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ITV Yorkshire

ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network. Until 1974, this was primarily the historic county of Yorkshire (with the exception of the northern areas of North Yorkshire which are served by Tyne Tees) and parts of neighbouring counties served by the Emley Moor transmitter. Following a reorganisation in 1974 the transmission area was extended to include Lincolnshire, northwestern Norfolk and parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, served by the Belmont transmitter.

Two consortia applied for the franchise, Telefusion Yorkshire Ltd and Yorkshire Independent Television, the former having large financial backing (supported by the Blackpool-based Telefusion television rental chain) and the latter having the better plans but fewer resources.

On 1 January 2007, the company transferred its programme production business to ITV Studios Limited. As a consequence, Yorkshire Television Limited ceased to trade on 1 January 2007. Yorkshire Television Ltd still legally exists, but its licence is now owned and operated by ITV plc under the licence name of ITV Broadcasting Limited (along with all the other ITV plc-owned franchises). Yorkshire Television Ltd is, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed with Companies House as a dormant company.

History
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television, and sometimes abbreviated to YTV or Yorkshire, has its origins in the 1967 franchise round. That round stipulated that the influential pan-North region, the licence which was owned by Granada Television and ABC, both based in Manchester, had to be split up. Consequently, it was decided that Granada would keep the North West franchise and a new franchise created for Yorkshire.

On 28 February 1967, national and regional newspapers carried numerous advertisements from the Independent Television Authority, each requesting applicants for various new ITV contracts, one of which was Programme Contractor for Yorkshire Area (Contract D) – All Week. Ten formal bids were received by the closing date; another less-serious bid, Diddy TV, headed by comedian Ken Dodd withdrew their application.

Telefusion Yorkshire Limited, created by the Blackpool-based TV rental chain Telefusion and led by Grampian TV Managing Director G E Ward Thomas, was selected as the winning bid. It was chosen on the condition that it 'merged' with another applicant Yorkshire Independent Television. The latter, backed by a consortium of Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd, other local newspaper groups such as the Huddersfield Examiner and the Scarborough Evening News, several Yorkshire-based Co-operative societies, trade unions and local universities, was deemed by the Authority to have the better talent but suffered a lack of funding, whereas Telefusion had the backing of a cash-rich parent. The new venture initially chose the name Yorkshire Television Network but decided to drop the word 'Network' before going on air. A few days after winning, the chairman Sir Richard Graham said: "We see ourselves as having a particular responsibility to convey to a mature audience the particular qualities and strengths of one of the most populous and most important areas outside London."

The station began broadcasting on 29 July 1968 from new studios at Kirkstall Road in Leeds. Although they were purpose-built for colour production and equipped with £2.2 million of equipment, the majority of initial broadcasts were in monochrome until the ITV network formally launched its colour output on 15 November 1969. After an opening ceremony led by The Duchess of Kent, the station's first programme was live coverage of the Test cricket match between England and Australia at Headingley. Other programmes broadcast on YTV's opening day included the first edition of its regional news programme Calendar, the station's first networked production – the 'Playhouse' drama Daddy Kiss it Better – and a light entertainment special, First Night, hosted by Bob Monkhouse. The station was hit hard financially when the transmitter mast at Emley Moor collapsed in March 1969 under a heavy build-up of ice. This left the major part of the region uncovered by Yorkshire Television plus BBC2 who broadcast from the same mast. A temporary mast was quickly erected and television to the West Riding of Yorkshire resumed, albeit with reduced coverage. From this, the company grew and by May 1970 the company was making profits of over £689,000. After a series of temporary masts at Emley Moor, the current 275 metre reinforced concrete tower — topped by a 55-metre steel lattice mast — began transmitting in 1971, resuming full area coverage for the YTV region.

In June 1969, talks began between Yorkshire and Anglia about achieving a cost-cutting exercise by sharing equipment and facilities. Neither company planned joint productions or a merger. The decision to form an association was purely down to the costs of the increased levy on the companies' advertising revenue by the government, and the cost of colour TV. The ITA stated there was no reason why the companies should not have talks about sensible economies that could be made, but would examine all details before any association were to be implemented. In January 1970, a warning was given that regionalism would be abandoned and a forced merger with Anglia Television would happen unless the chancellor reduced the levy applied on advertising revenues, which was also not helped by the high cost with colour television and the introduction of UHF, which the government agreed to a few months later.

With the introduction of UHF broadcasting, YTV had failed to gain the Bilsdale transmitter in North Yorkshire, which was allocated instead to Tyne Tees Television due to the transmitter's penetration into Teesside and County Durham. This seriously reduced YTV's monopoly commercial broadcast area. Partially to address this issue, in 1974 the Independent Broadcasting Authority reallocated the Belmont Transmitter, then served by Anglia Television, to YTV. Although the area served by Belmont was largely rural, it did cover the more industrial centres of Hull, Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Lincoln and it was felt the region would be better served from Leeds rather than from Norwich.

Trident Television
In August 1970 following a reverse takeover Yorkshire Television was effectively merged with its neighbour Tyne Tees Television, when the two were brought under the control of Trident Television Limited, a company formed to deal with the problem of effective ownership of the Bilsdale transmitter and the allocation of airtime. It is often contended that the other point of the trident was intended to be Anglia Television, but they were prevented from joining by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. However, it appears that the third 'point' was to be Trident's non-television interests and that Anglia were never considered as partners in the enterprise.

The two stations remained separately run and were required to demerge by late 1981 as a condition of the re-awarding of their ITV contracts from January 1982. Trident's majority shareholdings were sold although they retained ownership of studios and equipment which were leased to the respective companies.

On 28 March 1977, Yorkshire launched a breakfast television experiment. Good Morning Calendar is credited as being the UK's first breakfast television programme, six years before the launch of the BBC's Breakfast Time. The programme ran concurrently with a similar Tyne Tees programme, Good Morning North for North East viewers. Both series ended after nine weeks on 27 May 1977.

