ITV buys Culverhouse Cross from UBM

Yes but some regions which never produce network productions had small studios to start of with anyway. No idea what Westcountry's studios are like but I dont remember them making anything for the network either.

I think Border's complex is two buildings - one for offices with another one nearby for the studios.

You have to realise there are differences between the bigger and smaller ITV stations: Carlton/LWT, Meridian, Anglia, HTV, Central, Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees and Scottish are probably most at risk simply because they house empty studios in what some would say are old buildings with outdated equipment. It looks like for the next decade that London, Granada and Yorkshire are safe. Where as now Central, Meridian, Tyne Tees, Anglia and maybe even HTV will join the likes of Border, Westcountry, Grampian, Channel and UTV who have been like this for years. Due to the fact these are small companies, they have less space and less staff making it less vulnerable to closure.

Companies like these who have only one studio will probably stay safe for as long as Regional News on ITV will be required, anything else that needs to be made will probably be done on location. ITV want to keep Regional costs to the bare minimum and cutting back in terms of resources (ie Studio space) is probably the business way of doing things, unfortunately it seems that Granada's old policy of putting programmes before money doesn't seem applicable anymore.

Westcountry's is a modern building like those that exsist now for Meridian, Tyne Tees etc - just news and offices. It's never played out its own programmes (this was done from spare space at Culverhouse Cross) and never had the need for any production facilities, like Carlton it got its franchise promising all their non-news production (including the rare network stuff) to be done by independents. Their only studio (apart from the contribution studios around their region) is the one for Westcountry Live

Central moved to Gas Street in the late 90s with no network production facilities (apart from CITV) - but that was shared with Central West - now the studio is home to two sets - Central East and Central West. In terms of technical equipment Gas Street is very modern (being the backup for the network until 2002).

Meridian and Tyne Tees have recently moved into new buildings which (like Central) are fit to serve the programmes they provide...news and a sport/docu programme a week.

Anglia have recently made the move back into Anglia House from Magdeline Street. The MS headquarters was home to Anglia News and namely Trisha but since that moved out they decided it'd be a safer bet to move into Anglia House and keep on just one building instead.

Finally, HTV have made no secret (especially with the sale of Culverhouse Cross) that they want to downsize and move to Cardiff Bay.

So although all of these stories are sad (considering the contributions that companies like Central have made to the network) - they are the reality and it is the world we live in.

Does C1 at BBC Wales get used for much? I guess that will be the only large studio left in the principality if Culverhouse Cross goes.

L

Hi Louis

C1 is used for Pobol y Cwm and the occasional Question Time, plus things like Welsh Sports Personality of the Year.

Dan

There are already plans to redevelop Cowcaddens (Scottish TV's home) to houses, as they plan to relocate with BBC Scotland to a new complex. Scottish TV presumably taking up a broom cupboard in the new building.

Granada's studios are far from safe indeed it is looking more likely that the whole operation will move to the warehouse quite soon.
Plans have been drawn up to relocate the penthouse suite, and all its antiques, to the the top floor of the warehouse. This is ITV getting its priorities right making sure they have somewhere nice for the CEO to stop over. The idea is that the BBC's new development will be paid for by a Private Finance Initiative, ie the building will be built & owned by a private company and leased back to the corporation. However the plan is that the facilities will be owned by a sort of holding company which by means of a fudged agreement will allow both ITV & the BBC to use the studios without either of them having to own expensive real estate, although it looks like the licience payer will take all the risk.
Granada will keep local news and Coronation street and not much else.
As for Yorkshire's Kirkstall road studios strictly speaking they only need the production block for Emmerdale. The original studios only really get used for Countdown. The place is a ghost town much of the time.

No, they're moving to a new building near to the BBCs new building on Pacific Quay. Pictures here:
http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19704

Intriguing for 2 reasons, seeing that Birmingham is/was backup for BBC & ITV until recently, certainly in the case of ITV(How come Brum was chosen as back up for both networks anyway? Next nearest city or was it because they were the next region to start transmissions back in the past?), & being network backup wouldn't helped Gas Street when they had those power failures a few years back.

I'd have thought because they were both the largest broadcasting centres nearest to London. Both channels have big centres in Manchester but it's too far away. The location would also have been handy for distribution to the rest of the country (better than Southampton for example)

ITV was a diffrent case to the BBC of course, ATV/Central were always broadcasting anyway.... they just took over 'nominated contractor' status whenever necessary, i.e. taking on the running of the network, being in charge of timings etc.