ITV Nightscreen

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ITV Nightscreen is a programme on the United Kingdom's ITV television network, consisting of a sequence of static pages of information about ITV's upcoming programmes, features and special events. It shows 'slides' with text about programmes across the network, as well as stills of programmes and publicity photographs of well-known celebrities who appear on ITV channels.

It was first broadcast in 1998 and originally teletext based and consisted of pages from the ITV regional teletext services, along with various teletext animations (in a similar style to the former 4-Tel On View, both were produced by Intelfax) and accomppanied by either a mono test tone or easy listening music, before it moved to a slideshow based service. From 2003, it began showing entertainment and sports news stories as well as information on upcoming programmes.

The programme itself is produced by Gower Creative Communications.

[edit] ITV Channels Showing Nightscreen

ITV Nightscreen is broadcast on ITV1, and sometimes simultaneously on the digital services ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and Men & Motors.

In its ITV1 version, ITV Nightscreen was shown in the early mornings, often starting at 2:00am or 3:00am, and finishing before the ITV Morning News at 5:30am, followed by GMTV at 6:00am. From the 16 December, ITV began showing quiz programmes in the early mornings, resulting in a reduced time slot for ITV Nightscreen. It now runs for around 30 minutes on weekdays (usually between 5:00am and 5:30am).

[edit] Other similar services

In some regions, such as Yorkshire Television, ITV Nightscreen was replaced for a time with Jobfinder. This was only on ITV1 and consisted of a series of slides offering vacancies in the region.

ITV Nightscreen is used as a replacement test card (although the service didn't start until nearly a decade after ITV had gone 24 hours) and is often criticised for highlighting programmes which have already aired.

A similar programme is also provided by S4C (Channel 4 of Wales) which runs for approx. 10 minutes before closedown (4:00am most mornings) and 10 minutes before start-up (6:00am most mornings). This is commonly known as S4C Closedown Screen.

[edit] See Also

S4C Closedown Screen