ITV4 History

*Information taken from Wikipedia.*

It was expected that ITV4 would replace the existing Men & Motors channel in the same way Granada Plus was rebranded into ITV3, until ITV plc stated that the two channels would run alongside each other, forcing the ITV News Channel on Freeview to timeshare with ITV4. ITV replaced the failing News Channel with the CITV Channel on 11th March 2006, but the news channel later relaunched on 26th October 2013. Both channels were on Freeview until ITV plc took Men & Motors off Freeview (although it remained on some other platforms for some time until April 2010, and on Sky until 2015/16) and replaced it with the live quiz channel ITV Play (this was later withdrawn in 2007 due to a phone-in fraud scandal). Some programming from Men & Motors were transferred to ITV4. ITV4 was the first channel to use the new on-screen look that was rolled out across the rest of ITV plc's channels on 16 January 2006. Red Bee Media designed the new logos and presentation for the entire corporation that saw the end of the yellow and blue squared look designed for ITV1, ITV2 and the cube look for ITV3. An ITV annual report revealed that an old style logo was designed for the channel but was never used on air. A slightly edited version of the 2005 logo was introduced on 14th September 2011, which saw the 'ITV' lettering becoming black and leaving everything else teal.

ITV4 was launched on UPC Ireland in the Republic of Ireland on 4 January 2010, marking the first time the channel has been officially available in the country. The channel had already been (and remains) available to Irish viewers on free-to-air satellite for some time, however it has not been listed in the Sky electronic programme guide since its removal on 25 January 2006. On 1 April 2011, ITV4 was removed from UPC Ireland along with ITV2 and ITV3 due to the expiry of a carriage agreement between UPC and ITV.[1] UPC Ireland claim that ITV is not in a position to renegotiate the deal because ITV had struck a deal with another channel provider to provide it with exclusive rights to air certain content from the channels. Conversely, UPC Ireland also claims to have been in discussions right up to the last moment in order to continue broadcasting the channels.[2] ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 were restored to the UPC Ireland line-up on 20 December 2011. TV3 and its sister channel 3e already hold carriage agreement to air certain ITV content within the Republic of Ireland,[3] alternatively UTV is available within the Republic. ITV2 is available along with ITV3 and ITV4 within Switzerland, all three channels are available on SwisscomTV and UPC Cablecom.

Then, the channel was once again removed from UPC Ireland in March 2013 - this time, forever.

### Launch

ITV4's launch night was on Freeview channel 30 (later channel 24 and now 26), on 1st November 2005 (exactly one year after ITV3's launch night). Before the launch night, a static 'coming soon' screensaver was shown on Freeview, followed by a special preview promo and countdown clock. Although it was broadcast on the Astra 2D satellite used by Sky, so users could manually tune it in. It was launched on Sky 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.

In 2009 following the closure of the shopping channel Price-drop TV, ITV4 moved channels from 30 to 24 on Freeview. It then moved again in 2022 to channel 26 following the EPG changes that year, when the old EPG slot was given to BBC Four.

### ITV4 +1

In late October 2008, it was announced that a timeshifted (+1) version of ITV4 would be launched by the end of the year.[4] ITV4 +1 became the first ITV channel to launch its one-hour timeshift - on Sky on 1 December 2008, on Freesat on 9 December 2008 and on Virgin Media on 25 March 2010. It was removed from Sky in early 2011, due to the launch of an ITV1/2+1 placeholder(s), and taking up space on the EPG; the channel continued to be available on Freesat and Virgin Media. On 31 May 2012, ITV4 +1 returned to Sky, to channel 225, moving ITV2 HD to 226, ITV3 HD to 227 and ITV4 HD to 295. The channels moved to 206, 207, 208 and 228 on 3 July 2012 to make space for new channels.[5] In February 2014, ITV4 +1 gained an EPG slot on the Freeview platform (channel 54), however broadcasting hours are only 04:00 till 06:00 for now. However, on 25th August 2015, the channel started timesharing with the other channels to be broadcast 24 hours a day. Also, on 20 May 2014, ITV4 +1 moved to channel 26 on Freeview, and later moved to 62 on 16 July 2016 following the launch of an ITV Life placeholder. On 30th April 2018, ITV4+1 moved channel 59 on Freeview, then again in 2022 to 89.

### ITV4 HD

A high-definition simulcast of ITV4, **ITV4 HD**, was launched on 15 November 2010 on Sky.[5][6] The channel was initially available through Sky's pay subscription service in a non-exclusive deal,[7][8] before being added to Virgin Media's service on 14 March 2013.[9] ITV4 HD's high definition content includes films, and sports events such as the *British Touring Car Championship*,[10] 2010–11 Ashes Series, Tour de France, Players Championship Finals, UEFA Europa League, and Indian Premier League Cricket.

The HD simulcast closed on 2nd March 2016 due to the launch of a pay-per-view service that allows viewers to watch exclusive HD content at a fixed price, but on 1st January 2019 this service was axed and ITV4 HD happily relaunched thereafter.

### ITV4 on TopUp TV

In April 2017, the channel became available on TopUp TV via subscriber's choice. It was removed from the service on 8th March 2023 when TopUp TV closed down.