Historically Central made a major contribution to the ITV network schedule – especially in entertainment and drama – but today its main responsibility is the regional news service.

ATV attempted to address its problem in 1980 as part of its franchise reapplication; with plans for a second major facility in the area (to be based in Nottingham) and as part of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's plan for the contract to provide separate news coverage for both the East Midlands and the West Midlands.

[5] There were few differences between the East and West sub-regions, but each had its own news service, advertisements, and during the early years of operation, continuity.

[7] The formation of Zenith Productions on 3 April 1984 allowed the company to exploit markets outside of the US and UK, similarly to how Thames operated its Euston Films subsidiary.

[9][10] In January 1987, Central acquired the European division of the American production company FilmFair for £1.5million,[11] which went on to produce several of the station's networked children's series before being sold onto the Storm Group (Caspian) in 1991.

[12][13] On the same day, Central bought a stake in Starstream, who co-founded and operated The Children's Channel – the 22% stake was sold in November 1991 to United Artists Cable International (formerly a subsidiary of United Artists Theatres, the parent company now a division of Regal Entertainment Group, and the former cable company merged into TCI, the predecessor of Liberty Media).

[26][27] Post-1993, the company's ITV network presence was further strengthened when it took over commissioning, presentation and compliance responsibility for a number of continuing Thames Television productions, such as Count Duckula, The Tomorrow People, This Is Your Life, Des O'Connor Tonight, Mr. Bean, Minder, Strike It Lucky and Wish You Were Here.

Upon winning the franchise, Central decided to construct new studios for its East sub-region, based in Lenton Lane, Nottingham – the new complex was to be called 'East Midlands Television centre'.

[46] Up until the studios were opened, Central's East Midlands operations were based on an industrial estate at Giltbrook, near Eastwood on the outskirts of Nottingham.

A temporary radio link from Giltbrook to the Waltham transmitter via BT Bowman/Sheriff (Nottingham) Telephone Exchange provided the contribution feed into the studio/transmission network.

The Nottingham studios were to be staffed by employees originally based at Elstree (in the studio complex that became BBC Elstree), which led to many problems due to the relocation, including industrial action, which resulted in a long delay for the promised separate news service for the East Midlands until September 1983.

[48] Five years later, Central opened a computerized news centre in Abingdon for the launch of its third sub-region, serving the South Midlands.

The Broad Street studios in Birmingham – which were rented – came under Central's ownership in November 1991, by which time, its network and large scale programming capability had been transferred to Nottingham, scaling down the Birmingham operation to providing Central News West, regional programming and presentation operations, including those for CITV.

[50] In 1994, Central's new owners Carlton acquired land on nearby Gas Street to begin work on building a new, smaller digital studio complex.

In February 2004, ITV plc announced plans to close and sell the Lenton Lane production centre in Nottingham with over 350 jobs being axed in the process[52] Following the closure of the studios, a new news-gathering centre was established in the city, but production and transmission of Central News East moved to the Birmingham studio in Spring 2005.

[54] The five-part documentary, produced by ATVLAND Productions, was followed up in November 2012 by From Headlines to Tight Lines, a DVD on the history of the regional news magazine programme ATV Today.

While all Thames Valley news programmes were broadcast from Meridian's studios in Whiteley in Hampshire, Central's former Abingdon base was retained as a newsgathering centre.

The pan-regional service included a short six-minute opt out within the 6 pm programme and separate late night bulletins for the two areas.

On 23 July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved by Ofcom – ITV News Central extended the East and West opt-out services from six minutes to twenty minutes during the half-hour 6 pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two sub-regions.

[58] In the former Thames Valley region, plans were approved for a ten-minute opt out within the 6 pm edition of ITV News Meridian for the south of England.

Upon launch, Central's on screen presentation featured a sphere (which resembled a moon or a total eclipse) which would burst open with light, before reforming, accompanied by a light jingle, but was dropped and revised during 1983, so the moon ident would just appear of darkness with the colour spectrum appearing to its left hand side.

Perhaps the station's most successful drama title was its adaptations of the Inspector Morse novels, produced by its subsidiary Zenith Productions.

Central also produced the critically acclaimed film Walter – starring Ian McKellen – for Channel 4's first night of transmission.

Less successful was one of Central's first networked contributions – the Tiswas spin-off O.T.T., which drew high viewing figures but also heavy criticism for its racy adult content.

The company also attracted ire with the 1987 sitcom Hardwicke House (starring Roy Kinnear) about an anarchic comprehensive school.

Central also formed numerous international partnerships to produce major drama and documentary series – including Legacy of Civilization with Maryland Public Television, Nuclear Age with WGBH-TV (another key PBS affiliate) and NHK[20] and Edens Lost (1989) with ABC.

The programme was also the first on British television to examine seriously the AIDS virus, leading to a drama series on the topic, called Intimate Contact.

[68] In the same year, the company completed production on one of its more controversial programmes, Question of Leadership, a four-part series directed by Ken Loach about trade unions' responses to government actions.

The station also played its part in coverage of key European athletics meetings and world championship boxing with The Big Fight Live as a long-standing Saturday night fixture.