Itv.com
Encyclopedia
itv.com is the main website of ITV plc
, the UK's largest commercial television
broadcaster which operates 11 out of 15 regions on the ITV network under the ITV1
brand. The website offers on-line streaming, ITV archive, news, sport, entertainment, games, soaps, lifestyle, drama and an interactive TV guide. Each of ITV plc's channels, ITV1
, ITV2
, ITV3
, ITV4
, and CITV
have a page with information on their programming. There are also pages for the ITV
regions owned by ITV plc
, meanwhile the regions not owned by ITV plc each have their own, separate websites.
The URL 'www.itv.com' was created on 31 October 1994, but was registered elsewhere for some years before Carlton
and Granada
bought the domain name after merging their respective on-line services carlton.com and G-Wizz. Both companies have since merged to form ITV plc. The original ITV URL was www.itv.co.uk, which now redirects to itv.com. itv.co.uk was and still is registered to the ITV Network Limited as opposed to ITV plc. Previous corporate logos had ".com" added as a logo for the website however this trend stopped with the 2011 redesign where a black ITV logo is used when referring to the website. ITV.com's slogan used to be "total freedom of entertainment".
. The site will also make available some 1,000 hours of exclusive archive content, which will grow over time. In addition, the site also introduces interactive services and community elements.
Soaps such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale was the first genre to launch on 12 June 2007, followed by Games on 19 June 2007, Drama and Best of ITV on 29 June 2007, Lifestyle on 9 July 2007, Entertainment on 17 July 2007, Sport on 25 July, with every other section launching on 31 July, making the site now fully launched. Also on 12 June 2007 simulcasts of ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 were launched (However not all programming will be shown due to rights restrictions).
In March 2008, the website was revamped with the changes including the homepage and the video player, with a new Catch Up TV section.
.
Parts of the site have already had a re-design, including a new-look homepage. The Coronation Street, Loose Women and football sections pages were updated in the early months of 2009. This Morning relaunched in August. ITV News
will relaunch next year, coinciding with a new Tonight
page. On 11 September 2009 video coding was changed from Microsoft Silverlight to Flash, and on 25 September 2009 ITV relaunched its TV classics section. On 19 November ITV Player had a complete overhaul of its site and relaunched with a new website with a few new add-ons, including a search bar, light dimmer and bigger video players. A Brand new TV Shows directory was relaunched on December 10th which then lead to the closure of the old style Drama, Soap, Entertainment pages on the site being replaced with similar pages in the TV Shows directory. On 4 February a brand new weather page launched and on 22 February a brand new ITV News website launched, stories from ITV News correspondents, the latest news programme, news blogs and a meet the team page are all on the brand new website. From Summer 2010, the ITV website underwent another overhaul with tweaks to the layout such as centring pages when used on wide-screen displays as well as improved pages for various ITV shows with high resolution images and videos.
would close as a separate business. On 17 March 2009, it did, with the ITV regions integrated into itv.com. The new itv.com/local relaunched during October 2009 and are now prominent in regional news.
The ITV Player
relaunched on Monday 22 August 2011 with a new look and new features. ITV
has said there will be upcoming improvements to the ITV Player
such as dedicated applications for Android and iOS devices. Currently improvements to the reliability, subtitles on some programmes and a dedicated CITV
section have since launched.
ITV
has signalled their intention to trial a micro-payments feature on their website. It is currently unclear on what they will charge for but this could include consumers paying for alternative story lines for soaps and archive content. The video archive section of the site, introduced in the 2007 redesign was removed when the redesign went live.
, sport
and weather
website in March 2012.
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...
, the UK's largest commercial television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcaster which operates 11 out of 15 regions on the ITV network under the ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
brand. The website offers on-line streaming, ITV archive, news, sport, entertainment, games, soaps, lifestyle, drama and an interactive TV guide. Each of ITV plc's channels, ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
, ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
, ITV3
ITV3
ITV3 is an entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom that is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004. ITV3 is the second largest UK multi-channel, second only to ITV2.-History:...
, ITV4
ITV4
ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...
, and CITV
CITV
CITV is a British television channel from ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive, as well as commissions and acquisitions. CITV itself is the programming block on the main ITV Network .The CITV channel broadcasts from 06:00 to 18:00...
have a page with information on their programming. There are also pages for the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
regions owned by ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...
, meanwhile the regions not owned by ITV plc each have their own, separate websites.
History
Carlton Communications
Carlton Communications was a British media company. It was led by Michael Green and listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1983 until 2 February 2004, when it taken over by Granada plc to form ITV plc with Carlton gaining 32% of the new company....
and Granada
Granada Ltd.
Granada plc is a former British conglomerate which was best known as the former parent of the Manchester-based Granada Television....
bought the domain name after merging their respective on-line services carlton.com and G-Wizz. Both companies have since merged to form ITV plc. The original ITV URL was www.itv.co.uk, which now redirects to itv.com. itv.co.uk was and still is registered to the ITV Network Limited as opposed to ITV plc. Previous corporate logos had ".com" added as a logo for the website however this trend stopped with the 2011 redesign where a black ITV logo is used when referring to the website. ITV.com's slogan used to be "total freedom of entertainment".
2007 re-design and video on demand
The new ITV online features media player through which viewers gain access to whole shows, simulcasts, previews and catch-ups of broadcast content, much of it within a 30-day window, all for free for the viewer, funded by advertising. Users also have access to the network's programme archive, 'behind-the-scenes' programming, games and user-generated contentUser-generated content
User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
. The site will also make available some 1,000 hours of exclusive archive content, which will grow over time. In addition, the site also introduces interactive services and community elements.
