49 Facts About ITV Granada

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

ITV 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.

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

The Granada name, as with those of the other former regional licence holders, is only referenced onscreen during regional news bulletins and the weeknight regional news magazine; ITV Broadcasting Limited operates the service with national ITV branding and continuity.

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

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ITV Granada Studios, designed by architect Ralph Tubbs, was built on a site on Quay Street in Manchester city centre belonging to Manchester City Council, which the company bought for £82,000.

ITV 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.

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

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

ITV 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.

ITV Granada 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.

ITV Granada owned popular television series such as Coronation Street, which it threatened to sell to satellite TV if the franchise was lost.

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

ITV Granada 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.

ITV Granada continued to expand by acquiring Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television for £652m in 1997 and bought UNM's television assets for £1.

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

The emergence of digital television cut ITV Granada's viewing share, decreasing advertising revenue, which was already suffering from competition with the internet.

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

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

In 2009, ITV removed the Granada brand from all departments including its international production arm, Granada America which became ITV Studios America.

Bernstein exaggerated the scale of the studios, to make ITV Granada 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.

ITV Granada anticipated the BBC would buy the land but the BBC opted to move to the Peel Group's MediaCityUK development in Salford Quays.

ITV Granada considered relocating to Trafford Wharf across the Manchester Ship Canal from the BBC at MediaCityUK.

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

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

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

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

Colour emblem was used from the 1970s until it was replaced by a series of idents to celebrate ITV 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.

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

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

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

On 3 January 1994, ITV 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'.

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

The dual branding of Granada Television and ITV lasted until 28 October 2002, when regional identities were dropped in favour of the new ITV1 channel brand.

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

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

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

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

ITV Granada 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.

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

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

ITV 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

ITV Granada 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.