ITV3 is a TV channel which launched on 1st November 2004, mostly airing classic TV shows from the ITV archives.
The launch of ITV3 led to the close-down of Granada Plus so that ITV3 could acquire its EPG position on the Sky platform, abruptly ending its run of Classic Coronation Street withEpisode 3657 (9th February 1994), as Coronation Street repeats did not transfer to the new channel.
Nearly thirteen years later, on 2nd October 2017, ITV3 began their own run of Classic Coronation Street, beginning with Episode 2587 (15th January 1986), the first appearance of Alan Bradley. Two episodes are shown daily from Monday to Friday, beginning at 2:50pm and repeated the following morning at 6:00am. Episodes are shown mostly unedited in 35-minute slots, unlike the previous Granada Plus run which featured edits to fit into their 30-minute slot that contained more advertising space than existed when the episodes were originally transmitted, though occasionally the Plus edits were aired instead. In addition to this, cuts are made to suit a daytime audience, as opposed to the mid-evening slot the episodes were originally transmitted in. Cuts made by ITV3 includes some strong language ("bastard", etc) and some violent scenes such as Jim beating Liz in Episode 3980 (28th February 1996), which was heavily edited.
On 15th November 2019, the ITV3 run reached Episode 3658 (11th February 1994), overtaking the end point of the Granada Plus repeats. With the exception of omnibus editions, it was the first time that this and subsequent episodes had been repeated. Some of these episodes were still edited, showing that Granada Plus had continued to edit them in preparation for their channel continuing.
In January 2020, the weekly omnibus of contemporary Coronation Street episodes transferred from ITV2 to ITV3 for the first time, although omnibus editions were suspended in April due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the individual episodes were rerun back-to-back in the same early-morning timeslot.