UTV announces weeknight scheduling changes

UTV/ITV has announced a number of changes to its weeknight programme scheduling starting this week. Changes will see ITV Evening News extended to one hour, and new times for Soaps, Rare Breed and UTV Life.

From tomorrow, Monday 6 March, ITV begins its extended commitment to evening news after recently announcing the 6.30pm programme will increase in length to an hour.

The broadcast will include even more reporting from outside of London, to reflect life across the UK. UTV’s news programme, ‘UTV Live at 6’ will air as normal on weekdays from 6pm to 6.30pm.

In addition, ITV’s soaps are to move into new schedule slots, with Coronation Street running hour-long episodes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm, and Emmerdale switching to a nightly 7.30pm slot.

From Friday 11th March, viewers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will see half an hour of UK and international news at 6.30pm, followed by dedicated, locally-made programming at 7pm. For UTV, the popular weekly magazine programme UTV Life, presented by Pamela Ballantine, will be on at this time.

The remaining episodes of UTV’s popular farming series ‘Rare Breed - A Farming Year’ will air on Tuesday nights at 8pm, starting on 15th March.