ITV News Channel - Definition and Overview

The ITV News Channel is a 24 hour television news channel in the United Kingdom available on Sky Digital, cable and Freeview, presenting the latest national and international news stories plus regular business, sport, entertainment and weather summaries. Priority is usually given to the latest breaking news stories. There is also an added focus on UK stories, by drawing on the resources of the ITV network's regional newsrooms.

The channel is presented from the so-called 'theatre of news' set, which is a vast virtual studio. The studio allows presentation from either behind a desk or from presenters walking around the studio, using the newswall to fully explain a story with the use of graphics.

News content and programming for the channel is provided by ITN under a contract which runs until 2009, when ITN's current contract to provide news bulletins for ITV1 also expires.

The channel launched on 1 August 2000 as a joint venture between ITN and NTL as the "ITN News Channel". In June 2002, Carlton Television and Granada Television - the predecessors of ITV plc - bought out ITN's 65 per cent stake. This led to a rebrand as the ITV News Channel in September 2002. In April 2004, the newly created ITV plc bought NTL's 35 per cent stake to assume full control of the channel.

Presenters include the well-known British newscaster, Angela Rippon and ITN veteran Alastair Stewart. It also feature faces such as Nicholas Owen, Andrew Harvey, Mary Nightingale, Andrea Catherwood and James Mates. Presenters from ITV's regional news programmes regularly appear on the channel at weekends and holiday periods.

Its main competitors are Sky News and BBC News 24.

External links

• The ITV News website (http://www.itv.com/news/)
• ITV News Channel on ITN's website (http://www.itn.co.uk/itv/itv_nc.shtml)
• ITV News Channel unofficial website (http://www.newschannel.org.uk)