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Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

(August 2010)

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JE
Jez Founding member
Jez posted:
Jez posted:
Also, A Country Practice on HTV was shown in the 5.10pm slot from 1994 until it ended in 1999. Before that I believe A Country Practice was in the 3.25pm slot between the afternoon news and CITV.


HTV played out the last episode of CP same day News at Ten got axed.

Nearly all the ITV companies completed the Sullivans in late 1988 or early 1989 except for HTV, and Scottish Television which took until 1993 to complete the series.

When Westcountry Television took over from TSW, they initially dropped The Sullivans from their schedule, only to bring it back a while later due to popular demand. The was short-lived, however, and Westcountry then dropped the series completely, meaning that viewers in the South West never saw the entire series (this similarly happened with The Young Doctors).


The Sullivans was dropped in a few regions - ATV, TSW/Westcountry and Yorkshire never saw it all. On HTV we were lucky we saw all the aussie soaps until the end but were one of the last region, if not the last, to complete ACP and The Sullivans. We finished Sons and Daughters in 1991 and Prisoner in 1996 so about average in terms of how quickly we completed them.

ACP was all over the place - initially 1 hour episodes once as week (on just a Friday for a long period but may have bene other days), then when Sons and Daughters ended in 1991 ACP replaced that Wed-Fri at 3.25pm and for the first time was shown in the half hourly eps like other regions did, then it was increased to 5 times a week, still at 3.25pm, at some point during 1992, then moved back to 1 hour episodes on a Friday at the start of 1993 as Blockbusters moved from evening to daytime so there was no longer a daily slot for it, then when Blockbusters ended it replaced it at 4 or 5 half hourly eps a week again, then from 1994 moved to 5.10pm but was on anything between 2 and 5 days a week, mostly 2 days.

Bascially if there was something better to show, or if the slots were needed for proper regional programmes then ACP lost slots and they showed it just a few times a week. Other regions seemed to treat it better, Thames/Carlton for example seemed to like it and showed it 5 days a week for a large part of its run.

Yes I remember the end of ACP coincided with the end of the original News At 10. I think they timed ACP to end this date by increasing the number of eps a week from 2 to 4 in Jan 1999. The following Monday Home and Away moved to 5.05pm, regional programme were at 5.30pm and the news hour was 6pm-7pm as it is now.


ATV did show The Sullivans. Central didn't ISTR, so it must have been axed in the Midlands no later than December 1981!


I believe ATV dropped it before the end of 1981
:-(
A former member
Did we ever discusse how each company deceided which programmes there would broadcast from other areas. I know of a few stations who hated other stations.
JO
Johnny83
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?
SW
Steve Williams
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?


Wel, yes, they were parners in London News Network and both channels were played out from the same facilities. Whereas Thames hated LWT so much that when Strike It Lucky was revived by LWT, Thames refused to let them have the rights to the name, even though Thames had lost their franchise.

And ATV hated LWT as well.
:-(
A former member
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?


Wel, yes, they were parners in London News Network and both channels were played out from the same facilities. Whereas Thames hated LWT so much that when Strike It Lucky was revived by LWT, Thames refused to let them have the rights to the name, even though Thames had lost their franchise.

And ATV hated LWT as well.


Why did Lew grade hate LWT? You would think he would hate Granada.
WP
WillPS
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?


Wel, yes, they were parners in London News Network and both channels were played out from the same facilities. Whereas Thames hated LWT so much that when Strike It Lucky was revived by LWT, Thames refused to let them have the rights to the name, even though Thames had lost their franchise.

And ATV hated LWT as well.


Why did Lew grade hate LWT? You would think he would hate Granada.


Easy to forget but ATV first held the London Weekend franchise, before even the Midlands Weekday franchise.

ATV was bitter over the 60s franchise reshuffle and the rule which meant they could not hold more than one franchise. The organisation had been structured such that London (well, Elstree) was its core and Birmingham was an outpost. Their bitterness left them hostile towards London Weekend, at least in the early years.

Remember that Lew Grade's attention was mostly spent with the international concerns (ITC); he saw the Midlands franchise as little more than a cash cow which gave him a method of getting at least some return on the international investments automatically (by virtue of being one of the 'big 5'). Granada generally were very good about picking up this content.
:-(
A former member
But there did make some good local programs and good amount of school TV. ITA were unhappy about the news.
WP
WillPS
Pretty easy/cheap stuff though. When it came to stuff like an adequate news provision (which cost a bit) ATV fell short.
BU
buster
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?


