The story
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television, and sometimes abbreviated to YTV or Yorkshire, has its origins in the 1967 franchise round. That round stipulated that the influential pan-North region, the licence which was owned by Granada Television and ABC, both based in Manchester, had to be split up. Consequently, it was decided that Granada would keep the North West franchise and a new franchise created for Yorkshire.
On 28 February 1967, national and regional newspapers carried numerous advertisements from the Independent Television Authority, each requesting applicants for various new ITV contracts, one of which was Programme Contractor for Yorkshire Area (Contract D) – All Week. Ten formal bids were received by the closing date; another less-serious bid, Diddy TV, headed by comedian Ken Dodd, withdrew their application.
Telefusion Yorkshire Limited, created by the Blackpool-based TV rental chain Telefusion and led by Grampian TV Managing Director G. E. Ward Thomas, was selected as the winning bid. It was chosen on the condition that it 'merged' with another applicant, Yorkshire Independent Television. The latter, backed by a consortium of Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd, other local newspaper groups such as the Huddersfield Examiner and the Scarborough Evening News, several Yorkshire-based Co-operative societies, trade unions and local universities, was deemed by the Authority to have the better talent but suffered a lack of funding, whereas Telefusion had the backing of a cash-rich parent. The new venture initially chose the name Yorkshire Television Network, but decided to drop the word 'Network' before going on air. A few days after winning, the chairman Sir Richard Graham said: "We see ourselves as having a particular responsibility to convey to a mature audience the particular qualities and strengths of one of the most populous and most important areas outside London."
The station began broadcasting on 29 July 1968 from new studios at Kirkstall Road in Leeds. Although they were purpose-built for colour production and equipped with £2.2 million of equipment, the majority of initial broadcasts were in monochrome until the ITV network formally launched its colour output on 15 November 1969. After an opening ceremony led by The Duchess of Kent, the station's first programme was live coverage of the Test cricket match between England and Australia at Headingley. Other programmes broadcast on YTV's opening day included the first edition of its regional news programme Calendar, the station's first networked production – the 'Playhouse' drama Daddy Kiss it Better – and a light entertainment special, First Night, hosted by Bob Monkhouse.
The station was hit hard financially when the transmitter mast at Emley Moor collapsed in March 1969 under a heavy build-up of ice. This left the major part of the region uncovered by Yorkshire Television plus BBC2 who broadcast from the same mast. A temporary mast was quickly erected and television to the West Riding of Yorkshire resumed, albeit with reduced coverage. From this, the company grew and by May 1970 the company was making profits of over £689,000. After a series of temporary masts at Emley Moor, the current 275 metre reinforced concrete tower — topped by a 55-metre steel lattice mast — began transmitting in 1971, resuming full area coverage for the YTV region.
In June 1969, talks began between Yorkshire and Anglia about achieving a cost-cutting exercise by sharing equipment and facilities. Neither company planned joint productions or a merger. The decision to form an association was purely down to the costs of the increased levy on the companies' advertising revenue by the government, and the cost of colour TV. The ITA stated there was no reason why the companies should not have talks about sensible economies that could be made, but would examine all details before any association were to be implemented. In January 1970, a warning was given that regionalism would be abandoned, and a forced merger with Anglia Television would happen unless the chancellor reduced the levy applied on advertising revenues, which was also not helped by the high cost with colour television and the introduction of UHF, which the government agreed to a few months later.
With the introduction of UHF broadcasting, YTV had failed to gain the Bilsdale transmitter in North Yorkshire, which was allocated instead to Tyne Tees Television due to the transmitter's penetration into Teesside and County Durham. This seriously reduced YTV's monopoly commercial broadcast area. Partially to address this issue, in 1974 the Independent Broadcasting Authority reallocated the Belmont Transmitter, then served by Anglia Television, to YTV. Although the area served by Belmont was largely rural, it did cover the more industrial centres of Hull, Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Lincoln and it was felt the region would be better served from Leeds rather than from Norwich.