1970s: Industrial relations
From its inception YTV had a turbulent relationship with the broadcasting unions (a common theme within ITV). Many employees at the new company were recruited from the Manchester and Birmingham studios of the former ABC Weekend Television and the London station Rediffusion; the upheaval of enforced job changes on these employees combined with a relatively new management of a new ITV station and huge investment by shareholders provided fertile ground for the unions.

In 1971, technicians broadcast a handwritten note that read "'Yorkshire Television have threatened to sack us. We are going on strike. Goodnight." six minutes before the end of "Kate". A black screen appeared before that evening's News at Ten was broadcast. The dispute was involving ACTT union members who had refused to work overtime due to pay rates.

YTV was forced off the air by more industrial action over the whole of Christmas, 1978. This partially coincided with a two-day national shutdown of both BBC channels by strikes in December of that year, meaning that for those two days viewers in the region had no television at all (except for those viewers who were able to pick up neighbouring ITV regions such as Granada, ATV or Tyne Tees regions). Many of ITV's Christmas programmes were eventually shown in the Yorkshire region in early 1979, after the dispute had ended.

In the ITV strike of 1979, the station, like the rest of the network, was off the air for over two months (although appeals by the West Yorkshire Police in their search for the murderer known as the Yorkshire Ripper were periodically transmitted during the strike). However the dispute was more intense at YTV as the company's management were seen as instrumental in fighting the unions, especially the managing director Sir Paul Fox and Trident chairman G E Ward Thomas.

In the 1980 franchise round several YTV staff submitted their own application for the Yorkshire franchise under the name of 'Television Yorkshire'. Backed by Donald Baverstock and MP Jonathan Aiken who believed they would provide a better service. Yorkshire retained the franchise with the addition of number of relay transmitters on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, covering Todmorden and Walsden, which were transferred from the Granada region.

1980s/later broadcasting years
On 9 August 1986, Yorkshire Television became the first ITV company and the first British terrestrial television station to offer 24-hour broadcasting. This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station Music Box for a three-month trial, as permitted by the IBA. The all-night simulcasts continued until Friday 2 January 1987 – shortly before Music Box ceased operations as a broadcaster. Thereafter, Yorkshire ran a teletext-based Jobfinder service for one hour after closedown with a Through Till Three strand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights introduced a few months later. 24-hour broadcasting resumed on 29 May 1988.

In 1982, after the split up of Trident Television, Bass (brewing and Leisure group) acquired a 20.93% share in Yorkshire TV. In July 1987, Bass sold the stake since it no longer fitted in with its operations. The managing director of YTV said: "We are very sorry to lose Bass as a shareholder; they have been very supportive to Yorkshire Television." By the end of the year, YTV profits had increased to £13.94 million, and it had become one of the largest suppliers of programmes to Channel 4. In October 1987, the production unit had received a co-production pact with Telecom Entertainment in order to co-produce and develop projects, that involved international stars and British crew, around the world and it involved co-productions and projects that came from the deal included the rights to four M. M. Kaye novels for her Death In book series, as well as The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank, for CBS and ITV.

In March 1988, Paul Fox left the company to join the BBC, after spending 15 years as Yorkshire managing director. A month later, Paul Mckess resigned. A member of staff said "It comes as a surprise to us, but we don't think there had been a row or anything like that". Clive Leach became managing director.

In preparation of the new ITV franchises, the company started to cut costs which resulted in 91 voluntary redundancies; this had a minor effect with slightly fewer programmes being produced.

1990s: Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc
Following rule changes in 1992, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees resumed their alliance under the name Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television (YTTT) plc. The two stations were integrated to a far greater extent. Following the takeover, 292 jobs were axed at the two broadcasters; 174 at Leeds, and 115 at Newcastle, with a further three from airtime sales in London. Various programmes which had previously been shown at a regional pace were suddenly jolted forward to the furthest ahead point among YTV and Tyne Tees. YTV had to lose over 200 episodes of The Young Doctors to reach the Tyne Tees stage of the serial. Similarly Tyne Tees had to lose over 50 episodes of Blockbusters and two episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H. Other programmes were also affected.

On 6 December 1993, the North West franchise holder Granada Television launched a hostile takeover for LWT, worth £600 million. LWT tried to outstep the takeover bid by holding talks with Yorkshire Television and Scottish Television. Reports suggested if LWT made a bid for Yorkshire Television, it would also form an alliance with Anglia who would take over Tyne Tees Television. By 7 January 1994 the merger talks between Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television had collapsed because it had proven impossible to reach an agreement on a suitable structure for the new company. A few days earlier Anglia had withdrawn from the proposed alliance, making an LWT takeover of YTV impossible.

The company faced a large revenue shortfall in 1993 of around £15 million, after financial irregularities in its advertising sales, where airtime was oversold, was uncovered by Laser Sales who took over responsibly of its advertising sales. Generally the bids submitted by both YTV and (then-independent) Tyne Tees were considered financially questionable, and the Independent Television Commission, predecessor to Ofcom, warned it came close to rejecting the YTV bid on financial quality grounds. The losses suffered by the company prompted the return of founder Ward Thomas as chairman, and Clive Leach was forced to resign. The rescue mission led by Ward Thomas saw profits recover by 1996, thanks to the cost-cutting measures implemented in the intervening years.

Bruce Gyngell, the former chairman of breakfast station TV-am, became YTTT's managing director on 15 May 1995. On 2 September 1996, Bruce Gyngell made the controversial move of re-branding Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television under the unified brand "Channel 3" While Yorkshire used a scaled-back version of this branding (still using the Yorkshire chevron logo and being verbally known as "Channel 3 Yorkshire"), Tyne Tees was re-branded as "Channel 3 North East". It dropped the familiar TTTV logo, and relegated the Tyne Tees name to secondary branding.

