59-629: Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television was a British broadcasting company, which is now part of ITV plc . The company was created in June 1992 from the merger of the Independent Television broadcasters Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television in England , United Kingdom . YTT was effected by the overbidding for its franchises in 1992. The company lost £7.9m in 1993, compared with a pretax profit of £16.7m in 1992. Yorkshire Television founder, Ward Thomas
118-557: A " Dormant company ". This article however, covers the Westcountry Television part of the franchise. Westcountry Television was one of two rival consortia bidding against the incumbent TSW when the ITV franchises were put to tender early in 1991. Two of Westcountry's original shareholders were Brittany Ferries and South West Water ; the latter investor attracted criticism as only three years earlier it had been responsible for one of
177-470: A 17.9% stake in ITV plc for £940 million, a move that attracted anger from NTL shareholder Richard Branson and an investigation from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom . On 6 December 2006, NTL announced that it had complained to the Office of Fair Trading about BSkyB's move. NTL stated that it had withdrawn its attempt to buy ITV plc, citing that it did not believe that there was any possibility to make
236-754: A 20% stake in Central Independent Television – acquired the remainder of the company and, because of Central's shareholdings, inherited a 20% stake in Meridian Broadcasting . Later that year, Granada acquired London Weekend Television through a hostile takeover worth in the region of £750 million. MAI, which controlled Meridian Broadcasting , acquired Anglia Television ; MAI became United News & Media after merging with United Newspapers – owners of The Daily Express in 1996. Ownership rules, that previously restricted ownership of ITV licences by one company to two outright, plus 20% in
295-571: A United Kingdom television channel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of
354-455: A deal on favourable terms. At the same time as the NTL bid, RTL , the then-owner of Channel 5 , was also rumoured to be preparing a bid for ITV plc, with the possibility of a stock-swap with BSkyB; the plan would have seen RTL acquiring BSkyB's stake in ITV plc (with the aim of further acquisitions of shares in the future) in exchange for BSkyB taking full control of Channel 5. In the end, no movement
413-548: A free ad-supported tier and a premium subscription which will be ad-free and allow access to BritBox . Westcountry Television ITV Westcountry , formerly known as Westcountry Television and Carlton Westcountry , was the ITV franchise holder for the South West of England, covering Cornwall , Devon , Isles of Scilly , southern and western Somerset and western Dorset . The company replaced its predecessor, TSW (Television South West) , from 1 January 1993. The station
472-478: A joint advertising sales operation. During the summer of 1996, Westcountry prepared to float the company on the stock market, which resulted in HTV , United News & Media, Carlton Communications and Canwest bidding to buy out Westcountry. In October 1996 GWR, the radio group, made a bid of £70m for Westcountry TV, outbidding both HTV and Carlton, but within a few weeks United News & Media increased its offer and
531-446: A large 'W' shape on a frosted screen over a background video of a nature scene. The idents were made so that the scene could only be seen clearly through the 'W' shape. Accompanying the video was a five-note jingle featuring string and flute instruments. This presentational package lasted throughout the whole period, with the only change on 8 September 1997 that of a form-up added made out of diagonal lines. From 6 September 1999 however,
590-529: A legal challenge to the franchise award, and after initially being refused permission to do so in the High Court , a legal action began which would last almost three months and went all the way to the House of Lords . In February 1992 the legal process found in favour of Westcountry and while it could now finally sign the franchise agreement, its original programme plans were hit by the delay. Following discussions with
649-568: A new, smaller office in Whiteladies Road (near the BBC ). This arm of the company closed in 2006, following later rationalisation of ITV's production operations. The last remaining independent ITV franchise in England and Wales , Border Television , had been bought by Capital Group in 2000, and was sold on to Granada in 2001, with Border's radio assets being retained by Capital Radio plc . In 2004, Granada purchased Carlton and renamed itself ITV plc,
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#1732869259332708-681: A newsroom (and separate regional identity) would be retained in the south west, the main Westcountry Live programme would move to a studio alongside The West Tonight at ITV West in Bristol (akin to the Meridian and Thames Valley news services at Whiteley). On 12 September 2007, ITV issued a statement to the City of London , saying that it wished to reduce the number of news studios from 17 to just nine. This included merging ITV West with ITV Westcountry to form
