Associated TeleVision, often
referred to as ATV, was a British
television company,
holder of various licenses to broadcast on the ITV network from September 24, 1955 until December 31,
1981.
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, 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
conflicts of interest resulting
from the existing 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 governing body of ITV, the
Independent Television
Authority invited Grade and Littler to join the ABDC
consortium. This provided the money required and 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.
ATV Music
As a side note to ATV's television activities, the company also set
up a
music
publishing division. This was known as
ATV
Music and existed initially to publish TV-related music,
such as theme tunes, composed by its in-house composers. This
company was eventually split away from the parent company and went
through numerous different owners as well as buying into other
established music publishers including
Northern Songs, which was
The Beatles publishing company. ATV Music
eventually settled into the hands of
Michael Jackson before being merged into
Sony/ATV Music
Publishing.
Broadcasting
ATV (as ABC at first) began broadcasting in its own right on
Saturday September 24, 1955 (after jointly presenting the network's
opening night on Thursday
September
22). The name ATV was first seen in London on Saturday October
8, 1955.
The company had won two ITV contracts, the
weekend contract for London
and the
Monday–Friday contract for the Midlands
. The
latter service opened on February 17, 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 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 advanced from being the greatest influence over the
company to taking actual control.
ATV's main impact on the early ITV service was in the field of
variety and
light entertainment.
In the 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.
The
weekday/weekend "split-service" ended in the North and Midlands with the
1968 franchise round, continuing only in the London area.
At this point the company renamed itself as
ATV Network
Limited.
In 1969,
in readiness for colour broadcasting in the UK, a large new 'state
of the art' television studio known as ATV Centre
was built off Broad Street, near the centre of
Birmingham
, to replace the former Alpha Studios in Aston
, run in
partnership with ABC, the other
franchise holder in the region.
The Broad Street site was in use until 1997 although two of the
production studios had been 'mothballed' in the early 1990s as
demand for production studios fell. The former ATV Centre is
currently in the process of being demolished to be replaced by the
Arena Central development. The Alpha Tower will survive as it is a
listed building.
A documentary is currently being made about the Broad Street
studios complex. Entitled 'From ATVLand In Colour' (referring to
the nickname used on Tiswas, and the building being purpose-built
for colour broadcasting), the documentary features presenters,
actors, announcers and behind-the-scenes staff talking about their
time working in the studios, and the programmes that were made
there. Contributors include
Chris
Tarrant,
Shaw Taylor,
Jane Rossington and
Bob Carolgees.
End of franchise
During the 1970s ATV had received much criticism over its lack of
local programming, particularly for the east of its region; such
critics held that any local shows had a Birmingham-centric
focus.
In 1981
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 and well outside
of 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 divest itself of 49% of
the company, relinquish executive roles, sell its studios in
Elstree and rename the company to demonstrate that it was
effectively a new business.
At 12:30am on December 31, 1981, after many
New Year's Eve programmes on ATV and a New
Year's Day weather report, Shaw Taylor, who was with the network in
the mid-1950s, talked about how he felt about the outgoing ATV and
the incoming Central Independent Television.
Following that, the digital clock of ATV was seen for the final
time (although Central kept this clock for a few years), and ATV's
final closedown started with these final words: "The time now is 32
minutes and 53 seconds past midnight. Have a peaceful night and I
hope you enjoy New Year's Day." The organ version of
God Save the Queen, specially
recorded for ATV, was played for what would be the final time,
before the picture faded to black. Associated TeleVision had ceased
broadcasting for good after over 26 years. Exactly 8 hours and 23
minutes later, Central began broadcasting.
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
inherited the studios at ATV Centre, Birmingham and ATV Elstree
along with land that ATV Midlands had purchased for
their new Nottingham
studio centre. The new company also
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.
The new contract stipulated an immediate start for separate
East and
West Midlands facilities.
Planning
issues delayed construction at the Nottingham site so Central
purchased an independent production studio in the city (at Giltbrook
) to act as its East Midlands newsroom.
Industrial action prevented this centre from being used however,
with the new studios ready by the time it was resolved.
In 1983 the Elstree centre was sold to the
BBC
for an undisclosed sum. In 1984 the
East Midlands Television
Centre in Lenton Lane, Nottingham was opened by the then
Prime Minister,
the
Rt.Hon Margaret Thatcher,
MP.
