ITV3 History

*Information taken from Wikipedia.*

ITV3 was launched on the terrestrial (Freeview), cable (Virgin Media, formerly NTL & Telewest) and digital satellite (Sky) on 1 November 2004 at 21:00. It is also available on TalkTalk TV IPTV (formerly Homechoice). Well before then, the channel was allocated Freeview channel 34, and initially, a static 'ITV3 will be launching on Ch34 at 9pm on November 1st' screensaver was shown, and from 25th October until the launch, a special preview promo was shown, along with a special onscreen countdown clock.

The channel had been available from launch on UPC Ireland, but was withdrawn on 22 March 2006. This is believed[*by whom?*] to have been at the request of ITV plc, which had previously barred Irish newspapers from publishing details of ITV channels and regions other than UTV and Men & Motors. 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. ITV3 returned to UPC Ireland in the Republic of Ireland on 4 January 2010.

On 1 April 2011, ITV3 was removed from UPC Ireland along with ITV2 and ITV4 due to the expiry of a carriage agreement between UPC and ITV.[2] 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.[3] 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,[4] 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.[5]

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

On 1 November 2004, ITV took full control of Granada Sky Broadcasting, and ceased broadcasting the Granada Plus channel. ITV3 took its channel number and bandwidth meaning all platforms could be launched simultaneously. Staff at Granada Plus were given 15 minutes' notice. On satellite, it is available as a free-to-air channel, and as such does not require an active Sky subscription. Later, in October 2005, ITV3 moved channels from ch34 to the current ch10 on Freeview as part of the changes to its channel lineup which involved a major reshuffle of the children's, news, interactive and radio channels and some general entertainment channels - click here to see the changes. The original slot was given to Setanta Sports, which has moved from ch57.

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.

As Freeview announced plans for a retune on 30 September 2009, ITV3 moved to an alternative multiplex. Viewers in areas that have completed switchover who receive their signal from a local relay transmitter and receive 'Freeview Lite', are no longer be able to receive ITV3.[6]

On 22nd April 2011, ITV3 decided to update its logo with a plum colour and gradient, in-line with the yellow ITV1 one from April 2010. As part of the update, the 'Blinds' ident was withdrawn from the current set, and was replaced with an additional ident featuring a lady standing on a hilltop, holding an old baby's pram. All the other idents used since January 2006 had also received the update with the plum purple logo replacing the previous maroon one.

It was announced by ITV on 20 September 2017 that reruns of classic episodes of *Coronation Street* will air twice on weekdays.[8] The repeat run began on 2 October 2017 with the episodes originally broadcast on 15 and 20 January 1986. The episodes air from 2:40pm on weekday afternoons.

On 28 February 2018, a new feed of ITV3 was launched on Freeview on Channel 788. However, this was later removed from the EPG in late 2018. It later returned in May 2022 in the same place on the multiplex.

It was announced by ITV on 11 November 2018 that digitally re-mastered versions of classic British children's programmes from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s & 90s will air on weekdays from 6-10am, replacing the "Classical Morning" strand. The first transmission began with a re-run of the very first episode of "Bangers and Mash" (originally transmitted in 1989) on Monday 18th March 2019. Following the removal of the "Retro Family Entertainment" strand in July 2019 due to most of those gameshows being re-transmitted on Challenge, the children's strand extended its broadcasting hours so it would now finish at 12pm instead of 10am.

It was announced by ITV on 5 January 2019 that reruns of Classic episodes of *Emmerdale* will air twice on weekdays. Two classic episodes were re-transmitted between Mondays to Fridays at 1:45 pm until 2:40 pm from 21 January 2019. The first episodes shown were from episode 1403 (originally transmitted on Tuesday 14 November 1989) onwards.[9]

It was announced by ITV on 17th March 2019 that reruns of classic episodes of *Yorkshire Dales* will air twice on weekdays at 12:45-1:45pm. The repeat run started on Monday 25th March with the very first episode (originally transmitted on Monday 17 September 2001).

## ITV3+1

At exactly six months following the update (22nd October 2011), ITV launched a one-hour timeshift channel of ITV3, which was allocated channel number 213 on Sky and 63 on Freeview. The channel's original Sky slot is now used by UKTV's W (previously known as *Watch*)[7][8] This channel is often unable to broadcast certain programmes "for legal reasons", but the programme in question might still be listed on the EPG. Initially on Freeview, ITV3 +1 started broadcasting from 01:00 till 06:00 from launch - these hours were extended and brought forward in February 2014, now airing from 18:00 till 00:00 in the higher EPG slot of channel 34, the slot that ITV3 had originally used from launch until the Freeview EPG changes less than a year later, as mentioned above. On 25 August 2015, ITV3 +1 on Freeview started timesharing with the other channels and now broadcasting 24 hours.

In 2020, due to the launch of a new channel called Merit, ITV3 +1 moved to channel 58 on Freeview swapping with ITV Life +1 which moved to channel 97. Following the closure of Merit in September of that year, ITV3's original slot is now occupied by Sky 3 (known as Pick in real life). This was in favor of Sky Arts launching on Sky 3's original slot of ch11. In 2022 ITV3+1 moved EPG slots again, this time moving to 59 as part of the EPG changes that took place in January.