This is a timeline of the history of ITV in Wales, including the current service ITV Cymru Wales. It does not include events that affect the whole UK network.
1950s
1956
26 October – Television Wales and the West is awarded the ITV franchise for South Wales and the West of England.
1957
No events.
1958
14 January – At 4:45pm, TWW starts broadcasting.
1959
No events.
1960s
1960
No events.
1961
Following pressure from Welsh-speaking businessmen, the ITA awards a licence covering a new North and West Wales region to Wales West and North Television.
1962
14 September – Wales (West and North) Television launches as Teledu Cymru. This brings ITV to north Wales for the first time, although people living on north east Wales and along much of the north Wales coast had been able to watch ITV since 1956 as this area is within reach of the Winter Hill transmitting station and therefore served by Granada Television.
1963
Delays in switching on the transmitters at Arfon (north west) and Moel-y-Parc in the north east destroys the finances of WWN. Free programming from the ITV network, plus other support from its neighbours ABC, ATV and TWW just about kept the ship afloat, but Granada decided to dispense with its productions in the Welsh language, and the loss of this programming stream proved fatal to WWN.
1964
26 January – Wales (West and North) Television stops broadcasting after going bankrupt. TWW offers a generous package to WWN's shareholders, in order to gain control of the territory, and kept the Teledu Cymru name on the air as a service separate from its existing service to South Wales and the West.
1965
For the first time, TWW is able to provide separate programming for the whole of Wales and the West of England. This is made possible by the addition of a second VHF transmitter to the St Hilary mast to extend the Teledu Cymru service into south east Wales. Viewers in South Wales are able to receive both services.
1966
No events.
1967
21 June – TWW loses its licence to the Harlech Consortium. TWW unsuccessfully fought the ITA's decision, both formally and through the press. However, the ITA remained resolute that it is legally entitled to remove any contract at any time for any reason.
1968
4 March – TWW stops broadcasting five months before its contract was due to expire, selling the final months of airtime to Harlech. However the new contractor is not yet ready to go on air so the ITA provides an interim service called Independent Television Service for Wales and the West. 20 May – Harlech Television takes over the Wales and West of England franchise just over two months ahead of the planned hand-over date. It launches two news magazines – Y Dydd (The Day) in Welsh and Report Wales in English. They are broadcast for a full half-hour. Previously, TWW had provided short evening bulletins known as TWW Reports, presented jointly from studios in Cardiff and Bristol, where the station ran a joint news operation covering the two areas. August – A technicians strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary ITV Emergency National Service with no regional variations. 14 September – The final edition of listings magazine Television Weekly is published. Listings are subsequently carried in an Wales and West of England edition of TVTimes which now becomes a national publication on 21 September.
1969
No events.
1970s
1970
6 April – HTV starts broadcasting in colour and from this day, the station becomes known on air as HTV rather than Harlech Television. The service for Wales becomes known as HTV Cymru Wales. (HTV's "general" 405-line VHF service for South Wales and the West of England continues as a separate service).
1971
No events.
1972
16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, HTV is able to launch an afternoon service.
1973
No events.
1974
The 1974 franchise round sees no changes in ITV's contractors as it is felt that the huge cost in switching to colour television would have made the companies unable to compete against rivals in a franchise battle.
1975
No events.
1976
No events.
1977
No events.
1978
No events.
1979
10 August – The ten week ITV strike forces HTV off the air. The strike ends on 24 October.
1980s
1980
No events.
1981
No events.