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ITV Nightscreen
ITV Nightscreen is a scheduled programme on the ITV television network that was broadcast from 1998 to 2021. It consisted of a sequence of animated pages of information about ITV's upcoming programmes, features and special events, with easy listening music in the background. The programme was used to fill the station's overnight downtime, where a closedown would have once been used at the end of programmes. The programme was generally shown seven days a week with the typical weekday show airing from 4:05 am to 5:05 am daily. However, on ITV's additional channels which only began broadcasting in the digital era, the amount of Teleshopping affected how much Nightscreen was broadcast.
Teletext screens had been used by the BBC since 1980 and by Channel 4 since 1983 to fill airtime cheaply. However teletext was only ever occasionally used on the ITV network due to ITV having been on air all day every day since the early 1970s. From April 1986, certain regions, firstly Central Independent Television, followed in January 1987 by Yorkshire Television, started showing overnight teletext sequences containing details of local job vacancies under the title Jobfinder. Initially the pages were broadcast for an hour after the end of regular programming but from April 1987 Central broadcast Jobfinder throughout their overnight downtime. Also, for a short while in 1987, an Oracle-provided service preceding TV-am broadcasts, known as Daybreak, was broadcast before the start of TV-am's programming. When 24-hour television began in 1988, the majority of ITV regions broadcast a Jobfinder programme in the hour preceding the ITV Morning News. These pages continued to be broadcast in some regions until the mid-1990s.
Nightscreen was first broadcast on 14 January 1998, and consisted of teletext pages taken from the ITV regional teletext services, with interstitial teletext-based animations in a similar style to the former 4-Tel On View. From 2003 the screens were produced using Scala InfoChannel3. In early 2009, updated systems were installed with the latest version of Scala5, with a dual redundant system to counter any issues of service. In April 2012, the system was upgraded again to a newer version of Scala5. The Scala system was provided by Beaver Group, and the programme was produced by Gower Creative Communications with soundtracks provided by KPM Music and BMG Production Music. This, amongst other minor presentational changes, allowed compatibility of the service to be transmitted in 16:9 widescreen for the first time, as opposed to 4:3.
In February 1999, STV started carrying Nightscreen as a programming filler during its overnight programming strand 'Night Time TV' (run by SMG and jointly aired between the Scottish and Grampian regions at the time), whilst sister station Grampian had already carried Nightscreen as a filler in their programming schedules by this time too.
ITV Channel Television previously ran its own version of the service entitled Channel Nightscreen consisting of local news headlines and programming information. Channel Nightscreen was axed towards the end of 2011 shortly after ITV plc brought Channel Television.
In April 2010, STV launched its own Scottish night-time service, The Nightshift, broadcast in the STV Central region and consisting of programming highlights, news, competitions and viewers texts and emails read out by a live out-of-vision presenter. STV North continued to broadcast ITV Nightscreen until July 2010, when The Nightshift was extended to the North region. The programme included regional news opt-outs for the four STV sub-regions: Aberdeen & the North, Dundee & Tayside, Edinburgh & the East and Glasgow & the West. STV dropped The Nightshift from its schedules in June 2015, meaning Nightscreen was extended on the station.
In October 2021, the programme was replaced by Unwind with ITV (branded as Unwind with STV on STV in Central Scotland and North of Scotland).
ITV Nightscreen was broadcast on ITV1, STV and UTV starting 3:50am and ending at 5:05 am most weekdays and at 6:00 am at weekends and holidays. At Christmas and weekends, an additional 55 minutes was broadcast from 5:00 am – 6:00 am as no other programmes were shown. Very occasionally it was not broadcast due to live events and other programming filling its hour. These included when there was a general election in the UK, a presidential election in the US, and in September and October 2020 there was one night a week that Nightscreen was not broadcast due to superbike highlights.
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ITV Nightscreen AI simulator
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ITV Nightscreen
ITV Nightscreen is a scheduled programme on the ITV television network that was broadcast from 1998 to 2021. It consisted of a sequence of animated pages of information about ITV's upcoming programmes, features and special events, with easy listening music in the background. The programme was used to fill the station's overnight downtime, where a closedown would have once been used at the end of programmes. The programme was generally shown seven days a week with the typical weekday show airing from 4:05 am to 5:05 am daily. However, on ITV's additional channels which only began broadcasting in the digital era, the amount of Teleshopping affected how much Nightscreen was broadcast.
Teletext screens had been used by the BBC since 1980 and by Channel 4 since 1983 to fill airtime cheaply. However teletext was only ever occasionally used on the ITV network due to ITV having been on air all day every day since the early 1970s. From April 1986, certain regions, firstly Central Independent Television, followed in January 1987 by Yorkshire Television, started showing overnight teletext sequences containing details of local job vacancies under the title Jobfinder. Initially the pages were broadcast for an hour after the end of regular programming but from April 1987 Central broadcast Jobfinder throughout their overnight downtime. Also, for a short while in 1987, an Oracle-provided service preceding TV-am broadcasts, known as Daybreak, was broadcast before the start of TV-am's programming. When 24-hour television began in 1988, the majority of ITV regions broadcast a Jobfinder programme in the hour preceding the ITV Morning News. These pages continued to be broadcast in some regions until the mid-1990s.
Nightscreen was first broadcast on 14 January 1998, and consisted of teletext pages taken from the ITV regional teletext services, with interstitial teletext-based animations in a similar style to the former 4-Tel On View. From 2003 the screens were produced using Scala InfoChannel3. In early 2009, updated systems were installed with the latest version of Scala5, with a dual redundant system to counter any issues of service. In April 2012, the system was upgraded again to a newer version of Scala5. The Scala system was provided by Beaver Group, and the programme was produced by Gower Creative Communications with soundtracks provided by KPM Music and BMG Production Music. This, amongst other minor presentational changes, allowed compatibility of the service to be transmitted in 16:9 widescreen for the first time, as opposed to 4:3.
In February 1999, STV started carrying Nightscreen as a programming filler during its overnight programming strand 'Night Time TV' (run by SMG and jointly aired between the Scottish and Grampian regions at the time), whilst sister station Grampian had already carried Nightscreen as a filler in their programming schedules by this time too.
ITV Channel Television previously ran its own version of the service entitled Channel Nightscreen consisting of local news headlines and programming information. Channel Nightscreen was axed towards the end of 2011 shortly after ITV plc brought Channel Television.
In April 2010, STV launched its own Scottish night-time service, The Nightshift, broadcast in the STV Central region and consisting of programming highlights, news, competitions and viewers texts and emails read out by a live out-of-vision presenter. STV North continued to broadcast ITV Nightscreen until July 2010, when The Nightshift was extended to the North region. The programme included regional news opt-outs for the four STV sub-regions: Aberdeen & the North, Dundee & Tayside, Edinburgh & the East and Glasgow & the West. STV dropped The Nightshift from its schedules in June 2015, meaning Nightscreen was extended on the station.
In October 2021, the programme was replaced by Unwind with ITV (branded as Unwind with STV on STV in Central Scotland and North of Scotland).
ITV Nightscreen was broadcast on ITV1, STV and UTV starting 3:50am and ending at 5:05 am most weekdays and at 6:00 am at weekends and holidays. At Christmas and weekends, an additional 55 minutes was broadcast from 5:00 am – 6:00 am as no other programmes were shown. Very occasionally it was not broadcast due to live events and other programming filling its hour. These included when there was a general election in the UK, a presidential election in the US, and in September and October 2020 there was one night a week that Nightscreen was not broadcast due to superbike highlights.