ITV1+1 11 January 2011 (at last)

After a number of false starts, ITV1+1 is expected to come on air 8pm, 11 January 2011.

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 6th January 2011 at 14:03}

It was first expect that ITV1+1 would come to Freeview during the 30 September 2009 Freeview retune, but this did not happen due to last minute rights issues.

When ITV plc, which runs the official channel 3 services in England and Wales, was created from the merger of two companies, Carlton and Granada, the Competition Commission imposed conditions, which are called the Contract Contracts Rights Renewal (CRR) remedy.

Almost all the other channels that have "+1" time shift channels are single national broadcasts. It is straightforward to create ITV2+1, for example. The output of the channel is fed into a "black box" that re-outputs the content an hour later, and used for a national broadcast.

As the streams for UTV+1, and STV+1 are now on satellite, we can be confident that the ITV+1 service will run throughout the UK.

Channel 4 plus one

It was a little more complicated for Channel 4. This commercial channel has no local or regional editorial content, but does have six regions for advertising: London, Southern England+Wales, Midlands, North England, Scotland, Northern Ireland.



To create Channel 4+1, the corporation needed to use six "black box" devices, to ensure the correct advertisements are seen.

Channel 3 plus one

Back at channel 3, the ITV1 channel has many advert regions. STV, which runs the channel in Scotland, divides into four:

• STV Dundee: Dundee, Perth, St Andrews
• STV Aberdeen: Aberdeen, Inverness, Wick
• STV Edinburgh: Edinburgh, Livingstone, Dunfermline
• STV Glasgow: Glasgow, Stirling, Ayr, Fort William

UTV operates only a single service in Northern Ireland (covering Belfast, Londonderry, Ballycastle, Castlederg). ITV plc has the following advertising regions:

• Border: Carlisle, Dumfries, Kendal
• TTTV Pontop Pike: Sunderland, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Gateshead, Berwick-upon-Tweed
• TTTV Bilsdale: Whitby, Darlington, Hartlepool
• Granada: Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool, Lancaster
• YTV Emley Moor: Bradford, Leeds, York, Doncaster
• YTV Belmont: Grimsby, Lincoln, Scarborough, Skegness
• Wales: Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth, Llandudno
• West: Bristol, Bath, Yeovil, Bridgewater, Taunton
• WestCountry: Plymouth, Exeter, Torquay, Truro, Penzance
• Central West: Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Shrewsbury, Coventry
• Central East: Nottingham, Leicester, Derby
• Central South: Oxford, Swindon, Cheltenham, Gloucester
• Anglia North: Kings Lynn, Norwich, Great Yarmouth
• Anglia South: Ipswich, Felixstowe
• Anglia West: Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Peterborough
• London: Guildford, Woking, High Wycombe, Dartford
• Meridian Kent: Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone
• Meridian Sussex: Brighton, Eastbourne, Worthing
• Meridian Thames Valley: Basingstoke, Andover
• Meridian Hampshire: Southampton, Portsmouth, Salisbury, Poole, Bournemouth

This requires, for each region, a separate "black box". These "black box" devices must feed the hour-delay signal back into Multiplex 2 (also known as multiplex PSB2) as only this multiplex has the correct regions.


ITV1+1 on screen graphic.

Latest ITV multiplex allocations

The slot on PSB2 currently used for the ITV2+1 will be used for ITV1+1. ITV2+1 will move to the slot on multiplex A (aka COM4 or SDN) currently used for the "ITV Preview". As this slot timeshares with the CITV children's channel, ITV2+1 will only operate during peak hours.

Public service transmitters

As the public service transmitters carry only the PSB1, PSB2 and PSB3 (HD) multiplexes, this means that ITV1+1 will be carried to all UK homes, and ITV2+1 will only be available to those with the full Freeview service.

Free to air satellite

Freesat users will see ITV1+1 (or STV+1 or UTV+1) on channel number 112. For ITV1+1 fSfS and Sky use channel number 131, ITV2+1 moves to 179.

On satellite transponder 53 (10.891 H) has UTV+1, ITV1 Central West+1, ITV1 London+1; transponder 54 (10.906 V) has STV West+1, ITV Granada+1, ITV 1 Merdian South+1.

Channel 5 plus one?

So, what of FIVE+1? The channel has four advert regions: Scotland, Northern England, London and "Network". However, there is no space on multiplex 2 (PSB2) for such a channel, and no other multiplex has the correct divisions.

Contact information

Any further questions, please contact ITV on 0844 881 4150.

On Virgin Media ITV1+1 is 114.