Yorkshire Television
Encyclopedia
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British
television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire
franchise area on the ITV
network. Until 1974, this was primarily the three ridings of Yorkshire and associated areas including parts of Lancashire
served by the Emley Moor
television transmitter. Following a re-organisation in 1974 the transmission area was extended to include Humberside
, Lincolnshire
and parts of Nottinghamshire
, Derbyshire
, north east Northamptonshire
, Forest Heath
in Suffolk
and North and West Norfolk
, served by the Belmont
transmitter.
The 1967 franchise round stipulated that the influential pan-North region, the licence for which was owned by Granada Television
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. Two consortiums applied for the franchise, Telefusion Yorkshire Ltd and Yorkshire Independent Television, the former having large financial backing (supported by the Blackpool-based Telefusion television rental chain) and the latter having the better plans (but fewer resources). Yorkshire Television itself was formed via a 'shotgun marriage' between the aforementioned two applicant groups. It went on air on 29 July 1968 from purpose-built colour studios in Leeds
, the first of their kind in Europe. It also has smaller district offices in Hull
and Lincoln
.
On 1 January 2007, the company transferred its programme production business to ITV Studios Limited
. As a consequence, Yorkshire Television Limited ceased to trade on 1 January 2007. Yorkshire Television Ltd still legally exists, but its licence is now owned and operated by ITV plc under the licence name of ITV Broadcasting Limited (along with all the other ITV plc-owned franchises).
, 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, 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 were 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.
The station started broadcasting on 29 July 1968 from new studios off Kirkstall Road, Leeds. Although purpose-built for colour the majority of initial broadcasts were in monochrome
until the ITV network formally-launched its colour output on 15 November 1969.
The station nearly came to grief in March 1969 when its transmitter mast at Emley Moor collapsed under a heavy build-up of ice, leaving the major part of the region uncovered by television broadcasts. However, 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 (2008 equivalent: £7.75 million). 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, returning the YTV area to full coverage.
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
.
For the rest of Yorkshire's life, it would be subject to takeovers, mergers and reorganisations, starting in 1974 and continuing to this day.
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 in 1969 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 that in the event Anglia was 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.
The two stations remained separately run and were required to demerge by late 1982 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.
Yorkshire-Tyne Tees were repeatedly warned over worsening standards at the Newcastle-based station and at one point the Independent Television Commission
(the then-governing body of ITV) threatened to revoke the Tyne Tees licence if the situation did not improve. In 1993 the MP
Ann Clwyd
described Tyne Tees as having been "stripped of any meaningful identity since its take over by Yorkshire TV" and Ian Ritchie, Managing Director at Tyne Tees, left the company over a widely publicised disagreement with the Yorkshire-Tyne Tees board over what he saw as an unacceptable drive to centralise the company.
The company faced a large revenue shortfall in 1993 of around £15 million, caused largely by financial irregularities in advertising sales, where airtime was oversold. Generally the bids submitted by both YTV and the (then-independent) Tyne Tees were considered financially questionable, and the ITC is said to have come close to rejecting the YTV bid on financial quality grounds. However, with London Weekend Television
's airtime sales subsidiary Laser taking over the advertising responsibilities for the company, company profits did recover by 1996, thanks to the cost-cutting measures implemented in the intervening years.
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 100 episodes of Blockbusters and two episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H
. Other programmes were also affected.
In 1996, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television made the controversial move of re-branding both of its networks under the unified brand "Channel 3." While Yorkshire used a scaled-back version of this branding (still using the classic logo and being verbally known as "Channel 3 Yorkshire"), Tyne Tees was re-branded as "Channel 3 North East", dropped the familiar TTTV logo, and relegated the Tyne Tees name to secondary branding.
). Granada's first move was to scrap the Channel 3 branding, starting from 9 March 1998. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later.
In 1998, transmission control 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. The continuity department closed down in 2002 after a unified presentation department for ITV1 in England was set up by the London News Network
in London.
On 28 October 2002, Yorkshire Television was rebranded as ITV1 Yorkshire. The "Yorkshire" does not appear, even before regional programmes; only the name "ITV1" is shown. The famous chevron continued to appear after programmes made by Yorkshire Television, until 31 October 2004. Today, programmes made at the Leeds studios by ITV are credited to ITV Studios
.
The license for Yorkshire is now held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc
.http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/tvlicensing/c3/ytv/
The studios were built on 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) of slum clearance land on Kirkstall Road
, purchased from the former Leeds Corporation
.
Construction commenced in early 1967. A mild winter aided building work and by mid-1968 studios one and two were equipped for transmission (studios three and four being completed by early 1969). During construction, pre-launch shows were produced at the ABC
studios at Didsbury
, Manchester
while a former trouser-press factory next to the Leeds facility was used as an administration centre.
The studio was officially opened by the Duchess of Kent
on 29 July 1968. It was the first purpose-built colour television production centre in Europe and cost over £4 million to build and equip (2008 equivalent: £50 million). Equipment was installed by EMI Electronics
and contained seven 2" Quadruplex VTR machines, six telecine
s and twelve cameras. The cameras were a mixture of Marconi
MkVII's and EMI 2001
models.
_studios.jpg)
The regional news show Calendar
was produced at the centre for many years but in 1989 was moved to a dedicated newsroom and broadcast facility based in a converted ice rink
next to the main studios.
Recent productions include Countdown (which has since moved to The Manchester Studios), the revived Bullseye
, Mastermind
(while asbestos was removed from The Manchester Studios in 2006), My Parents Are Aliens, new Channel 4
gameshow Win My Wage
and a new children's comedy-drama for Cartoon Network called My Spy Family. The site is now home to continuity for ITV's northern transmission areas (although this is now managed, along with its southern counterpart, by Technicolor Network Services http://www.technicolornetworkservices.com/pdfs/TNS_20061219_ITV.pdf) and a number of independent producers. The production facilities are marketed as The Leeds Studios
and sister companies ProVision, Film Lab North and The Finishing School occupy adjacent buildings, although the operation continues to be widely referred to as the Yorkshire Television studios or YTV.
In March 2009, ITV plc announced that the Leeds Studios were to be largely closed in an effort to save costs following a reported loss of £2.7 billion for 2008. However, seven months later ITV changed its mind, choosing instead to close the nearby studios dedicated to the production of Emmerdale and transferring production of this programme to Kirkstall Road which would be upgraded for HDTV production.
techniques and accompanied by an orchestral version of the tune On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at, a famous tune in Yorkshire. This music was later to become the stations signiature tune. This ident continued until Colour television arrived to the region in the 1970s.
The new colour ident featured the yellow chevron on a black background with the caption Yorkshire Television Colour Production, which would appear suddenly, along with a simplified version of On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at. This ident was modified in 1981, so that the caption Colour Production was changed to In Colour, and in 1982 the colour caption was removed altogether. This new version also featured a deeper tune than previous.
Supplementing the ident throughout this perios were idents promoting the stations coverage, with the slogan Serving Six Million Viewers. One version, in 1983 featured a giant chevron logo, made up out of smaller chevrons, and another in 1986 featured the view zooming in from space, to the earth, to Britain
and finally to the Yorkshire TV region, which then flipped over, becoming the chevron. This last version was computer animated, with 3D style lettering and chevron.
