London News Network
Encyclopedia
London News Network was a television news and facilities organisation in London
. It was created in 1992 as a joint operation between London's two ITV
contractors, Carlton Television
and London Weekend Television
, with each company holding a 50% stake. After weeks of shadowing ITV LNN debuted on air on 1 January 1993 as Carlton replaced Thames Television
as London's weekday ITV franchise. London Tonight
launched on 4 January, however LNN produced bulletins on the 2nd and 3rd under the LWT News branding. Prior to this, LWT had its own news department, separate from that of Thames.
The company's facility was located at The London Television Centre
on the South Bank
(home to LWT and The London Studios). A view of the London skyline, including St. Paul's Cathedral, could be seen from the window set of Studio 7, the main news studio.
and the flagship evening bulletin London Tonight
, produced seven days a week for Carlton
and LWT
(the first time regional ITV in London had had such an operation). LNN was in charge of the production of both programmes until 2004, when ITN
took over those responsibilities. The final edition of London Tonight produced by LNN was broadcast on 29 February 2004, following which, its news operation was absorbed into ITN. At the same time, the set and visual style of the programme altered to match, more closely, the new corporate ITV News
branding. The final programme made by LNN was The Week on 7th March 2004, though the ITV Weather contract continued well into April. The transmission business continued at The London Television Centre, albeit under the aegis of the Southern Transmission Centre (now managed by Technicolor Network Services, at its UK headquarters in Chiswick).
The 29th February also marked the move of London Today and London Tonight from The London Studios
to the headquarters of ITN on Grays Inn Road, London. The familiar London skyline backdrop for its news programmes is maintained, however, thanks to a fixed live video feed.
Sports programming was often produced for the London ITV region by LNN's sport division, credited as "LSN/London Sports Network" on the end caption. LSN was heavily linked with ITV Sport
- it maintained the ITV Sport archive and was the production partner (with Central
) on ITV's football coverage, as well as other sports. LSN and Central's sports department (by now controlled and branded Carlton) were merged in 2006, forming ITV Sport Productions, now under the control of ITV director of news and sport Mark Sharman.
The companies stopped short of handing over full control of presentation and scheduling, however, and planning and scheduling staff, along with the continuity announcers (the "voices" of the stations), were retained separately by Carlton and LWT. This meant that, uniquely for the time, the transmission controllers (later "network directors" - a change only in name) and the continuity announcers worked for different companies and answered to different management.
Carlton and LWT effectively shared the position of what was known as "nominated contractor" in the ITV network. The responsibilities of this ranged from contingency planning and coordinating the network's response to, for example, major breaking news to the provision of the "Network Feed", this being the "clean" feed
of programmes to all the other contractors in the ITV Network. To this end, LNN operated two transmission feeds: one to the London transmitter
at Crystal Palace and its dependent relays, and another to the other ITV control rooms around the country. The latter was provided without announcements, commercials or interstitial material (except during times of a "presented feed", such as during the shared overnight service). The network feed was known as "KRS-17/67" - referring to the circuits (17 the original analogue and 67 the latterday digital) allocated to it by BT Broadcast between the South Bank and the BT Tower
(The London Television Centre
stands on a stretch of the South Bank
known as the "King's Reach", and "KRS" an acronym for "King's Reach Studios").
The LNN transmission department has latterly been absorbed into the merged ITV plc
as the Southern Transmission Centre, the management and operation of which has been outsourced to Technicolor Network Services. As a result, playout has now left LWT's London Television Centre and has been relocated to Technicolor Network Services' hi-tech, HD capable broadcast centre in Chiswick.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It was created in 1992 as a joint operation between London's two ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
contractors, Carlton Television
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
and London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
, with each company holding a 50% stake. After weeks of shadowing ITV LNN debuted on air on 1 January 1993 as Carlton replaced Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
as London's weekday ITV franchise. London Tonight
London Tonight
London Tonight is a regional news programme broadcast on ITV London . Produced by ITN, the programme is broadcast at 6pm every weeknight, also including local sports news and local features of interest.Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and Channel Television, it uses...
launched on 4 January, however LNN produced bulletins on the 2nd and 3rd under the LWT News branding. Prior to this, LWT had its own news department, separate from that of Thames.
