UTV, THE NETWORK RELATIONSHIP AND REPORTING THE ‘TROUBLES’

Abstract

UTV, formerly known as Ulster Television, has been the franchised commercial broadcaster in Northern Ireland since Hallowe’en night, 1959. While detailed research has been carried out on the history of the BBC in Northern Ireland (Cathcart, 1984, McLoone, 1996) there has been neglect in the study of the political, social and cultural role of UTV in this period. Johnson and Turnock (2005) attempted to address the lack of attention given to the regional structure of commercial broadcasting in the UK yet fail to even mention UTV in their index. There has however been some slight discussion of UTV within the wider context of broadcasting in Northern Ireland (Butler 1995, Curtis, 1998 and Millar 1994) and Bernard Sendall and Jeremy Potter’s (1983, 1990) volumes Independent Television in Britain provide an invaluable source of historical information. More recently a book released for the channel’s 50th anniversary gives some insight into the channel's working processes but remains mainly anecdotal. These studies have not acknowledged the importance of regional broadcasters, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland and have failed to sustain their research. This paper aims to address this issue through three assertions. Studies on broadcasting in Northern Ireland have tended to focus on the lack of political debate or exploration of the situation in the region as well as productions which caused controversy when aired. This has led to a large neglect of aired programme material that can be analyzed and critiqued to add a different perspective to the already vast debate on the media and Northern Ireland. Secondly, the most important relationship for UTV as an independent broadcaster was its relationship with the Independent Television Authority and network. Finally, in coping with the ‘Troubles’, UTV adopted the approach of creating a dialogue with the community and ensuring that their focus remained on local people and their stories.