Central Independent Television
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This page uses material from the Wikipedia page ITV Central, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors). |
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| Type | Region of television network |
|---|---|
| Branding | Central |
| Country | |
First air date | 1 January 1982 |
| Founded | 1980 |
| TV transmitters |
Sutton Coldfield, Waltham, Ridge Hill, The Wrekin (formerly Oxford, Lichfield, Membury) |
| Headquarters | Birmingham, West Midlands |
Broadcast area | Midlands (majority) |
| Owner | Associated Communications plc |
| Established | 1980 |
Picture format | 1080i HDTV, downscaled to 16:9 576i for SDTV |
| Affiliation(s) | ITV |
| Replaced | ATV |
Central Independent Television, also known as Central ITV, ITV Central, and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands It was created following the restructuring of ATV and began broadcasting on 1 January 1982. The service is owned and operated by Associated Communications plc under the licensee of Central ITV ltd. Central makes a major contributions to the ITV network schedule, especially in entertainment and drama.
History
During the 1970s ATV, the previous Midlands licence holder, was often criticised for its lack of regional output and character. Although ATV had purpose-built a modern colour production complex in the centre of Birmingham, most of its major productions were recorded at its main studios at Elstree in Hertfordshire, a legacy of the period when the company had also served London at the weekends until 1968. Its corporate headquarters were in Central London.
ATV attempted to address its problem in 1980 as part of its franchise reapplication; with plans for a second major facility in the area (to be based in Nottingham) and as part of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's plan for the contract to provide separate news coverage for both the East Midlands and the West Midlands. The company name would also be changed from ATV Network Limited to ATV Midlands Limited, thus reinforcing the greater regional focus. The IBA accepted ATV's assertion that ATV Midlands Ltd planned to take a more local identity and awarded the contract to ATV Midlands Ltd on the basis that further changes were to be implemented, including that the parent company, Associated Communications Corporation, would divest 49 per cent of its shareholding in ATV Midlands Ltd in an attempt to introduce local shareholders and that ATV Midlands Ltd's registered office should be within the region. To demonstrate this change of share structure the IBA insisted that ATV change its company name, to show that it was a substantially new company due to the requirement for a dual region.
Launch
The station began transmitting at 9:25 am on Friday 1 January 1982 with an authority announcement by duty announcer Su Evans, followed by an extended five-minute promo entitled Welcome to Central, voiced by Peter Wheeler, previewing the company's network and regional programming, and the schedule for the first day of transmission.
Central initially ran a sole pan-regional service from Birmingham, as a result of an industrial dispute which prevented its East Midlands service from Nottingham commencing before September 1983. The split allowed Central to serve the West Midlands with its own service from Birmingham. There were few differences between the East and West sub-regions, but each had its own news service, advertisements, and during the early years of operation, continuity. This would lead to the BBC launching its own sub-regional service for the East Midlands during the 1980s, which became a region in its own right in January 1991, with the launch of East Midlands Today.
Studios
Initially, Central inherited ATV's Broad Street studios, ATV Centre, which was renamed Central House when the contractor changed its name – they were retained as Central's headquarters, West Midlands studios and transmission facilities until 1997. Upon winning the franchise, Central decided to construct new studios for its East sub-region, based in Lenton Lane, Nottingham – the new complex was to be called 'East Midlands Television centre'. Up until the studios were opened, Central's East Midlands operations were based on an industrial estate at Giltbrook, near Eastwood on the outskirts of Nottingham. A temporary radio link from Giltbrook to the Waltham transmitter via BT Bowman/Sheriff (Nottingham) Telephone Exchange provided the contribution feed into the studio/transmission network. The Nottingham studios were to be staffed by employees originally based at Elstree (in the studio complex that became BBC Elstree), which led to many problems due to the relocation, including industrial action, which resulted in a long delay for the promised separate news service for the East Midlands until September 1983.
The Nottingham studio complex finally opened in January 1984, followed by an official opening by the Duke of Edinburgh on 2 March 1984. Five years later, Central opened a computerized news centre in Abingdon for the launch of its third sub-region, serving the South Midlands. Central News South was broadcast from the Abingdon studios, supplemented by news bureaux in Aylesbury, Gloucester and Swindon.
Sub-regions
Central currently operates two sub-regions:
- Central West
- Central East – broadcast from Birmingham with a newsgathering centre based in Nottingham.
Initially, as a result of a long-running industrial dispute, Central broadcast a single pan-regional news service from Birmingham. The East Midlands service of news, local advertisements and presentation was launched in September 1983, leaving the Birmingham-based service to adopt its focus on the rest of the region. In January 1989, Central launched a third sub-region for the South Midlands (the Oxford and Ridge Hill transmitters previously served by Central West), carrying its own news service and local advertisements.
Identity
Globe: 1982–85
Upon launch, Central's on screen presentation featured a sphere (which resembled a moon or a total eclipse) which would burst open with light, before reforming, accompanied by a light jingle, but was dropped and revised during 1983, so the moon ident would just appear of darkness with the colour spectrum appearing to its left hand side. This ident was dropped locally in 1985, but remained on the front and end of networked programmes until August 1988.
Although the symbol is well known as the "globe", Russ J Graham of Transdiffusion said the ident passes through several stages that make the viewer wonder "what is it?", before "revealing nothing", noting he thought of it as an egg, but noted it was apparently based on a UFO hovering over the Midlands.
Programmes
Taking over from ATV as one of the 'Big Five' of ITV companies, Central performed strongly on networked output, carrying on several ATV shows, most notably the soap-opera Crossroads and game shows including Bullseye and Family Fortunes. Original programming included comedy series such as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (more recently revived by the BBC) and the multi award-winning Spitting Image, drama series Boon and game shows such as The Daily Challenge and Blockbusters.