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'Yorkshire Television'

(August 2001)

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SU
SpiringUnhacked
StandUpAndBeSeated posted:
SpiringUnhacked posted:

It's not allowed. Carlton will have to restore Central and Westcountry's names before the franchise review in 2007? or lose all of it's franchises. (for not using the channel name.)


How do you know this? I did not know of such things. I'm not having a go at you, but can you back this up please? Smile

I find it difficult to believe that the ITV/ITV1 network bosses would be that bothered about seperate region names, because:

(1) If it were so important, Carlton would never have been allowed to re-brand Central and Westcountry in the first place.

(2) There have always* been two regions both called HTV. (*not quite true - there was once TWW, Teled Cymru (sp?) and all that sort of thing - but you know what I mean)

(3) The current 'dual-branding' in most regions is definately a prelude to a time when region names will ultimately be dropped and the channel will just be called ITV1.

Allow me to elaborate on point (3)...

Between the three of them, Granada Media Group, Carlton Communications and Scottish Media Group own all but two ITV1 regional broadcasters (the two that are still independent are Channel and UTV). This is why the current 'united front' branding has caught on better than the 1989 attempt - ITV/ITV1 is well on the way to being a single company/channel.

If and/or when it becomes one thing (i.e. GMG, Carlton and SMG have merged or taken over each other, and snapped up Channel and UTV) because it will be one company, the channel is boyund to be given one name - ITV1, rather than current situation of both the regional name and the ITV1 name sharing the screen.
ITV allowed the Carlton name change - but I have severe doubts that the ITC will renew Carlton's licences if the original names aren't used. Anyway, rumour has it that Central and Westcountry will return soon - the current Carlton and Granada ITV1 idents are stopgaps - they'll be replaced soon.
MB
Mark B
Well, perhaps LWT could be renamed Metropolitan Weekend Television (MTV) and
Yorkshire Television could be renamed Cloth Cap Television (CCTV) !!! Very Happy
SU
SpiringUnhacked
Mark B posted:
Well, perhaps LWT could be renamed Metropolitan Weekend Television (MTV) and
Yorkshire Television could be renamed Cloth Cap Television (CCTV) !!! Very Happy
http://www.tvforum.co.uk/ikonboard/images/edit.gif your post, you forgot the Weekend would make it MWT! I get what you mean though. Good joke, and welcome to the board.
MB
Mark B
Surely, if ITV ownership does end up in the hands of one company, the whole franchise process will have to be replaced with something else, or whichever company holds owns all of the franchises is turned into a 'corporation' (in the way that Channel 4 became in 1993 when it was divorced from the ITV companies)

Let's say Granada end up owning everything. How could the ITC or government say, 'Granada, you fail the quality thresholds in the Tynes Tees and Meridian areas only. However, because you own all of the studios, it would be pointless awarding the franchises for those areas to anyone else, because they will just be a different legal entity making programmes at your facilities and using your people, the programme being paid for through airtime sales gained by your company, therefore we may as well cut out that potential new middleman and let you continue. Well done, Granada. (Vigorous handshake....)'
RB
RB
Surely they should have changed the name officially to YTV. A bit like Harlech became HTV when they realised that the Welsh name didn't go down a bundle in the west of England.

LWT seemed to go down the same route when London and Weekend were too restrictive.

UTV has done the same thing.

Scottish did it and then did it backwards.
SU
SpiringUnhacked
Granada and Carlton both own the maximum percentage of ITV allowed. They can only defend existing franchises, not bid for new ones. Don't forget that's why Granada sold HTV to Carlton! (Granada bought HTV as a package with Anglia and Meridian, but could only keep the latter two) [this is in reply to Mark B]

(Edited by SpiringUnhacked at 3:46 pm on Sep. 7, 2001)
SU
SpiringUnhacked
RB posted:
Surely they should have changed the name officially to YTV. A bit like Harlech became HTV when they realised that the Welsh name didn't go down a bundle in the west of England.

LWT seemed to go down the same route when London and Weekend were too restrictive.

UTV has done the same thing.

Scottish did it and then did it backwards.
Good point. Yorkshire's local ident doesn't have their name on.
:-(
A former member
StandUpAndBeSeated posted:
I like the subtle way that 'Meridian' relates to the south and southeast
As was pointed out on MHP Chat recently: as the Prime Meridian also passes through several other ITV regions (consider that 0 degrees runs through Greenwich, London), there is no reason that soley the South should be associated with it.

Let's see, Meridian, Carlton/LWT, Anglia, Carlton/Central East (I think!) and Yorkshire all lie on 0 degrees!
:-(
A former member
SpiringUnhacked posted:
It's not allowed. Carlton will have to restore Central and Westcountry's names before the franchise review in 2007?
There is no franchise review.

As long as the incumbent C3 licence holders can offer a sustainable business strategy and meet all the current existing ITC C3 licence holder requirements, they are eligible to renew their licences at ten year intervals and at any time in the four years leading to the end of each term.All have already done so.

Eight licences were renewed as of 1 January 1999, including Carlton, GMTV, HTV, Meridian, Tyne Tees, Ulster, Westcountry and Yorkshire.  The Anglia licence was renewed as of 1 January 2001, and the remaining licences for Border, Central, Channel, Grampian, Granada, LWT and Scottish received renewals beginning 1 April 2001. All renewals were for ten-year periods.
:-(
A former member
Let me just clarify my last comment!

Any time within the last four years of the C3 licence holder's term, it can apply to the ITC to have its licence renewed, telling the ITC at the same time what its business plan is and what it expects to achieve in the new term.

The ITC then goes away to mull this all over, then it fiddles with a calculator and later comes back to the C3 licence holder and says either 'Sorry, you can't do it - we're going to re-advertise the licence' or 'Righty-ho!, this is how much we want. Pay it us and you can have your licence renewed for ten years'

At this point, the licence holder can say 'Stuff it - it's too expensive, I'm off', or it can say 'Yes, I'll pay that' and carry on as normal for the next ten years.

There you go - ITC regulation of C3 at its simplest! Very Happy

(Edited by Andrew Wood at 7:23 pm on Sep. 7, 2001)
MB
Mark B
SpiringUnhacked posted:
Granada and Carlton both own the maximum percentage of ITV allowed. They can only defend existing franchises, not bid for new ones. Don't forget that's why Granada sold HTV to Carlton! (Granada bought HTV as a package with Anglia and Meridian, but could only keep the latter two) [this is in reply to Mark B]

(Edited by SpiringUnhacked at 3:46 pm on Sep. 7, 2001)


Well, that's true at the moment, but even when Granada sold HTV, all media analysts said that it was inevitable that the rules on ownership would be relaxed further still, paving the way for either of the big two to buy the other, once it was allowed.

Which apparently is all Granada is waiting for.

Franchises seem a bit pointless now that ITV1 is being made more national. Gone will be the afternoons where Granada would take up an entire Saturday afternoon showing a Bowls tournament from Lytham St. Annes. Unless a new digital service called 'ITV Local' was to be formed. In which case, all the regions would need to come back out of the closet, and operate as REAL TV stations, having large chunks of their own airtime to fill, instead of just taking network feeds and basically only operating as production companies (which don't need to have a franchise to sell programme to the ITV network anyway).
SU
SpiringUnhacked
Good idea! ITV Local would be the generic name - the channels would be things like 'Yorkshire - Part of ITV Local'.

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