TV-am and GMTV hierarchy

Hi all,
I've always been puzzled by these 2 stations on the "Channel 3 " franchise (I know if I say ITV I'll get battered as they are not ITV channels!)

Firstly, when TV-am first started, I know there was a 15 min break at 9:15 in order to switch the signal from TV-am to the regional ITV company. I presume the same was at the start, and I presume TV-am got control from approx 5:45am as this site will show:

http://www.transdiffusion.org/ident/album/tv-am/

It shows a video of TV-am muzak and a slide before 6:00. None of that 80's (and 90's in some ITV regions) picture spasm at 6:00 when the switchover happened, so it must have been done before 6:00. If TV-am broadcast more than what they did, before 6:00, I assume they'd be in breach of their licence, yes?

If this is still the case, in 2005, even though things are now automated (we don't see the "blips" at 6:00 and 9:25 (mainly down to digital tx suites and so on), do GMTV still "control" the breakfast C3 franchise? The reason I ask is that you now have regional opt outs. How does that work if they "hand over" the network to GMTV? Is there a "release switch" that opt's out?

Anyone know how it works these days?

Just intrigued.........

Simon

I remember Teletext (or Oracle, as it was then) never used to work at all during TV-am, but once they introduced the regional opts the teletext service worked. There was always a 'blip' at 09.25:00 before the local 'start-up'.

We still occasionally get a blip at 06.00:00 - I've seen the LNN 'London Skyline' caption/slide on screen then for a few seconds, but perhaps that is unrelated.

As you would expect there is a hand from network and back to network.
The first item GMTV broadcasts is the ident sting at 0600 - the last items are the ad breaks AFTER the 'see yout tomorrow' sting.
The regional opts are co-ordinated via the gallery - some take a signal from a button push, others listen to gallery counts. Either way, they opt back after a pre-determined duration. Hope that helps.

I thought they'd stopped giving network control to GMTV to allow for regional opts.

I thought it was basically just like any other network programme now. Lets face it unlike the TV-AM years, 75% of GMTV is owned by ITV plc and they are located in their main studios "The London Studios" it would seem silly to switch network control now.

I think the pretence to some extent maybe maintained for regulatory reasons ie they do have full control of network output just not having their hands on the levers as it were.

In the Granada region at least, there is still usually a quick flicker/green screen at 6am/9:25 so it seems that some sort of switch still takes place at those times.

The 600+ text pages, despite not being in use anymore, still display GMTV from 6am-9:25 in the header row.

You misunderstand the regional opts arrangement.
GMTV pays regional newsrooms for opts between 0600 to 0925 - it's not a network requirement, it's a deal with GMTV to provide the local news coverage required in the licence remit. It could set-up its own studios and productions teams, but decided to use the regional studios already in place. The opts are controlled by GMTV, not network.
And yes, under the licence agreement 0600 - 0925 is GMTV's airtime to do with what they please.

Would it be right to say that between 6.00-9.25am, the offiical name of 'Channel 3' becomes 'GMTV' and not ITV or ITV1 etc..? It always appeared to be that way in TV-AM and early GMTV days...

Also, something funny I've always noticed - maybe it's just coincidence - GMTV only ever seem to recognise the station which transmits for the rest of the day as 'ITV' and never 'ITV1'.

But then, so do we all - the only people who call it ITV1... are ITV1

I suppose what I'd like to know, is that ignoring the financial arrangements
presumably during ITV normally,
LNN Network Feed ->Regional Centres->Transmitters
is the programme feed.

When TV-AM was around I think it was
TV-AM -> Transmitters.

Is GMTV not,
GMTV->Regional Centres->Transmitters with the opt at regional centres controlled by GMTV but still none the less the programme feed has to pass through the regional centres..

If it is as above why do some people still see some sort of switch at 9:25 (or is it just the network feed being switched somewhere and not being that clean.

There isn't any station on Channel 3 which is called "ITV or ITV1". Each station has it's own name. (Tyne Tees Television, Yorkshire Television, Central Independent Television etc.) 'ITV1" is just a branding exercise by ITV Plc. to give the illusion that the network is a national channel.

One possible reason I suppose is that GMTV comes from The London Studios, the same Centre as where ITV1 is transmitted from, where as TV-am came from Camden Town and then had to hand back to all of the Regional centres.

GMTV now comes from the same broadcast facilities as the ITV1 Network Feed and London Feed. Also, GMTV no longer have to take over the masts as ITV1 has full control over them anyways.

The masts now work as:
Region>ITV1>Mast

As ITV now owns most of GMTV they can broadcast F1 and other things in GMTV's time.

Yes but they always have to make the time up at a later date. The fact ITV own most of it is irrelevant, even if they owned 100% it's still a seperate business.

As people have said there is often still a glitch at 6am, the opening sting is often distorted by a green flash. The way the station operates is also much different to the rest of ITV, the way the adverts run and freeze at the end with that dotted line is noticable