I think you'll find that all these reports are based on peoples opinions, rather than fact. Indeed, the Guardian story claims that Emmerdale is made totally at Harewood - which of course, we all know, the interiors are shot in the purpose built studio in Leeds.
Quay Street is older, in a better area for redevelopment and the main building is virtually empty. Soapstar Superstar had to use Portakabins for offices, as the main building didn't have the facilities.
In the long term, Leeds has more going for it, huge newsroom building, Emmerdale production suite, Provision and the main studio building that includes two studios (which are still quite busy, albeit, not advertised) as well as the Northern playout centre.
The sources quoted are hardly reputable. One paper is made by a porn king and the other has always had a questionable relationship with ITV.
the only thing really keeping them at quay street would be the corrie backlot iirc and if eastenders is planning to rebuild their backlot at pinewood redy for HD then its likely corrie would do the same
To be honest, I would rather see RTL buy the ITV network then five could become ITV5 and then the 2 aussie soaps could actually be the pinnacle of ITV1's daytime schedulel
The latest installment from the Guardian claims that we will know by 4th March. It also suggests that instead of any type of closure, an option being discussed is moving shows to Leeds from London and Manchester.
Just my opinion, and I stress this is totally unscientific, it may be that a story has been floated to gauge reaction - the higher reaction gauges how this would play out in each region. For example, MP's etc get on the high horse and OFCOM might not play ball with ITV. If Leeds was to close, it would be the main building, but ITV Global wants to increase production, so, just how could you do that, if you didn't control production costs (by owning your own studios) and as no significant production facility exists in the North other than Leeds and Manchester, you would have to hire more expensive London facilities.
Just out of interest, why does everyone in London think we look to Manchester as the definition of the 'North'? Could it be because they don't live there, so don't care?
And not really of any advantage to Five. Indeed they're the only channel not crying poverty at the moment.
Well they have sort of with the axing of Trisha and the likes but arguably haven't been wailing not as much as the other 3 have.
Why would they complain, they're own by a massive European broadcaster and lets face it, they never really had that many public service commitments to winge about anyway.
ITV would deal a "killer blow" to the production sector in Yorkshire and Humberside if it closed its network programming base in the region, which is home to Emmerdale and A Touch of Frost, the broadcaster has been warned.
It is understood that ITV is looking at rationalising its network production in the north of England as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures, with executives questioning whether it needs its Leeds studios as well as its Manchester Quay Street site.
The broadcaster has admitted it is "carefully examining all options" to try to cut costs, with staff at the Leeds centre told they will be updated in greater detail on their future on 4 March, when the broadcaster releases its full-year results for 2008. However, it is thought that it could take until July for a full plan for the reorganisation of ITV's northern production operation to be unveiled.
The broadcaster is expected to announce "savage" job cuts, with up to 500 staff departing, and a reduction in its £1bn-a-year programming budget as it seeks to tackle its onerous £2.6bn pension fund and manage debt in the worst advertising recession for more than a decade.
Around 600 people work at the five-acre Leeds site in Kirkstall Road, which was set up in 1967 by then independent ITV company Yorkshire Television.
The Leeds site houses production offices for four major ITV network shows - Heartbeat, The Royal, Emmerdale and A Touch of Frost - as well as Channel 4's Countdown.
However, ITV recently confirmed it was shelving Heartbeat and The Royal, while A Touch of Frost will end later this year when David Jason retires from the title role. It is thought Countdown could also be moved to another production centre, while Emmerdale would remain on its purpose-built permanent set on the Harewood estate near Leeds.
Lee Bartlett, the managing director of ITV's global content, who ultimately oversees the Leeds operation, admitted that regional production had to stand up commercially.
"We obviously have to produce in London and outside London, whether it's Leeds or Manchester or both, but it's becoming a commercial question," Bartlett said at a Broadcasting Press Guild event yesterday.
