50 Years of ITV in Wales and the West

Next Monday, 14th January, will mark the 50th Anniversary of the launch of TWW in Wales and the West. 2008 will also mark the 40th Anniversary of HTV.

To mark this, a series of 8 half hour programmes, called "Your Channel" is being shown from next Thursday in Wales.

From radiotimes.com:

Thursday 17 January
10:35pm - 11:05pm
ITV1 Wales
The first programme in a series of eight, charting the history of Independent Television in Wales, since the launch of Wales's first Independent Television company on January 14th 1958. The series highlights some classics from the archives and also looks at the history of television watching and how television transformed Welsh lives.
VIDEO Plus+: 482388


The series seems to be focusing on Wales, and there's nothing being shown in the West to mark the anniversary (it'll probably only be covered on The West Tonight).

Maybe the reason for it only being shown in Wales is that HTV Wales has to produce more regional programming than the English regions, hence the reason for it being an 8 part series, which is a pleasant surprise for a series like this. If there was still the same connection between the 2 HTV franchises (before HTV West became associated with Westcountry), then maybe they would be showing the same regional programme in both regions.

Also, given that they're not showing anything in the West, it also raises the question of whether other ITV plc regions will celebrate their anniversaries properly in the future (given that they all had regional programmes for ITV50), or whether it'll just be mentioned in the regional news. For example, Central's 25 birthday in January 2007 was only covered in the news. 2008 will also mark 50 Years of ITV in the South, and 40 Years of Yorkshire Television, but is anything special being planned?

I saw a trailer for this on ITV Wales the other night. It looks like it will be a great series.

A potentially very interesting series for all ITV followers. Wales was a particularly interesting area in the 1960s, what with two stations coming on-air, one going bust and being bailed out by its neighbour who was then used (unfairly) as a sacrificial lamb by the ITA, and proceeded to throw a strop and leave Wales with a threadbare service for three months.

A fair few ITV stations come up for their 50th in the coming year or so, so hopefully we will see a few more series like this. A pity that West aren't getting an equivalent though.

I remember sitting at home, watching the opening on the newly converted television, while my father attended the event down at Pontcanna, as a specially invited guest.

It's odd that ITV are promoting this level of nostalgia though as they bang the nails in the coffin of each region.

The HTV name went some time ago; effectively "west" will disappear in reality when it takes over "westcountry", leaving "Wales" as a true stand-alone region though - so maybe there is something for them to celebrate.

The 50th anniversary was previewed on Friday's "The West Tonight", with the building of the Bath Road studios featuring in the preview clips.

Viewers asked to call in with their memories of the start of TWW. The graphics department even had remade the TWW ident form-up to include the telephone number to call.

Features all next week on the programme, with no-doubt Bruce Hockin being called back in one day!! I believe this only covers TWW, with plans to mark HTV's 40th Birthday during June.

HTV has not been forgotten in the west - most people seem to still refer to ITV1 as HTV - including a recent guest who used the name during an on-air interview a few weeks back.

ITV aren't promoting it. ITV Wales are. it's not odd at all

What happened to Channel 7 / WWN on St Hillary after Harlech took over?

Cheers

It carried the HTV Cymru/Wales service while Channel 10 became the "General Service" which was basically HTV West with a few (mainly news) English language Welsh progs.

So, as expected, HTV West only covered the anniversary on The West Tonight, with just one report (on Monday). I was expecting them to show a week of special reports (like most of the regions did for ITV50), but there was nothing today, so that's probably it!

It makes you wonder how (if at all) ITV plc regions will mark their anniversaries in the future. For example, 2008 will mark 50 years of ITV in the South, 40 Years of Yorkshire Television, and 40 Years of LWT; and 2009 will mark 50 Years of Tyne Tees Television and Anglia Television.

Meridian, Anglia and Yorkshire may mark their anniversaries, although LWT doesn't really exist any more, so their birthday probably won't be covered.



I may be wrong here, but I expect that the regions still have a lot of control of what they fill their regional airtime with, except for the sports and political programmes, which are shown in all ITV plc regions.

The proposed mergers of the regions may never happen, as it still has to be approved by OFCOM, although if it did, some regions would probably be unable to mark their anniversaries in the future.

For example, Tyne Tees will be 50 in 2009, although if the merger with Border is approved, the changes may have taken place by then, so they would probably be unable to mark the anniversary (except for, perhaps in the sub-regional opt of the news). The same will also apply to Border and Westcountry in 2011.

I suppose that given all the ITV plc regions had regional programmes to mark ITV50, we're not going to see much in terms of anniversaries being celebrated in the future, particularly as there is very regionality left now (apart from news and a few regional programmes).

As well as this programme which starts Thursday, ITV Wales have been looking back at TWW and HTV on Wales Tonight every night this week.

[quote="kernow"]So, as expected, HTV West only covered the anniversary on The West Tonight, with just one report (on Monday). I was expecting them to show a week of special reports (like most of the regions did for ITV50), but there was nothing today, so that's probably it!

Sadly the story was reduced to a tiny piece at the end of Monday's programme - Due to extended coverage of the major flooding in much of the ITV West region.

As much of the TWW/HTV story is shared with Wales, don't be surprised if ITV Wales' "This Channel" is re-edited as a programme for West to be shown to coincide with the HTV 40th Birthday in June.