Channel Television during the 1979 ITV Strike

Channel Television was the only ITV franchise that kept broadcasting throughout the strike that blacked out the rest of the network. I know that there was an agreement by the broadcasting trade unions not to down tools for concerns it would destroy the station. What did it broadcast?

Local programming, imports and films I would imagine.

Oh definitely but I'm curious. Can anyone provide any listings?

The good folks at the Channel Archive can

August 1979 and the ITV Technicians strike hits Channel, forcing an incredibly hasty rewrite of the schedule. pic.twitter.com/gfAbqkXdjD

— The Channel Archive (@ChannelArchive) December 30, 2017

Another example here from later in the strike - I believe the Channel management went over to the mainland and filled up a van with reels of film from other ITV companies.

From inside that '79 TV Times. Strike listings on left, normal schedule on right. pic.twitter.com/Cya8t2vowk

— The Channel Archive (@ChannelArchive) May 10, 2016

And an interview with a retired member of Channel staff who was there during the strike

Meet Roy Heaven. He was our Master Controller from 1962 until 1993. Due to a technicians strike 39 years ago, all the ITV regions went off the air apart from Channel. So here's a little snippet of his memories of those days... pic.twitter.com/Rix3Jxfo0N

— The Channel Archive (@ChannelArchive) August 11, 2018

So looks like instead of the usual 10 minute bulletin they had an hour long bulletin at 6pm which must have been a big ask.

I wonder what they filled it with, surely there can't be an hour's worth of news on the channel islands. Unless they threw in some national news & sport too.

Wow! That must have a real test of their endurance. I'm amazed and quite humbled that they were able to provide what looked to be quite a considerable schedule.

The listings above say it included national news and "another look back with more from Channel's film archives".

They did incredibly well, kind of puts the pathetic efforts of present day local TV into perspective. I’d be interested to see how the audience ratings fared against BBC 1 and 2 ?

I think that's a bit unfair. Very different circumstances.

If I remember correctly, Channel TV sent someone to London with a van, to collect videos and films from Thames TV and/or LWT, and brought these copies back to the Channel Islands, so they could broadcast them. In addition, every day, someone from the news department was sent in a car to the most northerly point on Jersey, from what I can remember reading, and they would use their car radio to pick up the radio signals from the mainland. They would then note down the main national and international news stories, and would later, return to the Channel TV studios, and the copy that they wrote down would form the basis for the national and international news.

The strike does lead me to ask this question; what happened with regards to advertising? In 1979, Channel took a dirty feed from Westward, and the latter showed the national adverts, such as for Saab cars, levis jeans, with Channel opting out only to screen local advertising. What sort of advertising did Channel show during the strike? Did they only screen adverts for local firms, or were ads for larger firms shown as well?