ITV Nightscreen axed

[FanOfTV99]

Honestly, we all seen it coming.

I use to remember watching Nightscreen alot where the music would relax me and help me sleep but the problem was that Nightscreen never really changed much. Infact, the current look was first introduced in 2005 and even tho it had some minor changes, it still was the same look.

[Mike]

I seem to remember something being mentioned before about nightscreen being a cheap way of ITV fulfilling regional quotas, by using different soundtracks in each of the regions. Is, or was this ever the case?

I think that happened in the late 90s and early 00s.

It is on the out of London programme register as it's edited and produced in Birmingham.

[Kunst]

Well exactly. Cheap imports which would have been overnight would now be in prime time on ITV2 and cheap sports rights would now be in prime time on ITV4. It’s basically a different era.

I know, but it'd be at least nice to have a movie, or something like that, not ideal World at 12:30am!

[BillyH]

I did get some credibility at secondary school in the early 2000s for saying I’d watched ITV Nightscreen, although I may have pretended that said programme showed pornography through the night to make it sound more exciting.

Hope the last broadcast does a Ceefax and plays some classic late 90s Nightscreen tunes, maybe with a Teletext-themed farewell card.

[Larry the Loafer]

Well exactly. Cheap imports which would have been overnight would now be in prime time on ITV2 and cheap sports rights would now be in prime time on ITV4. It’s basically a different era.

It's rather depressing when you think about it.

[IdentFan101]

I wonder if they'll have a special announcement before the final Nightscreen on Thursday similar to the final Pages from Ceefax on BBC Two in 2012.
https://youtu.be/EEdF2K5BITI

But I doubt it though.

[Andrew]

Do they even have an ident before Nightscreen these days, looking on TV Home, there doesn’t seem to be any recorded?

[Andrew Wood]

Will nightsscreen still air on itv 2 3 and 4

Doubt it. It's barely shown on those channels even now.

[GMc]

Do they even have an ident before Nightscreen these days, looking on TV Home, there doesn’t seem to be any recorded?

On ITV, I don't think so. STV still have an ident beforehand, with the same recorded announcement every night.

[excel99]

Some regions also had Jobfinder which is basically just the same, just with jobs rather than programme info

The Yorkshire version did have some studio content in between the job ads, presented by a Calendar presenter with a studio guest IIRC - I wasn't paying much attention, but I presume the guest was offering interview tips

The main channels are restricted in the amount of teleshopping they can show - I think it's three hours between midnight and 6am, although both ITV and C5 seem to have a standard cut off of 3am.

C5 - who air Live Casino rather than Teleshopping - will occasionally go slightly past 3am if they don't start until after 1am. A couple of weeks ago it was 1.15-3.15am for example. Seems to be two hours of Live Casino a night (unless there is NFL), but never any more, and never starting before 1am

[Asa]

Do they even have an ident before Nightscreen these days, looking on TV Home, there doesn’t seem to be any recorded?

They do but the announcement always seems to be a plug for a programme on ITV Hub. The only time I've ever seen it name checked was the last junction before the latest rebrand, with a nice announcement. https://tvhome.co.uk/itv/2019/01/01/0450

(Not sure why they don't get uploaded to TV Home, maybe it's because timings aren't very accurate overnight. I'll take another look.)

[Brekkie]

Love the badge!

Guess it makes sense to point people to ITV Hub at that point as they effectively close down for an hour or so.

[Scrotnig]

I long for the early days of '24 hour TV', at the time I lived in Leeds and they took 'Night Time' which I think was played out from Granada.

There were some great (read - 'so bad they're good') shows and movies in the middle of the night, at the time I was working until midnight so they became my 'evening viewing'.

Considering how hard ITV companies pushed to be allowed to run 24/7, what they bother with these days is a travesty.

[nwtv2003]

Considering how hard ITV companies pushed to be allowed to run 24/7, what they bother with these days is a travesty.

I’d argue it was the other way, the IBA were the ones who were pushing for the companies to get into 24 hour TV. The main push was the threat that they would licence out the slot as a new franchise, similar to what they did with breakfast. I can’t find the article online (maybe Transdiffusion), but Granada were quite reluctant to the idea knowing that the time would be filled with rubbish.

Certainly when night time TV started, ITV had the monopoly of the audience, that over time started to drain away, probably more so when BBC1 started simulcasting News 24 overnight.

[James2001]

For years ITV were basically the only channel broadcasting overnight, so they had the market sewn up. Their only "competition" for ages were occasional OU programmes, and later on BBC Select, Learning Zone and 4Schools programmes which I think it's fair to say very few would have been interested in. Not many people had satellite and cable back then, and even if they did not many channels broadcast 24 hours anyway.

I think it was 1997 when there was first some real alternative- you had Channel 4 going 24 hours, Channel 5 launching and BBC One starting overnight News 24 simulcasts within a matter of months of each other. I guess with hindsight it's not suprising ITV Nightscreen launched not long after, those must have sapped a fair bit of profitiability from ITV Night time and Nightscreen was probably a way of cutting the budget.