Granada plc and ITV plc
On 26 June 1997, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc was acquired by Granada Group plc (now ITV plc). Granada's first move was to scrap the Channel 3 branding, from 9 March 1998. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later. In 1998, transmission operations and presentation for all of Granada's stations in the North of England moved to Yorkshire, with the creation of the Northern Transmission Centre. This highly automated server based system was the source to Border, Tyne Tees and Granada as well as the Yorkshire regional output. Continuity from Leeds ended in October 2002, after a unified presentation department for ITV1 in England was set up by London News Network. The transmission operation continues at the Kirkstall Road studios, under the ownership of Technicolor SA. Since 2004, the centre has also provided playout for ITV Central.

On 28 October 2002, Yorkshire Television was rebranded as ITV1 Yorkshire. The ITV1 Yorkshire branding continued to appear before some regional programming until November 2006, when a rebrand saw the sole local ident discontinued. The famous chevron logo continued to appear after programmes made by ITV Yorkshire until 31 October 2004. Today, networked programming made at the Leeds studios by ITV is credited to ITV Studios. ITV Yorkshire is also home to Shiver Productions.

The licence for Yorkshire is now held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc.

Studios

The studios were built on 5 acre of slum clearance land on Kirkstall Road, purchased from the former Leeds Corporation.

Construction commenced in early 1967. A mild winter aided building work and by mid-1968 studios one and two were equipped for transmission (studios three and four being completed by early 1969). During construction, pre-launch shows were produced at the ABC studios at Didsbury, Manchester while a former trouser-press factory next to the Leeds facility was used as an administration centre.

The studio was officially opened by The Duchess of Kent on 29 July 1968. It was the first purpose-built colour television production centre in Europe and cost over £4 million to build and equip. Equipment was installed by EMI Electronics and the Marconi Corporation. The studios contained seven 2" Quadruplex VTR machines, six telecines and twelve cameras. The cameras were a mixture of Marconi MkVII's (studios 1, 2 and 3) and EMI 2001 models (studio 4).

The regional news show Calendar was produced at the centre for many years but in 1989 was moved to a dedicated newsroom and broadcast facility based in a converted ice rink next to the main studios.

Productions in the 2000s included Countdown (which has since moved to The Manchester Studios and now Media City in Salford), the revived Bullseye, Mastermind (while asbestos was removed from The Manchester Studios in 2006), My Parents Are Aliens, Channel 4 gameshow Win My Wage and a children's comedy-drama for Cartoon Network called My Spy Family. The site is now home to continuity for ITV's northern transmission areas (although this is now managed, along with its southern counterpart, by Technicolor Network Services ) and a number of independent producers. The production facilities are marketed as The Leeds Studios and sister companies ProVision, Film Lab North and The Finishing School occupy adjacent buildings, although the operation continues to be widely referred to as the Yorkshire Television studios or YTV.

In March 2009, ITV plc announced that the Leeds Studios were to be largely closed in an effort to save costs following a reported loss of £2.7 billion for 2008. However, seven months later ITV changed its mind, choosing instead to close the nearby studios dedicated to the production of Emmerdale and transferring production of this programme to Kirkstall Road which would be upgraded for HDTV production.

Identity
For almost 35 years, Yorkshire Television's on-screen identity always revolved around the use of the station logo: the chevron. This yellow symbol was seen on nearly all of Yorkshire Television's idents and presentation. The first symbol used was a black and white chevron, formed by slit-scan techniques and accompanied by an orchestral version of the tune "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at", a famous Yorkshire folk song. This music was later to become the station's jingle. This ident continued until Yorkshire Television officially commenced their colour broadcasts on 15 November 1969.

The new colour ident featured the yellow chevron on a black background with the still caption card "Yorkshire Television Colour Production", along with a simplified version of "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at". This ident was modified in 1981, so that the caption "Colour Production" was changed to "In Colour", and in 1982 the colour caption was removed altogether. The new version of the jingle was at a lower pitch than was previously composed.

Supplementing the ident throughout this period were idents promoting the station's coverage, with the slogan "Serving Six Million Viewers". One version, in 1983 featured a giant chevron logo, made up out of smaller chevrons, and another in 1986 featured the view zooming in from space, to the Yorkshire TV region, which then flipped over, becoming the chevron. This last version was computer-animated, with 3D-style lettering and chevron.

On 5 January 1987, Yorkshire Television introduced a new ident, entitled "Liquid Gold", featuring a pool of liquified gold, with the chevron rising up from it, and rotating into the sky, where the station name joins it. This ident features a fully orchestrated version of the theme tune and reportedly cost £40,000 to make. This was occasionally supplemented by a large rotating chevron over a gradient-ed blue background, used over continuity.

On 1 September 1989, Yorkshire Television adopted the first ITV generic look, featuring the large ITV logo; an additional ident, with a static chevron on the same background, was also used. On 7 January 1991, the ident was revised to allow the chevron to appear full screen instead of being a segment of the 'V' which the company used until 23 October 1994. The whole package was used by Yorkshire Television, and an adapted version, where the whole chevron appeared in the V segment before moving into centre screen, was used before regional programming.

1990s
Upon YTV dropping the generic look on 24 October 1994, a new ident was introduced, featuring a textured background with a central strip containing images of the region itself, with the chevron placed in the centre of said strip. The most noticeable thing about this ident set was the smooth nature of the chevron's appearance and, like the previous look, did not feature the "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" jingle, instead favouring a smooth orchestral jingle. The background was later changed from a cream to a light blue, and variations on the theme for special occasions and yearly themes were also introduced.

Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television adopted a new branding package, based on the concept of Channel 3. The new look was fully implemented in the Tyne Tees region on 2 September 1996, where all on-screen branding was replaced by giant numeral '3', and the Tyne Tees brand became secondary to 'Channel 3 North East', however the look was only partially implemented in the Yorkshire region a month after Tyne Tees's revamp. The entirety of Yorkshire's Channel 3 look included an ident which was later introduced on 21 October 1996 at the same year, where the chevron spun against a light blue background with numeral '3's covering the background.

Another ident featured the chevron with the '3' numeral embossed on the side, which would zoom into view, before revealing a spinning numeral 3, which in turn had YTV chevron on the middle of the 3 and when zoomed into, the chevron re-appeared spinning against the background. The look also heralded the return of the "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" tune, which was now noticeably higher in pitch.

The Channel 3 look was dropped on 26 January 1998, following Granada's acquisition of Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television on 26 June 1997, with the look returning to a spinning chevron against a misty blue background, light blue during the day and dark blue in the evenings.

On 8 November 1999, Yorkshire Television adopted the second generic look, based on the theme of hearts, which was used for the entirety of the branding period before network programming. However, for local programming, Yorkshire created their own ident featuring a background of spinning chevrons, with pictures of the region featuring inside a central box.

2000s
On 28 October 2002, the brand was dropped in favour of a national ITV1 identity, in which local regional identities were dropped except before local programming, when the Yorkshire name appeared below the ITV1 logo only. These regional idents however were dropped by 2006.

Continuity announcers

 * Redvers Kyle (1968–1993)
 * Bob Preedy (late 1980s – 2002)
 * John Crosse (senior announcer, early 1970s – 1998)
 * Graham Roberts (c. 1970s – 1993)
 * Kerrie Gosney (2000–2002)
 * Earl Richmond (1968 – c.1970s)
 * Neil Didsbury (2001–2002)
 * Pete Haslam (promo voiceover and continuity announcer, 1999 – c.2007)
 * Peter Lewis (late 1960s)
 * Keith Martin
 * Maggie Mash (1988–2002)
 * Nick Oliver
 * Karen Petch (deceased)
 * Paul Lally (c.1968 – 1990s)
 * Ian de Stains (1968–1970)
 * Paul Kaye (c.1970s – 1980)
 * Helen Aitken (1995–2002)
 * Roger Tilling (1998–2002)
 * Colin Weston (freelancer)
 * Stephen Whitlock (1992–2004)

Programming

Yorkshire Television was a major producer within the ITV network and produced programming in all genres. The presenter Alan Whicker became a shareholder in the company at its inception and made many programmes for the station, most notably interviews with the Cat's Eye inventor Percy Shaw and the Haiti dictator Baby Doc Duvalier.

Drama/Serial
In Drama, Yorkshire Television had many critical successes, including:

 * 15: The Life and Death of Philip Knight
 * 1914 All Out
 * A Bit of a Do
 * A Is for Acid
 * A Pinch of Snuff
 * A Touch of Frost
 * At Home with the Braithwaites
 * Black Velvet Band
 * Beecham
 * Chiller
 * Circles of Deceit
 * Coming Home
 * Dickens of London
 * Demob
 * Ellington
 * Emmerdale
 * Fat Friends
 * Flambards
 * Flying Lady
 * Gazette
 * Hadleigh
 * Harry's Game
 * Heartbeat
 * Hunting Venus
 * Imogen's Face
 * Lost for Words
 * March in Windy City
 * May We Borrow Your Husband?
 * Micawber
 * Mother's Day
 * My Uncle Silas
 * Neville's Island
 * Paparazzo
 * Parkin's Patch
 * Rich Tea and Sympathy
 * Shipman
 * Shoot to Kill
 * Stalag Luft
 * Stay Lucky
 * Steel River Blues
 * Strike Force
 * Supply and Demand
 * The Beiderbecke Trilogy
 * The Booze Cruise
 * The Brides in the Bath
 * The Cater Street Hangman
 * The Darling Buds of May
 * The Dying of the Light
 * The Flint Street Nativity
 * The Glory Boys
 * The Governor
 * The Lady's Not for Burning
 * The Life and Crimes of William Palmer
 * The Main Chance
 * The Organization
 * The Outsider
 * The Quest
 * The Racing Game
 * The Royal
 * The Royal Today
 * The Sandbaggers
 * The Wanderer
 * The World of Eddie Weary
 * Tears in the Rain
 * Till We Meet Again
 * Tom Grattan's War
 * Trial & Retribution
 * Verdict
 * West of Paradise
 * Yellowthread Street

In 1969, YTV launched its first soap opera Castle Haven which was cancelled after only a year. When the restrictions on daytime broadcasting were relaxed, and on 16 October 1972 it launched an afternoon drama/soap opera called Emmerdale Farm, (which is still being broadcast as Emmerdale).

Comedy/Sitcom
In comedy (and in sitcom), Yorkshire TV produced many popular shows, including:

 * Albert and Victoria
 * All Change
 * All Our Saturdays
 * Beryl's Lot
 * Dawson's Weekly
 * Dear Mother...Love Albert
 * Don't Ask Me
 * Downwardly Mobile
 * Duty Free
 * Farrington of the F.O.
 * Fiddlers Three
 * Good Girl
 * Haggard
 * Hallelujah!
 * High & Dry
 * His And Hers
 * Home to Roost
 * How's Your Father?
 * In Loving Memory
 * Inside George Webley
 * Jokers Wild
 * Just Us
 * Langley Bottom
 * Life Begins at Forty
 * Margie and Me
 * Mr Digby Darling
 * My Husband and I
 * My Old Man
 * No Strings
 * Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt
 * On the House
 * Only When I Laugh
 * Plaza Patrol
 * Queenie's Castle
 * Rising Damp
 * Room at the Bottom
 * See You Friday
 * Shine a Light
 * Singles
 * Sir Yellow
 * That's My Boy
 * The Bounder
 * The Darling Buds of May
 * The Gaffer
 * The Gingerbread Girl
 * The Nesbitts Are Coming
 * The New Statesman
 * There Comes A Time
 * Thicker Than Water
 * Third Time Lucky
 * Thundercloud
 * TV Squash
 * You're Only Young Twice

This side (and department) of Yorkshire Television, also gave the comedian Les Dawson his first major series.

