The London-based company that makes the news bulletins for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and also produces documentaries, sport and branded content.
ITN, short for Independent Television News, is the company behind some of the most familiar news programmes on British television. It makes ITV News, Channel 4 News and 5 News, and from January 2026 it also took over production of Good Morning Britain under the ITV News banner. Beyond the newsroom, it makes factual programmes, sport coverage, education content and branded content for clients around the world.
ITN says its mission is to bring "truth to life", and its chief executive Rachel Corp has described it as a purpose-driven organisation with people at the centre of its work. When the company rebranded in 2022 it set out to move from being a British news organisation to a global player in news, factual, sport, education and branded content. An early editor, Julian Haviland, described the aim as being "at least as responsible and accurate as the BBC", which shows how long accuracy has been central to the company's identity.
ITN was founded in 1955 by the first ITV companies, and its first bulletin went out on ITV's launch night on 22 September 1955. Its headquarters is at 200 Gray's Inn Road in central London, a building designed by Sir Norman Foster. It has had reporting bureaux in places such as Washington, Brussels, Paris, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Beijing, New York and Sydney, and a 2026 report lists three working studios. A 2019 figure put its workforce at around 706 people.
Its news bulletins have their own long traditions: News at Ten launched in 1967, Channel 4 News began in 1982, and 5 News first aired in 1997. Its non-news arm, ITN Productions, was formed in 2010 and has made programmes for clients such as the BBC, Discovery, History, PBS and National Geographic. The company now organises itself into seven divisions: Business, Education, Newsrooms, News Production, Post Production, Productions and Sport. That means it employs far more than on-screen reporters. Producers, camera crews, editors, graphics and post-production specialists, sports production teams, researchers, engineers and business teams all play a part. Its sport arm helped run a joint venture covering the World Athletics Championships with 120 cameras and a crew of 400, which gives a sense of the scale of the live production work.
ITN's own claims about culture centre on authentic, high-impact storytelling. Famous names who started or built their careers there include Trevor McDonald, Julie Etchingham, Tom Bradby and Jon Snow, who presented Channel 4 News for 32 years. If you are curious about television, journalism or production, ITN is a good example of how many different roles sit behind a single news bulletin.
Website: www.itn.com
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