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Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

(August 2010)

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LO
lobster
ok, I'm going back to basics here so keep with me:

I was under the impression that back in the day, if you were in the anglia region watching a programme made by granada (for example), that programme was actually being played out by granada, fed to your own local station in some way?

so, how did this work? did each region have a feed to each other region or was there just a single switchable feed ?

if so how/where was this switched and how responsive was it to technical failures and last minute schedule changes?

presumably, if one region was responsible for playing out a programme for the entire network, there was another region on standby in case of failure?

did all regions have the ability to playout to network or were some of the smaller companies (such as border and channel) helped out by one the nearer, larger itv regions?
Last edited by lobster on 10 August 2010 3:43pm - 3 times in total
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
My pal hit play on a much anticipated series finale for Taggart, playing from Cowcaddens out to the network. Millions waiting to watch.

Sweaty palms, he said.
ST
Stuart
My pal hit play on a much anticipated series finale for Taggart, playing from Cowcaddens out to the network. Millions waiting to watch.

Sweaty palms, he said.

Isn't this the sort of thing that ITV Network Ltd were responsible for arranging - the co-operation between franchisees to allow distrubution from one company across the entire network, albeit the originator as the one responsible for maintaining the broadcast?
RJ
RJG
The programmes were originally played out by the originating company. If I'm not mistaken, the Post Office (later British Telecom), had a role in distribution and switching. In later years the system was automated and run off a computerised clock and, I remember, on one occasion a news bulletin overran by a few minutes and no adjustments were made. The next programme, a quiz, was reaching its climax and just as the contestants were going for the jackpot the feed switched to colour bars from the originators of the next programme. There was no way of switching back.
Companies did help each other out, on occasion. Both Grampian and Border provided facilities when there was a major fire at the STV studios in Glasgow in 1969.
JJ
jjne
AIUI each ITV company had a number of lines which were switched by BT from a central location. Bigger stations tended to have more connections than smaller ones but even the small stations such as Border would have a handful. Bearing in mind that many programmes were only part-networked, the system needed to be flexible.

Even Children's ITV programmes were sourced from the contractor that made the programme. I recall that whenever Tyne Tees had a kids' programme networked, TTTV would opt-out of the CITV feed and play their programme straight from their own feed; YTV would go from being very slightly ahead of TT to very slightly behind during the course of the programme. The image quality would often improve marginally as a result of this transition as well, but the opts were usually fairly jarring.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
In IBA days, it was the Authority who arranged all the circuit bookings with BT as I understand it, with Thames/LWT as "nominated contractor" co-ordinating things on the day and dealing with any last minute schedule changes via redphone conference calls. The "ITV Network" was very dynamic, and BT could arrange to connect stations up in lots of different configurations, particularly when there were clusters of regions taking different programmes.

Back in those days the individual ITV contractors worked together quite closely - particularly the likes of Scottish and Grampian - I recall Tony Currie recounting stories of them recording things for each other when they had run out of circuits/ VT machines. The obvious example of another region playing something out for the originator is Channel, of course, whose technical connection to the ITV network was off-air, and in one direction only. They had no outgoing circuit so tapes or film would need to be taken to the UK Mainland for playout.

Interestingly, the way the ITV network was reconfigured between each programme was one of the reasons for live announcers - stations needed to go to a network programme off the back of something coming from a camera (either a slide, a clock or IVC) because cameras are one of the few pieces of kit which could cope with sync pulses being tweaked while they were on air while the station genlocked to the next network source. Fascinating reading: http://www.mausoleumclubforum.org.uk/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=17097&page=1#pid226869
RD
rdd Founding member
My pal hit play on a much anticipated series finale for Taggart, playing from Cowcaddens out to the network. Millions waiting to watch.

Sweaty palms, he said.

Isn't this the sort of thing that ITV Network Ltd were responsible for arranging - the co-operation between franchisees to allow distrubution from one company across the entire network, albeit the originator as the one responsible for maintaining the broadcast?


There wasn't any ITV Network Centre until 1992 and no ITV Network Limited until 1998. Before that the central body, such as it was, was the Independent Television (Companies) Association, but under the ITV Live Network Agreement (which governed the ITV networking arrangements up until the end of the 1980s), it was the Programme Controllers Committee, which consisted of the directors of programming for Thames, LWT, Central, Yorkshire, and Granada, who decided what programmes aired in what timeslots. As I recall the IBA may also have sat in on that committee. The point being that it was the Big Five who collectively ran the network and the other Ten had to basically go along with what they decided.
SW
Steve Williams
jjne posted:
Even Children's ITV programmes were sourced from the contractor that made the programme.


That's right, while all the links came from Central and between 1983 and 1987, they were pre-recorded, so they had leave the camera rolling for a minute after all the Children's ITV links so there'd be something to show if the region responsible of the next show was late starting. Although after a while they finished every link with graphics that could run for ages so it didn't look so stupid. You can see an example five minutes into here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBIuWWldKGg

Because they were pre-recorded, as well, there was one occasion when Derek Griffiths didn't know what he was going to be introducing, so just said "And now, a surprise!".

The various imports were all presented for the network by a particular company, too, it's been said here before but on the Monday before the ITV strike in 1979, Thames went on strike between the two parts of a US import shown around the news, and they were feeding it to the network so nobody saw the end. And I remember Yorkshire used to present Home and Away for the network.
:-(
A former member
So who controlled the play out for the "imports" ? Murder she wrote, Kojak, Sons and daughters?

Or where there all sent tapes?
BE
Ben Founding member
Some regions took imports from other regions while others played them from tapes, but it depends on how things were scheduled. I'm guessing Thames would play them by default.

I recall seeing a clip from CITV circa 1994 where Sooty started late so just as the end credits began rolling whoever was sitting up in Granadaland crossed faded to a Granada production caption which I suppose was making the best of a bad situation.
JJ
jjne
So who controlled the play out for the "imports" ? Murder she wrote, Kojak, Sons and daughters?

Or where there all sent tapes?


TTTV used to play most US programmes direct from telecine.
:-(
A former member
I have seen a few old tv listings and Central seems to have a good number following it lead. STV where know for moving things about including high noted shows.

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