ITV
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| Owner | ITV plc |
ITV4 is a UK television station which launched on November 1, 2005. The ITV plc channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action series of the 1960s and '70s. The channel has an annual budget of just £15m, compared to £900 - 1000m for ITV1.
ITV4 is broadcast on Freeview, digital cable and satellite television. It was expected that ITV4 would replace the existing Men & Motors channel, until ITV stated that the two channels would run alongside each other. Both channels were on Freeview until ITV took Men & Motors off Freeview (although it remained on other platforms) and replaced it with the live quiz channel ITV Play, which makes around £25m each year. Some programming was transferred to ITV4 from M&M.
ITV4's launch night aired on Freeview channel 30. Although it was broadcast on the Astra 2 satellites used by Sky, so users could manually tune it in, it launched on Sky Digital channel 120, after ITV2 and ITV3 in the listings, on 7 November. Prior to this date, some sporting content was simulcast on Men & Motors in an ITV4 on m&m strand. ITV4 broadcasts between 6pm-6am, with space on Freeview being used by the CITV Channel for the other 12 hours of the day.
ITV4 was the first channel to launch the new on-screen look that rolled out across the rest of the ITV network on January 16, 2006. Red Bee (formerly BBC Broadcast) designed the new logos and presentation for the entire corporation that saw the end of the yellow and blue squared look designed for ITV1, 2 and the cube look for 3 with the sharp font.
ITV had hoped ITV4 would compete with Channel 4's third channel, More4, despite the latter's larger £33m budget. ITV4 has occasionally beaten More4 in the ratings.
In addition to these shows, a number of hits from the ITC catalogue are shown, such as The Saint and The Persuaders!.
Sporting coverage includes the UEFA Champions League, live boxing, Tour de France and the World Poker Tour.
ITV4 used to air the Late Show With David Letterman from the 1st November 2005 until it was dropped by ITV4 on the 27th October 2006.
