In the Hull city centre office there are still two Yorkshire Television signs complete with Chevrons on the front of the building (look just like the old YTV end caps). Underneath the signs there are ITV1 logos on the windows.
Not sure, however, if the building is still in use.
I think YTV moved out of the Prospect Centre in Hull around three years ago.
Just as Christine and Duncan were linking into the weather, the background view of Sheffield by night changed suddenly into Leeds by day
The correct view was back after the weather. Duncan and Christine laughed it off saying the sun must have risen a bit early tonight, adding, not to mention it changing from Sheffield to Leeds!
Still made Look North look a poor man's news programme though. Can't wait 'til Calendar is reunited.
Michael Grade's plans aside, is it definite that Calendar will re-unite soon-- IIRC the current set-up was only a trial agreed by Ofcom?
In the Hull city centre office there are still two Yorkshire Television signs complete with Chevrons on the front of the building (look just like the old YTV end caps). Underneath the signs there are ITV1 logos on the windows.
Not sure, however, if the building is still in use.
I think YTV moved out of the Prospect Centre in Hull around three years ago.
True they have not used the building for years, they can't get rid if the lease, however with those mucky nets at the window it hardly has kerb appeal
Someone must have put those ITV logos over the last year or so. Sadly it looks like the only place left with original YTV signage is in a mucky old shopping centre in mucky old ULL.
Talking of signs the mystery surrounding the BBC Queenies Court sign remains. A few months back the very expensive illuminated sign was replaced by a small vinyl sticker Is this the start of the downgrading of Queenies Orange and yellow open drop in/out centre foyer?
]Speaking of YTV, has anyone else seen their studios recently? All remaining traces of the chevron have been removed from the main Kirkstall Road building, replaced by the "ITV" corporate logo. It looks awful, in my opinion (for some reason, the large-ish chevron on the Emmerdale production centre has remained there).
I think the chevron is still on the sign at the Studio Road end of the drive down the front entrance, isn't it? I went past on Sunday and saw the new ITV logo and could have sworn I'd made a point of looking at the sign to see if that had been dechevroned too.
I had a look today.
The 'YORKSHIRE TELEVISION' on the front has been taken down and replaced by an 'ITV Yorkshire' sign
The same signs have also been added to the front and side of 104 Kirkstall Road, which didn't used to have any signs
There is no change to the sign on the corner of Kirkstall Road and Studio Road. This retains the chevron and Yorkshire Television lettering
Just as Christine and Duncan were linking into the weather, the background view of Sheffield by night changed suddenly into Leeds by day
The correct view was back after the weather. Duncan and Christine laughed it off saying the sun must have risen a bit early tonight, adding, not to mention it changing from Sheffield to Leeds!
Still made Look North look a poor man's news programme though. Can't wait 'til Calendar is reunited.
Michael Grade's plans aside, is it definite that Calendar will re-unite soon-- IIRC the current set-up was only a trial agreed by Ofcom?
I'd put money on it - can't see them getting away with reducing Tyne Tees or some of the other splits (Meridian), but this is a cert, it's just not required.
Why did they do the split in the first place when the trend was clearly going the other way to larger regions?
At a guess, I would think it was because LNH was gaining quite a lead over
Calendar
in the Belmont TX region.
I think the idea was, if that YTV rivalled LNH properly (with Sheffield thrown in for good measure), then Calendar would claw back some viewers from the BBC. I'm not sure if it worked though, in terms of viewing figures?
Why did they do the split in the first place when the trend was clearly going the other way to larger regions?
The trend wasn't going that way at that point though was it
Presumably it's still business as usual until if and when Grade's vision is granted by Ofcom. Is a provision of sub regional news actually part of YTV's current licence?
The trend wasn't going that way at that point though was it?
Well the Calendar split was announced at the same time as the abolition of Central South and the introduction of pan-regional weekend bulletins in Central and Merdian.
And ITV had been making noises for some time that regional news would be difficult to sustain post-DSO.
So although the expansion at Yorkshire and Tyne Tees softened the blow of the cuts elsewhere in the country, it was still a strange move given the prevailing climate.
The Calendar changes actually made the service
less
"local" / "sub-regional", but in a way that cunningly dressed it up as more local. Many of you seem to have been successfully duped by ITVplc.
Given that some of the weekday Calendar short bulletins used to be sub-regional, plus a segment within the 6pm show, there was something like 20-30 mins of
sub
-regional Calendar on any given weekday anyway.
All that they've actually done is move that "30 mins of
sub
-regional per day" to one part of the day (i.e. the 6pm -6:30pm window) rather than having it spread in bits across the day. All short bulletins are now pan-regional.
But there were
three
sub-regions before, now there's only two - the new "South" being the old "East" and "South" combined - hence my contention that Calendar's actually less sub-regional.
Making the whole 6pm show fully split, cleverly glossed over the fact that there were fewer sub-regions. ITVplc haven't duped me - I noticed!
Similar story with the Thames Valley changes. In a geographic area where there were
four
services (i.e.
3
x Meridian sub-regions + Central South), there's now just
three
services (
2
x Meridian sub-regions + Thames Valley)!!! And the western half of Central South went into
existing
regions (Central West and ITV West), so no extra regions created there.
So, the Calendar and Thames Valley changes have combined to make there be
two fewer
ITV regions/sub-regions across England as a whole!
More local? I think not! Actually less local, when you really think about it.
So, the recent Calendar and Thames Valley changes
weren't
(and aren't) the "opposite" of the now proposed regional reductions at all!
But it did allow ITV to announced a net increase in the number of 6pm programmes nationwide
(+2 in Tyne Tees and Yorkshire, -1 in Meridian Central)
Yes, you're right that the Yorkshire change was a sleight of hand, but it was still - IMO - counter-intuitive to go to the effort of creating an extra studio (albeit a subdivision of existing space).
Similar story with the Thames Valley changes. In a geographic area where there were
four
services (i.e.
3
x Meridian sub-regions + Central South), there's now just
three
services (
2
x Meridian sub-regions + Thames Valley)!!! And the western half of Central South went into
existing
regions (Central West and ITV West), so no extra regions created there.
Yes - though to be fair they couched the axeing of Central South and merger with Meridian North - as a reduction in services ISTR - and used the "expansion" of Tyne Tees and Yorkshire as a bit of positive spin.
There is no question that merging Abingdon and Newbury (albeit after Newbury had moved studios to Northam!) was a closure and merger creating a less regional service, not an introduction of a newer more regional service.
(They got away with it more easily because the BBC has never had an equivalent regional news operation to Meridian North from Newbury via Hannington. The BBC don't have direct transmitter feeds to Hannington and instead rebroadcast an off-air feed of BBC South from Southampton - I think from Rowridge.)
Is this the start of the downgrading of Queenies Orange and yellow open drop in/out centre foyer? 