Overview[]
Associated Television (ATV), a former United Kingdom|British television company, was awarded the franchise by the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide the Independent Television service at weekends for the London region. This service started on Saturday, 24 September 1955 and was extended until Sunday, 28 July 1968. ATV was also awarded the franchise to provide the weekdays Independent Television service for the Midlands region. This service started on Friday, 17 February 1956 and was extended until Monday, 29 July 1968.
Subsequent to the changes made by the ITA to the regional structure of the Independent Television service, ATV was awarded the franchise to provide a seven-day Independent Television service for the Midlands region which started on Tuesday, 30 July 1968 and was finally extended until 00:34 on Friday, 1 January 1982.
Stats[]
It is about the British commercial broadcaster, not the the American production and distribution company ATV.
- Based = Elstree, London and Birmingham
- Broadcast area = London (weekends, 1955 to 1968)
- Midlands (weekdays, 1956 to 1968; all week, 1968 to 1982)
- Owner = Associated Communications Corporation
- Air-date = 24 September 1955 in London and 17 February 1956 in the Midlands
- All week in the Midlands from 29 July 1968
- Closed-date = 28 July 1968 (London) and 1 January 1982 (Midlands)
- Replaced = ABC in the Midlands on weekends from 29 July 1968, London Weekend Television in London on weekends from 2 August 1968 and Central Independent Television in the Midlands from 1 January 1982
Formation[]
The company was formed from the merger of the Associated Broadcasting Development Company (ABDC) under the control of Norman Collins, and the Incorporated Television Programme Company (ITC Entertainment\ITC) under the control of Prince Littler and Lew Grade, two showbusiness agents.
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 a perceived conflict of interest|conflicts of interest resulting from the business operations of Grade and Littler. By the time of the merger ABDC were well advanced with their plans whilst ITPC planned to operate as an independent producer selling their shows to the new network contractors.
When financial problems hit ABDC, the Independent Television Authority, the governing body of ITV, invited Grade and Littler to join the ABDC consortium. This provided the money required and put Littler and Grade in control of the new company, sidelining Collins.
The new company was originally named the Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC), but Associated British Corporation's parent company, which wished to call their station ABC and ran a large chain of cinemas under those initials, successfully sued for prior ownership of the name. After ABC had been operating for three weeks the name was changed to Associated TeleVision Ltd (ATV). The logo, designed for ABC and tweaked for ATV, was a "shadowed eye" 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.
Later history[]
During the 1970s, ATV received much criticism over its lack of local programming, particularly for the east of its region; such critics held that local shows had a Birmingham focus. In 1980, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) decided that ATV's lack of regional programming and production (it had a major studio centre at Elstree in Hertfordshire, a legacy of its London contract, 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 the East and West Midlands.
ATV Midlands Limited, a shell company created by ACC solely for the franchise process, applied successfully for the contract. As a condition of its award, ACC was forced to sell 49% of the company, relinquish executive roles, sell the Elstree studios and rename the company to demonstrate that it was effectively a new business.
ATV ceased broadcasting at 12.34am on Friday 1 January 1982, following Scottish Television's networked Hogmanay Show. The final closedown was marked by a brief tribute to ATV from original announcer Shaw Taylor before duty announcer Mike Prince signed off with the playing of the National Anthem (a organ recording made at St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham). The newly reformed company, Central Independent Television plc, began broadcasting with an extended promo at 9.25am that morning.
Central inherited the studios at ATV Centre, Birmingham and ATV Elstree along with land that ATV Midlands had purchased for their new Nottingham studio center. Central also maintained control of ATV's news archive and regional programs, along with programming already in production or being shown at the time of changeover and schools programming; the rest of the ATV archive was sold 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 Grade to cede control. ACC remained in control of ITC and Stoll-Moss Theatres until 1988 when The Bell Group, the owners of ITC were taken over by the Bond Corporation. Subsequently the new owners started an asset-stripping program at ITC. In November 1988, ITC Entertainment was bought by its management.
In January 1995, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment bought ITC for $156 million, with Grade returning as chairman for life, bring him back into control of ITC until his death in 1998. Carlton Communications 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 in early January 1999, the company bought ITC television and film library from PolyGram/Seagram for £91 million, which reunited the program library of Associated Television and Central Television and doubled the stock of its library division Carlton International, by giving it a total of 15,000 hours of programming. Carlton chairman Michael Green said: 'The ITC library is a jewel in the crown. We can now unite it with the other gems from Britain's film and television heritage in our excellent library.'
Archives[]
Granada plc merged with Carlton in 2002, and all of ATV's national archive programming has been taken into their ownership. The regional news archive from both ATV and Central, plus some regional programmes, are stored at the Media Archive for Central England at the University of Nottingham.
Iconic programs[]
- Emergency Ward-10
- Bullseye
Also see[]
- Radio
- ITA
- IBA
- Telecommunications
- Britain's Associated-Rediffusion company
- Associated British Corporation
- Thames Television
- Britain's Southern Television company
- ITV Emergency National Service
- Britain's Independent Television Authority
- London Weekend Television
- Britain's Independent Broadcasting Authority
- British Satellite Broadcasting
- Sky Television plc (1980s firm)
- Britain's Cable Authority