It was in 1955 that Independent Television (ITV) was started to compete with the BBC. There were 15 independent companies forming the ITV network. These included Scottish, Grampian, Granada, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire, Anglia, Thames and HTV.
The idea was that each station would have its own logo and a local announcer.
This happened for many years with each station having a name linked to the region as well as being part of the ITV network. In 1989, Thames Television who had the franchise in London, launched a new set of idents for regions which incorporated the station’s logo be it Grampian’s flag, Granada’s G, Central’s Cake, Anglia’s knight or UTV’s oscilloscope. Some stations didn’t use it beacuse they felt it was important that each station had its uniqueness. In 1993, Carlton started broadcasting in London, and as Granada made programmes for network, they were played out by Carlton. These were all independent companies, such as UTV plc. As more channels became available, Carlton tried to have one ITV and Carlton and Granada bought all the stations in England and Wales. and called them names like ITV1 Carlton for Central England instead of Central Television. Instead of local announcers, most stations now use an announcement. There is confusion among viewers who when the switch to Channel 3 may see “Welcome to UTV” yet in the listings magazine it is called ITV1 Ulster and on Teletext it is ITV1 Northern Ireland.
Viewers of ITV1 West of England see HTV News, even though HTV doesn’t exist.
I feel it is disappointing that ITV has got to this stage. The independence has been taken out of ITV and now we just have one ITV where each region is indistinguishable from the rest.
It is good Scottish, Grampian and UTV are independent, but seeing as the majority of stations are owned by ITV plc, they might as well be taken over and we’ll just have ITV1 Northern Ireland. Your thoughts on the downfall of ITV1 please.
As long as they get rid of that fecker Julian they can do whatever the hell they want to UTV!
C’mon, the only good thing that channel has is Corrie and a couple of detective shows, forget about the independance, my beef is with the quality of the programming.
I suppose the odd documentary on obscure practises or aspects on Northern Ireland would make a really independant ITV channel in Northern Ireland worthwhile. Suppose we get that on the Beeb just as well though. Don’t think it would make that much difference to me though in a way.