"Any company in today's economic environment needs to look at their production efficiencies and whether what they do makes sense. Putting aside the impact that it has on people and the way things have been in the past, if you look at things purely commercially, you come up with one answer and when you layer on the human factor you have to modify that," he added.
Bartlett said that Emmerdale would "go on forever" and would "always" be produced in Leeds, adding: "We will always have a presence in Leeds."
He added that despite Heartbeat being shelved, ITV was also looking at ways of resurrecting it more cheaply. "We are taking a look at Heartbeat and seeing what we can do to make it less expensive and make it more modern so that the production of the show can continue," he said.
Redundancies were made at the Leeds studios last year and those who have worked there say there has been little investment for some time.
"The studios are very old and rickety," said Johannah Dyer, the chief executive of independent production company Hotbed Media, which filmed Channel 4 gameshow Win My Wage in ITV's Leeds studios. "There was no investment going on and it felt like the writing was on the wall."
Broadcasting insiders said that any move by ITV away from Yorkshire - one of its key network production bases for more than 40 years - would be a big blow to the region, particularly because the broadcaster has already signalled a retreat from north-east England with the axing of Newcastle-based Wire in the Blood.
Ruth Pitt, a board member of regional production body Screen Yorkshire and a former head of documentaries at ITV company Granada Television in Manchester, said that although she understood the extreme financial pressures the broadcaster faced, any move away from the region would be "deeply concerning" and a "killer blow" to local production talent.
"I feel for ITV because their position is really tough and while nobody in the Yorkshire area would demand more programmes for the sake of it, it is a political representation issue," Pitt added.
"Everybody understands the dilemma ITV faces to get good value for money, but it can't pretend that 6 million people in Yorkshire and Humberside don't exist. For me, if essentially all ITV production was in the north-west [of England] or London, it would change the whole voice of ITV. Why would people in the whole of the rest of northern England bother to watch if they couldn't see anything that was their own on it?" she said.
Pitt added that having Emmerdale as the sole ITV network champion in Yorkshire would be "like saying to the people of London we will give you EastEnders and everything else will come from somewhere else. It is just unthinkable".
Her Screen Yorkshire colleague Andrew Craske said that ITV was key to the region's production scene. "ITV is very important. It has a long history of production here and it has been the core of Yorkshire's TV and wider film production," Craske added.
Dyer said that having no ITV studio in Leeds would mean productions would have to film in Manchester or London. "It is ridiculous. The problem Leeds has is that it is too close to Manchester. If you are looking at it coldly and economically, you would say we have got the big studios in Manchester and in Media City [in Salford, which are currently under construction]," she added.
"From an economic point of view, you can argue that case, I suppose, but my argument would be to move more stuff out of London and put it in Leeds. There are great craft people in that area."
An ITV spokesman said that "operational reviews" were taking place to "ensure that ITV is in the best shape to meet the unprecedented challenges facing the economy".
"Following the recent announcement that production on Heartbeat and The Royal would be rested after completion of the current year's filming, we wrote to ITV staff based in Leeds to update them on the potential implications of that decision. ITV is carefully examining all options and we will update staff in greater detail in early March," the spokesman added.
'ITV would deal a "killer blow" to the production sector in Yorkshire and Humberside ;
Warned by whom, and why do they think there is a place called Humberside when there isn't ?
It gets more innacurate by the miniute
it may not exist, politically, but it is till commonly referred to....
Humberside (pronounced /ˈhʌmbərsaɪd/) was a non-metropolitan county of England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of two halves either side of the Humber estuary, created using part of the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey. The county council's headquarters were County Hall at Beverley, inherited from the East Riding, and its largest settlement and only city Kingston upon Hull. The county stretched from Wold Newton in its northern tip, to a different Wold Newton at its most southern point.
It bordered North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire to the south-west, and Lincolnshire to the south. It faced east towards the North Sea. In local government terms it was abolished on 1 April 1996, with four unitary authorities being formed: North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, Kingston upon Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire.
The name has continued in use as a geographic term and in names of institutions such as Humberside Police.
