ITV abandons the South Bank

The fact is, the That's tv areas are just too small. That's Lancashire, That's wherever theres a population of less that 50k. The ITV areas were much larger, geographically, and so you didn't just have 3 hours of repeated news where the top story is about a pub hiring a new barman etc.

The other thing was that the ITV companies after 1993 had to commission a minimum 25% of their programming from independents. It could be suggested that if you went back to the old business model, with 14 separate companies, with their own studio facilities, then if ITV wished to commission a series, the ITV companies could tender for the right to produce the series, as could independents.

Still would never have guaranteed that the studio complexes, such as Eastern Way in Carlisle, or City Road in Newcastle, would be filled will wall to wall productions.

The reality is that ITV as evolved into a single, unified channel, it didn't and couldn't commission or broadcast enough studio shows from : STV, Grampian, UTV, Border, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire, Granada, Anglia, Central, HTV, TSW/Westcountry, TVS/Meridian, Thames/Carlton, LWT, Channel to justify all of them having studio centres (in some cases - TVS, Central, Anglia, Thames - multiple studio centres)

The writing was on the wall before 1993 - that's why both Carlton and Meridian (and Westcountry?) effectively pitched successfully and launched as pubcasters. Meridian kept Northam running but wasn't really that interested in making their own studio productions, and post 1993 the closures started as the inevitable mergers started.

If you count the number of studios ITV had in total in the late 80s - it was clear there was a ridiculous level of overcapacity based on ITV network output - and ITV regional output of large studio shows was hardly going to be a significant element of output moving forward.

There was a degree of mitigation as Channel Four commissioned some studio shows (The Tube from Tyne Tees for instance) - but even then the capacity wasn't needed where ITV had it - and facilities like Limehouse picked up more C4 work than ITV regional studios I guess.

The irony is that we've gone from ridiculous over capacity (even the BBC had too much studio capacity in the 90s) - to having to convert film studios rather than using purpose built studios... The pendulum has swung too far - but that's probably inevitable.

(C4 Racing also kept Thames / Anglia / Yorkshire's OB fleets viable for a bit longer than would otherwise have been the case too)

I do wonder if anyone in the late 80s would have predicted TVS at Vintners Park would be the last real ITV studio centre from that era that survived as a fully flexible studio centre 30 years later (*)? I can't think of any other properly equipped studio centre left that's still making a decent amount of output (Granada Quay Street may come back into that fold) I'm sure people would have though Granada, LWT and Thames studios would have been more likely to have survived.

(*) EPIC (ex-Anglia studios) in Norwich could also be considered I guess - and it is occasionally used for network productions like World of Sport Wrestling, but it's not quite the same as Maidstone Studios in on-air use.

You could also look back from the 70s and add the ATV Elstree operation (now BBC Elstree and home of Children in Need and General Election shows I guess)

There was also the issue that today’s big shows were too big for the biggest traditional TV shows.

Would TXF/BGT etc, had their been 90s shows have come from TLS studio 1?

So regarding ITV ditching its plans for a new base on the South Bank, would it be an option for them to still build a new standalone studio for This Morning there or would that be completely out of the question?

I was thinking of this too, I seem to remember watching a recent clip where the editor said that the River is significant to the This Morning brand. Even the current branding is apparently to signify "ripples of the Albert dock". Makes you think whether or not that has gone out the window now or whether they will relocate back as mentioned? I can't really see how they would update their current set to without ruining the 'Studio 8 illusion'. Though I'm probably wrong!

Well, that would always be an option - much like Cactus built their own studios for Richard and Judy and then Saturday Kitchen because they decided it would be more cost-effective than hiring an existing studio. But it depends what works for them.

Is there any requirement for ITV Breakfast/Daytime to produce their shows from their own facilities (or ones rented from BBC Studioworks)?


Could they not just outsource the whole operation to an indie?

I can't see any legal reason why ITV couldn't commission the ITV Daytime shows from Indies, or from ITN, as long as they met any licensing conditions that their Breakfast licence 0600-0925 may have (if that still exists as a separate licence). They would be free to use any studios they liked (their own or third party) unless ITV stipulated differently in the tender.

However whether this would make business sense is a different matter.

Well X Factor and BGT both came from former ITV Studios until recently didn't they?

Fountain Studios was an ex-ITV operation and was built for the predecessor to Thames (Associated Rediffusion), and used by LWT prior to (and after?) their South Bank Centre opening.

It's surely an option for them - but they will only pursue it if it makes good business sense for them.

Of course it’s an option, but given ITV are strongly signalling that they are not interested in the nuts and bolts of television production, I think it very unlikely. The current CEO and the new CFO both come from enterprises that are firmly focussed on delivering for shareholders. It does lead to wondering why the current chairman has changed horses mid stream?

The idea behind the original South Bank plan was to have everyone under one roof and for a company as big as ITV not to have it's own HQ is apparently fairly unusual. What it has now - rented accommodation in Grays Inn Road, Holborn and White City, along with the hired facilities at TVC and BT Sport - probably isn't that conducive to being a long term arrangement, it was only intended to be temporary after all.

I would have thought that ITV will have to find a new HQ at some point, though it wouldn't necessarily have studios in it of course. My prediction is that they'll end up relocating everything under one roof at either Chiswick or Stratford (the latter would provide a river location too should it really be that important)