Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

Found this on You Tube, another interesting curio surrounding the last episode of Prisoner Cell Block H which ties in to the networking arrangements with Granada Border and Grampian.

This interview was actually recorded for Border TV to mark the end of the series. Border,from memory, got into loads of trouble with viewers when they jumped hundreds of episodes overnight to get in sync with Granada.



Granada didn't want Border's presenter, so re-edited it with their own - you can hear where they've edited out the presenters name, Grampian were getting their promos from Border at the time, so presumably got the package as part of this, and edited in their own announcer as well.

A good way to make sure that the end of the series is marked properly, and a good demonstration of how the regions cooperated in the day

I know what you mean, we never did found why Grampian and border joined up while there programmes come from Granada. you would have though maybe Scottish would have helped out Grampian especial since Grampian had a few Gaelic programmes on Saturdays

That has to be the most unconvincing "live" interview I've ever seen!

That clip is amusing, I can't believe they thought they would get away with that. It's about as natural as those pre-recorded sound-bite interviews you used to get on the likes of CD:UK

when I had a wee look around the old Scottish newspaper, when Tony postage that information and a day in the life of 1960s ITV Station,( I would suggest anyone have a good look read of the thread)

I notice that Crossroads was on at a much later time on stv then I believe but when I dig a bit deeper it turned out STV never took the soap from the start.

STV started broadcasting the series on Monday March 29, 1965.

I wish to ask who else never took it from the start and is there a list anywhere: strangely WIki not on the ball with this nor the Crossroads APP society website

I remember reading that Tyne Tees didn't show it from the start either.

At the start ONLY ATV took Crossroads.

I have been able to found the following out about the serices, asking around and some digging,

* Nov 1964: Border, Anglia and UTV
* 4th Jan 1965: Border, Grampain, West and Wales and UTV
* 11th Jan 1965: Tyne tess but dropped it around march and then pick it up again 1971?
* 28th March 1965 Scottish tv:
* 7th Jan 1969: Yorkshire but there also dropped it aswell for short period
* Late: 1972 Granada..

Im not sure when London, Southern, Westward, took the series. In 1967 when the epsoide reduced it was the monday epsoide that was taken off.

Well, famously when Thames took over in 1968 they dropped it and loads of people, including Harold Wilson's wife, complained and they brought it back six months later, and it took them years to catch up.

Thames must have brought it back in Jan 1969, by my maths if there kept to the 5 times a week there would not have caught back up until July 1970. someone said there skipped a few episodes.....

Its seems Southern and westward were taken it in 1966, so its mostly likely there took it from early 65, like the rest.

SO the big Questions is Why did Granada never take it until 1972? and why did TT and Yorkshire take it then drop it?

There is something of a debate/disagreement going on elsewhere about ITV Schools, so I'm wondering if anyone can shed any light on this.

I understand that back in the 70s and early 80s, schools programmes were suspended for approximately half an hour at 10.30am, to allow last-minute promos and ads to be distributed to the ITV companies. The local companies either played a caption and music, or inserted a regional programme in this timeslot.

What exactly was being distrubuted here? Generic ITV promos and/or clean promos and trailers for the companies to record and edit for later use? Or advertisements? Was there so much of this material that it was necessary to have schedule a half-hour window five mornings a week?

Who was actually playing out these ads/promos - was it Thames as nominated contractor? I believe quite a few advertisements are still played out by the STC/Techicolor and recorded up the line by STV, UTV and the NTC. Back then, was there only one circuit available, hence such material could not be distributed while a programme was being networked to all?

It was actually this caption which started off the discussion - this was captured during one of these long intervals around 1979-80, and obviously originates from ATV - but I'm not sure whether it was only shown locally, or if other companies also used it or took the ATV sustaining feed if there were no ads or promos to distribute.