Trident Television
In August 1970, following a reverse takeover, Yorkshire Television was effectively merged with its neighbour Tyne Tees Television, when the two were brought under the control of Trident Television Limited, a company formed to deal with the problem of effective ownership of the Bilsdale transmitter and the allocation of airtime. It is often contended that the other point of the trident was intended to be Anglia Television, but they were prevented from joining by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. However, it appears that the third 'point' was to be Trident's non-television interests and that Anglia were never considered as partners in the enterprise.
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The two stations remained separately run and were required to demerge by late 1981 as a condition of the re-awarding of their ITV contracts from January 1982. Trident's majority shareholdings were sold although they retained ownership of studios and equipment which were leased to the respective companies.
On 28 March 1977, Yorkshire launched a breakfast television experiment. Good Morning Calendar is credited as being the UK's first breakfast television programme, six years before the launch of the BBC's Breakfast Time. The programme ran concurrently with a similar Tyne Tees programme, Good Morning North for North East viewers. Both series ended after nine weeks on 27 May 1977.
1970s: Industrial relations
From its inception, YTV had a turbulent relationship with the broadcasting unions (a common theme within ITV). Many employees at the new company were recruited from the Manchester and Birmingham studios of the former ABC Weekend Television and the London station Rediffusion; the upheaval of enforced job changes on these employees combined with a relatively new management of a new ITV station and huge investment by shareholders provided fertile ground for the unions.
In 1971, technicians broadcast a handwritten note that read "'Yorkshire Television have threatened to sack us. We are going on strike. Goodnight." six minutes before the end of "Kate". A black screen appeared before that evening's News at Ten was broadcast. The dispute was involving ACTT union members who had refused to work overtime due to pay rates.
YTV was forced off the air by more industrial action over the whole of Christmas, 1978. This partially coincided with a two-day national shutdown of both BBC channels by strikes in December of that year, meaning that for those two days viewers in the region had no television at all (except for those viewers who were able to pick up neighbouring ITV regions such as Granada, ATV or Tyne Tees regions). Many of ITV's Christmas programmes were eventually shown in the Yorkshire region in early 1979, after the dispute had ended.
In the ITV strike of 1979, the station, like the rest of the network, was off the air for over two months (although appeals by the West Yorkshire Police in their search for the murderer known as the Yorkshire Ripper were periodically transmitted during the strike). However, the dispute was more intense at YTV as the company's management were seen as instrumental in fighting the unions, especially Paul Fox, the Managing Director, and Ward Thomas, the Chairman of Trident Television.
In the 1980 franchise round, several YTV staff submitted their own application for the Yorkshire franchise under the name of 'Television Yorkshire'. They were backed by Donald Baverstock and Jonathan Aitken, MP, who believed they would provide a better service. Yorkshire retained the franchise with the addition of number of relay transmitters on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, covering Todmorden and Walsden, which were transferred from the Granada region.
1980s/later broadcasting years
On 9 August 1986, Yorkshire Television became the first ITV company and the first British terrestrial television station to offer 24-hour broadcasting. This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station Music Box for a three-month trial, as permitted by the IBA. The all-night simulcasts continued until Friday 2 January 1987 – shortly before Music Box ceased operations as a broadcaster. Thereafter, Yorkshire ran a teletext-based Jobfinder service for one hour after closedown with a Through Till Three strand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights introduced a few months later. 24-hour broadcasting resumed on 29 May 1988.
In 1982, after the split up of Trident Television, Bass (brewing and Leisure group) acquired a 20.93% share in Yorkshire TV. In July 1987, Bass sold the stake since it no longer fitted in with its operations. The managing director of YTV said: "We are very sorry to lose Bass as a shareholder; they have been very supportive to Yorkshire Television." By the end of the year, YTV profits had increased to £13.94 million, and it had become one of the largest suppliers of programmes to Channel 4. In October 1987, the production unit had received a co-production pact with Telecom Entertainment in order to co-produce and develop projects, that involved international stars and British crew, around the world and it involved co-productions and projects that came from the deal included the rights to four M. M. Kaye novels for her Death In book series, as well as The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank, for CBS and ITV.
