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How did ITV regions cope during this Granada strike

(August 2016)

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RO
robertclark125
On the transdiffusion youtube channel, is a video showing what happened during a small industrial dispute at Granada in Manchester. Basically, some electricians held a meeting with regards so a foreman getting a bouns. The dispute ran from 19:00 - 21:00. During this time, the ITV network couldn't show Coronation street, or World in action.

As a result, Granada was off air for those two hours, other regions showed different programmes to fill up the two half hour slots, as Granada couldn't network the shows.

How would the other ITV regions have dealt with such a short notice disruption?
BL
bluecortina
What year?
BS
Ben Shatliff
I remember this. It was 1983 during the Ken, Dierdre and Mike love triangle on Coronation Street. As soon as Wish You Were Here started at 1900 it went off.

They showed the episode of Coronation Street either the following night or on the Wedvesday but on the following Sunday Channel 4 showed an omnibus edition of the two episodes.

I remember my parents trying to tune the television to channel 4.

That is how it was here in the Granada Region; no idea how the others were affected.
FB
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Unless it was an "wildcat" strike (I'm guessing this is pre ITV plc) not much with live CA and commercials played in locally.
The viewer would get an announcement and a temporary programme would follow. The difficulty might be that the parts of the programme could vary in duration. Another option would be to take another ITV company's output but the Ad breaks again might be messy.
BL
bluecortina
Well if it was 1983, the protocol to follow was set down.

Whilst Granada was 'on strike' all the other ITV companies had to fill locally with their own material for the duration of (un)networked programming from Granada (in this instance). Each company had a cupboard where they would keep a good stock of programmes of varying lengths to fill any reasonable period of local, unscheduled, programming.

Individual companies could not take a network feed of filler material from another Itv company - each one had to fill locally.

To do otherwise would run the risk of escalating the dispute at Granada to another company. This was the agreement between the ITV management and the unions at ITV at the time you refer to.

Edit. By 'local' material I don't mean local programming, I mean programming transmitted locally so it was quite ok to put out feature films/US sitcoms and such like.

Edit 2. And neither could another Itv company transmit the affected Granada network programming on Granada's behalf.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Just out of interest how much "filler material" did the ITV companies have to hold? Or was it up to them?
BL
bluecortina
I don't know the answer to your question. But think on this, if an ITV company lost it's incoming network feed for a day then they would need a considerable amount to fill a broadcast day - perhaps that is the answer to your question? I recall our cupboard had quite a few hours worth certainly.

And if the dispute or technical problem lasted more than a day, then it would be a simple matter for one ITV company to taxi over their stash of standby material to the next ITV company in a van or indeed simply swap material if needed. All the paperwork and timings etc were held with the material as it could be pressed into service at any time.

Edit: And the standby material came and went from the cupboard as time went by, it wasn't the same programming held there for years on end. A 'Happy Days' taken out here, a "Little House on the Prairie' put in there - that sort of thing.
Last edited by bluecortina on 23 August 2016 10:02pm
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Thanks bluecortina Smile

So broadcasting 9:30am to let's say midnight, that's fifteen and a half hours. That's 31 half hour programmes in a worst-case scenario, or 15 one-hour programmes + a half hour. That doesn't sound too bad actually.
HC
Hatton Cross
That's fascinating.
So, I guess the reverse would also be true, if the incoming feed was lost, then presumably the outgoing would be lost as well?

In which case what would happen?

If a station couldn't air a programme to the network due to a down 'out' line, would each company have to fill locally, or would someone like Thames provide a network filler?

Or, if there was plenty of time - get that VT in a fast car to a neighbour region (Thames to Southern / Granada to Yorkshire etc) and get the programme to air that way?
WH
Whataday Founding member
The clip in question:

:-(
A former member
Individual companies could not take a network feed of filler material from another Itv company - each one had to fill locally.

To do otherwise would run the risk of escalating the dispute at Granada to another company. This was the agreement between the ITV management and the unions at ITV at the time you refer to.


How Did Central and HTV both broadcast thats Hollywood? or was that pure chance there had the same programme?
RO
robertclark125
Probably be pure chance, though it was at different timeslots, HTV 2030-2100, Central though showed it 1930-2000. It could also be different episodes of the same show.

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