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Channel Television during the 1979 ITV Strike

How did it continue broadcasting? (June 2019)

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NL
Ne1L C
CTV running a "black" service would have been like signing their own death warrant. Post strike the chances are every single franchise would have been threatened by the unions with further actions if they provided anything to CTV. That would have killed the channel outright.

The next franchise round may have also led to the IBA deciding not to have a separate channel islands franchise instead merging it with the southwest a'la BBC.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Indeed. The IBA itself deciding to mount an emergency service (from Crawley Court, perhaps, or engage a facilities house/indie like Moinaire to play it out?) is more likely than co-opting Channel to provide one. And I don't get the impression there was any urgency from the IBA to do so.
NL
Ne1L C
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Indeed. The IBA itself deciding to mount an emergency service (from Crawley Court, perhaps, or engage a facilities house/indie like Moinaire to play it out?) is more likely than co-opting Channel to provide one. And I don't get the impression there was any urgency from the IBA to do so.


Agreed. The IBA probably had a lot on its plate during '79 and mounting an emergency service would have made things a lot worse.
MA
Markymark
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Indeed. The IBA itself deciding to mount an emergency service (from Crawley Court, perhaps, or engage a facilities house/indie like Moinaire to play it out?) is more likely than co-opting Channel to provide one. And I don't get the impression there was any urgency from the IBA to do so.

1979 was a bit early to have too much choice of facility house, were Molinare and Trillion running then ? In any case, they’d have been reluctant to do anything to upset their colleagues in ITV. Ten years later, perhaps the IBA might have mounted something, but as Mr Inspector points out, by the time something was organised the strike may have well been over ?
NL
Ne1L C
Reminds me of something from Greg Dyke's book "Inside Story". He told a story while he was at LWT about how to bypass union issues they were going to broadcast from Holland.
MA
Markymark
Ne1L C posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Indeed. The IBA itself deciding to mount an emergency service (from Crawley Court, perhaps, or engage a facilities house/indie like Moinaire to play it out?) is more likely than co-opting Channel to provide one. And I don't get the impression there was any urgency from the IBA to do so.


Agreed. The IBA probably had a lot on its plate during '79 and mounting an emergency service would have made things a lot worse.


It did allow them to perform transmitter maintenance work during office hours however. I came home from school one afternoon to find Hannington carrying a selection of test patterns and test tones !
NL
Ne1L C
Markymark posted:
Ne1L C posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Indeed. The IBA itself deciding to mount an emergency service (from Crawley Court, perhaps, or engage a facilities house/indie like Moinaire to play it out?) is more likely than co-opting Channel to provide one. And I don't get the impression there was any urgency from the IBA to do so.


Agreed. The IBA probably had a lot on its plate during '79 and mounting an emergency service would have made things a lot worse.


It did allow them to perform transmitter maintenance work during office hours however. I came home from school one afternoon to find Hannington carrying a selection of test patterns and test tones !


Might have bumped up the ratings Very Happy
MA
Markymark
Ne1L C posted:
Markymark posted:
Ne1L C posted:

Agreed. The IBA probably had a lot on its plate during '79 and mounting an emergency service would have made things a lot worse.


It did allow them to perform transmitter maintenance work during office hours however. I came home from school one afternoon to find Hannington carrying a selection of test patterns and test tones !


Might have bumped up the ratings Very Happy


Ha, I seem to recall the apology card music attracted comments !
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Apparently the apology caption and music got a "discernable" number of viewers, according to the ratings

https://www.theguardian.com/business/1999/sep/05/columnists.observerbusiness2
Markymark and Ne1L C gave kudos
NL
Ne1L C
Maybe they should have replaced Jeremy Kyle with an apology caption Very Happy
SC
Si-Co
Markymark posted:
Riaz posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
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


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.


Forgive my ignorance, but why exactly?
TT
ttt
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Last edited by ttt on 2 July 2019 2:31pm
Brekkie and Inspector Sands gave kudos

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