The company's facility was located at The London Television Centre
The London Studios
The London Studios is a television studio complex which is owned by London Weekend Television and has been home to the London Weekend ITV provider since 1972...
on the South Bank
South Bank
South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark and was formerly simply known as...
(home to LWT and The London Studios). A view of the London skyline, including St. Paul's Cathedral, could be seen from the window set of Studio 7, the main news studio.
Programming
LNN's core programmes were London TodayLondon Tonight
London Tonight is a regional news programme broadcast on ITV London . Produced by ITN, the programme is broadcast at 6pm every weeknight, also including local sports news and local features of interest.Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and Channel Television, it uses...
and the flagship evening bulletin London Tonight
London Tonight
London Tonight is a regional news programme broadcast on ITV London . Produced by ITN, the programme is broadcast at 6pm every weeknight, also including local sports news and local features of interest.Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and Channel Television, it uses...
, produced seven days a week for Carlton
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
and LWT
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
(the first time regional ITV in London had had such an operation). LNN was in charge of the production of both programmes until 2004, when ITN
Independent Television News
ITN is a news and content provider with headquarters in the United Kingdom. It is made up of four key businesses: ITN News, ITN Source, ITN Productions and ITN Consulting. The ITN logotype can be displayed in any of 4 different colours, each of which represents a business unit. This is the...
took over those responsibilities. The final edition of London Tonight produced by LNN was broadcast on 29 February 2004, following which, its news operation was absorbed into ITN. At the same time, the set and visual style of the programme altered to match, more closely, the new corporate ITV News
ITV News
ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. Since 1955, ITV's news bulletins have been produced by Independent Television News . The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and BAFTAs. Between 2004 and 2008, the...
branding. The final programme made by LNN was The Week on 7th March 2004, though the ITV Weather contract continued well into April. The transmission business continued at The London Television Centre, albeit under the aegis of the Southern Transmission Centre (now managed by Technicolor Network Services, at its UK headquarters in Chiswick).
The 29th February also marked the move of London Today and London Tonight from The London Studios
The London Studios
The London Studios is a television studio complex which is owned by London Weekend Television and has been home to the London Weekend ITV provider since 1972...
to the headquarters of ITN on Grays Inn Road, London. The familiar London skyline backdrop for its news programmes is maintained, however, thanks to a fixed live video feed.
Sports programming was often produced for the London ITV region by LNN's sport division, credited as "LSN/London Sports Network" on the end caption. LSN was heavily linked with ITV Sport
ITV Sport
ITV Sport is a sport producer and brand name owned by ITV plc. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport, Carlton's sports department and ISN, the sports division of London News Network. The company produces Champions League and FA Cup Football, along with coverage of England's national...
- it maintained the ITV Sport archive and was the production partner (with Central
Central Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...
) on ITV's football coverage, as well as other sports. LSN and Central's sports department (by now controlled and branded Carlton) were merged in 2006, forming ITV Sport Productions, now under the control of ITV director of news and sport Mark Sharman.
Transmission
Aside from merging the production of news and sports programming for the region into the new venture, LWT and Carlton took the view that instead of having two transmission centres in different buildings, neither on air at the same time as the other, it would make financial sense for the transmission departments to be merged as part of the new company. To that end, from the start in 1993, LNN took over responsibility for the transmission of Carlton and LWT to the viewer at home.The companies stopped short of handing over full control of presentation and scheduling, however, and planning and scheduling staff, along with the continuity announcers (the "voices" of the stations), were retained separately by Carlton and LWT. This meant that, uniquely for the time, the transmission controllers (later "network directors" - a change only in name) and the continuity announcers worked for different companies and answered to different management.