767-536: A non-franchise region, ITV West and Westcountry, from February 2009. Shortly after the broadcasting regulator OFCOM gave final approval to the changes, the regional news service was phased out with the final broadcast from Plymouth aired on Sunday 15 February 2009. A new programme entitled The West Country Tonight replaced the Westcountry Live on Monday 16 February 2009 but included separate opt-out news bulletins (some of which were pre-recorded depending on
826-577: A potential takeover bid for ITV plc and a possible break-up of core assets such as ITV Studios and ITVX . ITV plc is divided into two divisions: Through ITV Broadcasting Ltd, ITV plc holds 13 of a total 15 ITV network licences, with STV holding two ITV licences in Scotland. ITV plc holds all licences in England and Wales, and the single ones in both the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland: ITV plc
885-563: A ranking upgrade (from BB− to BB+), an increase in audience share and reduction of debt (from net debt of £730 million at the end of 2008, to a positive net cash position of £16 million at the end of the first quarter 2012). In December 2013 the company sold its remaining shareholding in STV Group plc (owner of the Scottish and Grampian ITV licences) which had been bought by Carlton in 1999. On 17 July 2014, BSkyB's 6.4% stake in ITV
944-463: A separate licence was created for Wales with the West licence merged with that of West Country. ITV West Country thus became a franchise region. Both companies which make up the new regional licence still legally exist. ITV Wales & West Ltd, ITV Wales & West Group Ltd and Westcountry Television Ltd are each, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed on www.companieshouse.gov.uk as
1003-417: A single company for all ITV franchises in England and Wales. One of the consequences of the merger was (according to the company) an over-capacity of studio facilities and production units around the country, which had previously been rivals, but were now all part of the same group. In order to make cost savings, several large regional headquarters, studio sites and programme departments closed and merged. Among
1062-538: A single identity across the whole expanse of its territory. By contrast, Granada and United, while keeping the licencees' names, centralised their continuity departments – Granada in Leeds and United in Southampton . All three, however, merged the network production operations of their franchises, creating Carlton Productions, Granada Content and United Productions. By the end of the 1990s, there were three dominating owners of
1121-492: A third, were relaxed, and so Carlton went on to acquire Westcountry Television (later re-branding it Carlton, along with Central), Granada acquired Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television (with the parent group becoming Granada Media, later simply Granada) and United acquired HTV . The idiosyncrasies and business model of the future ITV plc operation can be found in the way these new conglomerates operated their licences. Carlton re-branded all of its stations with its own name, creating
1180-523: A two-minute trail voiced by Bruce Hammal and Trish Bertram welcoming viewers to Westcountry, proudly announcing its forthcoming regional programmes. The promo was followed by the Eddie Murphy and Dudley Moore film Best Defense . The new station promised an increase to 11 hours a week of regional programming of mixed genres. Six months after the launch, the company joined up with Meridian Broadcasting , HTV , Channel Television and S4C to create
1239-458: Is also the sole owner of the ITV national breakfast television franchise ITV Breakfast , formerly known as GMTV , which airs and produces Good Morning Britain , and Lorraine . ITV plc wholly owns all of its channels through ITV Digital Channels apart from ITV1. ITV plc also operates timeshift services and HD feeds for ITV1 , ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and ITVBe. ITV plc runs children's programming through children's television blocks. First
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#17328692593321298-459: Is currently broadcast between 9am and 12am everyday on ITVBe . The launch of this block was to be a replacement for its predecessor called Mini CITV, originally launched 7 January 2014 on the CITV Channel. Mini CITV ended 7 January 2014 when the CITV Channel removed all preschool programming from both its weekday and weekend schedules with the exception of Sooty . ITV Catch Up was rebranded as
1357-406: Is the long running children's block CITV (formerly known as Children's ITV) that launched 3 January 1983 on ITV . Currently the block is broadcast on ITV2 after being moved 2 September 2023, the morning after the closure of the CITV Channel. It is currently being broadcasts between 5am and 9am everyday. The second is the dedicated preschool block, LittleBe that launched on 3 September 2018. It
1416-596: The Bilsdale transmitter which covered part of both areas. They were forced to de-merge by the IBA in 1980. The Broadcasting Act 1990 allowed ITV contractors to merge again. The company was purchased by Granada Media Group on 26 June 1997, GMG having been formed by a merger between Granada Television and London Weekend Television . In February 2004, Granada plc ultimately went on to merge with Carlton Communications , forming ITV plc . The takeover of Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television
