An ongoing partnership between PRONI, Northern Ireland Screen and ITV is working to preserve the UTV archive and encourage public engagement with it. This collaborative partnership is helping to safeguard an important part of Northern Ireland's broadcast heritage.
The UTV Archive at PRONI
UTV, which was called Ulster Television until 1993, was the first commercial television broadcaster on the island of Ireland. It first went on air on the 31 October 1959. In 2016, UTV was acquired by ITV. In 2018, as part of a wider partnership agreement, ITV transferred most of the UTV film and tape archive to PRONI’s care.
Complete broadcast programme tapes are preserved within the ITV archive at Leeds. The ‘rushes’, which are the complete, unedited footage as captured at the time, are preserved at PRONI. The UTV archive held at PRONI dates from 1959 until 1993. The archive contains approximately 72,000 items made up mostly of Betacam tapes of various sizes, but also a significant collection of cine film cans, and other various formats such as 1 inch and U-Matic tapes.
The UTV Archive is of great historical and cultural importance as it contains unique material which gives a fascinating insight into life in Northern Ireland from the mid to late 20th century. The archive comprehensively covers the conflict in Northern Ireland from its outbreak and early years through to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and beyond. As a broadcaster, UTV also took care to capture and document normal, everyday life in Ireland, both North and South of the border. A diverse range of genres are contained within the archive including entertainment, education, children’s programmes, as well local news and current affairs. Popular programmes include The Kelly Show, McGilloway's Way, Counterpoint, UTV Live, and Good Evening Ulster.
The UTV Archive Partnership
Since 2018, PRONI, Northern Ireland Screen and ITV have collaborated to ensure the preservation of the UTV archive and make as much content as possible publicly accessible. PRONI and NI Screen have delivered a number of digitisation projects funded by the Department for Communities and external funders including the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and the British Film Institute (BFI). These digitised files are, in turn, being preserved within PRONI’s digital repository.
This collaboration has ensured that unique footage within the archive has been preserved and brought back to life for people and communities across Northern Ireland and beyond. The first point of access to digitised UTV content is Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive (DFA). Digitised content from the UTV archive continues to be incorporated into both PRONI and Northern Ireland Screen’s existing outreach and educational programmes.