In March 1988, Paul Fox left the company to join the BBC, after spending 15 years as Yorkshire managing director. A month later, Paul Mckess resigned. A member of staff said "It comes as a surprise to us, but we don't think there had been a row or anything like that". Clive Leach became managing director.
In preparation of the new ITV franchises, the company started to cut costs which resulted in 91 voluntary redundancies; this had a minor effect with slightly fewer programmes being produced.
1990s: Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc
Following rule changes in 1992, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees resumed their alliance under the name Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television (YTTT) plc. The two stations were integrated to a far greater extent. Following the takeover, 292 jobs were axed at the two broadcasters; 174 at Leeds, and 115 at Newcastle, with a further three from airtime sales in London. Various programmes which had previously been shown at a regional pace were suddenly jolted forward to the furthest ahead point among YTV and Tyne Tees. YTV had to lose over 200 episodes of The Young Doctors to reach the Tyne Tees stage of the serial. Similarly Tyne Tees had to lose over 50 episodes of Blockbusters and two episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H. Other programmes were also affected.
On 6 December 1993, the North West franchise holder Granada Television launched a hostile takeover for LWT, worth £600 million. LWT tried to outstep the takeover bid by holding talks with Yorkshire Television and Scottish Television. Reports suggested if LWT made a bid for Yorkshire Television, it would also form an alliance with Anglia Television who would take over Tyne Tees Television. By 7 January 1994 the merger talks between Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television had collapsed because it had proven impossible to reach an agreement on a suitable structure for the new company. A few days earlier Anglia had withdrawn from the proposed alliance, making an LWT takeover of YTV impossible.
The company faced a large revenue shortfall in 1993 of around £15 million, after financial irregularities in its advertising sales, where airtime was oversold, was uncovered by Laser Sales who took over responsibly of its advertising sales. Generally the bids submitted by both YTV and (then-independent) Tyne Tees were considered financially questionable, and the Independent Television Commission, predecessor to Ofcom, warned it came close to rejecting the YTV bid on financial quality grounds. The losses suffered by the company prompted the return of founder Ward Thomas as chairman, and Clive Leach was forced to resign. The rescue mission led by Ward Thomas saw profits recover by 1996, thanks to the cost-cutting measures implemented in the intervening years.
Bruce Gyngell, the former chairman of breakfast station TV-am, became YTTT's managing director on 15 May 1995. On 2 September 1996, Bruce Gyngell made the controversial move of re-branding Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television under the unified brand "Channel 3" While Yorkshire used a scaled-back version of this branding (still using the Yorkshire chevron logo and being verbally known as "Channel 3 Yorkshire"), Tyne Tees was re-branded as "Channel 3 North East". It dropped the familiar TTTV logo, and relegated the Tyne Tees name to secondary branding.
Granada plc and ITV plc
On 26 June 1997, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc was acquired by Granada Group plc (now ITV plc). Granada's first move was to scrap the Channel 3 branding, from 9 March 1998. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later. In 1998, transmission operations and presentation for all of Granada's stations in the North of England moved to Yorkshire, with the creation of the Northern Transmission Centre. This highly automated server based system was the source to Border, Tyne Tees and Granada as well as the Yorkshire regional output. Continuity from Leeds ended in October 2002, after a unified presentation department for ITV1 in England was set up by London News Network. The transmission operation continues at the Kirkstall Road studios, under the ownership of Technicolor SA. Since 2004, the centre has also provided playout for ITV Central.
On 28 October 2002, Yorkshire Television was rebranded as ITV1 Yorkshire. The ITV1 Yorkshire branding continued to appear before some regional programming until November 2006, when a rebrand saw the sole local ident discontinued. The famous chevron logo continued to appear after programmes made by ITV Yorkshire until 31 October 2004. Today, networked programming made at the Leeds studios by ITV is credited to ITV Studios. ITV Yorkshire is also home to Shiver Productions.
The licence for Yorkshire is now held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc.
From Wikipedia’s article on ITV Yorkshire, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4