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Channel Television during the 1979 ITV Strike

How did it continue broadcasting? (June 2019)

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BL
bluecortina
Markymark posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Markymark posted:

Perhaps, but for some they’d have been too fiddly to deal with ? The expense of producing some ads might have made them uneconomic if only to be shown on Channel?


I was thinking more of providing copies of the adverts they would normally have shown on the other stations. Dealing with Channel rather than Westward for a few weeks may not have been too onerous? Channel did have a London sales office, I think.


My copies of IBA yearbooks are out of reach at present. I thought Westward/TSW/TVS just gave them a cut of their ad revenue. It’s a shame no recordings of Channel’s self sustaining output exists, it would be interesting to see what national ads there were ?


Did Channel even have a 35mm telecine to play film comms ? in1979 35mm film was the dominant format for the distribution of comms.
TT
ttt
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Last edited by ttt on 2 July 2019 2:29pm
BL
bluecortina
The smaller companies had much smaller overall programming commitments and hence much smaller costs. You could employ less staff to reduce your wage bill but then you run the risk of falling off air and the subsequent consequences.

A boss of mine once said to me that less than hundred people throughout the UK did what I and my colleagues did. By having a uniform pay and grading structure across ITV engineers had no incentive to 'pimp' themselves around to the highest bidder because financially it would make no base difference. Other factors may come into play such as geographical location but that's an individuals choice naturally. If I could earn say £25k a year in Plymouth why the heck would I go to Carlisle for half the money?
TT
ttt
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Last edited by ttt on 2 July 2019 2:29pm
BL
bluecortina
ttt posted:
Is that really true though? You can't include network productions in "commitments" - these are highly profitable and certainly we're not a cost to the company overall.

Whereas local production was a commitment - for the most part it was money written off to the business. And the smaller companies typically had heavier regional commitments than some of the big 5.

So the small companies were saddled with having to pay large company prices for services that were making the big firms hefty profits, while driving small companies like Border close to bankruptcy.

I remember reading one of Tyne Tees's yearly reports that the half dozen or so network series they actually managed to sell that year offset the regional losses almost completely. So a company of 2 million viewers looks to be the break even line given expenses - anything smaller than that and they struggle.


Local tv production is as cheap as chips. It was then, it is now. The cost of network programming to the small stations was calibrated to make it economical for them to take it. And that cost was fixed per hour no matter if the originating company overspent its own budget.
TT
ttt
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Last edited by ttt on 2 July 2019 2:30pm
JA
james-2001
ttt posted:
So "cheap as chips" that two of the regional companies had to be rescued by larger neighbours (before 1990), and one was on the verge of handing its licence back, such was the state of its funding.

So "cheap as chips" that the current ITV consider it utterly unviable and have successfully lobbied for the effective closure of two of the small regions. And the latter is only the news service.


Not to mention the local TV channels became unable to run a decent service once the licence fee cash ran out (and many of them couldn't even before it did).
BR
Brekkie
Turns out chips are very expensive.

Back to the core issue of why Channel couldn't have their schedule networked - even if there were no cost or logistical obstacles they couldn't get around the unions. No doubt had ITV tried to network Channel the Union would have withdrawn their exemption from the strike action.
NL
Ne1L C
Exactly. The unions would throw a hissy fit and wring CTV's neck like a chicken.
TT
ttt
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Last edited by ttt on 2 July 2019 2:30pm
WW
WW Update
Ne1L C posted:
Exactly. The unions would throw a hissy fit and wring CTV's neck like a chicken.


Since the Channel Islands are not a part of the UK, do they still fall under the auspices of British unions?
JB
JexedBack
Quote:
and one was on the verge of handing its licence back,


Which one was that and why?

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