In 1986, Yorkshire Television introduced a new ident, entitled Liquid Gold, featuring a pool of liquified gold, with the chevron rising up from it, and rotating into the sky, where the station name joins it. This ident features a fully orchestrated version of the theme tune and reportedly cost £40,000 to make in 1986. This was occasionally supplemented by a large rotating chevron over a gradiented blue background, used over continuity.
In 1989, Yorkshire Television adopted the first ITV generic look, featuring the large ITV logo, which the company used until October 1994. The segment of the 'V' in the ITV logo denoting the region, featured the left segment of the chevron. The whole package was used by Yorkshire Television, and an adapted version, where the whole chevron appeared in the V segment before moving into centre screen, was used before regional programming.
Upon YTV dropping the generic look in 1994, a new ident was introduced, featuring a textured background with a strip across the centre of the screen containing images of the region itself, with the chevron placed in the centre of the strip. The most noticeable thing about his ident set was the smooth nature of the chevron's appearance, and also the fact that this was the only ident ever used by Yorkshire that did not feature the On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at theme music. Instead a smooth orchestral jingle was used, that mixed with the relaxed ident gave the station a relaxing feel. The background was later changed from a cream to a light blue, and variations on the theme for special occasions and yearly themes were also introduced.
However, the look was not to last. In 1996, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television adopted a new branding package, based on the concept of Channel 3. The new look was fully implemented in the Tyne Tees region, where all on-screen branding was replaced by giant numeral '3', and the Tyne Tees brand became secondary, however the look was only partially implemented in the Yorkshire region. The entirety of Yorkshire's Channel 3 look included an ident where the chevron span against a light blue background with numeral '3's covering the background. Another ident featured the chevron with the '3' numeral embossed on the side, which the camera would then zoom into, before revealling a spinning numeral 3, which in turn had YTV chevron on the middle of the 3 and when zoomed into, the chevron re-appeared spinning against the background. The look also heralded the return of the On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at tune, which was now noticeably higher in pitch.
The Channel 3 look was dropped in 1998, following Granada's aquisition of Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television, with the look returning to a spinning chevron against a misty blue background, light blue during the day and dark blue in the evenings.
In 1999, Yorkshire Television adopted the second generic look, based on the theme of Hearts, which was used for the entirety of the branding period before network programming. However, for local programming, Yorkshire created their own ident featuring a background of spinning chevrons, with pictures of the region featuring inside a central box. In 2002, the brand was dropped in favour of a national ITV1 identity, in which local regional identities were dropped except before local programming, when the Yorkshire name appeared below the ITV1 logo only. These regional idents however were dropped by 2006.
Yorkshire Television was a major producer within the ITV network and produced programming in all genres.
The presenter Alan Whicker
became a shareholder in the company at its inception and made many programmes for the station, most notably interviews with the Cat's Eye
inventor Percy Shaw
and the Haiti
dictator Baby Doc Duvalier.
In drama
the company had many critical successes including Hadleigh
, The Main Chance
, Flambards
, Harry's Game
, Heartbeat, The Darling Buds of May
, A Touch of Frost
, Coming Home
, Shoot To Kill
and The Beiderbecke Trilogy
. In comedy, it produced many populist shows such as In Loving Memory
, Duty Free
, Rising Damp
, Only When I Laugh
, Joker's Wild
, Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!
, Queenie's Castle
, The New Statesman
, Farrington of the F.O.
and gave the comedian
Les Dawson
his first major series.
For children, YTV contributed many networked shows including Animal Kwackers
, The Riddlers
, Junior Showtime
, The Flaxton Boys
, Follyfoot
and My Parents Are Aliens
as well as the long-running hit How We Used to Live
for ITV's Schools and Colleges' output. In entertainment
, it produced a large number of networked quiz shows such as 3-2-1
and Winner Takes All
and religion-oriented shows such as Stars on Sunday.
In 1969 it launched its first soap opera
Castle Haven which was cancelled after one year. When the restrictions on daytime broadcasting were relaxed in 1972 it launched an afternoon drama called Emmerdale Farm, which is still being broadcast as Emmerdale
.
The company invested heavily in outside broadcast facilities and was a large contributor to ITV Sport
, responsible primarily for covering northern-based horserace meetings (with London Weekend Television
and Thames Television
covering the south and ATV
covering the Midlands
) amongst other sporting events.
In the field of investigative journalism
the station soon gained an international reputation for award-winning documentaries: 1975 saw the transmission of the BAFTA award-winning Johnny Go Home, a startling exposé
of teenage male prostitution
and homelessness
in London
. In the same year the station transmitted Too Long a Winter (also a BAFTA award-winner), featuring Yorkshire Daleswoman
Hannah Hauxwell
who lived an austere and harsh lifestyle whilst running her small farm. In 1979 the documentary Rampton: The Secret Hospital, making public the treatment of patients at the Nottinghamshire
mental care facility Rampton Hospital, led to a Government investigation - it also won an international Emmy award for the station. The 1989 documentary Four Hours in My Lai
(broadcast as part of the monthly First Tuesday strand) revealed new information about the 1968 massacre. Yorkshire Television also produced the 1989 documentary One Day in the Life of Television
.
YTV has often led the way in British commercial broadcasting. As well as building the first purpose-built colour studios on Europe it was the first to offer breakfast television
. In 1977, the station took part in a nine-week trial offering viewers an extra hour of programming at breakfast time, beginning transmission at 8:30am with a 15-minute national and regional news bulletin called Good Morning Calendar alongside cartoons and episodes of Peyton Place
. A similar experiment was carried out by Tyne Tees Television
around the same time.
In August 1986, the station was the first to offer 24-hour transmission (when both the BBC and ITV companies closed down at around 12:30 to 1am). This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station Music Box - both YTV and Music Box were partly owned by the same company (W H Smith
). The experiment ended shortly before Music Box closed down in January 1987 and was replaced by a teletext-based Jobfinder service which broadcast for one hour after closedown. YTV re-introduced 24-hour programming 18 months later along with the rest of the ITV network, beginning 24-hour broadcasting on 30 May 1988.
In the mid-1980s, Yorkshire broke from the network by refusing to screen the BAFTA Awards, claiming them to be slaps on the backs of the BBC. The movie The Sting
was a replacement in 1986. As the rest of the network over-ran in the live BAFTA screening, Yorkshire had to cobble together minor programmes until other regions were able to screen the late-running ITN News. In the 1990s, while Bruce Gyngell
was managing director, Yorkshire declined to show The Good Sex Guide, replacing the programme with Alan Whicker
repeats.
is ITV Yorkshire's long-running news programme which is aired throughout the day on ITV Yorkshire. The main programme at 6pm was split into two regions from its inception until 18 February 2009. In the North/West, Duncan Wood and Christine Talbot
presented the programme, while in the South/East, it was presented by John Shires and Gaynor Barnes
. On 19 February 2009, Calendar became pan-regional and is presented by Duncan Wood and Christine Talbot. Gaynor Barnes is now the presenter for the Calendar News bulletins at 6.35am, 7.10am and 8.10am during GMTV
on weekdays although she is still a stand-in presenter for Christine Talbot.
