Fountain Studios To Close

If you mean Icon, at the Magdalene Street site, that was one of the big Anglia studios (Why Anglia had two studio operations on each side of the city I have no idea... I know they made some studio drama, and some game shows, but did they really need that many studios? They only made one edition of Anglia News until the late 80s/early 90s when they replaced About Anglia...)

The other 'big' studio was on the Anglia Square site - and is still owned by ITV (though I think now may have been subdivided to make the two news studios they no longer need since they went pan-regional with a sub-opt...).

However Icon is not 'big' as you rightly say. I think it did Look East's Late Kickoff for a bit (when that was made by an indie) and also a Frank Skinner show. It's never been well marketed, and I suspect the local knowledge in engineering terms may be a little 'lite' now...

Nope - Jeremy Kyle (along with University Challenge, Countdown, Judge Rinder etc.) is made in Dock 10, which is a third party studio, and isn't owned by ITV. They have bespoke studios for Corrie and an office-conversion for Granada Reports and that's it.

The BBC and ITV have decided that you can't make money out of studios (or in the BBC's case - they can't subsidies their operation through licence fee revenue), so they stopped running them. (BBC Glasgow an Belfast is a special case as there is an argument about production in the nations to be had...)

ITV have TLS in London - but they wouldn't build that if they were starting from scratch now. However it is increasingly vital to TV production in London. TV Centre, the two Elstree operations and Pinewood are too. That said only Elstree D and TV Centre are 'proper's studios - and Elstree D isn't that suited to set/strike on a fast-turnaround basis.

ITV spent about £ 6 million refitting Yorkshires studios to produce Emmerdale. They aren't suitable for recording anything else and the sets are more or less permanent.

There will be 2 studios at TVC by Mid 2017 (I'm not counting TC2 as it will probably end up as glorified set storage) Any further BBC development will happen after Charter renewal.

ITV won't be regretting for one minute that they closed their regional production studios. They've made good and reasonably efficient use of what they have left (bringing Leeds back into use for Emmerdale was a very sensible decision indeed). I agree there's an industry-wide hole in the Midlands, which is a huge shame, but sadly as its been a hole for a decade or so, talent has moved on, or retired. It would be very hard to imagine anyone investing in a new studio facility in the Midlands in the future. One studio at the former Central Studios Nottingham is in theory available to hire, so long as you bring in a scanner and your own gear. As far as I know never has been used on air, except for a Question Time or two. Even then, I believe QT brings in its own kit and free standing lighting rig. Most of the time it's used by the current owners as an exam hall for students. It's similar to the former Trisha studio in Norwich (as has been mentioned), it's there, it in theory can be used for making telly, in practice it hasn't been very much.

Maidstone for me is the surprise survivor of the pack and "Later..." is a huge coup for them. I can't see it moving back to TC1. Can't see Strictly moving back either now they've got used to the bigger floor size available at Elstree Studios. Does that mean that potentially TC1 could become busier than it was when there were 8 production studios in W12? Discuss...

Magdalen street and Anglia House are only a 10 minute walk apart. Studio E at magdelen street was the largest of the studios, followed by studio A at Anglia House (which has now been split up). Studio F was also on the Anglia House site and used for the regional news until the sub-region split service started. It was subsequently used as an audience handling area when Trisha was based in studio A (at that point the news was coming from two new studios created in studio E's loading bay).

B was a pretty small space and C & D had disappeared by the 90s. I believe they were continuity studios.

As for why they needed so many, I have no idea! Drama filming also made use of warehouses for their standing sets rather than the studio space.

Late Kick Off did indeed come from Icon/Epic. Trisha, Vanessa and The Wright Stuff all had long term bookings during the 90s / early 00s until the site was sold.

That's the King's Meadow Campus now part of Nottingham University which according to the website is now home to Manuscripts and Special Collections and there appears to be no mention of the studio that used to be available for hire, so if it is still available, they're not shouting about it and it may not be part of this campus now anyway:
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/campuses/kingsmeadowcampus.aspx

If Fountain Studios was to close, this probably means the END of X Factor!

What a tragedy..... not!

The fact that this year's winner didn't get anywhere near Number 1 probably shows that people are fed up with it, even the people who used to lap it up and buy the winner's single in droves.

From TV Studio History website: http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/rest%20of%20britain.htm#ex%20itv

"Most of the studios are now lecture rooms or used for storage but apparently studios 6 and 7 still exist as 4-wallers and can be hired - but seldom are by TV companies. I'm told that the galleries for studio 7 are still there but all the equipment and monitors have been removed. The lighting bars still exist, with some lights on them but what condition they are in is unknown. Studio 7 is used as an exam hall and occasionally for conferences but has been used by Question Time on several occasions. Holes have been knocked through the walls for cabling through to an OB scanner and/or generator.

I believe the studio has been used occasionally for filming dramas but TV bookings are very rare. Barry Wilson has kindly written to me - he worked on an edition of The Big Question with Nicky Campbell in February 2008. Like Question Time, this show travels all round the country with its own OB unit and lighting rig. It is likely frankly that the cost of paying for travel and accommodation for a whole crew, plus hiring all the necessary technical facilities would outweigh any other advantages of making a TV series here now rather than in an established studio elsewhere."

Studio 6 and 7, September 2010
http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/images/lenton%20lane%20st6%20sep%202010%20rich%20holleworth%20400p.jpg
http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/images/lenton%20lane%20st7%20sep%202010%20rich%20holleworth%20400p.jpg

Not necessarily. They could make it very successfully at another studio or film stage site. Strictly is arguably better now than it was at TVC. Remember that Britains Got Talent is also at fountain, so they'd be looking for a new home too.

The question is whether those formats might live on beyond Fountain's closure.

I guess for a similar size as Fountain A&B, with the George Lucas stage unavailable for obvious reasons, I suspect X Factor would end up at one of the larger stages at Pinewood, or Shepperton.

Is Fountain the biggest studio space in the country ?

I thought they effectively opened up A& B for X Factor & BGT, although it seems a bit constrained sometimes. The studio for The Voice appears on screen to be a bigger space.