ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Central ITV, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee in the English Midlands. It was created following the restructuring of ATV, and it officially began broadcasting on 1 January 1982. The service is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. Historically Central made a major contribution to the ITV network schedule – especially in entertainment and drama – but today its main responsibility is the regional news service.
History
Background During the 1970s ATV, the previous Midlands licence holder, was often criticised for its lack of regional output and character. Although ATV had purpose-built a modern colour production complex in the centre of Birmingham, most of its major productions were recorded at its main studios at Elstree in Hertfordshire, a legacy of the period when the company also held the London Weekend franchise until 1968, when it was awarded to LWT. Its corporate headquarters were in Central London.
ATV attempted to address its problem in 1980 as part of its franchise reapplication; with plans for a second major facility in the area (to be based in Nottingham) and as part of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's plan for the contract to provide separate news coverage for both the East Midlands and the West Midlands. The company name would also be changed from ATV Network Limited to ATV Midlands Limited, thus reinforcing the greater regional focus. The IBA accepted ATV's assertion that ATV Midlands Ltd planned to take a more local identity and awarded the contract to ATV Midlands Ltd on the basis that further changes were to be implemented, including that the parent company, Associated Communications Corporation, would divest 49 percent of its shareholding in ATV Midlands Ltd in an attempt to introduce local shareholders and that ATV Midlands Ltd's registered office should be within the region. To demonstrate this change of share structure the IBA insisted that ATV change its company name, to show that it was a substantially new company due to the requirement for a dual region.Gosling, Kenneth. "Southern and Westward TV lose franchises and others to be restructured", The Times, 29 December 1980, p. 1
Launch The station began transmitting at 9:25 am on Friday 1 January 1982 with an authority announcement by duty announcer Su Evans, followed by an extended five-minute promo entitled Welcome to Central, voiced by Peter Wheeler, previewing the company's network and regional programming, and the schedule for the first day of transmission.ITV Central, YouTube. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
Central initially ran a sole pan-regional service from Birmingham, as a result of an industrial dispute which prevented its East Midlands service from Nottingham commencing before September 1983. The split allowed Central to serve the West Midlands with its own service from Birmingham. There were few differences between the East and West sub-regions, but each had its own news service, advertisements, and during the early years of operation, continuity. This would lead to the BBC launching its own sub-regional service for the East Midlands during the 1980s, which became a region in its own right in January 1991, with the launch of BBC East Midlands Today.
Operations By March 1984, the reorganisation of the company was complete, allowing pre-tax profits to double from £3.5 million to £6.5 million in its first two financial years.Cornelius, Andrew. "Earnings jump at HTV and Central", The Times, 23 March 1984, p. 23 Shortly afterward, Zenith Productions was established as a subsidiary of Central Television, which produced programming for the UK and the USA – most famously including the company's television adaptations of the Inspector Morse novels.Fiddick, Peter. "Zenith and the art of film-making", The Guardian, 5 October 1984 The formation of Zenith Productions on 3 April 1984 allowed the company to exploit markets outside of the US and UK, similarly to how Thames operated its Euston Films subsidiary. Central's interests in onscreen fiction saw the company buy the Korda Film Library in 1986.Central advert, The Times, 3 November 1986; p. 33
In January 1987, Central acquired the European division of the American production company FilmFair for £1.5million,NEWS IN BRIEFThe Guardian (1959–2003); 6 January 1987; which went on to produce several of the station's networked children's series before being sold onto the Storm Group (Caspian) in 1991. On the same day, Central bought a stake in Starstream, who co-founded and operated The Children's Channel – the 22% stake was sold in November 1991 to United Artists Cable International (formerly a subsidiary of United Artists Theatres, the parent company now a division of Regal Entertainment Group, and the former cable company merged into TCI, the predecessor of Liberty Media). A few months later, Central became the first ITV station to broadcast its own overnight service, including short news bulletins, imported output and the long-running Jobfinder service – launched in 1986 in partnership with the Manpower Services Commission – which went on to run for 17 years and won a Royal Television Society award. Central was also awarded the Queen's Award to Industry for Export twice, for selling its range of programming to over 80 countries around the world, in April 1987"Central", The Times, 21 April 1987, p. 30 and April 1989.
Under its growing business portfolio, Central created CTE (Central Television Enterprises) in December 1987 and opened international bureaux in Hamburg, New York City and Sydney for sales, sponsorship and newsgathering operations. CTE, the company's key international distributor of programming, would later represent output sales for Carlton Communications (for its television channel programme-HTV, Meridian and Carlton), who took over Central in 1994.