This line-up of sitcoms (and comedy series) also made various household names of well-known faces of British Television, especially in UK sitcom too.

Children
For children, YTV contributed many networked shows, including:

 * Animal Kwackers
 * Adam's Family Tree
 * Bad Influence!
 * Bellamy's Bugle
 * Benny
 * Charlie's Climbing Tree
 * Doris
 * Eastern Tales
 * Follyfoot
 * Get Up and Go!
 * Gideon
 * Heggerty Haggerty
 * Junior Showtime
 * Little Blue
 * Mister Trimble
 * My Parents Are Aliens
 * Puddle Lane
 * Ragdolly Anna
 * Round the Bend
 * Stepping Stones
 * Stories of Snowy and Buttercup Buskers
 * Teetime and Claudia
 * The Big Bang
 * The Book Tower
 * The Flaxton Boys
 * The Giddy Game Show
 * The New Addams Family
 * The Raggy Dolls
 * The Riddlers
 * The Wanderer
 * Toucan Tecs
 * Tumbledown Farm
 * Utterly Brilliant
 * Wilmot
 * The Woofits

as well as the long-running How We Used To Live for ITV's Schools and Colleges' output.

Entertainment/Game shows
In entertainment, YTV had also produced a large number of networked quiz shows, including:

 * 3-2-1
 * Ask No Questions
 * Bruce's Price is Right (1995–2001)
 * Casino
 * Countdown (for Channel 4)
 * Fun and Games' (1985–1992)
 * Raise the Roof (1995–96)
 * Talkabout
 * Tarby's Frame Game
 * The Indoor League
 * Time Please (1990–2)
 * Winner Takes All

YTV has also produced some religious shows, including Stars on Sunday.

Broadcasting
The company invested heavily in outside broadcast facilities and was a large contributor to ITV Sport, responsible primarily for covering northern-based horserace meetings (with London Weekend Television and Thames Television covering the south and ATV covering the Midlands) amongst other sporting events.

In the field of investigative journalism the station soon gained an international reputation for award-winning documentaries: 1975 saw the transmission of the BAFTA award-winning Johnny Go Home, a startling exposé of teenage male prostitution and homelessness in London. In the same year the station transmitted Too Long a Winter (also a BAFTA award-winner), featuring Yorkshire Daleswoman Hannah Hauxwell who lived an austere and harsh life whilst running her small farm.

In 1979 the documentary Rampton: The Secret Hospital, making public the treatment of patients at the Nottinghamshire mental care facility Rampton Hospital, led to a Government investigation – it also won an international Emmy award for the station. Another 1979 documentary The Underground Eiger detailed the record-breaking cave dive of Oliver Statham and Geoff Yeadon. The 1989 documentary Four Hours in My Lai (broadcast as part of the monthly First Tuesday strand) revealed new information about the 1968 massacre. Yorkshire Television also produced the 1989 documentary One Day in the Life of Television.

YTV often led the way in British commercial broadcasting. As well as building the first purpose-built colour studios on Europe it was the first to offer breakfast television. In 1977, the station took part in a nine-week trial offering viewers an extra hour of programming at breakfast time, beginning transmission at 8:30 am with a 15-minute national and regional news bulletin called Good Morning Calendar alongside cartoons and episodes of Peyton Place. A similar experiment was carried out by Tyne Tees Television around the same time.

In August 1986, it became the first terrestrial station in Britain to offer 24-hour television. This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station Music Box from around midnight to the start of TV-am's transmission. Both YTV and Music Box were partly owned by the same company (Thorn EMI). The experiment ended shortly before Music Box closed down in January 1987 and was replaced by a teletext-based Jobfinder service which broadcast for one hour after closedown. YTV re-introduced 24-hour programming 18 months later along with the rest of the ITV network, beginning full-time 24-hour broadcasting on 30 May 1988.

In the mid-1980s, Yorkshire broke from the network by refusing to screen the BAFTA Awards, claiming them to be slaps on the backs of the BBC. The film The Sting was a replacement in 1986. As the rest of the network overran in the live BAFTA screening, Yorkshire had to cobble together minor programmes until other regions were able to screen the late-running ITN News. In the 1990s, while Bruce Gyngell was managing director, Yorkshire declined to show several late-night programmes, including The Good Sex Guide. One such series, Hollywood Lovers, was replaced with Alan Whicker repeats.

Yorkshire Television subsidiaries
Yorkshire Television had its own record label, York Records. One of the Yorkshire shows that had a theme released on their label was The Sky's the Limit which was hosted by Hughie Green. The theme "The Sky's the Limit" was the B side to "Any Minute of Your Life" (York SYK 501), a single by the group Simplicity  which included Bradford musician Roger Davis in its ranks.

title: ITV Yorkshire


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Fairy-bluebird

The three fairy-bluebirds are small passerine bird species found in forests and plantations in tropical southern Asia and the Philippines. They are the sole members of the genus Irena and family Irenidae, and are related to the ioras and leafbirds.

These are bulbul-like birds of open forest or thorn scrub, but whereas that group tends to be drab in colouration, fairy-bluebirds are sexually dimorphic, with the males being dark blue in plumage, and the females duller green.

These species eat fruit, especially figs, and possibly some insects. They lay two to three eggs in a tree nest.

The call of the Asian fairy-bluebird is a liquid two note Glue-It.

As the names would suggest, the Asian fairy-bluebird (I. puella) occurs across southern Asia, the Philippine fairy-bluebird (I. cyanogastra) in that archipelago, and the Palawan fairy-bluebird (I. tweeddalii) on the island of Palawan.

