried on VHF), one for the new
BBC2 service, launched in
1964, and a fourth for future allocation. The
ITA and ITV companies pushed for this space to be given to them, and during the 1968 round of new ITV franchises being issued, each licence included a clause that would allow the licence to be revoked and reconsidered if 'ITV2' became a reality before its ten-year expiry period, so as to 're-draw' the network with this consideration in mind. The term 'ITV2' became popular during this time, as the term 'ITV' itself grew in popularity for the commercial network which hitherto had no formal or agreed overall name. So anticipated was the creation of such a network by some, that many television sets manufactured during the '60s and '70s had buttons labelled 'ITV1' and 'ITV2'.
The issue was a sensitive political point: The Labour Party of the 1950s and 1960s had been traditionally against commercial television, and many on the left of the party wanted to see ITV abolished altogether. Ideas to create a 'BBC3' using the spare capacity had been considered during the 1960s, but never acted upon - presumably due to the cost involved. The following Conservative government, despite traditionally favouring the concept of ITV and having founded it, were also slow to act in implementing the new network when they came to power in 1969. After many years of indecisiveness on the part of the various governments, moves began to be made towards the end of the 1970s on the form such a fourth service would take. By then, both major political parties roughly agreed that this new service ought to have some public service element to it, and provide content to minority groups not necessarily catered for by the BBC or ITV proper. The resultant service,
Channel 4, and a variant for Wales,
S4C, began in 1982. It could be said that this service was the long-awaited 'ITV2' in all but name, as it was operated and regulated by the
IBA, was (then) funded by the rest of ITV, and some of its content was produced from the ITV companies; only the name was distinct.
History
This name wasn't dead, however, and the concept of 'ITV2' resurfaced in the late 1990s for very different reasons. The launch of
digital terrestrial television services in the UK saw each existing analogue terrestrial broadcaster given a slice of bandwidth with which to carry their existing service after analogue switch-off with space left over for new channels. Whilst strictly speaking this space belonged to each regional contractor for use within their own region, ITV had undergone a series of buy-outs earlier on in the decade, the three players operating the majority of the network,
Granada,
Carlton and
United News & Media jointly launched ITV2 in
1998 to be broadcast to most of the country as a uniform service. Whilst free-to-air, it was marketed along-side their own subscription based
ONdigital platform. Other ITV licensees, SMG, UTV and GMTV launched their own services in the space (see below).
It is important to consider the distinction between ITV2 as considered between 1955 and 1982 and the ITV2 that was launched in 1998. Like ITV itself, the former would have had a regional structure comprising of many companies competing head-to-head with their counterparts in each region, whilst the latter is operated by one organisation, as a supplement service to the main network.
In June
2004, ITV announced that they were going to double the channel's programme budget, and would add more US series and movies.
ITV launched a one hour
timeshift channel of ITV2 on Monday,
30 October 2006. The company is looking to its digital channels to shore up revenues as the ITV Network suffers a decline in viewers. ITV3+1 launched on the same day.
ITV2 and its one-hour timeshift channel began broadcasting 24 hours a day on
March 17,
2008.
As part of the changes, ITV2+1 swapped slots on Sky's electronic programme guide with
Men & Motors, resulting in the timeshift channel making a significant jump from channel 184 to 131.
GMTV2 programming moved from ITV2 to ITV4. The strand continues to be simulcast on the CITV Channel.
Defunct local variants
S2
S2 was a television station broadcast throughout the Scottish and Grampian ITV regions by
SMG plc, the holder of the Scottish and Grampian region ITV franchises. S2, which aired on the
Digital Terrestrial platform, was launched
30 April 1999 and closed just over two years later — as part of a deal with
ITV Digital — on
27 July 2001
By the end of its life, it had lost nearly all of its
Scottish programmes and mainly
simulcast ITV2, but covered the ITV2
graphic with an
opaque S2 graphic. This caused controversy and forced the broadcaster further into removing the channel.
Although S2 initially had great ambitions for the station, it closed in
2001 as part of a deal with ITV Digital. The channel capacity was replaced by ITV2 and the
ITV Sports Channel. When the sports channel closed, it was replaced by the now also-defunct
ITV News Channel.
The Grampian and Scottish franchises operate together as
STV as of present (
2006).
UTV2
UTV2 was a television station broadcast by
UTV Media plc on
Digital Terrestrial Television in
Northern Ireland. It was launched in
1999 as
TV You. The programming consisted primarily of simulcasts with the ITV2 station shown in
England,
Wales and the
Scottish Borders, although they did also use archive broadcasts from
UTV.
Unusually, for a commercial station, neither UTV2 nor its predecessor carried any advertising. This was presumably due to their failure to attract advertisers to a station which was only receivable to a few thousand viewers.
UTV2 closed on
22 January 2002 following a deal with
ITV Digital similar to that which saw
S2 replaced by ITV2 in most of
Scotland.
Some programmes shown on ITV2
Former programming
The Black Donnellys
The Jerry Springer Show
Late Show with David Letterman
The Oprah Winfrey Show
Sunset Beach
Surface
WAGs Boutique
Formula OneFurther Information
Get more info on 'Itv2'.
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