Calendar first appeared on YTV's launch night, presented by Jonathan Aitken
. In the past, Calendar has been hosted by the late Richard Whiteley
(until 1995, alongside his duties on Countdown, earning him the nickname "Twice Nightly Whiteley"), Austin Mitchell
(until he became a Labour
Member of Parliament
in 1977) and Mike Morris
.
Calendar has reported a number of significant events during its history. The construction of major projects such as the M62 motorway
(1968–1975) and the Humber Bridge
(1972–1981) were covered by the programme. Also covered were major disasters including the failed attempt to rescue miners at Lofthouse Colliery, Wakefield
(1973), the explosion at the chemical factory at Flixborough, Lincolnshire
(1974), the Bradford City stadium fire (1985) (transmitted live by YTV who were covering the football match for ITV Sport
) and the Hillsborough disaster
(1989). Two highly significant events in modern history occurred in the Calendar area; the murders committed by the Yorkshire Ripper
(1975–1981) and the Miners' Strike
(1984–1985). More recently, the 6pm Calendar programme was one of the first in the UK to report the finding of child abuse victim Shannon Matthews alive near Dewsbury (2008).
Originally broadcast from Studio 2 in YTV's main studios in Kirkstall Road, in 1987 the operation was moved to a former ice skating rink and bowling alley opposite the centre, which was converted into a dedicated news production facility and which is still in use today. The show has spawned a number of related shows including Calendar Kids (presented by Richard Madeley
), Calendar People (presented by Richard Whiteley), Calendar Election Special, Calendar Lunchtime Live and Calendar Countdown
.
(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 1970 technicians broadcast a handwritten note that read "'Yorkshire Television have threatened to sack us, we are going on strike, good night" before that evening's News at Ten
.
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 the people of Yorkshire had no television at all. 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 the managing director Sir Paul Fox.
In the 1980 franchise round several YTV staff submitted their own application for the Yorkshire
franchise under the name of 'Television Yorkshire'.
Although Yorkshire Television claims to serve the whole of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, it has long been contended by many of the people of Sheffield
that Yorkshire Television shows an unacceptable bias towards West Yorkshire in general and Leeds in particular. This was a common criticism of many ITV franchisees as the bulk of production tended to be produced in one area, which was at the expense of other areas. Another example was Granada Television
's heavy presence in Manchester
who claimed there was a lack of investment in Liverpool
and over-emphasis on Manchester.
A similar charge of bias has been levied by viewers served by the Belmont Transmitter
which covers Lincolnshire
and northern Norfolk
. Until 1 January 1974 this area received coverage from Anglia Television
but was replaced by Yorkshire. It is often contended that the name of the company reflects its focus, but others say this is an unfair accusation given that during the 1970s and 1980s the company invested heavily in operations in Lincoln
and Grimsby
and created a regional opt-out for the area on its main news programme Calendar
. This was succeeded by a news show dedicated to the region served by the Belmont transmitter, albeit still broadcast from the studios in Leeds unlike its BBC
rival which is produced at studios in Hull
. In 2009, the combined Belmont and Sheffield service was reverted to opt-outs within the main evening programme and a full late night bulletin on weekdays.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
franchise area on the 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...
network. Until 1974, this was primarily the three ridings of Yorkshire and associated areas including parts of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
served by the Emley Moor
Emley Moor transmitting station
The Emley Moor transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on 'Emley Moor' to the west of the village of Emley, in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England . The station's most visible feature is its concrete tower, which is a Grade II listed building...
television transmitter. Following a re-organisation in 1974 the transmission area was extended to include Humberside
Humberside
Humberside was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber Estuary, created from portions of the East and West ridings of Yorkshire and parts of Lindsey, Lincolnshire...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
and parts of Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, north east Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, Forest Heath
Forest Heath
Forest Heath is a local government district in Suffolk, England. Its council is based in Mildenhall. Other towns in the district include Newmarket....
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
and North and West Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, served by the Belmont
Belmont transmitting station
The Belmont transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated next to the B1225, one mile west of the village of Donington on Bain in the civil parish of South Willingham, near Market Rasen and Louth in Lincolnshire, England . It is owned and operated by Arqiva.It has...
transmitter.
The 1967 franchise round stipulated that the influential pan-North region, the licence for which was owned by Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
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. Two consortiums applied for the franchise, Telefusion Yorkshire Ltd and Yorkshire Independent Television, the former having large financial backing (supported by the Blackpool-based Telefusion television rental chain) and the latter having the better plans (but fewer resources). Yorkshire Television itself was formed via a 'shotgun marriage' between the aforementioned two applicant groups. It went on air on 29 July 1968 from purpose-built colour studios in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, the first of their kind in Europe. It also has smaller district offices in Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
and Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....
.
On 1 January 2007, the company transferred its programme production business to ITV Studios Limited
ITV Studios
ITV Studios is a television production company owned by the British television network ITV. It not only makes programmes primarily for its parent company, but also for other networks...
. As a consequence, Yorkshire Television Limited ceased to trade on 1 January 2007. Yorkshire Television Ltd still legally exists, but its licence is now owned and operated by ITV plc under the licence name of ITV Broadcasting Limited (along with all the other ITV plc-owned franchises).
History
On 28 February 1967 national and regional newspapers carried numerous advertisements from the Independent Television AuthorityIndependent Television Authority
The Independent Television Authority was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" , the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom...
, 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
Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...
withdrew their application.
Telefusion Yorkshire Limited, created by the Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
-based TV rental chain Telefusion, 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
Yorkshire Post
The Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
, other local newspaper groups such as the Huddersfield Examiner and the Scarborough Evening News
Scarborough Evening News
The Scarborough Evening News, is a local, paid-for daily newspaper distributed in and around the Scarborough, North Yorkshire, area. The newspaper gives a local slant on the day's news....
, several Yorkshire-based Co-operative societies, trade unions and local universities were 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.
The station started broadcasting on 29 July 1968 from new studios off Kirkstall Road, Leeds. Although purpose-built for colour the majority of initial broadcasts were in monochrome
Monochrome
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
until the ITV network formally-launched its colour output on 15 November 1969.
The station nearly came to grief in March 1969 when its transmitter mast at Emley Moor collapsed under a heavy build-up of ice, leaving the major part of the region uncovered by television broadcasts. However, 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 (2008 equivalent: £7.75 million). 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, returning the YTV area to full coverage.