Taxonomy
The first scientists to examine fairy-bluebirds placed them in the genus Coracias, presumably on the strength of the iridescent blue plumage on the back. This was challenged in the 1820s by Thomas Horsfield and Coenraad Temminck, who suggested a relationship instead with the drongos. It was variously placed with the bulbuls and orioles as well. On the basis of the DNA-DNA hybridization studies of Sibley and Alhquist its closest relatives have now been identified as the leafbirds. This relationship was confirmed by a large molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019 found that the family Irenidae was sister to the family Chloropseidae containing the leafbirds. The leafbirds are sometimes included in the family Irenidae with the fairy-bluebirds, but the time since the apparent divergence suggests that they are better treated as separate families.

Morphology
Fairy-bluebirds are robust birds that resemble Old World orioles in shape and size. Males are larger than females. They weigh between 50 and 100g, with some of that variation being caused by sexual differences and some by geographic variation. There are clines in size differences, which can be attributed to Bergmann's rule, with the northernmost populations being larger on average. They have a powerful deep and notched bill used for crushing, with that of the Philippine species being largest. Their feet are small, which suggests that they spend less time climbing in order to feed and more time on the wing.

The plumage of the fairy-bluebirds is exceptional, with the upperparts being deep rich blue. The Asian fairy-bluebird is sexually dimorphic in its plumage, the male being much brighter than the female, but the Philippine fairy-bluebird exhibits much less difference and the female is almost as bright as the male. The deep colour is provided by specialised naked feather-tip barbs. Although the fairy-bluebirds are highly visible in sunlight, they are much less visible in the shade of the forest.

Distribution and habitat
The Asian fairy-bluebird has a discontinuous distribution from India to Java and Vietnam. In India the species is present in the southwest of the country and in the northeast. From Burma it has a continuous distribution (in suitable habitat) throughout most of Southeast Asia, and down into Borneo and Sumatra, as well as on the Andaman Islands. The species is rare in Sri Lanka. The Philippine fairy-bluebird is found on Luzon, Polillo, Leyte, Samar, Mindanao, Dinagat and Basilan. The Palawan fairy-bluebird is endemic to the island of Palawan.

The fairy-bluebirds are dependent upon fruit-producing forests, but all three species seem to exist in a wide range of forests, both evergreen and semi-evergreen. Within forests they are generally found in the canopy.

Behaviour
Pairs or small groups (individuals are seldom seen alone) of fairy-bluebirds forage widely to obtain food. Fruit, particularly figs in the genus Ficus, are the most important item in the diet of fairy-bluebirds. Fairy-bluebirds will generally eat fruit of a certain size, and will crush larger fruits in order to make them manageable. Most food is obtained in the canopy. In addition to fruit berries may be eaten, as well as nectar, although this behaviour has only been reported in birds in India. In contrast to adults, however, insects are the principal component of the diet of nestlings. In the Philippines birds have been observed following troops of macaques, possibly in order to collect flushed insects.

Male courtship displays include elaborate vocalizations, which the female responds to with nest building. Nests are constructed in trees or tall bushes from twigs, moss and grasses, and males and females cooperate in rearing chicks.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Fairy-bluebird


text:
ITV Tyne Tees

ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV television franchisee for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire.

Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from studios at a converted warehouse in City Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, remaining in the city until July 2005 when Tyne Tees moved to smaller studios in Gateshead. Tyne Tees has contributed various programming to the ITV network and Channel 4, as well as its regional output. Some of Tyne Tees' best known programming includes the groundbreaking music show The Tube, critically acclaimed adaptations of Catherine Cookson novels, and children's programmes such as Supergran.

The ownership and management structure of Tyne Tees has altered across its history, particularly in various mergers with Yorkshire Television. The two stations were managed by Trident Television during the 1970s, and the two stations merged again in 1992 to form Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television. A series of takeovers and mergers across the ITV network, instigated by the large groups Granada and Carlton, led to Tyne Tees becoming part of ITV plc in 2004. The licence is currently held by ITV Broadcasting Ltd and the original Tyne Tees Television Ltd was dissolved on 28 March 2017.

The analogue signals in the Tyne Tees region were switched off in 2012, making the station, along with ITV London and UTV, one of the last ITV regions to become digital-only.

Launch and the 1960s
Independent television was introduced to Britain in September 1955. Initially only available in the London region, commercial television steadily became available in other regions. After a financially difficult time for the first ITV companies, the Independent Television Authority (ITA) decided to offer independent television to the rest of the country and advertised for bids. Several offers were submitted, including from the existing four companies, to the ITA. North East England was the last of the English regions without a television transmitter. Sir Richard Pease headed a local consortium that included film producer Sydney Box and News Chronicle executives George and Alfred Black. This consortium, was chosen from among eleven applicants because of its strong local links, commitment to local programming, concentrating on regional topical matters, and educational and children's programmes. The contract was awarded on 12 December 1957. Experienced television executive Anthony Jelly was appointed as managing director, although historian Andrew Spicer credits the Black brothers as the driving force and public face of Tyne Tees; George was programme director, and both brothers were prominent board members. The company opened its first Newcastle office at Bradburn House on Northumberland Street, and it was from there, on 3 January 1958, the company directors issued 300,000 ordinary shares at fours shillings each.

Tyne Tees is named after two of the region's three primary rivers. ITA considered the original name, "North East England", was imprecise. Some of the consortium's suggestions were rejected: "Three Rivers Television" for being obscure, and "Tyne, Wear, and Tees" for being too long. Eventually, in October 1958, the name "Tyne Tees" was announced. The other major river, the Wear (which runs between the Tyne and the Tees), was represented within Tyne Tees' early signature tune "Three Rivers Fantasy".

