ITV News Central

ITV News Central is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Central, serving the English Midlands.

January 1982 – December 2006
Launched on 1 January 1982, replacing ATV Today, Central News was initially a pan-regional service based in Birmingham airing a 6pm programme on weeknights alongside shorter weekday bulletins after ITN's News at One and News at Ten. During the rest of the decade, the region was eventually broken up into three sub-regions, which would receive their own news service:
 * 12 October 1983: A separate East Midlands edition for southern Derbyshire, Leicestershire, parts of Lincolnshire, southern Nottinghamshire and Rutland is launched from Nottingham after a 20-month delay caused by an industrial dispute. The Birmingham edition continued to serve the rest of the Central region.
 * 9 January 1989: A separate South Midlands edition for Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, the Swindon area and northern Gloucestershire is launched from Abingdon.
 * Thereafter, the Birmingham edition therefore covered the West Midlands region (Staffordshire, Shropshire, the West Midlands county, Warwickshire and Worcestershire).

By December 2006, Central News bulletins during GMTV had become pan-regional across all three sub-regions. Weekend bulletins became pan-regional across the West and East Midlands earlier in the year, whilst the South Midlands retained its own weekend bulletins right up until the end of Central News South on 3 December 2006.

December 2006 – February 2009
On 4 December 2006, the South Midlands sub-region was disbanded, as follows:
 * The parts of Gloucestershire served by Central South joined the majority of the county already covered by ITV West and receiving The West Tonight broadcast from Bristol.
 * Herefordshire was now covered by the West Midlands edition from Birmingham.
 * In the rest of the region (Oxfordshire, the Swindon area, and Buckinghamshire), news operations merged with Meridian West, to form the non-franchise ITV Thames Valley service, broadcasting Thames Valley Today/Tonight from the existing Merdian West studio in Whiteley, Hampshire. The new programme, which also covered northern Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire and parts of Surrey, retained Central's Abingdon newsroom as the main newsgathering base for the new region but the studio was closed.

Central News bulletins during GMTV were now pan-regional across the West Midlands and East Midlands only. Meanwhile, in what had now become the ITV Thames Valley region, bulletins during GMTV were pan-regional across the entire combined ITV Meridian and ITV Thames Valley regions (i.e., the entire South and South East of England), and branded as GMTV News. While weekend Meridian News bulletins were pan-regional in the South and South East sub-regions, Thames Valley Today/Tonight continued to produce its own weekend bulletins.



February 2009 – present
As of the 23 February 2009, lunchtime and early evening bulletins in the West and East Midlands on weekdays became pan-regional. The final sub-regional 6pm editions of Central Tonight were broadcast on Friday 20 February 2009. The remaining sub-regional elements are: Both sub-regional editions utilise the same presenter(s) and studio, therefore one of the two opt-outs (depending on the days news) is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before broadcast. From February 2012 former sports correspondent Matt Teale shares duties with Warman.
 * A 8 minute opt-out during the main 6pm programme
 * Localised weather forecast during the 6pm programme
 * The full late weeknight bulletins

On Monday 14 January 2013, the news service was relaunched and rebranded as ITV News Central.

Broadcast times
ITV News Central airs on ITV Central seven days a week.

On weekdays, three short bulletins are broadcast during Daybreak at 6:07am, 7:05am and 8:05am with a six-minute lunchtime bulletin at 1:55pm, following the ITV News at 1:30. The main half-hour programme airs at 6pm with a late bulletin for both Central sub-regions at 10:30pm, following the ITV News at Ten.

At weekends, two 15-minute editions of ITV News Central are broadcast - one later on Saturday afternoons and another on Sunday evenings.

Former on air team
East


 * Marie Ashby (main presenter, left 2005; now with BBC East Midlands)
 * Dennis Coath (sports presenter, left January 2009)
 * Andy Craig
 * Anne Davies (newsreader, left August 1992; now presents BBC East Midlands Today)
 * Katy Fawcett (newsreader/reporter, left March 2012; now with Daybreak)


 * Louisa James (newsreader/reporter, left December 2011; now with Daybreak)
 * Emily Knight (newsreader/reporter, left November 2008)
 * Anna Soubry (newsreader/reporter; now an MP)
 * Amy Welch (reporter, left April 2012; rejoined Granada Reports)

West


 * Llewela Bailey (newsreader, left February 2009)
 * Anna Brees
 * Anne Diamond (main presenter, left in 1983; now with BBC Radio Berkshire)
 * Lisa Dowd (reporter, left 2005; now with Sky News)
 * Yvonne Gaskill (newsreader, left December 2008)
 * Karen Griggs (reporter, left February 2009; now with ITV's Countrywise team)
 * Arti Halai (left November 2008)
 * Sarah Jane Mee (sports presenter, left January 2008; now with Sky News)


 * Eric MacInnes (left December 2008; now with the Thomson Foundation )
 * Joanne Malin (main presenter, left 31 October 2008; now with BBC Midlands)
 * Annette Martin (née Finch) (sports correspondent, left July 2009; now with Waitrose)
 * Linda O'Brien (sports presenter, left February 2009)
 * Michele Newman (main presenter) left 1998
 * Philippa Tomson (newsreader/reporter, left August 2006; now with Sky News)
 * Jonathan Ray (newsreader/reporter, left June 2004; now with King Abdullah University)

South


 * Victoria Bennett (reporter; ex Thames Valley Tonight)
 * Sally Biddulph (née Mules) (reporter; ex Thames Valley Tonight, now with ITV News)
 * Anne Dawson (main presenter; now Broadcast Journalism lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire)
 * Alex Forrest (newsreader/reporter; now with ITV News)
 * Richard Franklin (reporter; ex The West Tonight)
 * Kate Garraway (newsreader; now with Daybreak)


 * Ken Goodwin (reporter; ex The West Tonight)
 * Mark Lipscomb (reporter; ex Thames Valley Tonight)
 * Chris James (newsreader/reporter; dismissed in July 2008, now with BBC West)
 * Tim Russon (newsreader/reporter)
 * Harriet Ryley (newsreader/reporter)
 * Hannah Shellswell (née Stewart-Jones) (newsreader/reporter; ex Thames Valley Tonight)
 * Clare Taylor (reporter)

Weather presenters


 * Anna Church (left in May 2009; later joined BBC East Midlands)
 * Su Evans
 * Lisa Foden (left in January 2009)
 * Sam Glassey


 * Jenny Harrison
 * Beki Mahon (left in 2008)
 * Charlie Neil (left in February 2009)
 * Ian Round