With the introduction of UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
broadcasting, YTV had failed to gain the Bilsdale transmitter
Bilsdale transmitter
The Bilsdale transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, located at , close to Helmsley, North Yorkshire, England. It includes a guyed steel tubular mast that is primarily used for radio and television transmission. The height of the mast is to the pinnacle...
in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, which was allocated instead to Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
due to the transmitter's penetration into Teesside
Teesside
Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in the north east of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham and surrounding settlements near the River Tees. It was also the name of a local government district between 1968 and 1974—the County Borough of...
and County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
. This seriously reduced YTV's monopoly commercial broadcast area. Partially to address this issue, in 1974 the Independent Broadcasting Authority
Independent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television - and commercial/independent radio broadcasts...
reallocated the Belmont Transmitter
Belmont transmitting station
The Belmont transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated next to the B1225, one mile west of the village of Donington on Bain in the civil parish of South Willingham, near Market Rasen and Louth in Lincolnshire, England . It is owned and operated by Arqiva.It has...
, then served by Anglia Television
Anglia Television
Anglia Television is the ITV franchise holder for the East Anglia franchise region. Although Anglia Television takes its name from East Anglia, its transmission coverage extends beyond the generally accepted boundaries of that region. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional...
, to YTV. Although the area served by Belmont was largely rural, it did cover the more industrial centres of Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
, Grimsby
Grimsby
Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...
, Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe is a town within North Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 72,514 in 2010. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre,...
and Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....
and it was felt the region would be better served from Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
rather than from Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
.
For the rest of Yorkshire's life, it would be subject to takeovers, mergers and reorganisations, starting in 1974 and continuing to this day.
Trident Television
In 1974 and following a reverse takeoverReverse takeover
A reverse takeover or reverse merger is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public...
Yorkshire Television was effectively merged with its neighbour Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
, when the two were brought under the control of Trident Television
Trident Television
Trident Television Limited was a British holding company with broadcasting interests.It was created in 1969 to deal with the problem of fairly allocating commercial airtime from a television transmitter at Bilsdale in North Yorkshire which straddled the catchment areas of two independent television...
Limited, a company formed in 1969 to deal with the problem of effective ownership of the Bilsdale transmitter and the allocation of airtime
Airtime
Airtime is a free and open source radio management application for remote broadcast automation , and program exchange between radio stations.-History:...
. It is often contended that the other point of the trident was intended to be Anglia Television
Anglia Television
Anglia Television is the ITV franchise holder for the East Anglia franchise region. Although Anglia Television takes its name from East Anglia, its transmission coverage extends beyond the generally accepted boundaries of that region. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional...
, but that in the event Anglia was prevented from joining by the Independent Broadcasting Authority
Independent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television - and commercial/independent radio broadcasts...
. 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.
The two stations remained separately run and were required to demerge by late 1982 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.
Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc
Following rule changes in 1992, the two stations resumed their alliance under the name Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc. This time around, the two stations were integrated to a far greater extent—following the takeover, 292 jobs were axed at the two broadcasters, including 185 at Tyne Tees (over half the workforce), with a further 150 lost the following year.Yorkshire-Tyne Tees were repeatedly warned over worsening standards at the Newcastle-based station and at one point the Independent Television Commission
Independent Television Commission
The Independent Television Commission licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003....
(the then-governing body of ITV) threatened to revoke the Tyne Tees licence if the situation did not improve. In 1993 the MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Ann Clwyd
Ann Clwyd
Ann Clwyd Roberts is a Welsh Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Cynon Valley since 1984.-Early life:Ann Clwyd is the daughter of Gwilym Henri Lewis and Elizabeth Ann Lewis...
described Tyne Tees as having been "stripped of any meaningful identity since its take over by Yorkshire TV" and Ian Ritchie, Managing Director at Tyne Tees, left the company over a widely publicised disagreement with the Yorkshire-Tyne Tees board over what he saw as an unacceptable drive to centralise the company.
The company faced a large revenue shortfall in 1993 of around £15 million, caused largely by financial irregularities in advertising sales, where airtime was oversold. Generally the bids submitted by both YTV and the (then-independent) Tyne Tees were considered financially questionable, and the ITC is said to have come close to rejecting the YTV bid on financial quality grounds. However, with 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...
's airtime sales subsidiary Laser taking over the advertising responsibilities for the company, company profits did recover by 1996, thanks to the cost-cutting measures implemented in the intervening years.
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
The Young Doctors
The Young Doctors is an Australian early evening soap opera. The series was set in the fictional Albert Memorial hospital and primarily concerned with romances between younger members of the hospital staff, screened on the Nine Network from Monday, 8 November 1976 until Wednesday, 30 March...
to reach the Tyne Tees stage of the serial. Similarly Tyne Tees had to lose over 100 episodes of Blockbusters and two episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H
Prisoner (TV series)
Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...
. Other programmes were also affected.
Granada plc
In 1997 Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc was acquired by Granada Group plc (now ITV plcITV 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...
). Granada's first move was to scrap the Channel 3 branding, starting from 9 March 1998. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later.
In 1998, transmission control 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. The continuity department closed down in 2002 after a unified presentation department for ITV1 in England was set up by the London News Network
London News Network
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...
in London.
On 28 October 2002, Yorkshire Television was rebranded as ITV1 Yorkshire. The "Yorkshire" does not appear, even before regional programmes; only the name "ITV1" is shown. The famous chevron continued to appear after programmes made by Yorkshire Television, until 31 October 2004. Today, programmes made at the Leeds studios by ITV are credited to ITV Studios
ITV Studios
ITV Studios is a television production company owned by the British television network ITV. It not only makes programmes primarily for its parent company, but also for other networks...
.
The license for Yorkshire is now held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of 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...
.http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/tvlicensing/c3/ytv/
Studios
A65 road
The A65 is a major road in England. It runs north west from Leeds in Yorkshire via Kirkstall, Horsforth, Yeadon, Guiseley, Ilkley and Skipton, passes west of Settle, then continues through Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale before terminating at Kendal in Cumbria....
, purchased from the former Leeds Corporation
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...
.
Construction commenced in early 1967. A mild winter aided building work and by mid-1968 studios one and two were equipped for transmission (studios three and four being completed by early 1969). During construction, pre-launch shows were produced at the ABC
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
studios at Didsbury
Didsbury
Didsbury is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre, in the southern half of the Greater Manchester Urban Area...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
while a former trouser-press factory next to the Leeds facility was used as an administration centre.
The studio was officially opened by the Duchess of Kent
Duchess of Kent
The Duchess of Kent is the title given to the wife of the Duke of Kent.Five women have held the title:* Jemima , daughter of Thomas Crewe, 2nd Baron Crewe, first wife of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent...
on 29 July 1968. It was the first purpose-built colour television production centre in Europe and cost over £4 million to build and equip (2008 equivalent: £50 million). Equipment was installed by EMI Electronics
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
and contained seven 2" Quadruplex VTR machines, six telecine
Telecine
Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....
s and twelve cameras. The cameras were a mixture of Marconi
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
MkVII's and EMI 2001
EMI 2001
The EMI 2001 Broadcast studio camera was an early, very successful British made Plumbicon studio camera that included the lens within the body of the camera. Four 30mm tubes allowed one tube to be dedicated solely to producing a relatively high resolution monochrome signal, with the other three...
models.
Calendar (News)
Calendar is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Yorkshire at its studios in Leeds, serving Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of the North Midlands and North West Norfolk...
was produced at the centre for many years but in 1989 was moved to a dedicated newsroom and broadcast facility based in a converted ice rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
next to the main studios.
