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ITV Wales & West (old)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 212.219.116.4 (talk) at 16:20, 6 November 2006 (→The Evolution of HTV/ITV1 Wales and West Idents). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
This article refers to the UK-based television company. HTV is also an abbreviation for How-to-vote cards, used in the Australian electoral system. For the American Hispanic music television network, see HTV (music channel).

Template:Infobox ITV franchisee HTV (Harlech Television) is the ITV contractor for Wales and the West of England, owned by ITV plc. It took over from TWW in 1968. Initially the station used its full name (after the head of the company, Lord Harlech), but from the introduction of colour in 1970 became simply HTV. Its headquarters are based in Cardiff & Bristol.

Services

HTV operates two separate services - ITV1 Wales (formerly "HTV Cymru Wales") in Wales, and ITV1 West (previously "HTV West", then briefly 'ITV1 West of England') in the West of England area.

Since 28 October 2002, the full name "ITV1 West" has only been seen before local programming on that channel. At all other times, the station is simply called ITV1. However, the name ITV1 Wales is seen before all programmes.

While ITV1 West has shared a team of announcers with the other ITV1 regions in England, since 28 October 2002, ITV1 Wales continued to have its own team of continuity announcers until 16 January 2006, when Welsh continuity was transferred to the main ITV1 announcer team in London. Although only being verbally referred to before regional programming, the channel continues to be visually identified as "ITV1 Wales".

The name HTV has not disappeared completely; it continues to be seen on programmes made for S4C, and some off-air branding also remains under the HTV name. Following the change to the single ITV1 branding, 'HTV' was kept for its news programming, but this was dropped on 2 February, 2004, in favour of ITV Wales News/ITV West News.

HTV headquarters, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff


Programming

HTV's main programmes include Wales Tonight (ITV1 Wales), The West Tonight (ITV1 West), The Ferret, and Nuts and Bolts. HTV does not now produce much in the way of regular network programming, although it did continue to commission Movies, Games and Videos for some time. Previously, there have been several major HTV commissions for the network, including Robin of Sherwood, Wycliffe and children's programmes including Rubbish, King of the Jumble, The Slow Norris, Captain Starr, and Dog & Duck; HTV also produced the game shows Definition (originally hosted by Don Moss and later Jeremy Beadle), Three Little Words (co-hosted by Ray Alan and his wife Barbie) and Keynotes, co-produced with Reg Grundy Productions.

Since 1982, HTV has provided Welsh language programming to S4C such as Cefn Gwlad, Hacio and Y Byd ar Bedwar, although this is now commissioned rather than produced in-house. Prior to S4C's introduction, HTV's evening news had to be split into two fifteen-minute bulletins, presented from the same studio and separated by an advertising break: Y Dydd (The Day) in Welsh, and Report Wales in English.

Ownership

In 1996, HTV was taken over by United News and Media plc (now United Business Media plc). In 2001, Granada Media plc bought United's television interests, but were forced, by the regulator, to sell HTV to Carlton Communications plc, owners of Carlton Television, though the HTV name was retained on-air until 27 October 2002.

Granada and Carlton were subsequently permitted to merge in 2004 to form the single company ITV plc, which now owns all of the ITV franchises in England and Wales.

Reception

HTV Wales can be received across the British Isles and further afield via satellite on Sky Digital. Its terrestrial signal can also can be received in southeastern parts of Ireland, where it is retransmitted on UHF by so-called 'deflectors', although this is because cable or MMDS (which carries UTV from Northern Ireland) is often not available in those areas.

Presenters

ITV Wales News

Its flagship programme is known as Wales Tonight. All other news bulletins are known as ITV Wales News

ITV West News

Its flagship programme is known as The West Tonight. All other news bulletins are known as The West Today/Tonight, dependent on the time of day they are broadcast. When Central News South's franchise expires in December 2006, ITV West based in Bristol will take over the regional news franchise/service in Gloucester and Cheltenham for the first time in almost 18 years.

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