1475-508: The FTSE 250 Index . ITV plc was the result of Granada purchasing Carlton following the various mergers and acquisitions between the companies of the ITV network that had taken place from 1994 when the ownership rules were relaxed. The first wave of mergers began with Yorkshire Television acquiring Tyne Tees Television in 1992, forming a parent group called Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television . In 1994, Carlton Communications – which had owned
1534-613: The ITV plc merger of 2004, and officially taking this name two years later. ITV1 Westcountry was used for a time after this, although from 13 November 2006, the regional name was only verbally mentioned before any locally produced programming. Following a speech by Michael Grade about regional broadcasting post-switchover at the 2007 Nations and Regions conference in Cardiff , there was speculation that ITV West and ITV Westcountry could merge news operations, as part of further streamlining of regional operations. Rumours suggested that, while
1593-531: The Independent Television Commission , Westcountry announced on 1 April 1992 it had abandoned the plans to build new studios on the Plymouth waterfront, opting instead to convert an industrial unit at Langage Science Park, Plymouth. It also reduced its planned staffing levels – already far fewer than those of TSW – leading to an expression of disappointment by TSW's managing director Harry Turner. Of
1652-562: The 297 TSW employees, only 16 found work at Westcountry at the start of the franchise. Around 112 staff were employed by Westcountry at the time of the station's launch. Westcountry Television took over from TSW at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day (1 January) 1993 after ITN 's Into The New Year bulletin featuring the Westminster clock tower chimes. Technicians switched from the TSW microwave link to Westcountry Television, launching into
1711-569: The ITC again noted its "strong, high quality regional programming" and that it had "scored a major network success with Christmas with the Royal Navy , a series of five live programmes". In 1999 the ITC again commented that Westcountry provided a "regional service of generally high quality" and that overall its range of regional programmes was "wide and included some strong factual material", also noting that one of its children's programmes had been supplied to
1770-486: The ITV Player on 5 December 2008. On 23 November 2015, the app and website were rebranded as ITV Hub . A paid subscription service allows users to watch ad-free and download content. In November 2022, ITV announced a new streaming service to replace ITV Hub called ITVX . Launching on 8 December 2022, ITVX provides archive programming for which ITV plc owns the license, live events, and exclusive programming. There will be
1829-513: The ITV franchises in England and Wales: Carlton Communications , Granada plc and United News and Media . In 2000, after an aborted merger attempt with Carlton, UNM decided to leave ITV and Granada bought all the UNM franchises, but sold HTV to Carlton in order to comply with the permitted audience percentage covered by a single broadcasting interest. It kept the production arm of HTV , however, renaming it Granada Bristol and moving it out of Bath Road to
Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television - Misplaced Pages Continue
1888-551: The ITV1 logo on the left hand side of the screen with Carlton logo below. This remained until late 2003, when the Carlton name was removed from regional idents, which instead featured four colour cubes randomly located in a scene from the region. The ITV1 logo was located in the bottom right corner with the caption ITV1 for the Westcountry located beneath. Following the 2004 ITV rebranding,
1947-429: The Westcountry brand completely disappeared from continuity and the news service respectively. The station would now be known on-air as just ITV1 at all times. On 14 January 2013, the station's on-air identity was changed to ITV , along with all other ITV plc-owned franchises. Westcountry's programme offerings were primarily aimed at a regional market as opposed to gaining network slots. Westcountry's flagship programme
2006-808: The casualties were network production and studio facilities of Tyne Tees in Newcastle upon Tyne , Meridian in Southampton, Central in Nottingham and Anglia in Norwich . In all cases, ITV moved the regional franchisee to a new location complete with hi-tech facilities for news production, but with a minimal number of (physically smaller) studios and the loss of many jobs. Tyne Tees' factual department merged with Yorkshire's in Leeds (which has since closed and re-emerged as Shiver Productions); Meridian's factual and sport production moved to London; all network production in Nottingham
2065-466: The company sold Carlton Screen Advertising (the largest cinema advertising business in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and now known as Wide Eye Media ). In 2010, a large-scale business reorganisation, called the "five-year Transformation Plan" was launched. Thanks to stringent working capital management and cost management some of the set goals were already achieved in 2012. These include
2124-452: The company sold its 45% shareholding in TV3 Ireland , which had been bought by Granada in 2001, to Doughty Hanson & Co . There were rumours of take-over and merger bids during 2006. For example, on 9 November 2006, NTL announced that it had approached ITV plc about a proposed merger. The merger was effectively blocked by British Sky Broadcasting on 17 November 2006 when it bought
