Ulster Television plc is the ITV contractor for Northern Ireland. It is one of the two remaining stand-alone ITV contractors left, the others forming groupings such as ITV plc (Formerly Carlton and Granada) and SMG, with Channel being the other remaining independent company. Political sensitivities led to the channel abbreviating its name to UTV, 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 now referred to as UTV Group. 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 also available in the Republic of Ireland, either on cable and MMDS 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, and has its own sales office in Dublin. It is also floated on the ISE instead of the LSE, which is the norm for ITV companies.

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 TLD. They were displayed at the same height from the base of the screen to avoid any accusations of favoritism.

However, while UTV has been available to the whole of the United Kingdom via the Sky Digital 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 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.

UTV is continuing the move from a simple ITV contractor towards a true media company, it also owns three Republic of Ireland independent local radio contractors - Q102 in Dublin, 96FM County Sound in Cork, and Live 95FM in Limerick. It also owns the internet service provider UTV Internet. In August 2004 the company moved into the telephone market offering free off-peak calls with its new service, UTV Talk.

External Links:

• UTV Website (http://u.tv/)