Yes, they rented a fair bit of space in the tower. By the time of the ITV merger you had the slightly odd situation where Carlton's scheduling and planning team were on the South Bank but LWT's were over at Grays Inn Road with the Granada sales operation!
JO
Johnny83
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?


Yes, they rented a fair bit of space in the tower. By the time of the ITV merger you had the slightly odd situation where Carlton's scheduling and planning team were on the South Bank but LWT's were over at Grays Inn Road with the Granada sales operation!


I see so even though it was LWT's building they were in another building (ITN's?) bloody hell that must have been confusing

What studios still exist then, I know LWT's Kent House does, as do the Granada Studios & Leeds Studios of Yorkshire, but what about the rest? I take it Carlton London's is still there but being used by others, I know Thames' Euston Road has been demolished as has TVS/Meridian's Maidstone studios, what else survives?
WP
WillPS
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?


Yes, they rented a fair bit of space in the tower. By the time of the ITV merger you had the slightly odd situation where Carlton's scheduling and planning team were on the South Bank but LWT's were over at Grays Inn Road with the Granada sales operation!


I see so even though it was LWT's building they were in another building (ITN's?) bloody hell that must have been confusing

What studios still exist then, I know LWT's Kent House does, as do the Granada Studios & Leeds Studios of Yorkshire, but what about the rest? I take it Carlton London's is still there but being used by others, I know Thames' Euston Road has been demolished as has TVS/Meridian's Maidstone studios, what else survives?

It wasn't confusing, it was just the way things ended up.

Granada took space in Grays Inn Road to get a London-based office prior to the LWT takeover on a long-term lease. It's likely this lease would not have allowed subletting and would have involved a significant penalty if they gave it up, so they used it and leased the space they owned on the South Bank instead.

This sort of thing happens in business, especially in a rapidly evolving recently deregulated market.

As for other studios - in Central-land all but the listed parts of the Broad Street/ATV House complex have been demolished I think? Lenton Lane is now a part of Nottingham University (now called the "King's Meadow Campus"), http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/campuses/kingsmeadowcampus.aspx . One of the small-medium sized studios is still available (and I think has once been used for Question Time).

The temporary Giltbrook Studio (used about a dozen times prior to the opening of Lenton Lane) is also still in use by a company I think specialising in corporate videos.

I was saddened to learn that the TV-am studios in Camden are in the process of being half-demolished.
WE
Westy2
IIRC didn't Carlton London have a better relationship with LWT than Thames did?


Yes, they rented a fair bit of space in the tower. By the time of the ITV merger you had the slightly odd situation where Carlton's scheduling and planning team were on the South Bank but LWT's were over at Grays Inn Road with the Granada sales operation!


I see so even though it was LWT's building they were in another building (ITN's?) bloody hell that must have been confusing

What studios still exist then, I know LWT's Kent House does, as do the Granada Studios & Leeds Studios of Yorkshire, but what about the rest? I take it Carlton London's is still there but being used by others, I know Thames' Euston Road has been demolished as has TVS/Meridian's Maidstone studios, what else survives?

It wasn't confusing, it was just the way things ended up.

Granada took space in Grays Inn Road to get a London-based office prior to the LWT takeover on a long-term lease. It's likely this lease would not have allowed subletting and would have involved a significant penalty if they gave it up, so they used it and leased the space they owned on the South Bank instead.

This sort of thing happens in business, especially in a rapidly evolving recently deregulated market.

As for other studios - in Central-land all but the listed parts of the Broad Street/ATV House complex have been demolished I think? Lenton Lane is now a part of Nottingham University (now called the "King's Meadow Campus"), http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/campuses/kingsmeadowcampus.aspx . One of the small-medium sized studios is still available (and I think has once been used for Question Time).

The temporary Giltbrook Studio (used about a dozen times prior to the opening of Lenton Lane) is also still in use by a company I think specialising in corporate videos.

I was saddened to learn that the TV-am studios in Camden are in the process of being half-demolished.


I thought it was the Southampton studios that got demolished, not Maidstone(Don't ever remember reading about Maidstone shutting on here, unless I missed it?) ?

Giltbrook, I thought Central never went on air from there at all, because of union issues. (Didn't Central News from Birmingham continue broadcasting all over the Midlands until 1984, when Lenton Lane first opened? I know Nick Owen & Anne Diamond never actually broadcast live from there, as per Nick's book, because the 2 of them eventually came back to Brum, then left for pastures new! Occasionally for technical/union issues, West got East after 1984 too!)

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