Granada Reports

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Lucy Meacock pays tribute to Tony Wilson on the 10th anniversary of his death.

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2017-08-10/tony-wilson-my-on-screen-tv-partner-my-off-screen-friend/

Read that on the bus today. Really made some memories come back. I miss all of those old Granada shows and growing up in the area felt so vibrant and exciting

Tony was definitely a Granadaland cornerstone.

A brilliant article that really makes me miss the Granada of the 80s and 90s. I don't think it's worth comparing it with the ITV of today - they are both totally different things - but it does make you wonder why such a level of regional-ism was viable then but isn't now.

Because back then itv was the only game in town then. Now we have loads of commercial tv channels.

Because there were only 4 TV channels and they were forced to do it by regulation

As was once said before, we can't be too upset at Granada's decline because they're the ones who started it.

Nice compilation of Tony Wilson clips...

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2017-08-10/watch-tonys-greatest-hits/

Wow 7 minutes of footage there... lots of great bits there!

Antony and Lucy were a great pairing. It makes you realise how Lucy and Tony nowadays just don't have anywhere near the same chemistry despite presenting together for nearly 14 years now.

By introducing 100s of extra channels meaning they no longer had all the ad revenue? I would have thought Sky and BSB started that.

Ray Fitzwalter's The Rise and Fall of ITV is worth a read for an insider's account of the decline of Granada and the end of the ITV of old.

Although to be fair ITV now is effectively Granada.

As for the argument regional TV died because 100s of extra channels compete for the revenue - 90% of those don't get the ratings any individual region would, so I'd still say if there was a will that more regional content would be viable. The reason it's died on ITV is because profits go straight to shareholders rather than into programming.