Granada

I thought Thames was only brought back a brand by Pearson in 1997 as people could still connect to Thames a company. There was talkt at the time that the most recongiseable media companies were 1) BBC 2) Thames... When Pearson took them over, I thought Thames went all quiet and Pearson was the name that would be all over the programmes.

I remember in 1993 when The Bill would end and it was say a Central programme or a Yorkshire programme for ITV. The same for Mr Bean but we all knew it was Thames that did the show.

Yes, now the productions captions are being axed I guess LWT wont be seen on screen anymore



Apart from GRANADA of course!

From what I have seen on the net, it is very clear that Thames and LWT didn't get on very well, I think Thames were more bitter when the IBA told LWT they could start at 5.15pm on a Friday rather than 7.00pm. From what I have also seen from a couple of LWT closedowns, no Thames is mentioned, but they were more than happy to promote Capital, LBC and TV-am.

Though if Thames had got through and we assume that LWT also got through, which it did obviously, either way London would have got a 7 day News service, as one of the plans LWT put foward in their Franchise bid was to start up a 7 day News service with whoever won the weekday licence, which probably for LWT's sake more fortunately Carlton won it, as Carlton had the money but had no facilties or anything.

Thames and LWT were bitter rivals, where as Carlton and LWT was more friendly, no problem with cross promotion or anything.

Though if Thames won if Carlton lost or whoever won, I think the point of the Broadcasting Act was that one company whoever it maybe would be allowed to run ITV in the future, in the end we had two big players Carlton and Granada.

I'm sure there are people who know more than me but Thames never went away, This Is Your Life, The Bill ect all had Thames on the end right through the 1990s using the old end cap until they started making stuff for Channel 5.

I know for a while The Bill was a Thames Production / Yorkshire Presentation because at the time an ITV station had to broadcast any programme made by a company outside of the ITV broadcasters. And Thames were not prepared to have The Bill shown as a Carlton Presentation.

In some sense it makes sense to have the channel branded as ITV1 as opposed to the regional name, however this is only because it went down the road it did. Thatcher started off with IBA been replaced with the ITC, then the dissapearnce of thames, then central, then United News & Media merging with Granada & finally Granada & Carlton merging together. I think if Granada had it's way it would be Granada 1, 2 & 3 as opposed to ITV 1, 2 & 3 or am I going a bit OTT at this point

They did later on, The Bill became 'A Carlton Presentation for ITV', though for the first bit of 1993 it was a YTV Presentation. Though after 1993 what I would call the old Thames continued, it did through programmes such as This Is Your Life, The Bill, Wish You Were Here, Mr Bean and Minder (Though this ended in 1994)

Though the majority of these shows have since ended, and over the past few years we have seen a new Thames form, nothing to do with the old one, nothing from Euston Road. Though being bought by Pearson didn't help, they were on the way to phasing the brand out, now it is a strong brand name for a subsidary of Fremantle Media, which is good, though from this new Thames we have seen Pop Idol and God knows how many shows for Five, though it has seen some form of a revival in the past couple of years thanks to repeats and DVD's and what have you.

The Chart Show was always a Yorkshire Presentation for IT* as well. Prior to around 1998/99, all imported shows & films were endcapped with your local ITV station's presentation endcap.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure I remember that SM:TV & CD:UK were LWT presentations as one time too.

I dont remember the bill ever being credited as a YTV presentation, but I do remember it being a Central, and then later a Carlton presentation.

What programmes do Granada actually make in Manchester apart from Coronation Street , YBF and Granada Reports? I know This Morning is credited as a Granada TV Production at the moment but it will clearly be credited as a Granada London production from now on. Is Tonight also a Granada Production?

Im sorry but I disagree with eveything being a Granada Production. They merged in February and they merged into ITV Plc.

It was only a YTV Presentation in the early part of 1993, it was only Central and Carlton from about 1994 onwards.



They do make This Morning, as it used to be made at Granada in Liverpool it has always been credited to Granada Television as it was made at their studios and using their team etc, but when they moved to London, they moved the whole team down basically, though its made from the London Studios, it is still credited to Granada TV. Now for Tonight, it is made by Granada Television, but its not made in Manchester or anything, though many would guess that it's a (Crap) replacement for World In Action, which was made by Granada in Manchester.

Remember Granada have 3SixtyMedia running, so their facilties are used by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and GSkyB.

The production division of ITV plc is called "Granada", hence the new production captions.

Yes considering that Carlton/Central/Westcountry no longer create any network productions (at least based in studios at the moment...) - I'm sure they made the decision to keep the brand that produces the lions share on the network.

A shame though. Shame CITV doesn't have an endcap else you'd get a Granada Birmingham caption! But officially because it's not studio based and played out from Leeds...that would make it a Granda Leeds production! Confused...you will be...