Soaps such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale was the first genre to launch on 12 June 2007, followed by Games on 19 June 2007, Drama and Best of ITV on 29 June 2007, Lifestyle on 9 July 2007, Entertainment on 17 July 2007, Sport on 25 July, with every other section launching on 31 July, making the site now fully launched. Also on 12 June 2007 simulcasts of ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 were launched (However not all programming will be shown due to rights restrictions).
In March 2008, the website was revamped with the changes including the homepage and the video player, with a new Catch Up TV section.
2009-10 re-design
On 10 December 2008 it was announced that itv.com would undergo another redesign to introduce more social media features and a greater emphasis on its most popular TV shows with a "fewer, bigger, better" strategy. The re-design was codenamed 'Project Penguin', and followed the announcement of ITV's Catch Up service being re-branded to ITV PlayerITV Player
ITV Player is an online video on demand service accessible though the main ITV website. The service offers a variety of programmes from homegrown programming to imports across ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV. Some sports programming is available to watch again via the service, the 2010 FIFA World...
.
Parts of the site have already had a re-design, including a new-look homepage. The Coronation Street, Loose Women and football sections pages were updated in the early months of 2009. This Morning relaunched in August. ITV News
ITV News
ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. Since 1955, ITV's news bulletins have been produced by Independent Television News . The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and BAFTAs. Between 2004 and 2008, the...
will relaunch next year, coinciding with a new Tonight
Tonight (TV series)
Tonight is a British television newsmagazine, produced by ITV Studios and ITN for the ITV network. Since 1999, Tonight replaced the long-running investigative series World in Action...
page. On 11 September 2009 video coding was changed from Microsoft Silverlight to Flash, and on 25 September 2009 ITV relaunched its TV classics section. On 19 November ITV Player had a complete overhaul of its site and relaunched with a new website with a few new add-ons, including a search bar, light dimmer and bigger video players. A Brand new TV Shows directory was relaunched on December 10th which then lead to the closure of the old style Drama, Soap, Entertainment pages on the site being replaced with similar pages in the TV Shows directory. On 4 February a brand new weather page launched and on 22 February a brand new ITV News website launched, stories from ITV News correspondents, the latest news programme, news blogs and a meet the team page are all on the brand new website. From Summer 2010, the ITV website underwent another overhaul with tweaks to the layout such as centring pages when used on wide-screen displays as well as improved pages for various ITV shows with high resolution images and videos.
Integration of ITV Local
On 4 March 2009, ITV announced that ITV LocalITV Local
ITV Local was a broadband service provided by ITV plc, the contractor and provider of ITV in 11 of the 15 Television Regions. First established in 2005, the website provided local news, weather and features on demand 24 hours a day....
would close as a separate business. On 17 March 2009, it did, with the ITV regions integrated into itv.com. The new itv.com/local relaunched during October 2009 and are now prominent in regional news.
2011 design
On 31 March 2011 ITV.com had another new design. The homepage was completely redesigned as were the channel mini-sites. The TV guide and TV shows sections incorporated the new page headers and footers whilst becoming centred for better presentation on wide screen displays. The news option in the navigational bar offers national and regional news. The sports section also become centred, with a redesigned itv.com/f1 site launching soon after, other sports mini-sites are expected to redesigned in the same way when their respective new seasons begin. Many programmes mini-sites relating to current programmes were centred, whilst shows returning for new series' saw their sites redesigned with high resolution background images and increased interactive and video content. This redesign continues to build upon the social networking functionality introduced in previous versions of the site.The ITV Player
ITV Player
ITV Player is an online video on demand service accessible though the main ITV website. The service offers a variety of programmes from homegrown programming to imports across ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV. Some sports programming is available to watch again via the service, the 2010 FIFA World...
relaunched on Monday 22 August 2011 with a new look and new features. ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
has said there will be upcoming improvements to the ITV Player
ITV Player
ITV Player is an online video on demand service accessible though the main ITV website. The service offers a variety of programmes from homegrown programming to imports across ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV. Some sports programming is available to watch again via the service, the 2010 FIFA World...
such as dedicated applications for Android and iOS devices. Currently improvements to the reliability, subtitles on some programmes and a dedicated CITV
CITV
CITV is a British television channel from ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive, as well as commissions and acquisitions. CITV itself is the programming block on the main ITV Network .The CITV channel broadcasts from 06:00 to 18:00...
section have since launched.
ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
has signalled their intention to trial a micro-payments feature on their website. It is currently unclear on what they will charge for but this could include consumers paying for alternative story lines for soaps and archive content. The video archive section of the site, introduced in the 2007 redesign was removed when the redesign went live.
2012 news, sport and weather relaunch
ITV is to relaunch it's newsITV News
ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. Since 1955, ITV's news bulletins have been produced by Independent Television News . The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and BAFTAs. Between 2004 and 2008, the...
, sport
ITV Sport
ITV Sport is a sport producer and brand name owned by ITV plc. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport, Carlton's sports department and ISN, the sports division of London News Network. The company produces Champions League and FA Cup Football, along with coverage of England's national...
and weather
ITV Weather
ITV Weather is the national and regional forecast shown on UK terrestrial network ITV, and is provided by the Met Office...
website in March 2012.