ITN

History

After the Independent Television Authority (ITA) awarded the first six ITV franchises to four companies, it decided that national news should be provided by a separate contractor. ITN was founded in May 1955 by a consortium of the initial four broadcasting companies, with former Labour MP Aidan Crawley as editor-in-chief. The first bulletin was broadcast at 10 pm on 22 September 1955 on ITV's launch night. Its original theme tune was 'Non Stop', by John Malcolm, which was used for the next 30 years. The bulletin was presented by former champion athlete Christopher Chataway. From the start, ITN broke new ground by introducing in-vision and named 'newscasters' (rather than BBC News's nameless and sound-only 'newsreaders'), and reporter packages. The unique, probing reporting style of Robin Day caused shock among politicians, finding themselves questioned continually for information – this had never been the case with the BBC. There were also some early tensions with the ITV companies. ABC Weekend TV, the ITV contractor for the north and Midlands on weekends, immediately called for shorter ITN bulletins. While the ITA ruled on a minimum of a 20-minute bulletin, disagreements with the ITV companies over ITN's budget triggered the resignation of Crawley after just one year in 1956. He was replaced by Geoffrey Cox.

ITN continued to develop its service to the ITV network with an agenda to firstly, fulfil its public service broadcasting requirements and secondly satisfy the ITV companies by attracting viewers. Under this method, ITN continued to differentiate itself from the BBC by conducting probing interviews, introducing more human interest stories and bringing ordinary people on to screen by using so-called 'vox pops' (interviews, usually held in the street, with members of the general public), all of which were seen as a radical departure at the time in British broadcasting. In 1956 the General Post Office ended its Fourteen Day Rule prohibiting discussion on television of topics for debate in Parliament during the following two weeks. As the ITN reporter and later ITN political editor Julian Haviland, put it: "My view was that at ITN we must be at least as responsible and accurate as the BBC, without being so damned boring". As ITV expanded, each ITV company that made up the network's federal structure had to purchase a stake in ITN and to continue to finance the company.

Although ITN had far fewer resources than BBC News—as late as the early 1970s it only had one overseas reporter, in Washington DC—ITN in 1967 was given the go-ahead by the ITA to provide a full 30-minute daily news programme at 10 pm. There was further tension with the ITV executives as they were sceptical of the idea that viewers would want a full 30 minutes of news every Monday to Friday and they were also losing valuable peak time slots which could be used for the sale of commercial advertising. News at Ten began broadcasting on 3 July 1967 with a newscaster team consisting of Alastair Burnet, Andrew Gardner, George Ffitch and Reginald Bosanquet. It was initially given a 13-week trial run; however, the programme proved to be extremely popular with viewers and continued for a further 32 years. News at Ten was to become one of the most prestigious news programmes of its time in British history with a reputation for high-quality journalism and innovation. ITN's News at Ten also prompted the BBC to gradually expand its 20:50 news bulletin from ten minutes to fifteen, twenty and then twenty-five minutes. The Nine O'Clock News began broadcasting in 1970 as News at Ten's rival. ITN also established other programmes in the ITV schedule. First Report, a lunchtime bulletin began in 1972 and by 1976, News at 5.45 commenced. This was a period when ITN enjoyed its greatest plaudits, following Lord Annan's 1977 report on the future of broadcasting, which declared: "We subscribe to the generally held view that ITN has the edge over BBC news."

ITN obtained the contract to produce Channel 4 News when the channel started broadcasting in 1982. The programme was launched by Peter Sissons, Trevor McDonald and Sarah Hogg. The hour-long programme has been broadcast at 7 pm since it started and has a reputation for high-quality journalism and thorough analysis. Further expansion came with the launch of overnight television on ITV in 1988, with ITN providing hourly news bulletins, as well as the half-hour ITN Morning News to conclude the overnight schedules.

Until the 1990s, the individual ITV companies had an obligation to provide a national news programme, which required them to take a share in the ITN operation. Following the Broadcasting Act 1990, ITN had to apply and bid for a licence to provide such services on these ITV networks, and would have to fight competition in order to preserve its services, as had become the case with other ITV franchisees. The Broadcasting Act also allowed the Independent Television Commission to introduce ownership rules for news providers. The move was to transform the company from a 'cost centre' to a 'profit-making business'. The move saw 400 staff made redundant, and the closure of a number of international bureaux to claw back a £10 million deficit in order to provide a competitive product to obtain the ITV news contract. Within three years the company turned to profit in 1993 with suggestions at the time that the company should be listed on the stock exchange.