Previous ITV contractors

Perhaps that's why London has put up with Carlton for so long!

I think we should, it doesn't matter about drifting off the subjest. I do that all the time, just look at the What Happened to TVS thread, turned into what happened to TSW?
Take the railways for example, I mean, what a mess, my grandmother could do a better job than Stephen Byers handling of Railtrack. But we don't complain enough, so companies do think 'They'll take it, they'll take what is given to them', if you don't like what a particular company is doing, tell them. If you don't like it that Carlton are slapping Carlton corporate branding on things, tell them. I mean, they are there to serve YOU!

if only people like you were running the country.
i respect people who speak their minds and speak the truth.
if someone like anne robinson was prime minister then maybe we could just about get somewhere... :

Would you support me if I was in charge though?
If I ran this bloody country, things would change dramatically. Well, I would get an empire back, but that's a long story that I won't bore you with!!!



I think so too, although I'd be much better than her!

(Edited by TSW at 1:25 pm on Mar. 13, 2002)

you get my vote TSW.
can't wait till the next general election.
vote for the TSW party. :

I'd like Granada back, if that's ok. Just as, I'm sure, the people of the North East would like Tyne Tees back and the people of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire would like YTV back.

Granada merely exists in brand now, nothing else. For most people in the North West it is no longer a channel, no longer a regional TV station. What it is, like TTTV and YTV, is part of a stupid, silly and unwanted network called ITV - not ITV1, I've never yet heard anyone call it this.

Perhaps as little as 10 years ago, Granada would still have been making an effort. But what's the point now? Why bother to go to the effort of broadcasting local programming when you can get away with broadcasting something from London, Birmingham or, more commonly, Leeds.

Quite a while ago, Granada used to have a little bit of a local news channel going. Every hour or so - or less in some cases - you'd get a very short Granada News programme. Admittedly, it didn't work very well. After an hour you would've perhaps heard the same story twice. But just imagine that happening today? Can you seriously imagine a local ITV station being noticeably different from one of its 15 other counterparts? I don't think so.

The real problem now is not that we don't still have the likes of TSW, TVS or Thames but that EVERY regional ITV station is following a generic format. Regional news in the morning, in the Lunchtime News, at 6pm and some time - if it's not too late - after News at Ten. You might get one or two scattered across the schedules during the mid-morning/afternoon, but nothing much. Then there's GMTV in the morning, followed by a network programme and another, and another, and another. Perhaps the odd cheaply produced - and shown 3 times before - regional programme will appear in the early morning. Then it's kids' programmes, cheap soap, news, cheap entertainment, news, cheap entertainment.

What, I ask, is the point of having regional stations if they're all broadcasting a pretty similar thing?

Why don't - god forbid! - one of the stations use a little initiative and perhaps opt-out of the 'Wish You Were Here... Today?' (not really, no) programme at midday and show their own 30 minute version of This Morning, or something at least regional. I know Lunchtime Live programmes exist, and I'm happy about that, but to be quite honest, other than the news, they are the only things that are live and regionally produced that appear on our screens on a daily basis.

The big problem with ITV is simply that none of the regional stations can be bothered. If you can get away with showing something that everyone else is showing, you do just that. There is little or no point in regional ITV existing if every region is going to follow the same basic framework and show no creativity whatsoever.

Well I say 'Bring Back TVS!' because Meridian is so dire by comparison, especially since Granada took it over. Meridian has a nice logo, squashed and ruined by the rubbish ITV1 hearts ident - get rid of it!!!!!

TVS was much better - it had its own style (the flower/shell logo) and it often opted out of the network when it pleased. It televised the Glyndebourne opera festival after all!

I remember this. Granada took a beating about being so Manchester biased, so in the eigties spent £millions on a new news centre in the refurbished Albert Dock in Liverpool with satelitte news rooms in Chester, Blackburn and Lancaster, plus Manchester obviously. We got 30second 'Granada News' stings throughout the morning on top of the usual regional news slots. Computer generated titles and hi tech music.

It had a less cosy more hard news feel and there was a mixed reception, overall viewers quite liked it but complained that the presenters looked ill - this was due to the lack of a make up artist and the refusal of Tony Wilson and Richard Madeley (yes him) to apply their own. A lot of Granada staff were unhappy at being re-located to Liverpool but it did a lot to improve Granada's regional coverage.

Dedicated reporters would appear from the local news studios throughout 'Granada Reports' and the north of the regional got an opt out from Lancaster presented by Bob Smithies.

The point of this rabble is that at this point, Granada was providing truely regional television. ITV as a brand was not promoted, the Granada 'G' appeared everywhere, they even started to introduce new graphic and jingles into the idents, although IVC started to wain.

They've done it before maybe they could do it again, but then again would it increase viewers, drive up ad revenue and increase profitability ? Answers on a postcard to
'Lets Make Granada Regional Again', Granada TV, Quay St, Manchester M60 9EA. Mind you wont somebody from 3sixty media get that? Better write to Granada/YTV Kirkstall Road, Leeds LS3 1JS.

Erm, the ITV Hearts ident was introduced years before Granada took over Meridian

Well, just think!!
No Conservative privatisation of railways, fossil fuels and telephones, these will all be returned to public ownership, and the mockery of the part privatisation of ITV that they done will be sorted out, as Granada and Carlton will be stripped of their assets!
No New 'sleaze free' Labour and especially not slippery Stephen Byers, or Peter Mandelson, or Cherie Blair, all of these people who is more slimy than a group of toads after a mud-bath.


About the other points, Granada is more like a brand now. I do feel that Granada and Carlton have rushed ahead with their proposals to unite ITV.
Take ITV Digital, which happens to be crippling both companies by a ridiculous figure daily. Supposing one of the franchises gets into financial trouble. Will the parent have the money to support their subsidary, especially as ITV Digital is losing so much money? I doubt it, and no-one would buy the subsidary from them if it was in trouble. I don't know, but it could prove interesting!