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- For other uses of the UTV acronym see UTV (disambiguation)
UTV is the Channel 3 (ITV) licensee for Northern Ireland. The station is owned by UTV plc.
UTV Television
UTV is the Channel 3 (ITV) licensee for Northern Ireland. It is one of the two remaining stand-alone ITV contractors left along with Channel, with the others having grouped into ITV plc (which owns eleven franchises) and SMG plc (which owns two, now both known as stv). Political sensitivities, and a wish to attract more advertising revenue from the Republic of Ireland led to the channel bringing the use of the abbreviation UTV to the fore, as the use of word 'Ulster' is controversial among Northern Ireland's two communities. Since June 4, 1993, Ulster Television has been known on-air as simply UTV, and off-air is usually referred to as UTV Group. At the Annual General Meeting held in Belfast on 26 May 2006 the registered company name was changed from 'Ulster Television' to "UTV plc" as the old name no longer reflected the full scope of the company's business *.
Programmes
UTV's main programmes are the nightly news UTV Live, current affairs programme Insight, the interview programme Gerry Meets..., cookery programmes with Jenny Bristow, home & lifestyle programme Home Sweet Home and Lesser Spotted Ulster.
On December 16, 2005, Kelly, UTV's flagship talk show, came to an end after 17 years. Gerry Kelly, the presenter, returned with a new format programme, Gerry Meets... in 2006. Two of UTV's other programmes UTV School Choir of the Year and School Around the Corner also came to an end in 2005.
The majority of their programmes come from the ITV network; however, UTV distances itself more from network programming than any other franchise. Dropped programmes include the majority of Friday night primetime output, and the network's early evening live chat show, which are replaced by a mix of imported and UTV programming.
UTV across the United Kingdom
UTV has been available to the whole of the United Kingdom via the Sky Digital system since 2001. It is now available on Free to air on satellite since Tuesday 1st November 2005.
UTV in the Republic of Ireland
In the past, viewers in the Republic who subscribe to Sky Digital had not been able to view UTV, owing to rights issues, as many ITV programmes are also shown on the commercial channel TV3, which is partly owned by ITV plc. As a result of the decision to drop encryption across the entire ITV network, TV3 has inititated legal proceedings against ITV, on the grounds that it has already sold Republic of Ireland rights to its programmes to TV3, and has broken its contractural commitments. *
The company has its own sales office in Dublin, and is listed on the ISE in addition to its primary listing on the LSE, where ITV plc and SMG plc are also traded.
UTV is also available in the Republic of Ireland, either on cable and MMDS systems, or directly in border areas. This puts UTV in the unique position of having as many viewers, if not more, outside its franchise area, and indeed, outside the United Kingdom. UTV was for many years the third most popular channel in the Republic, prior to the introduction of TV3. Having said this, UTV's viewing dropped sharply in the Republic in recent years, due to it not being included on the official Sky Digital line-up for Ireland. Prior to the merger of NTL and Chorus, Sky Digital was the largest subscription platform in the Republic and UTV's non inclusion on the Sky Irish EPG is seen as a major weakness going forward.
Since the dropping of encryption in November 2005, UTV can be manually tuned on a Sky Digibox or received on any DVB-S decoder throughout the Republic. The frequencies for UTV and some other ITV regions are 10906V 22.0 5/6. Once saved, UTV can be accessed via the Other Channels facility on a Sky Digibox or via Search and Scan on other decoders. This is not expected to have a dramatic effect on viewing in the Republic, as many Sky Digital users find this procedure far too cumbersome and awkward to use regularly.
See also
External links
- UTV website
- Animated Ulster Television logo, 1960s from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
- UTV Today Tribute site showcasing UTV's range of on-screen presentation
- Ulster television on TV Ark
"UTV"