2183-449: The day's news) and weather forecasts for the Westcountry region during the main 6pm programme and in the weekday late bulletin after News at Ten . Separate daytime bulletins for the region were reintroduced in September 2011. On 14 January 2013, the region became known as ITV West Country . In September 2013, the south west opt-out within the main 6pm news programme ITV News West Country
2242-555: The digital terrestrial television operator ITV Digital that went bankrupt, and collapsed in 2002. They also owned the digital channel ITV2 , which had launched in December 1998, and 65% of the (re-branded) ITV News Channel , previously owned by ITN and was originally launched as the ITN News Channel. As well as consolidating its (now 40%) shareholding in ITN itself, the newly merged company
2301-618: The fact that it was losing money) the ITV News Channel controversially had its hours on Freeview reduced, and was finally closed down on 23 December 2005, with its Freeview space being taken over by replacements ITV4 and CITV , which launched in November 2005 and March 2006, respectively. On 27 April 2005, ITV plc bought SDN , the digital terrestrial franchise holder of Multiplex A (now transmitting ten channels) from its shareholders, S4C and UBM for £134 million. In April 2006,
2360-646: The first day of broadcasting until shortly after regional continuity was abandoned in October 2002. Following the merger to form ITV West Country , most of Westcountry's operations were transferred to HTV 's West headquarters in Bristol , where production of the regional news service is now based. The only operation left in Plymouth is a newsroom and sales office, alongside two newsrooms in Truro and Exeter . Up until early 2009, Westcountry ran four sub-regional services, each providing short opt-out bulletins for their area during
2419-615: The flagship news programme Westcountry Live and the late bulletin after News at Ten . The opt-outs were broadcast from Westcountry's studios in Barnstaple (covering north Devon), Exeter (serving east Devon and parts of Somerset), Plymouth (south Devon & parts of east Cornwall) and Truro (Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly). Westcountry was the first and only ITV company to produce four opt-outs for its region. Between 1 January 1993 and 5 September 1999, Westcountry's presentation featured that of
Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television - Misplaced Pages Continue
2478-511: The look changed drastically, as the Carlton 'Star' ident package was launched on the network. The look, featuring a start up film involving hearts would flash out to reveal the Carlton name over a spinning star background. The Westcountry name was only used on the news programme Westcountry Live . This package lasted until 28 October 2002, when regional continuity was lost. In its place, a national ITV1 branding package , with local idents featuring
2537-446: The new local ident featured the national ident of three cubes containing the letters 'ITV' above a large cube '1', with the addition of the region name below. A few blunders occurred however. To begin with, Westcountry's local ident had the word West beneath which was later replaced as West Country . The ident was finally amended to show the right name at approximately the same time that regional idents were abandoned. In 2006 and 2009,
2596-456: The outcome. Subsequently, Westcountry was re-branded as Carlton Westcountry on 6 September 1999, although only referred on screen as Carlton . On 27 October 2002, Carlton Westcountry lost its regional identity, and became known as ITV1 Carlton prior to regional programmes only, while being known as ITV1 at all other times. The franchise briefly became ITV1 for the Westcountry in 2003, before being renamed onscreen as ITV1 Westcountry upon
2655-513: The participation channel ITV Play was launched. It was also an overnight block on ITV1. Following a series of scandals surrounding participation TV, the dedicated ITV Play channel was closed down in March 2007, followed by the late-night phone-in quiz shows on the ITV Network in December 2007, however the brand continued to be used for a time for part of the gaming section of itv.com . In August 2006,
2714-408: The worst water pollution incidents in the United Kingdom and which had occurred within the franchise area at Camelford . On 16 October 1991, Westcountry was announced as the winner, bidding £7 million a year against TSW's bid of £16 million a year. Several local MPs were concerned that South West Water's involvement would lead to partiality in news items concerning the local water firm. TSW launched
2773-560: Was able to buy the final 35% stake in the ITV News Channel from ITN's original partners NTL in April 2004. In November the same year, and following a frantic last-minute deal with BSkyB to buy its half of the Granada Sky Broadcasting joint venture, they launched the digital channel ITV3 , replacing Granada Plus which ITV plc closed down on satellite and cable. A year later they launched ITV4 . However, due to multiplex issues (and
2832-670: Was announced that eOne had rejected the offer, considering it to be "fundamentally undervalued". In 2017, it was announced that ITV plc had acquired a majority stake in British Production company World Productions , behind the hit BBC series Line of Duty . As a result of the deal, World Productions is now part of ITV Studios. In 2022, the company announced the arrival of ITVX, which it said would be Britain's first integrated advertising and subscription funded streaming platform, and would complement its catch-up service, ITV Hub, and would include access to BritBox. On 1 June 2022, it
