50 Facts About Granada Television

1.

ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man.

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2.

Granada Television was particularly noted by critics for the distinctive northern and "social realism" character of many of its network programmes, as well as the high quality of its drama and documentaries.

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3.

Granada Television was founded by Sidney Bernstein at Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester and is the only surviving franchisee of the original four Independent Television Authority franchisees from 1954.

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4.

Granada Television plc merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004 after a duopoly had developed over the previous decade.

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5.

Granada Television originated as Granada Television Theatres Ltd, which owned cinemas in the south of England.

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6.

Granada Television was incorporated as Granada Ltd in 1934 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1935; Granada Theatres Ltd became a subsidiary of the new company.

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7.

Granada Television was broadcast by the ITA on VHF Channel 9 from the Winter Hill transmitter starting on 3 May 1956, and from 3 November 1956 on VHF channel 10 from the Emley Moor transmitter.

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8.

The investment in new studios in 1954 contributed to Granada Television struggling financially, and the company was close to insolvency by late 1956.

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9.

Granada Television sought the help of Associated-Rediffusion, the London weekday station, which agreed to underwrite Granada Television's debts in exchange for a percentage of its profits, without the consent of the ITA, who would have blocked it.

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10.

Granada Television accepted the deal, but the popularity of ITV increased and profitability followed.

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11.

Yorkshire was defined as a separate region and the contract awarded to Yorkshire Granada Television, broadcasting from Emley Moor transmitting station; its transmissions could be received in parts of North Lincolnshire.

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12.

Granada Television was received in what is Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire, the south of what is Cumbria around Barrow-in-Furness, the High Peak district of Derbyshire and parts of the Isle of Man.

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13.

Granada Television retained its franchise in the 1980 franchise review, and invested in multimillion-pound dramatic serial productions such as The Jewel in the Crown and Brideshead Revisited.

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14.

Mersey Television, a company producing the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, bid £35m compared to Granada's £9m but Granada won as Mersey's package did not meet the 'quality threshold' applied by the Independent Television Commission.

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15.

Granada Television's departure angered well-known media-industry figures; John Cleese sent Robinson a fax using "vitriolic language" that called him an "upstart caterer" .

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16.

Granada Television wanted to consolidate with Yorkshire and Tyne Tees to "counter the potential dominance of the south east", and the prospect of being taken over by Thames.

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17.

Granada Television was in a poor financial state and closed the Granada Television Studios Tour in 2001, citing decreasing visitor figures.

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18.

The Granada Television name was shown before regional programmes, but this has ceased; its name has all but disappeared from screens, as have all other ITV regional identities.

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19.

The Granada Television logo appeared at the end of its own programmes until 31 October 2004.

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20.

Granada Television was permitted by the government to merge with Carlton on 2 February 2004 to form ITV plc.

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21.

In November 2006, Granada Television lost its on-air identity when regional programming voiced ITV1 or ITV1 Granada Television over a generic ident.

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22.

Bernstein exaggerated the scale of the studios, to make Granada Television appear a rival to the BBC, and gave the studios only even numbers so that it appeared there were twelve despite there only being six.

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23.

In March 2009, in the recession, Granada Television announced it would remain at Quay Street, but after a change of management, talks resumed in January 2010.

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24.

Two years later, on 16 December 2010, Granada Television announced it would move to the Orange Building in MediaCityUK alongside the University of Salford.

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25.

Granada Television was one of the few regions that did not play "God Save the Queen" at closedown.

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26.

The arrow pointed at the "n" in Granada Television, pointing north and sometimes animated revealing the slogan "From the North", before the Granada Television name.

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27.

Colour emblem was used from the 1970s until it was replaced by a series of idents to celebrate Granada Television's 30th anniversary on 3 May 1986, when it was a computer animated pointed "G" against a graded background and a cake covered in candles in the pointed G shape.

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28.

On 1 September 1986, Granada Television reverted to using a caption featuring a gold or chrome 3D pointed "G" on a graded blue background.

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29.

Granada Television used in-vision continuity featuring northern personalities giving messages.

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30.

On 5 June 1989, Granada Television launched a look featuring a translucent pointed G, which rotated into place in time to the music against a natural scene.

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31.

Granada Television used a version with its translucent logo shown at the beginning, before continuing with the generic ident and ending with the generic ITV logo.

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32.

On 3 January 1994, Granada Television introduced a series of films featuring flags with its logo against various scenes in the region, accompanied by the slogan 'Setting the Standard'.

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33.

Granada Television kept the pointed G logo, made slightly thinner and placed in a box at the top of the screen.

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34.

The celebrities ident package featured plain ITV1 idents for all national programmes, and Granada Television placed under the ITV1 logo for regional programmes.

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35.

The Granada Television name was used on announcements before local programming over a generic ITV1 ident until all non-news regional programming was scrapped.

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36.

Granada Television's coverage was broad in scope, and it broadcast two candidate debates.

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37.

Over 50 years later, Granada Television Studios hosted the first General Election debate among the leaders of the three main political parties.

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38.

Granada Television produced gritty drama series such as A Family at War, set during the Second World War.

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39.

Granada Television produced The Stars Look Down, Laurence Olivier Presents, Brideshead Revisited, the multi-award-winning Disappearing World series and, from 1984, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Jewel in the Crown for an international audience.

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40.

Granada Television drew on 1970s pop music with shows such as Lift Off with Ayshea and the Bay City Rollers show, Shang-a-lang.

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41.

Granada Television produced Allsorts from 1989 to 1995 for CITV, featuring Wayne Jackman, Andrew Wightman, Virginia Radcliffe, Jane Cox and Julie Westwood.

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42.

Granada Television Studios produced The Weekenders, a surreal comedy episode featuring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

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43.

Granada Television introduced many broadcasters to British television, and a number of its directors, producers and writers went on to create their own production companies.

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44.

Several of Granada Television's programmes administered their websites using G-Wizz, including This Morning, Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

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45.

In 1996 Granada Television joined BSkyB to form a joint venture, Granada Television Sky Broadcasting providing content and new channels to the satellite platform.

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46.

Granada Television Breeze was scaled down in July 2001 before ceasing operation in March 2002 due to poor viewing figures.

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47.

Granada Television Talk TV focused on chat shows and closed after less than a year on air.

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48.

The opponents claimed to the regulatory bodies that existed at the time in these successive franchise rounds that Granada Television was too Manchester-centric at the expense of the Liverpool area and need to cater for the whole of north west England.

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49.

In 1993, Brian Sedgemore MP complained that promises Granada Television made during the 1991 franchise round to open offices in Chester, Lancaster and Blackburn were not fulfilled, but David Liddiment at Granada Television did not believe this assertion to be true.

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50.

Granada Television had increased investment in Liverpool moving its regional news service to the Albert Dock complex in 1986, before moving back to Quay Street sometime in the early 2000s.

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