Tyne Tees Television

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Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television contractor for North East England. It is a part of ITV plc.

[edit] The station

ITV Tyne Tees broadcasts from Television House at The Watermark, Gateshead, following their relocation from their famous home of over 40 years at City Road Studios in Newcastle upon Tyne. The first broadcasts from their new home took place on 2 July, 2005.

Television House also acts as a base for ITV SignPost, 'Britain's biggest supplier of British Sign Language (BSL) services for television, video, CD-ROM, DVD, film and the Internet'. [1]. Tyne Tees also has smaller studios and offices in Billingham, York, London and within the Media Centre at the University of Sunderland.

[edit] Opening and programming

It went on air at 5.00pm on 15 January 1959. The then prime minister Harold Macmillan was interviewed live on the opening night.

The station is named after two of the region's three primary rivers. The other major river, the Wear (which runs between the Tyne and the Tees), was represented within the company's early signature tune "Three Rivers Fantasy", a specially commissioned work by noted composer and arranger Arthur Wilkinson.

Tyne Tees Television's flagship regional programme is North East Tonight, a local news programme broadcast at 6.00pm. Although Tyne Tees Television is not a prolific contributor to ITV's network programming, it has produced a range of popular shows, such as adaptations of Catherine Cookson novels for ITV and the 100 Greatest... series of clip shows for Channel 4. Previously, it made Face The Press, Crosswits and Supergran, among others, for ITV.

The architecture of the public entrance to the City Road complex gave music show The Tube its title.

[edit] Mergers and branding

On 1 January, 1974, Tyne Tees Television merged with its neighbour, Yorkshire Television, to form Trident Television Limited. The two stations remained separately run and were required to demerge in 1981 as a condition of the re-award of their ITV contracts. However, following rule changes in 1992, the two stations resumed their alliance under the name Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc. From 1 January, 1993, Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees broadcast all regional programmes simultaneously. Some programmes had been shown at differing paces within the two regions, notably acquired Australian programmes such as The Young Doctors and the regionally-transmitted quiz show Blockbusters. Yorkshire viewers had to skip over 200 episodes of The Young Doctors to screen the same episodes as Tyne Tees, and similarly Tyne Tees had to skip a considerable number of editions of Blockbusters. Tyne Tees were extremely generous by mailing out VHS copies of the programme to the young contestants from the Tyne Tees region, whose particular editions were eventually not transmitted in this region.

On 16 March, 1996, the continuity studios in Newcastle were closed, with continuity being centralised in Leeds. Later that year Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television made the controversial move of dual branding its stations as "Channel 3". (Channel 3 was, for a time, the 'official' name for ITV, but was not used by other stations.) Tyne Tees Television was forced to use the rather long-winded name "Channel 3 North East - Tyne Tees Television". The famous "TTTV" logo was dropped in favour of a large '3'. The name "Tyne Tees Television" was only seen in small letters at the bottom of the screen. Its neighbour, Yorkshire Television, was allowed to keep its own logo alongside the '3', but Tyne Tees was not. The new branding was launched on 2 September 1996.

In 1997, Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television plc was acquired by Granada Group plc (now ITV plc). One of Granada's first moves was to scrap the-often derided Channel 3 branding. The "TTTV" logo returned to television screens in a new form on 9 March, 1998. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later.

On 28 October 2002, Tyne Tees Television was rebranded as ITV1 Tyne Tees. The name "Tyne Tees" only appears before regional programmes; the rest of the time, only the name "ITV1" is shown. The Tyne Tees logo continued to appear after its own programmes, accompanied by a small Granada logo to identify its parent company. However, on 1 November, 2004, this was replaced with a new Granada endcap, with the words 'A Granada Tyne Tees Production'.

On 9 February, 2005, OFCOM issued a proposed timetable for ending analogue terrestrial television transmissions, as part of the switchover to digital television. 2012 is the target year for Tyne Tees.

On 27 July, 2006, it was announced that Tyne Tees is to take over the relay transmitter at Berwick-upon-Tweed from its neighbour, ITV Border, in connection with that station's switchover to digital broadcasting. This means that Berwick will now go digital in 2011 along with the rest of the Tyne Tees region. [2]

[edit] Names used

Company names:

• Tyne Tees Television Limited (1959-present)
• Trident Television Limited (1970s-31 December 1981) - parent company
• Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc (1995-present) - parent company

On-air names:

• Tyne Tees (1959-1996, 1998-2002, although still used inconsistently 1996-1998 and 2002-2005)
• Channel 3 North East (1996-1998)
• ITV1 Tyne Tees (2005-)

Initials used:

• TTT (1959-1970)
• TTTV (1970-2002, although still used inconsistently afterwards)

Nicknames used:

• Tees (1959-present, still used by viewers and (rarely) used on air until about 1996)

Start-up announcements:

• This is Tyne Tees Television, broadcasting to North-East England, and the North Riding of Yorkshire from the Burnhope, Pontop Pike & associated transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (Used up until 1974 when the North Riding of Yorkshire became The County of North Yorkshire)
• This is Tyne Tees Television, broadcasting to North-East England & North Yorkshire from the Burnhope, Pontop Pike & associated transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority
• This is Tyne Tees Television, broadcasting to North-East England & North Yorkshire from the Pontop Pike, Bilsdale, Chatton & associated transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority(Final announcement before the requirement was stopped by the IBA).

[edit] Notable Tyne Tees Television productions

• 100 Greatest... (for Channel 4)
• After They Were Famous... (now produced by Granada Yorkshire)
• Various Catherine Cookson dramas, including The Fifteen Streets and The Black Velvet Gown (the latter winning an International Emmy)
• Chain Letters
• Crosswits
• The Famous Five (1996 version - co-produced with a number of other companies including HTV)
• Ghost Train (Co-ordinated for ITV from London office)
• Firm Friends
• Finney
• Follow Your Nose
• Gilbert's Fridge
• Highway (co-ordinated for ITV from its London office)
• How Dare You
• Gimme 5
• Madabout
• Razamatazz
• The Roxy
• Supergran
• The Tube
• North East Tonight - hosted by Mike Neville until his illness in 2005 and retirement in 2006

Most of Tyne Tees Television's surviving output from 1959 to 1988 is preserved by the Northern Region Film and Television Archive.

[edit] External links

• itv.com - ITV Tyne Tees
• TyneTees.TV
• Tyne Tees Logo Page (unofficial history site)
• SignPost (BSL translation provider, part of Tyne Tees)
• Animated Tyne Tees ident, 1959, from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
• Animated Tyne Tees Ident (Colour) from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
• Tyne Tees Television on TV Ark
• Digital switchover confusion is resolved - report on the switching of the Berwick relay transmitter to broadcast Tyne Tees

Categories: ITV franchisees | North East England | Newcastle upon Tyne media | 1959 establishments