The BBC transmitted their programmes from the Pontop Pike transmitting station in County Durham. The ITA built a new transmitter nearby at Burnhope, to cover an area from Alnwick to Northallerton, and west to Middleton-in-Teesdale. Television sets required a new aerial, the Yagi array, to receive the high frequency that the transmitter was using.

Tyne Tees went on air at 5 p.m. on 15 January 1959, three years after the first British independent television station, and the tenth such station to launch. The then-prime minister Harold Macmillan, who had been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the nearby Stockton-on-Tees for two decades, was interviewed live on the opening night. This was followed by a live variety show, named The Big Show, broadcast from a small studio. However, this local content was followed by an episode of the American police series Highway Patrol and an evening of entertainment programmes including I Love Lucy and Double Your Money. The full first night's programming was

 * 17:00 Three Rivers Fantasy – opening by the Duke of Northumberland.
 * 17:02 Robin Hood
 * 17:32 Popeye
 * 17:45 ITN News
 * 17:55 Local News
 * 18:30 Highway Patrol
 * 19:00 The Big Show, starring Dickie Henderson
 * 20:00 Double Your Money
 * 20:30 This Week
 * 21:00 Wagon Train
 * 22:00 ITN News
 * 22:15 Murder Bag
 * 22:45 I Love Lucy
 * 23:15 Epilogue read by the Bishop of Durham

In the 2006 documentary A History of Tyneside, veteran North East newsreader Mike Neville suggested that the launch of Tyne Tees enabled local people to be able to hear local accents and dialects on television, since early broadcasters, particularly those from the BBC, tended to speak in Received Pronunciation. Scholar Natasha Vall suggests that the station's commitment to broadcasting comedy helped establish a regional identity. George and Alfred Black had toured working men's clubs looking for material for television. Local comic Bobby Thompson was invited to host a solo show. However, poor ratings and an unenthusiastic cast led to the show's cancellation after barely a year.

Where most independent television companies published their schedules in the magazine TV Times, Tyne Tees produced their own listings magazine. The Viewer was published by News Chronicle, a company with connections to the station through the Black brothers. It was produced to satisfy " 'Tyne Tees' policy to be most regional of all the independent stations". Initially produced from an office in Forth Lane, near Newcastle station, it moved to the City Road studios when Dickens Press took over publication in 1963. The magazine became the biggest selling magazine in the region, with a circulation of 300,000 per week. New contracts issued by the ITA in 1968 stipulated that all ITV companies publish their listings in the TV Times, which became a national magazine with regional variations for the listings. After 498 editions, the last issues of The Viewer was published in September 1968.

The first advertisement screened on Tyne Tees was for Welch's Toffee. The proprietor's niece is Denise, who would become a well-known actress and personality. In 1959, Tyne Tees charged advertisers £100 for 15 seconds during prime time. The station launched a marketing campaign in the 1960s to sell advertising time named 'Through Plan'. One of the range of promotional material was a poster called 'Sweet Sixteen', featuring photographs of 15 men accompanied by their full names, job titles and other formal history. The sole woman was simply referred to by her first name and her measurements. Historian Geoff Phillips comments that this "was a profound statement of the culture of the time". Tyne Tees produced Advertising Magazines (AdMags), which were programmes with a loose storyline designed to advertise several products within an edition. The 15-minute programmes each endorsed about 12 products. Clients sat in the control room during rehearsals to ensure that their products were getting the exposure for which they had paid.

A committee was established in 1960 under the leadership of British industrialist Sir Harry Pilkington to consider the future of broadcasting. The 1962 Pilkington Report criticised ITV, and Tyne Tees in particular. Some companies, historian Simon Cherry notes, were scrambling "very readily for the lowest common denominator ... Tyne Tees was notorious for avoiding minority programmes and putting out cop shows or westerns instead."

1970s

Following his report, Pilkington prompted the government to impose a levy on ITV's revenue, the effects of which were heightened by a recession in 1970 when revenue had declined by 12 percent in real terms. Despite a reduction of the levy, Tyne Tees was one of the contractors facing collapse. To ensure Tyne Tees' survival, the ITA allowed it to affiliate with Yorkshire Television under a joint management company named 'Trident Television'. The third 'prong' of Trident was intended to be Anglia Television, but the IBA ruled out their involvement. Trident Television was formed in March 1969 as a joint venture to sell advertisements for Tyne Tees and Yorkshire. Yorkshire and Tyne Tees then came under Trident's ownership on 1 January 1974. Peter Stanley Paine, Director of the broadcaster's holding company Trident, was appointed managing director of Tyne Tees Television in 1974.

For the first time, one company owned two distinct and separate ITV franchises although the new company was dominated by the larger, stronger Yorkshire whose shareholders owned 71.5 percent of the new company. Trident had sales offices in London, where most agencies are located and where most advertising is bought and sold.

A major factor in the merger was that when UHF transmission was introduced in 1969 to accommodate colour television it was found that the key Bilsdale transmitting station in North Yorkshire so dominated the territories of both companies that its allotment to either individual company would have seriously prejudiced the coverage and sales revenue of the other. The ITA agreed that Tyne Tees and Yorkshire could be considered as one company for the purposes of selling airtime, while expressing their individual identities in their programming output.

A political scandal caused problems during one of Tyne Tees' franchise renewals. Producer Tony Sandford recalls that Lord Pilkington was sent by the ITA to question the station's executives. One-time leader of Newcastle City Council T. Dan Smith had been convicted for accepting bribes concerning the redevelopment of Newcastle city centre. Pointing out that Smith became a director of the station, Pilkington asked why Tyne Tees failed to produce a documentary about a Newcastle politician, instead leaving it to Manchester-based Granada's current affairs programme World in Action. By the late seventies, Tyne-Tees's locally made programming amounted to an average of less than nine hours a week, with the remainder of programming from the ITV network. In 1978, The Economist reported that a group called Northumbria Television, partially financed by local firms Bellway Holding and Swan Hunter, applied to the IBA to take over the franchise from the "tired" Tyne Tees for the two and a half years until the scheduled franchise renewal in 1981.

