This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Yorkshire Television (now known as ITV Yorkshire). It has provided the ITV service for Yorkshire since 1968.
1950s
1956
late Autumn – ITV begins broadcasting across Yorkshire although it is part of a wider North of England region with Granada Television providing weekday programmes and ABC Weekend TV broadcasting at the weekends.
1960s
1967
28 February – National and regional newspapers carried advertisements from the Independent Television Authority, requesting applicants for various new ITV contracts, one of which was Programme Contractor for Yorkshire Area (Contract D) – All Week. Ten formal bids were received by the closing date. 13 June – Telefusion Yorkshire Limited, created by the Blackpool-based TV rental chain Telefusion and led by Grampian TV Managing Director G E Ward Thomas, is selected as the winning bid. It was chosen on the condition that it 'merged' with another applicant Yorkshire Independent Television. The latter, backed by a consortium of Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd, other local newspaper groups such as the Huddersfield Examiner and the Scarborough Evening News, several Yorkshire-based Co-operative societies, trade unions and local universities, was deemed by the Authority to have the better talent but suffered a lack of funding, whereas Telefusion had the backing of a cash-rich parent. The new venture initially chose the name Yorkshire Television Network but decided to drop the word 'Network' before going on air.
1968
29 July – Yorkshire Television launches. 2 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.
1969
19 March – The transmitter mast at Emley Moor collapses, leaving the major part of the region uncovered by Yorkshire Television. A temporary mast is quickly erected and television broadcasting resumed, albeit with reduced coverage. 7 June – Yorkshire begins talks with Anglia Television about a cost-cutting exercise by sharing equipment and facilities. Neither company planned joint productions or a merger. The reason to form an association was purely down to the costs of the increased levy on the companies' advertising revenue by the government and the cost of colour TV. The ITA stated there was no reason why the companies should not have talks about sensible economies that could be made, but would examine all details before any association were to be implemented. 15 November – Yorkshire Television begins broadcasting in colour.
1970s
1970
1 January – A warning is given that regionalism would be abandoned and that Yorkshire's forced merger with Anglia Television would happen unless the chancellor reduced the levy applied on advertising revenues which the government agreed to a few months later. 21 August – Yorkshire and Tyne Tees Television announce plans to merge when the two are brought under the control of a new holding company, Trident Television Limited, to deal with the problem of fairly allocating commercial airtime from a television transmitter at Bilsdale in North Yorkshire which straddled the catchment areas of two Independent Television (ITV) companies. The new holding company would sell airtime in both television regions with each company retaining its own separate identity and management control.
1971
21 January – The new mast at Emley Moor begins transmitting, initially in 625-lines. The 405-lines service starts three months later.
1972
16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, Yorkshire launches an afternoon service. As part of the new service, the first episode of their new soap opera Emmerdale Farm is broadcast.
1973
No events.
1974
30 July – The 1974 franchise round sees the Belmont transmitter in Lincolnshire switched from Anglia Television to Yorkshire Television. A reverse takeover of both Tyne Tees and Yorkshire is performed by Trident but plans to rename the stations 'Trident Yorkshire' and 'Trident Tyne-Tees' were vetoed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority.
1975
No events.
1976
No events.
1977
28 March – Yorkshire begins a nine-week trial of breakfast television, six years before the launch of TV-am. The experiment ends on 27 May.
1978
December – A strike forces Yorkshire Television off the air throughout the entire Christmas period. Many of ITV's Christmas programmes were eventually shown in early 1979, after the dispute had ended.