| 1980  30 January Newsnight launched on BBC2
21 November First Children in Need telethon on BBC1 1 December BBC1 Scotland televises Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland as a weeks' experiment
1981 11 August Final broadcasts by ITV company Westward. TSW takes over the next day, although the Westward name is retained until the end of the year   September New ident introduced on BBC1, though a variation of its predecessor
7 September BBC News relaunched. News After Noon at 12.30pm replaces Midday News; Evening News now runs 5.40-6.00. The theme tune used since the 1960s is dropped 1 October First edition of BBC2's 40 Minutes 31 December Final broadcasts by ITV companies
Southern and ATV
1982  1 January First broadcasts by ITV companies TVS and Central
4 January Nationwide relaunched with a new look; South East at Six begins 26 April Launch of Satellite Television, transmitting two hours of programmes from the UK to Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Malta 1 November Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) launched; all BBC and HTV's Welsh language programming transferred to the new channel 2 November Channel 4 launched in the rest of the UK 4 December Total separation between Radio 1 and Radio 2 for the first time
1983 January Children's ITV introduced 17 January BBC1's Breakfast Time launched at 6.30am - the first UK-wide breakfast television service 1 February TV-am begins its first broadcasts  5 August Final edition of Nationwide on BBC1
19 September BBC1 schools programmes transfer to BBC2 - the sequence is now known as Daytime on 2, with its own variant of the BBC2 ident. The schools clock is dropped 22 September Launch of BBC Telesoftware service 24 October First edition of Sixty Minutes on BBC1 at 5.40pm
1984 January The BBC purchases the former ATV studios at Elstree 16 January Sky Channel launched, following Rupert Murdoch's takeover of Satellite Television. The channel is available to 10,000 cable television viewers 7 June First edition of BBC1's Crimewatch UK 27 July Final edition of Sixty Minutes on BBC1 3 September First edition of Six O'Clock News on BBC1; new regional news programmes launched: London Plus, North West Tonight and Inside Ulster
1985 2-6 January Final transmissions on 405 line VHF  18 February New ident - the 'COW' - launched on BBC1 at 7.00pm. Computerised weather graphics also introduced. First thrice-weekly edition of Wogan on BBC1. Panorama moves to 9.25pm on Mondays after many years at 8.10
19 February First episode of EastEnders on BBC1 at 7.00pm 29 March Final afternoon repeat of Play School on BBC1; morning showings continue 2 September New look Nine O'Clock News; reverts to two presenter format 3 September EastEnders moves to 7.30pm 9 September Children's BBC introduced on BBC1 with Phillip Schofield
1986 30 March New ident ('TWO') introduced on BBC2 1 April BBC Enterprises Ltd formed 27 October Full daytime television service launched on BBC1. One O'Clock News introduced, replacing News After Noon, and hourly news updates through the morning begin 10 November BBC1's Breakfast Time relaunched as a news programme; now starts at 7.00am
1987 14 September ITV schools programmes transfer to Channel 4
1988 5 February First Comic Relief telethon aired on BBC1 29-30 May First ITV Telethon held September New daytime schedule on ITV; News at One replaced by News at 12.30  3 October All ITV stations broadcasting 24 hours a day
7 October BBC Radio London ceases broadcasting 25 October BBC GLR (Greater London Radio) launched 31 October New look Nine O'Clock News; reverts to single presenter format. Weekend
bulletins also receive the new look. BBC2's Newsnight moved to a fixed point of 10.30pm
1989 5 February Sky launches the UK's first satellite television service with four channels: Sky Channel, Eurosport, Sky Movies and Sky News 28 March Newsroom South East launched from the BBC's Elstree studio 3 April Channel 4 Daily launched at 6.00am 30 July Sky Channel renamed Sky One 2 October Breakfast Time relaunched as BBC Breakfast News at 6.30am. It was scheduled to start two weeks earlier 21 November First television broadcasts from the House of Commons | 