Recent productions include Countdown (which has since moved to The Manchester Studios), the revived Bullseye
Bullseye (UK game show)
Bullseye was a popular British television programme. It was first made for the ITV network by ATV in 1981 and Central from 1982 until 1995, and hosted by Jim Bowen. The show originally aired on Monday nights from 1981, it was then moved to Sunday nights from 1982 to 1993 where it was watched by...
, Mastermind
Mastermind (TV series)
Mastermind is a British quiz show, well known for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and air of seriousness.Devised by Bill Wright, the basic format of Mastermind has never changed — four and in later contests five contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the...
(while asbestos was removed from The Manchester Studios in 2006), My Parents Are Aliens, new Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
gameshow Win My Wage
Win My Wage
Win My Wage was a British daytime game show produced by Yorkshire Television for Channel 4, presented by Nick Hancock. Each day a contestant had to decide which of eight strangers earned the highest annual wage. The contestant would use facts given about each of the strangers in order to eliminate...
and a new children's comedy-drama for Cartoon Network called My Spy Family. The site is now home to continuity for ITV's northern transmission areas (although this is now managed, along with its southern counterpart, by Technicolor Network Services http://www.technicolornetworkservices.com/pdfs/TNS_20061219_ITV.pdf) and a number of independent producers. The production facilities are marketed as The Leeds Studios
The Leeds Studios
The Leeds Studios also known as the Yorkshire Television Studios or YTV Studios is a television production complex on Kirkstall Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
and sister companies ProVision, Film Lab North and The Finishing School occupy adjacent buildings, although the operation continues to be widely referred to as the Yorkshire Television studios or YTV.
In March 2009, ITV plc announced that the Leeds Studios were to be largely closed in an effort to save costs following a reported loss of £2.7 billion for 2008. However, seven months later ITV changed its mind, choosing instead to close the nearby studios dedicated to the production of Emmerdale and transferring production of this programme to Kirkstall Road which would be upgraded for HDTV production.
Identity
Yorkshire Television's on screen identity has always revolved around the use of the station logo: the chevron. This yellow symbol was seen on nearly all Yorkshire television's station identification films, or idents for short. The first symbol used was a black and white chevron, formed by slit-scanSlit-scan photography
The slit-scan photography technique is a photographic and cinematographic process where a moveable slide, into which a slit has been cut, is inserted between the camera and the subject to be photographed.-Use in cinematography:...
techniques and accompanied by an orchestral version of the tune On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at, a famous tune in Yorkshire. This music was later to become the stations signiature tune. This ident continued until Colour television arrived to the region in the 1970s.
The new colour ident featured the yellow chevron on a black background with the caption Yorkshire Television Colour Production, which would appear suddenly, along with a simplified version of On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at. This ident was modified in 1981, so that the caption Colour Production was changed to In Colour, and in 1982 the colour caption was removed altogether. This new version also featured a deeper tune than previous.
Supplementing the ident throughout this perios were idents promoting the stations coverage, with the slogan Serving Six Million Viewers. One version, in 1983 featured a giant chevron logo, made up out of smaller chevrons, and another in 1986 featured the view zooming in from space, to the earth, to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and finally to the Yorkshire TV region, which then flipped over, becoming the chevron. This last version was computer animated, with 3D style lettering and chevron.
In 1986, Yorkshire Television introduced a new ident, entitled Liquid Gold, featuring a pool of liquified gold, with the chevron rising up from it, and rotating into the sky, where the station name joins it. This ident features a fully orchestrated version of the theme tune and reportedly cost £40,000 to make in 1986. This was occasionally supplemented by a large rotating chevron over a gradiented blue background, used over continuity.
In 1989, Yorkshire Television adopted the first ITV generic look, featuring the large ITV logo, which the company used until October 1994. The segment of the 'V' in the ITV logo denoting the region, featured the left segment of the chevron. The whole package was used by Yorkshire Television, and an adapted version, where the whole chevron appeared in the V segment before moving into centre screen, was used before regional programming.
Upon YTV dropping the generic look in 1994, a new ident was introduced, featuring a textured background with a strip across the centre of the screen containing images of the region itself, with the chevron placed in the centre of the strip. The most noticeable thing about his ident set was the smooth nature of the chevron's appearance, and also the fact that this was the only ident ever used by Yorkshire that did not feature the On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at theme music. Instead a smooth orchestral jingle was used, that mixed with the relaxed ident gave the station a relaxing feel. The background was later changed from a cream to a light blue, and variations on the theme for special occasions and yearly themes were also introduced.
However, the look was not to last. In 1996, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television adopted a new branding package, based on the concept of Channel 3. The new look was fully implemented in the Tyne Tees region, where all on-screen branding was replaced by giant numeral '3', and the Tyne Tees brand became secondary, however the look was only partially implemented in the Yorkshire region. The entirety of Yorkshire's Channel 3 look included an ident where the chevron span against a light blue background with numeral '3's covering the background. Another ident featured the chevron with the '3' numeral embossed on the side, which the camera would then zoom into, before revealling a spinning numeral 3, which in turn had YTV chevron on the middle of the 3 and when zoomed into, the chevron re-appeared spinning against the background. The look also heralded the return of the On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at tune, which was now noticeably higher in pitch.
The Channel 3 look was dropped in 1998, following Granada's aquisition of Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television, with the look returning to a spinning chevron against a misty blue background, light blue during the day and dark blue in the evenings.
In 1999, Yorkshire Television adopted the second generic look, based on the theme of Hearts, which was used for the entirety of the branding period before network programming. However, for local programming, Yorkshire created their own ident featuring a background of spinning chevrons, with pictures of the region featuring inside a central box. In 2002, the brand was dropped in favour of a national ITV1 identity, in which local regional identities were dropped except before local programming, when the Yorkshire name appeared below the ITV1 logo only. These regional idents however were dropped by 2006.
Former announcers
- Redvers KyleRedvers KyleRedvers Kyle is a retired television announcer and presenter who worked on ITV in the United Kingdom.-Biography:Kyle was born in South Africa and was named after General Sir Redvers Buller, the British military commander in the early stages of the Anglo-Boer War...
(1968–1993) - Bob PreedyBob PreedyRobert "Bob" Preedy is a broadcaster, presenter on BBC Radio York, a book author and was formerly the chief continuity announcer for Yorkshire Television.-Television:...
(late 1980s - 2002) - John CrosseJohn CrosseJohn Crosse was a radio DJ, presenter and continuity announcer, famed for being one of the voices of the Yorkshire Television region of Independent Television for 17 years.-Career:...
(senior announcer, early 1970s - 1998) - Graham Roberts (c. 1970s - 1993)
- Kerrie Gosney (2000–2002)
- Earl RichmondEarl RichmondEarl Richmond , was a broadcaster born in Highgate, London in 1928, he died in May 2001.Earl first worked in radio on British Forces Radio in Trieste. He was also heard in Cyprus before moving to America to study Television....
