ITV Nightscreen

ITV Nightscreen
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Running time	Varies
Production company(s)	Gower Creative Communications
Release
Original network	ITV, STV, UTV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVBe
Original release	1998 – present
External links
Production website

ITV Nightscreen is a scheduled programme on the United Kingdom's ITV television network, consisting of a sequence of animated pages of information about ITV's upcoming programmes, features and special events, with an easy listening music soundtrack. The programme is used to fill the station's overnight downtime, where a closedown would have once been used at the end of programmes. Previously it began after the final programme in the night and finishes at 05:30 every day, but recently ITV have started airing The Jeremy Kyle Show at 5:05 am – 6:00 am, giving Nightscreen a shorter airtime with it starting usually at around 3:15–3:45 and finishing at 5:05.

It was first broadcast in 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, which had also been produced by the Intelfax). 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.

Nightscreen has, in the past, been criticised for highlighting programmes which had already aired, and for some careless typing and spelling errors but now regularly avoids doing this. As well as providing focus on upcoming programmes, films and TV listings, it also 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 is currently produced by Gower Creative Communications.

Origins

Teletext screens had been employed by the BBC and Channel 4 since the early 1980s to fill airtime cheaply. Although in-vision teletext was only ever occasionally used on the ITV network (including an Oracle-provided service preceding TV-am broadcasts, known as Daybreak, during the 1980s), certain regions, firstly Central Independent Television from April 1986, followed in January 1987 by Yorkshire Television, started showing overnight teletext sequences containing details of local job vacancies under the title Jobfinder and these pages were broadcast for an hour after the end of regular programming. When 24-hour television began in 1988, the majority of ITV regions broadcast a "Jobfinder" programme in the hour preceding the ITN Morning News.

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.

Broadcasts

ITV Nightscreen is broadcast on ITV, STV and UTV starting from when the last programme finishes and ending at 05:05 most weekdays and at 06:00 at weekends. ITV2 often broadcasts the filler starting at around 05:00 and ending at 06:00. Its availability on ITV3 and ITV4 is dependent on how much unused time is left, and can sometimes last for as little as five minutes on ITV3 and ITV4 (as teleshopping is shown on ITV3 and ITV4 between 03:00 and 06:00). Although not an ITV-branded channel, ITV's now-defunct Men & Motors channel would in its later years carry the filler from the close of programming until 06:00; between 06:00 and the start of programmes at 11:00, M&M would broadcast an animated caption card or teleshopping presentations.

In its early years, Nightscreen would take up most of the early morning schedule, often starting at 02:00 or 03:00 and finishing before the ITV News at 5:30.

In December 2005, three months before the now defunct ITV Play began transmitting, a quiz show entitled Quizmania began broadcasting in the early hours on ITV. Subsequent programmes that followed were The Mint, Make Your Play and Glitterball. This resulted in Nightscreen being pushed back to just a half-hour service between 05:00 and 05:30.

In 2008, largely as a result of widespread scandal surrounding phone-ins, ITV Play was permanently axed, since when Nightscreen now regularly runs from around 04:00. ITV Channel Television previously ran its own version of the service entitled Channel Nightscreen consisting of local news headlines and programming information. Channel Nightscreen was axed towards the end of 2011 shortly after itvplc brought Channel Television. mid-2010, ITV started airing The Zone for 2 hours, a gaming and shopping programme block, usually airing from 00:30 to 02:30, leaving Nightscreen often cut back to as little as an hour and sometimes removed from ITV's schedule altogether.

In April 2010, STV launched its own Scottish night-time service, The Nightshift, broadcast in the STV Central region and consisting of programming highlights, news, competitions and viewers texts & emails read out by a live out-of-vision presenter. STV North continued to broadcast ITV Nightscreen until July 2010, when The Nightshift was extended to the North region. The programme included regional news opt-outs for the four STV sub-regions: Aberdeen & the North, Dundee & Tayside, Edinburgh & the East and Glasgow & the West. STV dropped The Nightshift from its schedules in June 2015, meaning Nightscreen was extended on the station, usually running from around 02:00 until just after 05:00 (06:00 at the weekend).

Other similar services

Current

RTÉ Aertel

A similar filler to ITV Nightscreen was also provided by RTÉ, who currently uses this to fill airtime cheaply on RTÉ Two. It is very similar in fashion to ITV Nightscreen as it provides rolling teletext pages while RTÉ Two is not broadcasting. It has been criticised by many FAI League of Ireland fans who have dubbed the service "Errortel" due to the constant inaccurcies, delays & incorrect information with live scoring and reporting of games.

Defunct

• Pages from Ceefax: Ceefax was the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and continued to run until the UK analogue switch off in October 2012. In-vision Ceefax broadcasts started in 1980, initially as a daytime filler but as programme hours expanded Ceefax was shown before the start of programming. From the late 1990s until October 2012 they were seen on BBC Two late at night, most commonly at the weekend but occasionally during the week. The final broadcast was in the early hours of Monday 22 October 2012, two days before Ceefax was switched off when digital switchover was completed. Broadcasts on BBC One had ceased in November 1997 when BBC News was launched as BBC One carries BBC News as an overnight filler although occasional Ceefax broadcasts were seen on BBC One Scotland.
• 4-Tel On View: Originally broadcast on weekdays in 15-minute bursts, it alternated with showings of the IBA ETP-1 testcard and Oracle On View. It was first shown in mid 1983 and was broadcast on the hour between 13:00 and 16:00 but as Channel 4 extended its broadcast hours, it moved to increasingly earlier times. The first change was in October 1984 when Channel 4 began weekday afternoon programming and the 15-minute broadcasts shown every half hour between 10:00 and 13:30 and from September 1987 broadcast hours were 08:00 to 09:00 (08:00 to 11:30 during school holidays). In April 1989 Channel 4 began broadcasting programming at breakfast and 4-Tel On View was reduced to a 40-minute slot between 05:20 and 06:00 although from 1993 4-Tel was broadcast throughout Channel 4's closedown period. It was last seen in January 1997 as this was when Channel 4 began broadcasting a 24-hour television service.
• Oracle on View: Was aired from 1983 until 1989 on Channel 4. The fifteen-minute bursts were originally broadcast at :30 to :45 minutes past the hour but changed to :15 to :30 minutes past in October 1984. Initially the pages were used to showcase various aspects of the Oracle service, alternating subject matter every so often, but from September 1987 Oracle On View featured a newsreel and a weather forecast. Oracle On View ended when Channel 4 launched its breakfast programming.
• S4C Closedown Screen: Was a program which ran for 10 minutes after closedown and for 10 minutes before startup. It was phased out in late-2000s.