Channel Television during the 1979 ITV Strike

Touche

So is that why TCF had the contractor name not the transmitter name as on C, because say Emley Moor and Belmont had to share the output of one colour slide scanner rather than having their own?

Did they have to book a circuit specially or were the distribution circuits arranged so that feeds to other main transmitters went through the CCR?

It’s a good question. I can remember the Southern TV TCF, it made no mention of the transmitter name. Probably because with UHF there were often two or three other main UHF stations, and they were usually off air fed from the primary one.

I read in some IBA blub that Dover’s CCR was actually situated at Chillerton Down, co sited the ‘Rowridge’ one. Made sense seeing as the Dover transmitter was fed from Southampton anyway ( and the Dover studio came into Southampton on a contribution circuit) See, who says Chiswick is a new idea ?!😎

They were very close to being a publisher broadcaster.



I haven't had time to comb through this act for details but were there any particular sections that covered large scale industrial action within ITV companies / programme contractors, and what the IBA could and couldn't do in such situations order to provide a service as they were the broadcaster?



CTV and the IBA could have played it imaginatively in a smart way if they wanted to. Set up a temporary CTV studio and playout centre somewhere on the mainland with an output that feeds into the entire ITV network all the way to the local transmitters, then beams CTV to the Channel Islands via Stockland Hill.

Considering that most CTV material broadcast during the ITV strike was pre-recorded then this would have been quite easy to implement in practice.

Going back to this tweet, and the original schedule that didn’t appear because of the strike - did CTV normally close down for 30 minutes after schools programmes (not showing the two children’s programmes that were networked at noon)? I know they tended to start up later than other regions, but when starting up at 9.30 for schools programmes what was the benefit of closing down again afterwards and, of all things, pre-empting educational/children’s programming? Did a generation of Channel Islanders miss out on Zippy, Bungle and George?!

Might have caused issues with the strikers though.

Si-Co is taking about the original schedule before the strike caused it to be amended.

Oh yes, sounds very easy!

Even without the logistics of doing that, they'd never have committed to such a plan as for all they knew the strike could have finished at any time.

Also the main reason it wouldn't have happened is because only reason Channel was left broadcasting was because the unions agreed that it would have gone bust if it had gone off air. Turning it into a national broadcaster, and with government help, rather negates that agreement

I believe Channel still had Broadcasting hours restrictions imposed on them at this time. I’m not too sure on the in’s and out’s of it, but they were pretty much gone by the time TV-am started.

Did the unions hold the same power and influence in CTV as they held in UK based ITV companies because the Channel Islands are not part of the UK so they have separate legislation?

tightrope78 makes a valid point about "there’s a serious lack of knowledge and understanding of the history of industrial relations in this country in this thread and how much the fabric of social history has changed in the past 40 years". Does anybody here have knowledge of the finer details of industrial relations in the Channel Islands during the 1970s and how they compared with the rest of the UK?

It could be argued that if CTV had provided a minimalist ITV service for the UK then it would have outwitted the unions, and even provided a frightening snapshot of an alternative future for ITV. In more recent years corporations have deployed tactics of outwitting unions and unionised staff by moving operations to foreign countries; dismissing staff and hiring non-union (and sometimes immigrant) staff; or outsourcing to other companies.

I think you’re overthinking it all. Channel was a tiny company, with a tiny level of staff. The local branches of the unions realised that any sort of action would quickly lead to bankruptcy for the station.

The laws in Jersey are kind of irrelevant, during and after the strike Channel were still be relying on UK based unionised ITV staff. Imagine the attitude they would have to Channel if they had run a 'black' service during the strike. Also those at Channel who were Union members wouldn't want to 'scab'. The agreement was that Channel could keep going, nothing else