Associated Television

Template:Infobox ITV franchisee Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1993.

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. It was formed after ATV acquired a substantial share of Pye Records. 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 24 September 1955 (after jointly presenting the network's opening night on Thursday 22 September). The name ATV was first seen in London on Saturday 8 October 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 17 February 1956, with 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 1968, 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 1992 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.

The new company name was registered as Central Independent Television plc and the new logo, advertised as being a UFO, appeared on 1 January 1993. 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 Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

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 new ATV runs a media/television news website, ATV Today. It has been online since 2007 as ATV News, re-branded from Newszone, and in 2009 was re-branded again as ATV Today. The site covers a wide range of stories from soaps, both British and American, to Cult/Sci Fi and general media news. There is also a wide range of features and interviews that are updated on a regular basis.

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 was the licence holder for the Channel 3 Midlands region service until November 2008, when the licence was transferred to ITV Broadcasting Limited.

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

• Crossroads - subsequently made by Central
• Sapphire & Steel
• Timeslip
• Tiswas - subsequently made by Central until ending in mid-1982
• The Muppet Show
• Emergency Ward 10
• Carry On Laughing
• General Hospital
• The Prisoner
• Two Of A Kind (1961)
• Saturday Variety
• The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
• Honey Lane
• The Cliff Richard Show
• ATV Today
• Lunchbox with Noele Gordon
• New Faces - subsequently made by Central
• Sunday Night at the London Palladium
• Family Fortunes (1980–1981) - subsequently made by Central
• Bullseye The 1st series (1981) - subsequently made by Central
• "Meet Peters and Lee"
• Julie on Sesame Street

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.

External links

• sub-TV (unofficial history site)
• ATV Today
• Independent TeleWeb ATV history page
• Associated TeleVision at TV Ark