ITV Central (formerly Central Independent Television and commonly known as just Central) is the British Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, succeeding ATV on 1 January 1982. The main news programme for the region is Central Tonight.

History
Central retained ATV' sub-regional split; one sub-region for the West Midlands (with studios in Birmingham), and one for the East Midlands (with studios in Nottingham).

Launch
Initially, Central inherited ATV's 1970's Broad Street studios, ATV Centre, which was re-named Central House upon change of name. It was retained as Central's main base of activity until 1996. Upon winning the franchise, Central decided to construct new studios for its East sub-region, based in Nottingham, Lenton Lane. Until the new Nottingham studios were ready, Central operated from a converted facility on an industrial estate at Giltbrook, near Eastwood on the outskirts of Nottingham. Operations at Nottingham were to be staffed by employees originally based at Elstree, which led to may problems due to the relocation, including industrial action (in fact, it was because of this industrial action that the promised separate news service for the East Midlands didn't begin until 1984, by which time they had vacated Giltbrook [2]).
In 1989, Central opened a third studios for its new South sub-region, based in Abingdon, near Oxford.
In 1994, Carlton acquired land on Gas Street, Birmingham, to begin work on building a new digital studio complex, with the intention of replacing Central's Broad Street studios. The new centre was completed in 1997, when Central West's regional news department moved from its Broad Street base. A tribute programme to Broad Street was broadcast on Central News.. The last edition was broadcast on Sunday 3rd December, although there was a pan-regional Central News broadcast the following morning during GMTV. At the same time, ITV West's broadcast footprint was expanded to cover Cheltenham and Gloucestershire from the West's Bristol studios, while Herefordshire re-joined Central News West from Birmingham. Abingdon was retained as a newsgathering base, whilst equipment was sold off.
In September 2007, the Central Television building on Broad Street was covered in scaffholding, ready for demolition, which commenced the following month.

Studio facilities
Central currently operates two subregions with shared involvement in a third:

Central West - based in Birmingham Gas Street predominately operating from the Sutton Coldfield, The Wrekin and recently Ridge Hill transmitters and associated relays.
Central East - with newsgathering centre in Nottingham but now based in Birmingham Gas Street, operating from the Waltham transmitter and associated relays.
ITV Thames Valley - Now shared with Meridian. Previously two subregions; Central South and Meridian North, merged in 2006. Central South's Abingdon base has been retained as a newsgathering centre and general office, however produced from Meridian's studios in Whiteley, Hampshire. Broadcast from the Oxford and Hannington transmitters plus associated relays.