As the nation continues to contemplate the sadness of last week’s events - and the significance of King Charles III’s proclamation over the weekend - we are now getting a clearer picture of how the coming week will unfold as we approach the late Queen’s funeral on Monday 19th. With this in mind, we wanted to take the earliest possible opportunity to update you on ITV’s plans for the coming days, in relation to our programming schedule and our approach to advertising.

As a public service broadcaster, we have a duty to connect our audience to what’s happening through a schedule that reflects the national mood. We are in an official period of national mourning and Buckingham Palace is now following a strict protocol, with specific events happening on specific days. However, actual timings are prone to change, and we will need to respond to any such changes as they happen. For example, we know that the Queen will be lying in state in Westminster Hall from Wednesday, but we’ll need to adapt to key moments such as members of the royal household keeping a vigil by her coffin, or an unexpected royal walkabout amongst the crowds.

We may also adapt the format of certain programmes, as we did with Sunday's horse racing coverage, which included tributes from the racing community in between races; also, the extended and moving coverage from programmes such as Good Morning Britain and This Morning across the week.
 

Our latest position on the week ahead, for ITV’s main channel, is as follows:

• News: No advertising will run within any news content or royal-focused programming between now and Sunday night.

• Daytime: there will be considerable disruption to our usual daytime programming as we continue to follow national events with extended news, news specials, and adapted versions of our daytime schedule. More normal programming is likely to return from mid/late afternoons, in which case advertising will run.

• Evening peak: We’ll aim to deliver a more normal schedule during evening peak, including advertising, but there may still be some disruption in response to events as they happen. Please note that this Thursday’s National Television Awards has been postponed until Thursday 13th October.

• On Sunday evening, we will be observing a national 1-minute silence at 20:00.

The above only affects ITV’s main channel. All other ITV channels and the ITV Hub will remain unaffected across this week.

Monday 19th September sees the Queen’s funeral take place, and we have decided that there will be no advertising running on any ITV channel on this day (including the ITV Hub). We can also confirm that all of the day’s programming, from 6am to midnight, will be simulcast on ITV’s main channel and its five digital channels and the ITV Hub - the first time in its history ITV has done so. And although the formalities of the funeral are due to finish at around 16:00, we feel it is appropriate to continue our live news, specials and reflective coverage for the remainder of the day. The scale of the coverage will be immense and we expect it to be the biggest outside broadcast ITV has ever produced.

Monday’s funeral will mark the end of this official period of mourning, and we expect to return to normal programming schedules and advertising from Tuesday 20th.

We’ll continue to keep you updated, especially as we respond to a changing situation. Thank you in advance for your understanding.