(1968 - c.1970s) - Neil Didsbury (2001–2002)
- Pete Haslam (promo voiceover, 1999 - c.2007)
- Peter Lewis (late 1960s)
- Keith MartinKeith Martin (broadcaster)Keith Martin is a broadcaster born in Sandwich, Kent.Keith was involved with offshore radio from the earliest days, but later became a continuity announcer for various regional TV stations....
- Maggie Mash (1988–2002)
- Nick Oliver
- Karen PetchKaren PetchKaren Petch is a broadcaster and news presenter for ITV Yorkshire's regional news programme Calendar.Petch formerly presented on 96.9 Viking FM before moving to Leeds to be a continuity announcer on ITV Yorkshire, she now presents news bulletins for Calendar. Whilst working as an announcer, Petch...
- Paul Lally (c.1968 - 1990s)
- Ian De Stains (1968–1970)
- Paul KayePaul Kaye (broadcaster)Paul Kaye was a British radio broadcaster from Barnstaple in North Devon.-Biography:...
(c.1970s - 1980) - Helen Aitken (1995–2002)
- Roger TillingRoger Tilling- Biography :Tilling began his broadcasting career in local radio. He worked at Chiltern Radio in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire and Oasis Radio in Hertfordshire in 1995. He then moved into television working as a continuity announcer for Westcountry Television in 1996...
(1998 - c.2000) - Colin WestonColin WestonColin Weston , is a former British television continuity announcer, best known for his work at Granada Television.Originally from London, Weston began his career in the post room of ABC Television's studios in Teddington...
(freelancer) - Stephen Whitlock (1992–2004)
Programming
Yorkshire Television was a major producer within the ITV network and produced programming in all genres.
The presenter Alan Whicker
Alan Whicker
Alan Donald Whicker, CBE is a British journalist and broadcaster. His career has spanned over 50 years.-Background:Whicker was born to British parents in Cairo, Egypt...
became a shareholder in the company at its inception and made many programmes for the station, most notably interviews with the Cat's Eye
Cat's eye (road)
The cat's eye is a retroreflective safety device used in road marking and was the first of a range of raised pavement markers. It originated in the UK in 1933 and is today used all over the world....
inventor Percy Shaw
Percy Shaw
Percy Shaw, OBE was an English inventor and businessman. He patented the reflective road stud or "cat's eye" in 1934, and set up a company to manufacture his invention in 1935.-Biography:...
and the Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
dictator Baby Doc Duvalier.
In drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
the company had many critical successes including Hadleigh
Hadleigh (TV series)
Hadleigh was a British television series made by Yorkshire Television which originally ran from 1969 to 1976. Developed by Robert Barr, it was a sequel to the writer's earlier Gazette for the same company...
, The Main Chance
The Main Chance
The Main Chance was a British television series which first aired on ITV from 1969-1975. A drama, it depicts the sudden transformation in the life of solicitor David Main who relocates from London to Leeds.-Episodes:...
, Flambards
Flambards
Flambards is a novel by the English author K. M. Peyton.The book and its three sequels are set just before, during, and after World War I...
, Harry's Game
Harry's Game
Harry's Game is a British television miniseries made by Yorkshire Television for ITV in 1982. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Seymour, which was published in 1975.The three-part serial starred Ray Lonnen as Capt...
, Heartbeat, The Darling Buds of May
The Darling Buds of May
The Darling Buds of May is a British comedy drama which was first broadcast between 1991 and 1993 produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV Network. It is set in an idyllic rural 1950s Kent, among a large, boisterous family. The three series were based on the novels by H. E. Bates. Originally...
, A Touch of Frost
A Touch of Frost (TV series)
A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV from 1992 until 2010, initially based on the Frost novels by R. D. Wingfield....
, Coming Home
Coming Home (TV serial)
Coming Home is a 1998 British serial directed by Giles Foster. The teleplay by John Goldsmith is based on the novel of the same title by Rosamunde Pilcher. Produced by Yorkshire Television, it was broadcast in two parts by ITV in April 1998.-Plot:...
, Shoot To Kill
Shoot to Kill (1990 TV drama)
Shoot to Kill is a four-hour drama documentary reconstruction of the events that led to the 1984–86 Stalker Inquiry into the shooting of six terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland in 1982 by a specialist unit of the Royal Ulster Constabulary , allegedly without warning ; the organised fabrication...
and The Beiderbecke Trilogy
The Beiderbecke Trilogy
The Beiderbecke Trilogy refers to three television serials written by Alan Plater and made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in the United Kingdom between 1984 and 1988. Each serial centres around schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne who work at a rundown comprehensive...
. In comedy, it produced many populist shows such as In Loving Memory
In Loving Memory (TV series)
In Loving Memory is a British period sitcom set in an undertakers business that starred Thora Hird and Christopher Beeny. A pilot was transmitted in 1969 by Thames Television who rejected the idea before it was finally accepted by Yorkshire Television in 1979 where it further ran for five series...
, Duty Free
Duty Free (TV series)
Duty Free is a British sitcom written by Eric Chappell and Jean Warr that aired on ITV from 1984 to 1986. It was made by Yorkshire Television.-Cast:*Keith Barron – David Pearce*Gwen Taylor – Amy Pearce*Joanna Van Gyseghem – Linda Cochran...
, Rising Damp
Rising Damp
Rising Damp is a television sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, first broadcast from 1974 to 1978. It was adapted for television by Eric Chappell from his well-received 1971 stage play, The Banana Box The series was the highest-ranking ITV sitcom on the 100 Best Sitcoms poll run in...
, Only When I Laugh
Only When I Laugh (TV series)
Only When I Laugh is a British television sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for ITV between 29 October 1979 and 16 December 1982. It was set in the ward of an NHS hospital. The title is the answer to the question, "Does it hurt?"...
, Joker's Wild
Joker's Wild (TV series)
thumb|200px|Host Barry Cryer on Joker's WildJoker's Wild is a British comedy panel game that was produced by Yorkshire Television and broadcast for eight series on ITV from 1969 to 1974...
, Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!
Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!
Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! was a popular ITV situation comedy which ran from 1974 to 1977.It starred Bill Maynard as the council labourer, Scarsdale Working Men’s Club secretary, hapless handyman and all-round public nuisance Selwyn Froggitt. It was created by Roy Clarke, who wrote the pilot...
, Queenie's Castle
Queenie's Castle
Queenie's Castle is a British sitcom set in early 1970s Leeds, West Yorkshire that aired on ITV from 1970 to 1972. The series featured popular British actress Diana Dors.- Plot :...
, The New Statesman
The New Statesman
The New Statesman is an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time...
, Farrington of the F.O.
Farrington of the F.O.
Farrington of the F.O. was a British television comedy series by Dick Sharples about the staff of the British Consulate in "one of the armpits of Latin America". It was produced by Yorkshire Television and broadcast from 1986 to 1987...
and gave the comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Les Dawson
Les Dawson
Leslie "Les" Dawson was a popular English comedian remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.-Life and career:...
his first major series.
For children, YTV contributed many networked shows including Animal Kwackers
Animal Kwackers
Animal Kwackers was a children's television series produced by Yorkshire Television and broadcast on Britain's ITV in the 1970s. The Animal Kwackers were a four piece pop band consisting of Rory, a lion; Twang, a monkey; Bongo, a dog; and Boots, a tiger. The characters were played by actors in...
