Timelapse video shows ITN’s renovation of Good Morning Britain studio

ITN has renovated Studio 1 to enable it to produce three programmes (Good Morning Britain, ITV News and ITV News London) from the same studio space, with each show having its own editorial tone and feel.

Compared to the previous studio sets, ITN says the lighting on set is sharper and brighter thanks to the introduction of LED technology. 

Since 2004, ITV News has used virtual reality in its studio sets, but with major enhancements in LED technology over recent years, ITN says it was time for Good Morning Britain to now move to a physical set.

The initial idea was to refurbish Studio 1 as 50% VR and 50% physical but this was scrapped as ITN decided to pivot 100% to the new technology.

With the LED technology, there are six flexible, moveable screens in Studio 1.

The design work for the new studio started in May 2025, when ITN and ITV’s production takeover of Good Morning Britain was announced.

The new studio needed to be ready for 5 January 2026 – the live date of Good Morning Britain’s first ITV News-produced TX – so there was just six months to turn everything around.

The original brief from ITV was for viewers of ITV News and Good Morning Britain to switch on to something recognisable but also refreshed and modern. The challenge for ITN was how to do that for the different shows while creating a flexible multi-platform physical set with LED technology.

Another challenge was decommissioning the old ITV News VR Studio 1 while keeping all its programmes running. This was achieved by building a smaller VR studio within the studio, and de-rigging the studio from the outside while shows were running.

The set houses seven hours of ITV content every day, as well as special events such as general elections.

The London backdrops for Studio 1 were shot in 8K to display at appropriate resolution on the LED screens.