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Channel Television during the 1979 ITV Strike

How did it continue broadcasting? (June 2019)

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CO
commseng
It's not always about rules or laws.
Sometimes it is what you can get away with, or can do without causing problems for yourselves.
Whatever the rights or wrongs, Channel staff and management would only be able to look at themselves, and what they could do.
They were never in a position to take on the whole UK no matter what potentially could have been done with the view from 2019.
CO
commseng
JexedBack posted:
Quote:
and one was on the verge of handing its licence back,


Which one was that and why?

Border.
TT
ttt
...
Last edited by ttt on 2 July 2019 2:29pm
SP
Steve in Pudsey
bluecortina posted:
Markymark posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:

I was thinking more of providing copies of the adverts they would normally have shown on the other stations. Dealing with Channel rather than Westward for a few weeks may not have been too onerous? Channel did have a London sales office, I think.


My copies of IBA yearbooks are out of reach at present. I thought Westward/TSW/TVS just gave them a cut of their ad revenue. It’s a shame no recordings of Channel’s self sustaining output exists, it would be interesting to see what national ads there were ?


Did Channel even have a 35mm telecine to play film comms ? in1979 35mm film was the dominant format for the distribution of comms.

I had heard that they didn't, but I'm prepared to take the word of this gent who was there at the time



Markymark and bilky asko gave kudos
CO
commseng
ttt posted:
JexedBack posted:
Quote:
and one was on the verge of handing its licence back,


Which one was that and why?


Border. Their profits dwindled in the 1970s to around £10,000 and the company thought long and hard about giving it up as a bad job. I think it was only the prospect of national productions for Channel Four which changed their mind (and indeed network productions did help the bottom line considerably in the 1980s, from which they were able to invest in radio stations - the core TV business remained pretty flat).

Didn't the IBA extend their transmission area too, adding relays in the Lake District?
TT
ttt
...
Last edited by ttt on 2 July 2019 2:29pm
JA
james-2001
Surely channel must have had film facilities, to be able to play out those various films & US imports they ran during the strike.

Possible they were all 16mm copies though, of course.
JK
JKDerry
james-2001 posted:
Surely channel must have had film facilities, to be able to play out those various films & US imports they ran during the strike.

Possible they were all 16mm copies though, of course.

They had film facilities, just not proper video tape facilities.
IS
Inspector Sands
james-2001 posted:
Surely channel must have had film facilities, to be able to play out those various films & US imports they ran during the strike.

Possible they were all 16mm copies though, of course.

See https://www.tvforum.co.uk/forums/post1175499#post-1175499
MA
Markymark
bluecortina posted:
If I could earn say £25k a year in Plymouth why the heck would I go to Carlisle for half the money?


Because possibly the cost of living in Carlisle was less than the South East, and a nicer place to live ?
SW
Steve Williams
Ne1L C posted:
Reminds me of something from Greg Dyke's book "Inside Story". He told a story while he was at LWT about how to bypass union issues they were going to broadcast from Holland.


Yes, although I think that was never seriously considered, I think they just used to float the idea to keep the unions in line. I know they got members of management to ostentaiously walk around with Dutch phrasebooks to spook some of the staff.

Steve in Pudsey posted:
That was my understanding, but companies who would usually have bought advertising on Westward might have approached Channel directly as the only opportunity to advertise on TV?


I'm not sure many companies who usually advertised on Westward would advertise on Channel instead, as most companies on the mainland didn't trade in the Channel Islands.

ttt posted:
Border was more similar in terms of revenue to Channel than it was to Thames. Seems a little unfair that.


But presumably, with a smaller staff, there would have been more to do at Border?
BL
bluecortina
ttt posted:
So "cheap as chips" that two of the regional companies had to be rescued by larger neighbours (before 1990), and one was on the verge of handing its licence back, such was the state of its funding.

So "cheap as chips" that the current ITV consider it utterly unviable and have successfully lobbied for the effective closure of two of the small regions. And the latter is only the news service.


You are trying to conflate two different issues, the cost of local programming (inc news provision) and the cost of network programming. The present ITV could stop all local and national news provision tomorrow if it chose to and was prepared to walk away from being a PSB broadcaster. ITV have weighed up the cost of that provision versus the advantages and consequences and have decided the cost is worth it. You also do not seem to realise that ITV is a business, not a charity, but you are not alone in that.

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