UTV Live

UTV Live is the name of the regional news service broadcast on UTV, the ITV region in Northern Ireland. The first edition of the programme was transmitted on Monday 4 January 1993.

On Air
UTV Live airs seven days a week:

Weekday bulletins

 * 13:55 (after ITV News at 1:30; 5mins)
 * 18:00 (before ITV News at 6:30; 30 mins)are broadcast from Studio One at UTV's headquarters in Havelock House, Belfast with short bulletins broadcast from the continuity studio in the station's Central Technical Area.
 * 22:30 (after ITV News at Ten; branded as UTV Live Tonight, 30 mins, Monday-Thursday)

UTV Live bulletins are not transmitted during Daybreak (ITV Breakfast); the Daybreak Northern Ireland news service is provided by Macmillan Media.

Weekend bulletins
Two bulletins of 10 minutes length are broadcast during the weekend: one on Saturdays, in the late afternoon, and one on Sundays, in the early evening.

Programme history
From 1979 to 26 June 1987, Ulster Television's evening news bulletin was titled Good Evening Ulster. Its first presenter was Gloria Hunniford, who was replaced by Eamonn Holmes. From September 1988 to December 1992 It was relaunched as Six Tonight, with hour long editions on Monday and Friday.

UTV Live
UTV Live was introduced in January 1993 as a new name for Ulster Television's existing news programmes; Six Tonight, the station's half-hour evening news magazine, and Ulster Newstime for shorter bulletins.

From 1993 until March 1999, the weekday evening programme ran for one hour at 18.00, and was usually referred to as UTV Live at Six, with other bulletins receiving subtitles such as Morning News. and Early Evening News

Following the introduction of the ITV Evening News (now known as ITV News at 6:30) on Monday 8 March 1999, the programme was brought forward by half an hour to start at 17.30. The first half-hour saw feature reports, light-hearted stories and the weather forecast branded as part of a separate programme, UTV Life, which ran before the evening news bulletin, which started at 18:00 and kept the UTV Live name. UTV Live and UTV Life were merged into one hour-long programme, running from 17:30, in 2002 and were split into separate programmes again on 3 September 2007, with the original titles in use from 1999 to 2001.

For one week in February 2004, UTV moved the first half-hour part of UTV Live in the schedules from 17:30 to 13:00, to accommodate the networked 24 Hour Quiz. Although UTV claimed the change in slot for the features section of UTV Live would run until April 2004, viewer complaints saw UTV Live returned to the 17:30 slot one week later.

Mid-morning weekday and lunchtime weekend UTV Live bulletins were axed in February 2009 when the station was permitted to reduce their weekly news bulletin output from five hours, twenty minutes to four hours. A separate sports bulletin, Sport on Sunday, was broadcast following the Sunday evening bulletin from September 1999 to early 2007. This bulletin was separate from the Sunday evening news as it was sponsored by the Daily Mirror.

Between February 2007 and April 2009, only the main weekday evening programme was branded as UTV Live, while all other bulletins were branded as UTV News.

UTV Life
UTV Life, a separate live magazine programme concentrating on features and light-hearted stories, was broadcast at 17:30 on weekdays. This programme had its own editor and presenting/reporting team. UTV Life originally began on 8 March 1999 as a stand-alone programme with features reports, light-hearted stories and an extended weather forecast. The programme ran from 17:30, proceeding UTV Live at Six until the two programmes were integrated into an hour-long UTV Live programme on April 2002.

The UTV Life branding for the features section of UTV Live returned to on-air use on Monday 3 September 2007. The features element of the programme again became a separate programme in order to accommodate a programme sponsorship deal. The relaunch of UTV Life saw the programme gain a different theme tune, opening title sequence and graphic design, with a similar presenting, reporting and editorial team as the former features segment of UTV Live.

As part of cost-cutting measures and a reduction in regional programming at the station, UTV Life was axed shortly after the broadcasting regulator OFCOM gave UTV the go ahead to reduce its non-news output, with the final programme airing on 6 February 2009. A weekly replacement for UTV Life, The Seven Thirty Show, was introduced in June 2009.

On Monday 27 April 2009, UTV launched a 30-minute late evening news & current affairs programme, UTV Live Tonight, which airs at 10:30pm on Monday - Thursday nights and incorporates the station's late news bulletin alongside extended political and business coverage. A shorter late night bulletin airs each Friday at 10:30pm and during the programme's summer break.

UTV Live Tonight anchors
Newsreaders: Gillian Porter (Monday-Wednesday); various (Thursday)

Other bulletin presenters
Hill, Kennedy, McAlinden, Moore and Smith are also UTV Live reporters. Ballantine, Browne and Porter are continuity announcers at the station; UTV's other continuity announcer, Julian Simmons, generally does not read news bulletins.

UTV Weather
Only the weekday 18.25 and late weather bulletins are presented in-vision.

Former presenters
In October 2008, UTV announced its intention to cut 13 jobs in the news department due to corporate restructuring. The station declared it was offering staff a voluntary redundancy package. Staff who were reported to have accepted the redundancy package were: