''ITV News London'' is a British television news service broadcast on

ITV London ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ''ITV Broadcasting Limited'' for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is ...

and

ITVX ITVX is a British Over-the-top media services, over-the-top and ad-supported Streaming television, streaming service operated by ITV plc. The service offers original content from the broadcaster, livestreams of the ITV television channels, Free ...

. It is produced by

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

History

London News Network

The programme launched on Monday 4 January 1993 as ''London Tonight'', after

Carlton Television Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Tele ...

won the London weekday franchise from previous holder

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

. ''London Tonight'' was originally produced by London News Network – a joint venture between Carlton and LWT designed to provide a sole ITV regional news service for the London area, broadcasting seven days a week. Its creation established a continuity between the once separate services and presentation of the weekend and weekday news, weather and sport in the region, previously provided by '' Thames News'' and '' LWT News''. The flagship programme, initially an hour-long and presented by

Alastair Stewart Alastair James Stewart OBE (born 22 June 1952) is a retired English journalist and newscaster. Stewart joined Southern Television in 1976, then joined ITN in 1980, where he served three years with ''Channel 4 News'' and went on to become a ma ...

and Fiona Foster, was supplemented by shorter ''London Today'' bulletins, launched on 4 January 1993 (LWT discontinued its own local news service the previous weekend). The main evening programme was reduced to 30 minutes a year later, while from 25 November 1996 to September 2002, a half-hour lunchtime edition of ''London Today'' was broadcast on weekdays. In addition to regional news, London News Network also produced a wide range of regional programming for both Carlton and LWT as well as providing transmission services for both stations.

ITN

In 2004, ITV London owners Carlton and

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

merged, forming

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV (TV network), ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc ...

with LNN being dissolved soon after. Production for all ''ITV London News'' programming remained at

The London Studios The London Studios (also known as The South Bank Studios, The London Television Centre, ITV Tower, Kent House and LWT Tower) in Lambeth, Central London was a television studio complex owned by ITV plc and originally built for London Weekend Te ...

(formerly known as the LWT South Bank Centre) until 29 February 2004, when it was taken over by the national Channel 3 news provider

and moved to their headquarters in Central London, making the region the only operation not to produce its own news programmes in-house. Around 40 jobs were lost with the closure of LNN, although the programme retained its own editorial team. ''London Tonight'' was unaffected by the ITV regional news cuts in February 2009. On 4 July 2012,

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British news television channel of ITV (TV network), ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. ITN, Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the netwo ...

editor Deborah Turness informed ''London Tonight'' employees a third of staff would be made redundant, with ITV News and ''London Tonight'' both sharing newsgathering and studios from 1 October 2012. On Monday 14 January 2013, the service was relaunched and renamed as ''ITV News London''. Former notable lead presenters include Katie Derham, Fiona Foster,

Nina Hossain Nina Hossain is a British journalist and presenter employed by ITN as the lead presenter of the '' ITV Lunchtime News''. Background Hossain was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England to a Bangladeshi father and an English mother. Her f ...

,ITV News selects Nina Hossain as lead presenter of Lunchtime News
Amy Wilson, Response Source, 30 May 2019

Natasha Kaplinsky Natasha Margaret Kaplinsky (born 9 September 1972)The Donor, News and information for blood donors, Winter 2009, National Blood Service, England, page 55 is an English newsreader, TV presenter and journalist, best known for her roles as a st ...

, Anna Maria Ashe, Donal MacIntyre,

Mary Nightingale Mary Nightingale (born 26 May 1963) is an English journalist and television presenter. She has presented the '' ITV Evening News'' since 2001. Education and early career Nightingale was born in Scarborough, the third of four daughters. She mov ...

and Matt Teale.

References

External links

* {{ITV News Nations & Regions 1993 British television series debuts 2000s British television series 2010s British television series 2020s British television series ITN ITV regional news shows Television news in London