Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

As you said "Tyne Tees, Border and UTV " continued with the Thames feed for the rest of the run, making them the first to finish on Wednesday 5 October 1988.

* Grampian did not follow Thames from 1978, and was still broadcasting the series in 1990...
* Granada, Anglia, went there own way: finished around 1989
* TSW, TVS, STV, HTV, all went there own ways. and finished around 1993.
* ATV / Yorkshire killed it off.

During 1980 "The Riordans" was broadcast at 12.30 slots Tues/wed/Thur, I dare say networked from ATV or Granada. ( STV, Grampian, Anglia, TSW, southern and HTV ) which meant during 1981 some itv stations only broadcast 50 episodes of The Sullivan's. If the companies kept the Tues/wed/Thur slot instead of slotting in others half baked series... The Sullivan would have finished on itv during 1984: There could have still kept Riordans on Monday/Friday slot. Its still utter daft that Scottish still had episodes to finish in 1993 ( just like Sons and daughters)

Thanks again. I don't remember The Riordans at all on Tyne Tees, certainly not in the 12.30 slot, but I may be wrong. I remember they took a break from The Sullivans in the summer of 1985 (I think) and briefly showed the Irish soap Glenroe, possibly via Thames. Unless Thames took it off for some other reason and TTT used Glenroe to bridge the gap.

ISTR The Sullivans finishing on a Thursday via Thames, and not a Wednesday, but I'm probably wrong.

Glenroe was discussed a few pages back, I think some areas did it at 15.30. You may will be right about it being a Thursday it ended, If you do have any other details please do say. can you remember what year this ITV company broadcast the Sullivans around 5.15.

Yes, YTV was one of the regions that showed Glenroe at 3.30 Mondays and Tuesdays for a while - probably 1984 or 1985, before that became the dedicated slot for ACP.

The 5.15 Sullivans broadcast would have been arounnd 1985-86 - I really had thought it was TVS, but I'm obviously mistaken.

Just realised I have the S4C schedule for Tuesday 28 June 1988, and Brookside is scheduled at 6pm. I think the Channel 4 broadcasts at the time were Mondays and Wednesdays, therefore this may have beena repeat of the Monday C4 episode. Unfortuantely that's the only day I have listings for - so perhaps Tuesdays and Thursdays were the S4C nights for Brookside, meaning both episodes debuted on C4 the evening before.

I also have the listings for Monday 5-Wednesday 7 December 1988, and Brookside isn't scheduled anywhere on S4C, although the news comes in at 6pm. Perhaps it had been moved to Thursdays and Fridays, 10pm at some point during 1988.

I have looked around the summer of 1985, I cant seem to found sullivans anywhere at 5.15.



I have looked at the Thur 8th and Fri 9th and there no where to be seen either..

On a slightly different note, one of the most frustrating things for me as a teen, was that Border and UTV, we got both, always closed down at 11.30 pm on the dot, particularly frustrating when things like OTT started, apart from costs presumably, is there any other reason why this happened - surely the cash saving from 1100 - 1130, compared to 1100 - 1200 in the case of OTT, wouldn't be that significant ?

Always remember in the case of OTT, UTV showing Mork and Mindy, and Border showing a local 15 minute music show like Hear Here, or The Sounds of.... on the weeks when it started at 11.15.

I find the part-networking between the ITV companies very interesting. Obviously it made financial and logistical sense for the companies concerned, but it in the 70s and 80s the arrangements in place seemed very random.

As discussed, Thames played out The Sullivans for Border, Tyne Tees and UTV. They also played out Sons and Daughters for Tyne Tees and Anglia. Border screened The Young Doctors via Granada. Anglia recorded A Country Practice from Thames, but played it out some time later. Central played out Falcon Crest for Tyne Tees and a couple of other regions.

Yorkshire and Tyne Tees shared some local programmes, notably schools programmes, in the late 70s and early 80s - understandable because of the two companies being linked at the time. Granada and Border had a few shows in common, even before their official relationship came into place in 1993/94.

These are just a few examples. I know the local companies had complete autonomy over the scheduling of most programmes, but what factors would have influenced the decisions regarding part-networking. Was it basically down to what suited their scheduling at the time?

By contrast, most regions were showing Murder She Wrote on a Sunday night around 1990, yet they were all showing different episodes!

Yes....Border had a very early closedown for a good while in the early 80s. It caused some consternation for viewers served by transmitters in the South Lakes who were used to late night films and other shows on Granada and then got switched to an ITV company which closed down for the night at the earliest opportunity. Of course Border, and some other smaller ITV companies had "form" on this. When daytime programming started on ITV in the 70s, Border still showed schools programmes morning and afternoon when the more major companies switched all schools programmes to mornings only so they could have "normal" programmes in the afternoon. And, yes, it was all down to money...more than once in its history Border's "rent" for the use of transmitters was set at a nominal sum. In effect the big companies subsidised the minnows on this matter.

The other bit I couldn't understand was that they still started programmes at 0930 when the schools were off, and they couldn't show ads, but still closed at 2330, whine presumably if they'd stayed on air, they could earn ad revenue.

Wasn't it when they switched the South Lakes from Granada and they got all the bad press that the 2330 policy changed ?

I sure we have been here before somewhere along this thread, I dont think we resolved all the questions. As Tony currie has said STV and HTV interworked to play out crossroads at 5.20. STV where still the masters for playing out what there wanted, and moving plenty shows around, unless TSW, stv actually broadcast everyone...

Yes, I appreciate we've discussed this earlier, and there weren't - and possibly aren't - any definitive answers. I suppose what I find most puzzling is how random the part-netwroking was. You would perhaps expect a pattern as to which companies tended to latch onto Thames broadcasts, or Granada broadcasts, but there didn't appear to be.