Ulster Television

Ulster Television plc (UTV) is a media company based in Northern Ireland. It is the Channel 3 (ITV) licensee for Northern Ireland, and the owner of several radio stations in Ireland and the United Kingdom, including a UK Independent National Radio station, talkSPORT.

=UTV Television=

UTV is the Channel 3 (ITV) licensee for Northern Ireland. It is one of the two remaining stand-alone ITV contractors left along with Channel Television, with the others having grouped into ITV plc (which owns eleven franchises) and SMG plc (which owns two). Political sensitivities led to the channel bringing the use of the abbreviation UTV to the fore, as the use of word Ulster is controversial among Northern Ireland s two communities. Since June 4, 1993, Ulster Television has been known on-air as simply UTV, and off air is usually referred to as UTV Group. The registered company name remains Ulster Television for the time being, however. UTV s main programmes are the nightly news UTV Live , current affairs programme Insight , the talkshow Kelly , School Around the Corner , and Lesser Spotted Ulster .

UTV is notable for being the last ITV company to use on-screen continuity announcers, a once-common practice that was discontinued by most other stations in the 1980s and 1990s. Julian Simmons is the company s lead continuity announcer.

In September 2005, UTV announced that Kelly, UTV s flagship talk show, would be ending after 17 years in December 2005. Gerry Kelly, the presenter, will be unveiling plans for a new format programme in 2006.

==All-Ireland viewing==

UTV is also available in the Republic of Ireland, either on cable television and Multichannel multipoint distribution service systems, or directly in border areas. This puts UTV in the unique position of having as many viewers, if not more, outside its franchise area, and indeed, outside the United Kingdom. UTV was for many years the third most popular channel in the Republic, prior to the introduction of TV3 Ireland. The company has its own sales office in Dublin, and is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange in addition to its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, where ITV plc and SMG plc are traded.

Due to the political situation in Northern Ireland, and the large number of viewers in the Republic of Ireland, UTV always operated a .ie and a .co.uk website prior to the availability of the .tv top-level domain. They were displayed at the same height from the base of the screen to avoid any accusations of favouritism.

However, while UTV has been available to the whole of the United Kingdom via the Sky Television system since 2001, it is not yet available on satellite in the Republic, owing to rights issues, as many ITV programmes are also shown on the commercial channel TV3, which is partly owned by Granada.

=UTV Radio=

UTV is continuing the move from a simple ITV contractor towards a true media company.

==UTV Radio Ireland==

UTV Radio Ireland owns a number of Republic of Ireland independent local radio contractors - Live 95FM in Limerick, Q102 in Dublin, LMFM in Louth/Meath, and 96FM County Sound in Cork, which incorporates a separate radio entity, 103fm - itself subdivided across County Cork.

UTV sells airtime for its ILR stations through its subsidary Broadcast Media Sales. This competes with the major ILR network sales house, Independent Radio Sales, and also sells airtime for Galway Bay FM and Beat 102-103, the first Independent Regional Radio station in Ireland, covering the south east. (Ironically UTV does not itself sell airtime on UTV Television, which is handled by ITV Sales).

==U105 Belfast==

Main article : U105

In May 2004, UTV announced that it had entered the competition for a new ILR franchise for Belfast, Northern Ireland. In March 2005 the Office of Communications announced that it had awarded the franchise to UTV. U105 will be UTV s first radio station in Northern Ireland, due to launch on FM Radio in Belfast and on the Freeview platform in Northern Ireland. It will be based in Havlock House, sharing premises with UTV Television. The station will be primarly aimed at the over-45 age group, and have speech based programming as well as gold music. Among the programmes, it is known that Gerry Kelly will present a Sunday morning radio programme on U105.

==The Wireless Group==

Main article : The Wireless Group.

In May, 2005, UTV announced that it had agreed to purchase The Wireless Group plc, owners of the UK independent national radio station talkSPORT as well as sixteen UK ILR licences. In June 2005 the sale was cleared and the Wireless Group became part of UTV. UTV Plans to rebrand The Wireless Group into UTV Radio later in the year.

=Other activities=

UTV is also a telecoms operator throughout Ireland (north and south). They own the internet service provider UTV Internet, through which they provide broadband and dial-up internet packages. In August 2004 the company moved into the telephone market, offering free off-peak calls with a new service, UTV Talk.

Formerly UTV owned a Cork city advertising-based freesheet newspaper, Inside Cork, acquired as part of their purchase of 96FM County Sound. In June 2005 this was sold to the Galway Independent.

=See also=

List of Irish companies

=External links=

*[http://u.tv/ UTV Television Website] *[http://www.u.tv/internet/ UTV Internet website] *[http://www.utvplc.com UTV Corporate Information] *[http://www.625.uk.com/tv_logos/flash/ulster.asp Animated Ulster Television logo, 1960s] from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later). *[http://www.96fm.ie 96fm Website] *[http://www.live95fm.ie 95fm Website] *[http://www.q102.ie Q102 Website]