This is a timeline of the history of regional news on the British television network ITV.
1950s
1955
22 September – The first news bulletin is broadcast at 10pm on ITV’s launch night.
1956
17 February – ITV begins broadcasting in the Midlands - ATV Midlands launches ITV in the Midlands and the following day the Midlands’ weekend contractor ABC Weekend TV broadcasts for the first time. 3 May – Granada Television launches ITV across the north of England. 7 May – The first broadcast of ATV Midlands News takes place. It is a short daily summary of regional news with stories often sourced directly from the Birmingham Evening Dispatch, a local newspaper. Film footage is later added with footage shot by Birmingham Commercial Films. It wasn’t until 1959 that ATV set up its own film unit for its regional news service.
1957
31 August – ITV starts broadcasting in central Scotland – Scottish Television (STV) is the franchise holder.
1958
14 January – Television Wales and the West (TWW) starts broadcasting to South Wales and the West of England. 30 August – Southern Television launches.
1959
15 January – Tyne Tees Television launches. 8 October – ITV broadcasts its first election results programme to provide ITV with live coverage of the results of the 1959 United Kingdom general election. 27 October – Anglia Television launches, bringing ITV to east England. 31 October – ITV launches in Northern Ireland when Ulster Television starts broadcasting.
1960s
1960
31 January – Southern Television's broadcast area expands when it begins broadcasting to Kent and East Sussex following the Independent Television Authority granting Southern the right to broadcast to South East England. 2 June – About Anglia launches as a twice-weekly programme accompanying the 10-minute regional evening news bulletin on weekdays. Its success prompted it to be extended to four nights a week the following September and then, every weeknight.
1961
Southern opens studios in Dover and launches localised news opt-outs for the east of the region, becoming the first broadcaster in the UK provide such a service. 4 April – Southern launches a weeknight 30-minute regional news programme called Day By Day. 29 April – Westward Television launches, bring ITV to south west England. 1 September – Border Television launches and the opening day sees Border broadcast the first edition of its regional news magazine Lookaround. 30 September – Grampian Television launches.
1962
1 September – Channel Television launches. 14 September – The final part of the UK gets an ITV service when Wales (West and North) Television launches in West and North Wales as Teledu Cymru.
1963
No events.
1964
26 January – Wales (West and North) Television stops broadcasting after going bankrupt. It is replaced by TWW. However the Teledu Cymru on-air identity is retained. 30 March – Tyne Tees introduces a nightly regional news programme called North East Newsview. Previously, regional news had consisted of short bulletins and a weekly Friday night programme called North East Roundabout. 5 October – Following pressure from the Independent Television Authority to improve regional coverage, ATV introduces a nightly news magazine programme, ATV Today. It runs for 20 minutes and follows the teatime 15 minute-long ATV Midlands News bulletin. Later ATV Today is later expanded to the full 30 minutes and the news bulletin is subsumed into the main programme. 9 October – Southern launches a weekly news magazine for South East England called Friday on Ten. This is shown instead of the Friday edition of regional news magazine Day by Day. Newsview replaces Roundabout as Ulster’s regional news programme.
1965
26 March – Border Television begins broadcasting to the Isle of Man.
1966
No events.
1967
No events.