, The Riddlers
The Riddlers
The Riddlers was a British children's programme produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV between 1986 and 1998.-Synopsis:The series centred around Marjorie Dawe and the two Riddlers named Mossop and Tiddler , who inhabited her garden at Riddleton...
, Junior Showtime
Junior Showtime
Junior Showtime was a British variety show for children made by Yorkshire Television and shown on ITV between 1969 and 1974.Presented by Bobby Bennett from the Leeds City Varieties theatre, the show consisted of song and dance routines and was produced by Jess Yates...
, The Flaxton Boys
The Flaxton Boys
The Flaxton Boys is a British historical children's television series set in the West Riding of Yorkshire and covering a timespan of almost a century. The series was made by Yorkshire Television and was broadcast on ITV between 1969 and 1973, running for 4 series and 52 episodes, each of 30...
, Follyfoot
Follyfoot
Follyfoot was a children's television series co-produced by the majority-partner British television company Yorkshire Television and the independent West German company TV Munich...
and My Parents Are Aliens
My Parents are Aliens
My Parents are Aliens is a British sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television and later Granada Productions for CITV about an eccentric family, which was produced as seven annual series, first broadcast in 1999 and ending in 2006...
as well as the long-running hit How We Used to Live
How We Used To Live
How We Used to Live is a British educational historical television drama written by Freda Kelsall and sometimes narrated by Redvers Kyle and John Crosse, both employed as continuity announcers at Yorkshire Television at the time of production. Production began in 1968 at the YTV studios in Leeds...
for ITV's Schools and Colleges' output. In entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
, it produced a large number of networked quiz shows such as 3-2-1
3-2-1
3–2–1 was a popular British game show that was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It ran for ten years, between 29 July 1978 and 24 December 1988. Throughout its run, the show was hosted by former Butlins Redcoat Ted Rogers. It was based on a Spanish gameshow called Un, dos, tres.....
and Winner Takes All
Winner Takes All (game show)
Winner Takes All was a popular game show that was produced by Yorkshire Television and ran for 13 years on the ITV network from 1975 until 1988 but returned in 1997 on the cable and satellite channel Challenge....
and religion-oriented shows such as Stars on Sunday.
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Castle Haven which was cancelled after one year. When the restrictions on daytime broadcasting were relaxed in 1972 it launched an afternoon drama called Emmerdale Farm, which is still being broadcast as Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
.
The company invested heavily in outside broadcast facilities and was a large contributor to 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...
, responsible primarily for covering northern-based horserace meetings (with 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...
and 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....
covering the south and ATV
Associated TeleVision
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 1982...
covering the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
) amongst other sporting events.
In the field of investigative journalism
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
the station soon gained an international reputation for award-winning documentaries: 1975 saw the transmission of the BAFTA award-winning Johnny Go Home, a startling exposé
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
of teenage male prostitution
Male prostitution
Male prostitution is the practice of engaging in sexual acts for money. Compared to female sex workers, male sex workers have been far less studied by researchers, and while studies suggest that there are differences between the ways these two groups look at their work, more research is needed.Male...
and homelessness
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
in London
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...
. In the same year the station transmitted Too Long a Winter (also a BAFTA award-winner), featuring Yorkshire Daleswoman
Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales is the name given to an upland area in Northern England.The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria...
Hannah Hauxwell
Hannah Hauxwell
Hannah Hauxwell is a retired English farmer who has been the subject of several television documentaries on Yorkshire Television....
who lived an austere and harsh lifestyle whilst running her small farm. In 1979 the documentary Rampton: The Secret Hospital, making public the treatment of patients at the Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
mental care facility Rampton Hospital, led to a Government investigation - it also won an international Emmy award for the station. The 1989 documentary Four Hours in My Lai
My Lai Massacre
The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of 347–504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of the victims were women, children , and...
(broadcast as part of the monthly First Tuesday strand) revealed new information about the 1968 massacre. Yorkshire Television also produced the 1989 documentary One Day in the Life of Television
One Day in the Life of Television
One Day in the Life of Television is a documentary that was broadcast on ITV on 1 November 1989. Filmed by over fifty crews exactly one year earlier, it was a huge behind-the-scenes look at a wide range of activities involved in the production, reception and marketing of British television...
.
Breakfast television
Breakfast television or morning show , is a type of infotainment television program, broadcast live in the morning...
. In 1977, the station took part in a nine-week trial offering viewers an extra hour of programming at breakfast time, beginning transmission at 8:30am with a 15-minute national and regional news bulletin called Good Morning Calendar alongside cartoons and episodes of Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
. A similar experiment was carried out by Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
around the same time.
In August 1986, the station was the first to offer 24-hour transmission (when both the BBC and ITV companies closed down at around 12:30 to 1am). This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station Music Box - both YTV and Music Box were partly owned by the same company (W H Smith
W H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
). The experiment ended shortly before Music Box closed down in January 1987 and was replaced by a teletext-based Jobfinder service which broadcast for one hour after closedown. YTV re-introduced 24-hour programming 18 months later along with the rest of the ITV network, beginning 24-hour broadcasting on 30 May 1988.
In the mid-1980s, Yorkshire broke from the network by refusing to screen the BAFTA Awards, claiming them to be slaps on the backs of the BBC. The movie The Sting
The Sting
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss . The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Created by...
was a replacement in 1986. As the rest of the network over-ran in the live BAFTA screening, Yorkshire had to cobble together minor programmes until other regions were able to screen the late-running ITN News. In the 1990s, while Bruce Gyngell
Bruce Gyngell
Bruce Gyngell was a hugely influential Australian television executive, prominent for 50 years in both Australian and U.K. television. Although Gyngell began his career in radio, in the 1950s he stepped into the arena of early television broadcasting, helping to set up Channel 9, the first...
was managing director, Yorkshire declined to show The Good Sex Guide, replacing the programme with Alan Whicker
Alan Whicker
Alan Donald Whicker, CBE is a British journalist and broadcaster. His career has spanned over 50 years.-Background:Whicker was born to British parents in Cairo, Egypt...
repeats.
Calendar
CalendarCalendar (News)
Calendar is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Yorkshire at its studios in Leeds, serving Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of the North Midlands and North West Norfolk...
is ITV Yorkshire's long-running news programme which is aired throughout the day on ITV Yorkshire. The main programme at 6pm was split into two regions from its inception until 18 February 2009. In the North/West, Duncan Wood and Christine Talbot
Christine Talbot
Christine Talbot is a British television presenter currently working for ITV Yorkshire on its flagship news programme Calendar.-Career:Before joining YTV in 1994, Talbot worked on local newspapers in Lancashire. She then joined BBC North West as a presenter/reporter for North West Tonight...
presented the programme, while in the South/East, it was presented by John Shires and Gaynor Barnes
Gaynor Barnes
Gaynor Barnes is a British television presenter and journalist currently employed by ITV Yorkshire since 1991.From January 2007 to February 2009, she was a co-host of the South edition of Calendar alongisde John Shires...