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
coincidence 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. Just as Victor
Lewis-Smith bought the rights and logo to Rediffusion many years
ago, so too in 2006 "ATV Network Limited" was revived as a company
brand independent of Granada and its previous archive.
The "new" ATV are based in theatre production (Protos Theatre and
Arts Group) and have no involvement with television. The company is
only in operation for copyright and legal reasons concerning the
theatre group.
The original ATV logos and branding remain registered trademarks of
a minor subsidiary of ITV plc.
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) - This is the company that was
renamed to Central
Independent Television from 1 January 1982, and still exists as
the licence holder for the ITV Midlands region.
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 (1966–1981) (always branded on-air as simply
'ATV')
Initials used:
- ABC (22 September 1955–October 1955)
- ATV (1955–1968)
Popular programmes
The majority of
ITC
programmes were first broadcast on ATV and distributed in the
UK by them. Similarly, ATV's productions were distributed by ITC
outside of the UK, with most ATV idents replaced with those for
ITC.
ATV zoom 2
In use from the launch of transmissions in colour on
ITV from November 15, 1969 until December 31, 1981,
zoom 2 was the internal name of a short 10-second
animated film which preceded all ATV-produced programmes broadcast
on the
ITV network, and presentations of
purchased material within the region. So-called 'station
identities' (idents) would inform ITV viewers in the United Kingdom
of the originating local ITV company that had produced, and was
ultimately broadcasting across the network, the following
programme; the ATV ident therefore indicated when a programme made
by ATV was about to begin. Various ATV idents were used over the
lifetime of the company, but the 'zoom 2' is the best remembered.
The music was composed by
Wally Stott,
a prolific TV composer, whose work included the
Hancock's Half Hour theme.
Versions
Birmingham versionsWhen the film was put through
an older colour
telecine machine, one in
which the
colorimetry was working
incorrectly, a blue background version aired.
This frontcap was often seen with a blue
background when it preceded programmes from the Birmingham studios of ATV. Crossroads &
Tiswas are some examples of this.
The Birmingham
studios were equipped with older telecine
machines because they were not ATV's main production centre (which
was in Borehamwood
, Hertfordshire, very close to the Elstree Film
Studios).
But, in the early days of colour ATV, there were two different
versions of the animation itself. One was used for the Borehamwood
studios (which is the version explained below) and one with a
different sounding fanfare for the programmes coming out of
Birmingham (the only ATV Birmingham programme being seen in other
ITV regions at this time was
Crossroads.) The use of two
different versions of the jingle was abandoned after the ITV
technicians' strike of 1970-1971. During this period,
ITV did not stop broadcasting, but the programmes made
in this period by all
ITV companies were made
using the colour cameras with only black-and-white camera tubes
inserted in them. After the colour strike ended, both the ATV
studios adopted the Borehamwood version of "zoom 2".
Borehamwood VersionThere were two versions of the
Borehamwood zoom 2 animation itself. These are not clearly visible
but when the ATV logo forms up, you can see the differences. The
first one was used by ATV from the start of colour transmissions in
1969 up until the
ITV strike of 1979.
As stated
earlier, this was used for Borehamwood programmes only at first & was then adopted by
the Birmingham studios in 1971. This had vertical lines
going all the way through the ATV logo as it formed up from the
white dot.
The second version was used from the resumption of services in 1979
up until the company's demise in 1981. The reason for the
replacement of the original is unknown, although it may have been
that the colour quality of the original had started to deteriorate
because it had been overused in the
telecine machines (ATV made a lot of programmes for
ITV during the 1970s). This version had lines
similar to those described in the previous paragraph except that
they only went in the shape of the ATV logo.
Transition to Central
When ATV became
Central on 1 January 1982, a
"Central Presents" caption would be used before the usual ATV
frontcap on programmes produced before the change.Although this
practice ended around December 1982 on first-run programmes (live
programmes used the Central frontcap), schools programming
continued to start like this until sometime in 1984 as most schools
programmes by this time had been firmly established as
repeats.
External links
References
- Associated TeleVision history at Independent
Teleweb
- 'From ATVLand In Colour', a documentary about ATV and
Central's Broad Street studios
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Misc
Search
