Ruth Pitt, a board member of regional production body Screen Yorkshire and a former head of documentaries at ITV company Granada Television in Manchester
The sad truth is that we'll just have to wait a few weeks to find out more.
It is indeed quite possible that the newspaper stories were a "flyer" - in other words planted by a well-placed source close to ITVplc either in a bid to test likely reaction or prepare people for the bad news.
It strikes me that closing Leeds is perfectly feasible. How well integrated are ITV Studios' two northern teams? Productions run out of Leeds don't necessarily have to use Leeds facilities? Is the main studio at YTV regularly used for anything other than Countdown? (Which can easily be relocated - C4 does not insist on Leeds.) Transmission and Calendar can move to other premises if need be.
None of this is particularly pleasant or desirable. But in business terms remember what happened to Central in Nottingham and most of the other English regional studios. And all that happened when the national economy was in a far healthier shape.
A while ago the plan was to move all dramas to Leeds, do the big shows from London, factual at Manchester etc. This was all part of the plan because now ITV don't use studio 3 and 4 for their own shows, so they're disposable.
The idea is to close all three buildings down and give Calendar an office in the city centre, build a new purpose build studio complex for Emmerdale and the other dramas close to the Emmerdale village, and everything else will move to Manchester.
ITV used to be high profile and that's why most of their regional studios were in prominent city centre locations. They can't afford that anymore.
Does not seem to me that ITV want these studios to continue. The London studios and The Manchester studios both have websites selling these locations and facilities to independent company's yet the Leeds studio website has been 'under construction' for years.
Considering ITV have been recording some programmes in BBC studios whilst its own purpose built studios in Leeds are being used to store tapes does not bode well
Is the main studio at YTV regularly used for anything other than Countdown? (Which can easily be relocated - C4 does not insist on Leeds.) Transmission and Calendar can move to other premises if need be.
Obviously there's Emmerdale, and there's also My Spy Family (for Bloomberg) in Studio 4.
Does not seem to me that ITV want these studios to continue. The London studios and The Manchester studios both have websites selling these locations and facilities to independent company's yet the Leeds studio website has been 'under construction' for years.
Considering ITV have been recording some programmes in BBC studios whilst its own purpose built studios in Leeds are being used to store tapes does not bode well
went past it the other day, a lot smaller then I thought it would be, was very quiet around the building as well.
When I walked past Kirkstall Rd a few years ago (before the chevron "fell off" ) it looked huge, didn't realise at the time that Calendar came from a seperate building next door to the main Studios.
It would be sad to see Yorkshire TV's studios go, but it's inevitable and not at all surprising.
If Heartbeat and The Royal are axed, and that's an IF, then I think it could mean the end of Kirkstall Rd studios altogether, as said Emmerdale can make use of their exteriors (and a new indoor studio apparently) and Countdown could easily be relocated.
Although if it was Leeds or Manchester to go first, I would have thought it'd be Manchester, ITV have made no secret over the last 5 years for them to leave Quay Street, Corrie has it's own set, the bonded warehouse being endlessly linked into the new home for Granada News and with the BBC opening up down the road in Salford, you would have thought that would be the deathknell for Granada Studios.
As I've said many times on here, if you walk around Quay Street, you see many new buildings and property can go for alot of money round there, I'm surprised they haven't moved out sooner.
When I walked past Kirkstall Rd a few years ago (before the chevron "fell off" ) it looked huge, didn't realise at the time that Calendar came from a seperate building next door to the main Studios.
It would be sad to see Yorkshire TV's studios go, but it's inevitable and not at all surprising.
If Heartbeat and The Royal are axed, and that's an IF, then I think it could mean the end of Kirkstall Rd studios altogether, as said Emmerdale can make use of their exteriors (and a new indoor studio apparently) and Countdown could easily be relocated.
Although if it was Leeds or Manchester to go first, I would have thought it'd be Manchester, ITV have made no secret over the last 5 years for them to leave Quay Street, Corrie has it's own set, the bonded warehouse being endlessly linked into the new home for Granada News and with the BBC opening up down the road in Salford, you would have thought that would be the deathknell for Granada Studios.
As I've said many times on here, if you walk around Quay Street, you see many new buildings and property can go for alot of money round there, I'm surprised they haven't moved out sooner.
I admit I was driving, so could explain why it looked smaller as I didn't give it a proper look, it will be a shame to see it close though with so much history within those studios, but where would they store the archives, isn't 6 regions worth of archives in Leeds?
It's worth pointing out that they are all seperate buildings, even if they closed the main studios, the Emmerdale production centre could easilly continue as it is located a 5 minute walk away. It's this point that the tabloids aren't aware of. They think that Countdown, Emmerdale, Heartbeat, The Royal and Calendar are all made in the same building
They could even close the main studio and keep the Calendar building as it is at the other side of the road surrounded by other buildings
I wouldn't say any of the sites are in a particularly desirable location for redevelopment, being in an industrial part of the city, unlike Manchester.
A while ago the plan was to move all dramas to Leeds, do the big shows from London, factual at Manchester etc. This was all part of the plan because now ITV don't use studio 3 and 4 for their own shows, so they're disposable.
The idea is to close all three buildings down and give Calendar an office in the city centre, build a new purpose build studio complex for Emmerdale and the other dramas close to the Emmerdale village, and everything else will move to Manchester.
ITV used to be high profile and that's why most of their regional studios were in prominent city centre locations. They can't afford that anymore.
Obviously not quite on the pulse regarding YTV. Calendar has been in ints own building since 1991 (studio from 1992), Emmerdale in Studio 1 since 1996/1997, The Royal in Bradford and the interiors for Heartbeat used to be in the mill at Farsley. Speculation is rife on here, but lets just wait and see.
As for usage, Studio 4 has been used for quite a lot of drama recently (I can't remember the last BBC drama of this ilk, but was done at YTV) and Countdown comes from 3, which is the smaller of the two.
Just another thing - the cost. Moving all the Northern Transmission Centre, Tape Store, ProVision, Northern Film Processing, CITV administration and the like to Manchester for a couple of years seems a bit wasteful (Quay Street likely to shut when Salford opens, as the BBC then won't need 3sixtymedia then).
4th of March will either confirm of destroy all this speculation.
Oh, by the way, the main building is quite big insde, as it has a huge basement area and an enormous backlot (used as a car park) which might just be able to house a Coronation Street set! Speculation eh!
[quote= Oh, by the way, the main building is quite big insde, as it has a huge basement area and an enormous backlot (used as a car park) which might just be able to house a Coronation Street set! Speculation eh![/quote]
I don't think the outside would never be considered for exteriors - there are too many aircraft low overhead making their way to LBA - plus the traffic of course. Exts have been used but only on limited numbers.
'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.
Regrettably the myth of Humberside is perpetuated by the media not having atlases or being London centric so they couldn't name many counties outside the capital. The only official government bodies which use the name are the police and the Fire service ( & if it counts BBC radio Fireside). Its even the Yorkshire Ambulance service now that Mr Prescott is not in power and services no longer have to be 'co-terminus' with the Humber region - Their horrible word not mine
With regard to other comments on here refering to Salford/Manchester/media city, the plan is (at present) for 3sixty to run the studio operation bearing in mind neither organisation will own or manage the complex they are merely tennants.