In 1989, the company founded Zodiac Entertainment – an American entertainment firm specialising in the production and distribution of animated cartoons. Central invested $35 million in the company before deciding to discontinue its production business in 1994, leaving Zodiac to become a distributor. Also in 1989,"Central Independent Television plc", The Times, 23 March 1989, p. 37; Central established Television Sales and Marketing Services Ltd (TSMS), a joint venture with Anglia Television providing airtime sales and program sponsorships, in part to recover production costs. In March 1994, Anglia acquired Central's stake in the company to take full control with Central moving over to Carlton's sales department."Too much reward without risk", The Times, 4 March 1994, p. 25
In March 1990, Central formed a partnership with The Observer newspaper to create Central Observer, making environmental themed films for British Satellite Broadcasting and terrestrial channels, with funding from the charity Television Trust for the Environment.Observer to pioneer green broadcasting. The Observer; 4 March 1990; P3
Central was unopposed in retaining its franchise in 1993, which allowed the company to bid only a token £2,000 a year (just over £5 a day)Bell, Emily. "The darling bids of May", The Observer, 19 May 1991Wittstock, Melinda. "40 bidders emerge at deadline in contest for new ITV contracts", The Times, 16 May 1991, p. 2 – though the company stressed the need to cut more jobs to become more cost-efficient,"Big two face toughest TV franchise fight", The Guardian, 16 May 1991 as the company had agreed to pay 11% of their annual advertising revenue on top of their winning bid. The station's workforce was reduced to 1500 by 1990 and then to 900 by the start of 1992 – less than half of the payroll Central had employed in 1987.
Central also profited from the auction after Meridian, a consortium in which Central held a 20% stake, won the franchise to serve the South and South East of England.'The deadline of 15 May was looming. All bids, sealed in an envelope, ...The Observer (1901– 2003); 20 October 1991;Head of Central intelligence: Leslie HillLindsay, VincentThe Observer (1901– 2003); 20 October 1991; Post-1993, the company's ITV network presence was further strengthened when it took over commissioning, presentation and compliance responsibility for a number of continuing Thames Television productions, such as Count Duckula, The Tomorrow People, This Is Your Life, Des O'Connor Tonight, Mr. Bean, Minder, Strike It Lucky and Wish You Were Here.
By April 1993, with the added increase of 8.8% in advertising revenues to £250 million and its income from programme sales rising to £83.4 million, Central became the most successful ITV company after the start of the new franchises.Laurance, Ben. "Central already coining it before franchise coup: Outlook", The Guardian, 1 April 1993
Ownership and takeover Although the IBA required 49% of the new station to be owned locally by companies and individuals, the take-up was nowhere near as expected, leaving companies outside the region to buy shares including DC Thomson (15%), Ladbrokes (10%), Pergamon (9%) and British Rail (2%).
Shortly after the station began broadcasting, Australian entrepreneur Robert Holmes à Court – via his Bell Group – started the process of acquiring Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), Central's majority shareholder, but was halted by the IBA, since the law prohibited foreign companies from controlling British television companies.Grade is ousted in £37 m ACC takeoverBrown, MaggieThe Guardian (1959–2003); 15 January 1982; By March, a rival bid from Gerald Ronson's Heron Corporation also entered the race to takeover ACC.Robinson, Philip. "New ACC bid by Holmes a'Court", The Times, 11 March 1982, p. 15Brown, Maggie. "Stampede to buy TV empire", The Guardian, 22 January 1982, p. 25 In April 1982, ACC was taken-over by Holmes à Court,Robinson, Philip. "ACC shareholders set to accept £60m offer", The Times, 15 April 1982, p. 13 with the IBA approving the deal in June on condition that ACC's 51 percent stake in Central be put in trust, thus divesting ACC of all voting power until it had reduced its shares in the broadcaster."IBA gives ACC go-ahead", The Guardian, 2 June 1982
By January 1983, 167 staff had bought shares in the station for a £1 each as part of an innovative shareholding scheme to help offload shares to local people in the Central region.Barker, Dennis. "TV staff willing to buy bigger stake in company", The Guardian, 5 January 1983 In May 1983, ACC finally sold off its stake in Central; Sears Holdings purchased 20%,Clare, Jonathan. "Sears buys stake in Central TV", The Times, 7 May 1983; p. 11 while Ladbrokes and DC Thomson also increased their stakes to 20% each, and Pergamon took its ownership to 12.5%, with 27.5% being held by single stakeholders."Central Independent Television Plc", The Times, 28 May 1983, p. 13;