Associated TeleVision
From Free net encyclopedia
{{Infobox ITV franshisee
| name = Associated TeleVision
ATV Network | image = Image:Atv-sm.gif | based = Elstree, London, Birmingham | area = London weekends 1955-1968
Midlands weekdays 1956-1968
Midlands all week 1968-1981 | airdate = 24 September 1955 in London
17 February 1956 in the Midlands
All week in the Midlands from 29 July 1968 | oldlogo = | captionb = | closeddate = 31 December 1981 | replaced = ABC in the Midlands on weekends from 1968 | replacedby = LWT in London on weekends from 1968
Central Television in the Midlands from 1982 | website =
}}
Associated TeleVision Limited, later ATV Network and best known simply as ATV, was a British ITV company from 1955 until 1981.
Contents |
Formation
The company was formed from the merger of the Associated Broadcasting Development Company (known as ABDC and under the control of Norman Collins) and the Incorporated Television Programme Company (known as ITC and under the control of Prince Littler and Lew Grade).
Both companies had applied for a contract to become one of the new ITV stations. ABDC won the contract but had insufficient money to operate it; ITC failed to win a contract, mainly due to the stranglehold this would give the Grades and Stoll-Moss theatres over talent in the UK. The merger provided the money required but put Littler and Grade in real control of the new company, effectively sidelining Collins.
The new company was originally known as the Associated Broadcasting Company (and therefore ABC), but Associated British Corporation's parent company, who wished to call their station ABC and also ran a large chain of cinemas under those initials, successfully sued for prior ownership. The name change took place after ABC had been operating for three weeks; the new name chosen was Associated TeleVision Ltd, producing the initials ATV. The company's logo, originally designed for ABC and tweaked for the newly renamed ATV was a "shadowed eye", which was inspired by the CBS logo and reputedly designed by Lew Grade on a transatlantic flight back from the US. The logo is one of the most recognisable in broadcasting.
Broadcasting
ATV (as ABC at first) began broadcasting in its own right on Saturday 24 September 1955 (after jointly presenting the network's opening night on Thursday 22 September). The company had won two ITV contracts, the Saturday and Sunday contract for London and the Monday–Friday contract for the Midlands. The latter service opened on 17 February 1956, with, ironically, ABC providing the weekend programmes.
The new company ran into further financial difficulty due to the staggering losses of the first two years of ITV and the start-up costs. The London weekday contractor Associated-Rediffusion shouldered some of ATV's losses and further funding was achieved by selling shares in the company, mainly to the Daily Mirror newspaper. The company structure was changed several times until 1966, when ATV and ITC both became subsidiaries of the Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), formed by turning the old structure on its head. This marked the point where Lew Grade moved from being the greatest influence over the company, to him taking actual control.
ATV's main impact on the early ITV service was, no surprise given its ancestry, in the field of variety and light entertainment.
In the major contract and region changes in 1968, ATV lost the weekend franchise in London to the new London Weekend Television, but its Midlands contract was renewed for the full seven days instead.
In 1969, in readiness for colour broadcasting in the UK, a large new 'state of the art' television studio was built in the heart of Birmingham, alongside a 100 metre high tower block, Alpha Tower, to replace the former Alpha Studios in Aston. The complex was named 'The Paradise Centre'.
Loss of franchise
In 1981 the Independent Broadcasting Authority decided that ATV's lack of regional programming and production (it had a major studio centre at Elstree in Hertfordshire, well outside its Midlands franchise) was hampering the region, so it insisted that the new applicant for the franchise be more clearly based in the region and have separate facilities for East and West Midlands.
ATV Midlands Limited, a shell company owned by ACC, applied successfully for the franchise. As a condition of its award, ACC was forced to divest itself of 49% of the company and rename the company. The new company name was registered as Central Independent Television plc and the new logo, advertised as being a UFO, appeared on 1 January 1982. Central maintained control of ATV's news archive and regional programmes, plus programming already in production or being shown at the time of changeover; the rest of the ATV archive was sold on by ACC.
ACC later divested itself of the remainder of Central after the Australian investor Robert Holmes à Court staged a boardroom coup and forced Lew Grade to cede control.
ACC remained in control of ITC and Stoll-Moss Theatres until ITC was sold to Polygram International Television—coincidentally bringing Lew Grade back into control of ITC until his death in 1998. Stoll-Moss Theatres, the last remaining part of ACC, was sold to the Really Useful Group in 2001.
Carlton Communications had spent much of the 1980s and 1990s buying up the intellectual property of the former ACC, including the rights to the ATV logo and company name, the ATV news archive (via its purchase of Central) and finally both the ATV and ITC archives, before itself being swallowed-up by Granada.
Recent changes have seen Granada Ventures take over Carlton, and all of ATV's national archive programming has been taken into their ownership. The regional news archive from ATV and Central, plus some regional programmes, are now stored at the Media Archive for Central England in Nottingham. This archive is located at Nottingham University, which by co-incidence now own the former Central Studios in the City where the archive is kept.
ATV Network Limited was 'dissolved' as a company in 1992; however, just like Rediffusion, it made a strange comeback many years later. Victor Lewis-Smith bought the rights and logo to Rediffusion many years ago, but in 2006 "ATV Network Limited" was revived as a company brand independent of Granada and its previous archive.
Names used
Company names:
- Associated Broadcasting Company Limited (1954–1955)
- Associated TeleVision Limited (1955–1964)
- Associated TeleVision Corporation (1964–1966)
- Associated Communications Corporation (1966–1982)—parent company
- ATV Network Limited (1966–1982)
- ATV Midlands Limited (1981)
On-air names:
- Associated Broadcasting Company (22 September 1955–October 1955)
- Associated TeleVision (1955–1966)
- ATV London (1964–1968)
- ATV Midlands (1964–1969 but referred to in continuity until 1982)
- ATV Network (1966–1982)
Initials used:
- ABC (22 September 1955–October 1955)
- ATV (1955–1968)
Slogans used:
- The Entertainment Network
Popular programmes
The majority of ITC programmes were first broadcast on ATV and distributed in the UK by them. Similarly, ATV's productions on video were distributed by ITC outside of the UK.
External links
- sub-TV (unofficial history site)
- The ATV Website Forum and information site
- Independent TeleWeb ATV history page
- Animated Associated TeleVision logo, 1955, from 625.uk.com (requires Macromedia Flash 6 or later).
- Animated ATV logo, 1959–1964, from 625.uk.com
- Animated ATV In Colour logo, 1969–1981, from 625.uk.com
| ITV British television | Channels |
|
Regions
North Scotland: Grampian TV |
Central Scotland: Scottish TV |
Scottish/English Border: Border |
|
Breakfast: TV-am, GMTV | Teletext: ORACLE, Teletext Ltd | News: ITN, ITV News |
|
ITA |
IBA |
ITC |
Ofcom |