Coronation Street (colloquially known as Corrie or The Street) is an award-winning soap opera created by Tony Warren, and is generally the most watched programme on British television.
It is the longest running television programme in the United Kingdom, first broadcast on 9 December 1960, made by Granada Television (ITV Studios) and broadcast in all regions of ITV almost throughout its existence.
The show was created by Tony Warren and is still produced by Granada Television, holder of the ITV franchise for the northwest of England, and was shown by most of the ITV stations then operating. It became fully networked on 6 March 1961, when ATV, the only remaining franchise then still not broadcasting the programme, began airing it. The working title of the show was Florizel Street, but a tea lady named Agnes remarked that "Florizel" sounded like a brand of disinfectant, so the name was changed. The choice of new name was between Jubilee Street and Coronation Street, with Granada executives Harry Latham, Harry Elton, and H. V. Kershaw deciding on the latter.
In the United Kingdom, as of January 2008, Coronation Street is broadcast at 19:30 and 20:30 on Mondays and Fridays, and at 19:30 Wednesdays on terrestrial / digital network ITV. There have been a few late night Coronation Street episodes starting at 10pm, because of the watershed. Repeat episodes and specials can be seen on ITV and ITV2, with an omnibus edition shown on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. ITV has offered this sort of catchup since the channel began broadcasting Coronation Street in December 1998. Since January 2008, the omnibus has moved back to the main ITV channel where it currently broadcasts every Sunday morning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_Street