ITV Nightscreen is a scheduled programme on the ITV television network, consisting 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 4:05am to 5:05am daily. However, on ITV's digital channels, the amount of Teleshopping affects how much Nightscreen is broadcast. The programme was also broadcast on all of ITV's +1 channels.
At Christmas and weekends, an additional 55minutes was broadcast from 5:00am – 6:00am as no other programmes were shown. Very occasionally was is not broadcast due to live events and other programming filling its hour.
It 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. Since 2003 the screens have been 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. 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.
As well as providing focus on upcoming programmes, films and TV listings, it also used to offers some news from the world of entertainment. In the past it also offered sports news and even on some occasions cooking tips, recipes and also fact files of characters from famous ITV shows such as Emmerdale and Coronation Street.
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.
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).
Origins
Teletext screens had been employed by the BBC since 1980 and by Channel 4 since 1983 to fill airtime cheaply. In-vision teletext was only ever occasionally used on the ITV network. 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. When 24-hour television began in 1988, the majority of ITV regions broadcast a Jobfinder programme in the hour preceding the ITV Morning News. 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.
ITV Nightscreen'''s origins can also be found in a programme simply titled Freescreen, which was made and screened by Meridian Broadcasting in its early years. The Meridian version mixed the teletext pages with local news stories and short videos made and sent in by viewers.
BroadcastsITV Nightscreen was broadcast on ITV1, STV and UTV starting from when the last programme finishes and ending at 5:05am most weekdays and at 6:00am at weekends and holidays.
ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 & ITVBe also broadcast Nightscreen. Availability depended on how much unused time was left, and could sometimes last for as little as five minutes as teleshopping is shown on these channels. There was a different music tracklist for each channel, however, upcoming programmes on only the ITV network were shown. CITV did not use the service since the channel closes down at 9:00pm. Although not an ITV-branded channel, ITV's defunct Men & Motors channel would in its later years carry the filler from the close of programming until 6:00am.
In its early years, Nightscreen would often begin at around 4am and finish before the ITV News at 5:30. The length of the programme varied depending on the overnight schedules. Some ITV regions didn't broadcast Nightscreen initially, including STV, who opted to continue with their own service entitled Scottish Night Time, Meridian, who opted to continue with their own Freescreen service, and Central, who opted to broadcast their own local programming within that slot. In the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees regions, Nightscreen ended at 5:00am to allow both networks to opt-out for their regional Jobfinder programme.