Carlton and LWT effectively shared the position of what was known as "nominated contractor" in the ITV network. The responsibilities of this ranged from contingency planning and coordinating the network's response to, for example, major breaking news to the provision of the "Network Feed", this being the "clean" feed
Clean feed (TV)
In television technology, clean feed is a term that describes a signal which has not come from the main output of the Video switcher, such as the output of a vision mixer before the downstream keyer stage - the clean feed is identical to the main program output but without any captions keyed into...
of programmes to all the other contractors in the ITV Network. To this end, LNN operated two transmission feeds: one to the London transmitter
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
at Crystal Palace and its dependent relays, and another to the other ITV control rooms around the country. The latter was provided without announcements, commercials or interstitial material (except during times of a "presented feed", such as during the shared overnight service). The network feed was known as "KRS-17/67" - referring to the circuits (17 the original analogue and 67 the latterday digital) allocated to it by BT Broadcast between the South Bank and the BT Tower
BT Tower
The BT Tower is a tall cylindrical building in London, United Kingdom, located at 60 Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia W1T 4JZ, London Borough of Camden. It has been previously known as the Post Office Tower, the London Telecom Tower and the British Telecom Tower. The main structure is tall, with a...
(The London Television Centre
The London Studios
The London Studios is a television studio complex which is owned by London Weekend Television and has been home to the London Weekend ITV provider since 1972...
stands on a stretch of the South Bank
South Bank
South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark and was formerly simply known as...
known as the "King's Reach", and "KRS" an acronym for "King's Reach Studios").
The LNN transmission department has latterly been absorbed into the merged ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...
as the Southern Transmission Centre, the management and operation of which has been outsourced to Technicolor Network Services. As a result, playout has now left LWT's London Television Centre and has been relocated to Technicolor Network Services' hi-tech, HD capable broadcast centre in Chiswick.
Presenters
- Alastair StewartAlastair StewartAlastair James Stewart OBE is an English journalist and newscaster. Stewart is currently employed by ITN where he is a main newscaster for ITV News.-Early life:...
- Fiona FosterFiona FosterFiona Foster is a British television presenter and journalist with a lively high note voice, who has also spent several years working in the United States. She is currently a presenter on the BBC World travel programme Fast Track....
- Mary NightingaleMary NightingaleMary Nightingale is an English newsreader and television presenter. She is a newsreader for ITN on ITV News, and presents the cookery series Britain's Best Dish on ITV1.-Education:...
- Natasha KaplinskyNatasha KaplinskyNatasha Margaret Kaplinsky is a British newsreader and television presenter, currently employed by ITV having previously worked for Channel 5, Sky News and the BBC...
- Lucy AlexanderLucy AlexanderLucy Alexander is a British television presenter.Alexander graduated at the London Studio Centre in drama and dance. One of her friends there was actress Tamzin Outhwaite.-Presenting career:...
- Anna Maria AsheAnna Maria AsheAnna Maria Ashe is a former British television presenter, best known as a newsreader for the local news programme, London Tonight, originally produced by the now defunct London News Network.-Announcing and newsreading in Scotland:...
- Paul GreenPaul GreenPaul Eliot Green was an American playwright best known for his depictions of life in North Carolina during the first decades of the twentieth century...
- Nick Clark
- Matthew LorenzoMatthew LorenzoMatthew Lorenzo is a British television presenter who has worked for Sky, BBC, ITV, Channel Four and GMTV.-Broadcasting career:Lorenzo was the first sports presenter to appear on Sky TV when it launched in 1989, after a career in newspapers, BBC TV and BBC Radio. He was poached by ITV to present...
Picture Editors
- Guy Crump
- Chris Hooker
- Jeremy Havard
- Richard Mower
- Gillian Walker
- Sharon Priday
- Andy Greening
External links
- ITN.co.uk
- TV Ark: London News Network - clips of LNN broadcasts