. On 19 February 2009, Calendar became pan-regional and is presented by Duncan Wood and Christine Talbot. Gaynor Barnes is now the presenter for the Calendar News bulletins at 6.35am, 7.10am and 8.10am during GMTV
GMTV
GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...
on weekdays although she is still a stand-in presenter for Christine Talbot.
Calendar first appeared on YTV's launch night, presented by Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan William Patrick Aitken is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, and British government minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months...
. In the past, Calendar has been hosted by the late Richard Whiteley
Richard Whiteley
John Richard Whiteley, OBE DL , usually known as Richard Whiteley, was an English broadcaster and journalist. He was famous for his twenty-three years as host of Countdown, a letters and numbers arrangement game show broadcast most weekdays on Channel 4...
(until 1995, alongside his duties on Countdown, earning him the nickname "Twice Nightly Whiteley"), Austin Mitchell
Austin Mitchell
Austin Vernon Mitchell is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby since a 1977 by-election.-Education and early life:...
(until he became a Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in 1977) and Mike Morris
Mike Morris (TV Presenter)
Mike Morris is a British television presenter, perhaps best known as a co-host of Good Morning Britain on the breakfast television station TV-am on the ITV Network....
.
Calendar has reported a number of significant events during its history. The construction of major projects such as the M62 motorway
M62 motorway
The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...
(1968–1975) and the Humber Bridge
Humber Bridge
The Humber Bridge, near Kingston upon Hull, England, is a 2,220 m single-span suspension bridge, which opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. It is the fifth-largest of its type in the world...
(1972–1981) were covered by the programme. Also covered were major disasters including the failed attempt to rescue miners at Lofthouse Colliery, Wakefield
Lofthouse Colliery disaster
The Lofthouse Colliery disaster was a mining accident which took place in Lofthouse, West Yorkshire, England in 1973. A new coalface was excavated too close to an abandoned, flooded 19th century mineshaft. The sudden inrush of water trapped seven mine workers 750 feet below ground. A six-day...
(1973), the explosion at the chemical factory at Flixborough, Lincolnshire
Flixborough disaster
The Flixborough disaster was an explosion at a chemical plant close to the village of Flixborough, England, on 1 June 1974. It killed 28 people and seriously injured 36.-Background:...
(1974), the Bradford City stadium fire (1985) (transmitted live by YTV who were covering the football match for 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...
) and the Hillsborough disaster
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough, a football stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people, and 766 being injured, all fans of Liverpool F.C....
(1989). Two highly significant events in modern history occurred in the Calendar area; the murders committed by the Yorkshire Ripper
Peter Sutcliffe
Peter William Sutcliffe is a British serial killer who was dubbed "The Yorkshire Ripper". In 1981 Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attacking seven others. He is currently serving 20 sentences of life imprisonment in Broadmoor Hospital...
(1975–1981) and the Miners' Strike
UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
The UK miners' strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...
(1984–1985). More recently, the 6pm Calendar programme was one of the first in the UK to report the finding of child abuse victim Shannon Matthews alive near Dewsbury (2008).
Originally broadcast from Studio 2 in YTV's main studios in Kirkstall Road, in 1987 the operation was moved to a former ice skating rink and bowling alley opposite the centre, which was converted into a dedicated news production facility and which is still in use today. The show has spawned a number of related shows including Calendar Kids (presented by Richard Madeley
Richard Madeley
Richard Madeley is a British television presenter and columnist. With his wife Judy Finnigan, Madeley has presented This Morning and later the weekday chat show Richard & Judy...
), Calendar People (presented by Richard Whiteley), Calendar Election Special, Calendar Lunchtime Live and Calendar Countdown
Countdown (game show)
Countdown is a British game show involving word and number puzzles. It is produced by ITV Studios and broadcast on Channel 4. It is presented by Jeff Stelling, assisted by Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4, and over sixty-five...
.
Industrial relations
From its inception YTV had a turbulent relationship with the broadcasting unionsTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
(a common theme within ITV). Many employees at the new company were recruited from the Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
studios of the former ABC Weekend Television
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
and the London station Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion, London, was the British ITV contractor for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 1954 and 29 July 1968. Transmissions started on 22 September 1955.-Formation:...
; 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 1970 technicians broadcast a handwritten note that read "'Yorkshire Television have threatened to sack us, we are going on strike, good night" before that evening's News at Ten
News at Ten
The ITV News at Ten is the flagship news programme on British television network ITV, produced by ITN and founded by news editor Geoffrey Cox in 1967. It was originally planned as a thirteen week project in July 1967 because senior figures at ITV refused to believe that a permanent 30-minute late...
.
YTV was forced off the air by more industrial action over the whole of Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, 1978. This partially coincided with a two-day national shutdown of both BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
channels by strikes in December of that year, meaning that for those two days the people of Yorkshire had no television at all. 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
West Yorkshire Police
West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing West Yorkshire in England. It is the fourth largest force in England and Wales by number of officers, with 5671 officers....
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 the managing director Sir Paul Fox.
In the 1980 franchise round several YTV staff submitted their own application for the Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
franchise under the name of 'Television Yorkshire'.
Criticisms
Although Yorkshire Television claims to serve the whole of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, it has long been contended by many of the people of Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
that Yorkshire Television shows an unacceptable bias towards West Yorkshire in general and Leeds in particular. This was a common criticism of many ITV franchisees as the bulk of production tended to be produced in one area, which was at the expense of other areas. Another example was Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
's heavy presence in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
who claimed there was a lack of investment in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and over-emphasis on Manchester.
A similar charge of bias has been levied by viewers served by the Belmont Transmitter
Belmont transmitting station
The Belmont transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated next to the B1225, one mile west of the village of Donington on Bain in the civil parish of South Willingham, near Market Rasen and Louth in Lincolnshire, England . It is owned and operated by Arqiva.It has...
which covers Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
and northern Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. Until 1 January 1974 this area received coverage from Anglia Television
Anglia Television
Anglia Television is the ITV franchise holder for the East Anglia franchise region. Although Anglia Television takes its name from East Anglia, its transmission coverage extends beyond the generally accepted boundaries of that region. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional...
but was replaced by Yorkshire. It is often contended that the name of the company reflects its focus, but others say this is an unfair accusation given that during the 1970s and 1980s the company invested heavily in operations in Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....
and Grimsby
Grimsby
Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...
and created a regional opt-out for the area on its main news programme Calendar
Calendar (News)
Calendar is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Yorkshire at its studios in Leeds, serving Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of the North Midlands and North West Norfolk...
. This was succeeded by a news show dedicated to the region served by the Belmont transmitter, albeit still broadcast from the studios in Leeds unlike its BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
rival which is produced at studios in Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
. In 2009, the combined Belmont and Sheffield service was reverted to opt-outs within the main evening programme and a full late night bulletin on weekdays.
External links
- Animated Yorkshire TV logo, 1968 from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
- 1969 Yorkshire TV logo from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 6 or later).
- 1969 Yorkshire TV in colour logo from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 6 or later).
- 1982 revamp of the logo from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).