2891-596: Was announced that it will be demoted from the FTSE 100, and became a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index on 20 June. On 28 February 2024, ITV plc revealed a corporate brand refresh, reinforcing its three strategic pillars of expanding Studios, supercharging streaming and optimising broadcast. The new logo is a new coloured version of the logo introduced in 2013. On 23 November 2024, Sky News reported that CVC Capital Partners , TF1 , RedBird Capital Partners , All3Media , Mediawan and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts had been linked to
2950-535: Was backed up by a network of seven local newsrooms and studios in Torbay , Penzance , Truro , Exeter , Barnstaple , Weymouth and Taunton . Although Westcountry's headquarters were in Plymouth, transmission for the channel was outsourced and run by HTV Wales staff at HTV's presentation centre in Culverhouse Cross , Cardiff with continuity announcers based at the Plymouth studios. This arrangement lasted from
3009-405: Was expected to acquire the company, But Westcountry owners had become increasingly frustrated at the slow progress of talks and criticised United boss Lord Hollick 's "nickel and dime" tactics over negotiations, opting instead to sell to Carlton Communications for £10m higher than United's offer of around £75m, around 25 November 1996. Hollick was described as "disappointed but far from livid" at
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#17328692593323068-649: Was extended to at least 20 minutes. Separate weekend bulletins were also reintroduced, effectively restoring a full regional news service for the former Westcountry region. Westcountry was originally based at Brittany Ferries' offices in Millbay Docks, Plymouth with a view to constructing a purpose-built studio centre on the Plymouth waterfront. However, following the delay caused by TSW 's legal proceedings, these plans were scrapped. The company opted instead to convert an industrial unit at Langage Science Park in Plympton, which
3127-570: Was made on this possible deal and RTL sold Channel 5 to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell Network in July 2010. The company then entered into a series of disposals of non-core activities: in March 2009 the company sold its investment in Friends Reunited (a website dedicated to reunited former school friends or colleagues in a number of countries) which it had acquired in December 2005. Also in May 2009
3186-510: Was owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited (formerly Westcountry Television Limited ). ITV West Country incorporating the former ITV Westcountry ("West") and ITV West ("East") regions was (until 31 December 2013) a non-franchise ITV regional station covering South West England . With the formal split of the Wales and West Channel 3 licence in January 2014,
3245-518: Was re-allocated to London, Manchester or Leeds (and the local Central News studio moved to Birmingham ), and Anglia Factual, reduced to a satellite operation of ITV Studios and primarily producing output for the international market or occasionally third parties in the UK, was eventually closed in January 2012. Prior to the acquisition, and despite being rivals within ITV, Granada and Carlton had already been involved in several joint ventures, including
3304-444: Was recalled from retirement to change the company's fortunes in and around 1994, the company managed profits of £10.5m for a 15-month period, reflecting the changed year-end. Bruce Gyngell , the former chairman of breakfast station TV-am , became YTT's managing director on 15 May 1995. In 1974 Yorkshire and Tyne Tees had previously been taken over by Trident Television , as a joint holding company, to allocate advertising revenue from
3363-581: Was sold to Liberty Global , valued at £481 million. On 19 October 2015, ITV purchased UTV for £100m ensuring that 13 out of the 15 licences (it does not hold the two wholly in Scotland) were in its control. In July 2016 the company sold UTV Ireland to Virgin Media . In August 2016, it was revealed that ITV had made an offer to acquire Canadian multinational film and television distributor Entertainment One for around £1 billion. On 10 August 2016, it
3422-430: Was the regional news magazine Westcountry Live , which ran between Westcountry's launch in 1993 until the merger in 2009. Other regional programmes included: In its annual reports, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) commented on Westcountry's programming and performance; in 1995 it said that Westcountry had a "good news service and regional programming", despite a difficult first year. Two years later in 1997
3481-426: Was thought to be worth about £800m. Three months later, Bruce Gyngell left the company in September 1997. Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television, along with Welsh franchisee HTV , later challenged a government plan for all ITV companies to be required to use a single supplier of television news. It also asked for a vote among ITV companies over whether News at Ten should be moved to another time. This article on
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