1980s
Yorkshire and Tyne Tees applied separately for renewal of the franchises in 1980, and each won. However, the two companies were required to demerge from January 1982 as a condition of the renewal of their ITV franchises. The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the successor to the ITA, recognised the criticism, reported The Economist, "that Trident was London-dominated, overly diversified, and out of touch with the grass roots. It instructed Trident to set up both companies as independents and to retain only a minority shareholding in each." The IBA imposed the condition that for the 1980 franchise round a company could only own one franchise, although it could earn up to 30 percent of another. By November 1981, Trident had sold all but residual stakes in the two companies (15% and 20% respectively). When the new licences started in January 1982, Trident sold all but 30 percent of Yorkshire, and 25 percent of Tyne Tees.

During the 1980s, Tyne Tees began to develop separate services for the Northern and Southern halves of the region. From a small two-camera studio at Corporation House in the centre of Middlesbrough, Tyne Tees developed nightly opt-out news bulletins for Teesside, County Durham and North Yorkshire as part of the flagship magazine programme Northern Life. The company also pioneered non-news programming for the two sub-regions, including the nightly Epilogues, which ended a 29-year run in September 1988 when Tyne Tees commenced 24-hour broadcasting, although Tyne Tees had run an on-screen Jobfinder teletext service throughout the night since November 1987.

Meanwhile, developments in satellite and cable television, in addition to the two BBC channels and the new Channel 4, began to put pressure on ITV's finances. ITV lost 3 percent of advertising between 1993 and 1994.

1993 Franchise Round and Yorkshire-Tyne Tees merger
In 1990, Yorkshire bought Vaux Breweries' 19 percent stake in Tyne Tees, costing £5.1 million. In the same year, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher initiated a blind auction system, through the Broadcasting Act 1990, through which companies had to bid for the regional franchises. This system was to be used in the 1991 franchise round, which caused large changes to the network. Granada Television, the franchise holder for North West England, had long thought that the North of England should consolidate to "counter the potential dominance of the south east". Tyne Tees outbid their main competition by £10 million; their main challenger was 'North East Television', which was backed by Granada, Border and local newspaper the Evening Chronicle. Along with HTV and Yorkshire, Tyne Tees believed that they had to bid high to win. These companies bid so high that the Independent Television Commission seriously considered rejecting the business plans of each in turn and disqualifying them. However, they eventually decided in their favour. Together, the now-merged companies were committed to paying about £60 million a year to the government for the right to broadcast, a substantial amount compared to the £2,000 bid by Central, ITV's largest station.

New regulations from the ITC allowed Yorkshire to merge with Tyne Tees, this time under the name Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc (YTT), although their ITV franchises remained separate. The merger allowed the companies to avoid collapse following their high franchise bids. This was the first step to ITV becoming one company in England and Wales. The merger led to the culling of staff. YTT's two largest shareholders became Pearson and LWT. From 1 January 1993, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees broadcast all regional programmes simultaneously, affecting programming that had been shown at different paces in different regions (such as Blockbusters and the Australian soap operas The Young Doctors and Prisoner: Cell Block H). Most of the regional programming was produced by Yorkshire and broadcast across the two stations, an area that the ITC considered too broad to be of local interest.

Broadcasting standards
The annual cost of the franchise began to take its toll on the company. At the end of 1993, the company revealed that it was heading for a pre-tax loss in the 1992–93 fiscal year instead of the expected profit. Chairman and chief executive Clive Leach was sacked as a consequence. According to Variety, YTT "oversold its airtime to advertisers and failed to meet its ratings targets, resulting in a huge revenue shortfall estimated by analysts at over $20 million." The industry newspaper also reported that the company "attempted to bolster its flagging 1992–93 revenues by giving advertisers deep discounts for advance airtime bookings made for the following year." Local MP Peter Mandelson wrote to the Secretary of State for National Heritage, David Mellor, in June 1992, saying "Yorkshire and Tyne Tees are motivated by the interests of their shareholders, not their viewers, and need to make urgent savings ... it is quite clear that this is not so much a merger but a gobbling up of a smaller franchise held by a larger company."

Yorkshire-Tyne Tees were repeatedly warned over worsening standards at the Newcastle-based station and at one point the Independent Television Commission (the then-governing body of ITV) threatened to revoke the Tyne Tees licence if the situation did not improve. In 1993 the MP Ann Clwyd described Tyne Tees as having been "stripped of any meaningful identity since its take over by Yorkshire TV" and Ian Ritchie, Managing Director at Tyne Tees, left the company over a widely publicised disagreement with the Yorkshire-Tyne Tees board over what he saw as an unacceptable drive to centralise the company, including the complete closure of all non-news operations at Newcastle and a proposal to close the City Road studios. In October 1993, Yorkshire TV's founder Ward Thomas was brought in to stabilise the situation at the company and quickly returned the company to profitability.

Bruce Gyngell appointed chair
Bruce Gyngell, the former chairman of breakfast station TV-am, became YTT's managing director on 15 May 1995. On 16 March 1996, the presentation department in Newcastle was closed, and continuity was centralised in Leeds. (Transmission for the station had already been handled by Yorkshire since 1993). To halting "a slide in viewing figures and reflecting confidence in the region", in September that year, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc rebranded its stations as Channel 3. The Broadcasting Act 1990 had made Channel 3 the 'official' name for ITV, and "3" was the preset used by most television sets and videocassette recorders (VCRs) for ITV. However, the attempt in 1989 to create a generic identity across the ITV network was decommissioned within three years. Promoting the new brand, Gygnell said, "Everyone refers to this region as 'the North-East' and we want it to be known that we are part of this great region and moving with it." Tyne Tees acquired the brand "Channel 3 North East", with 'Tyne Tees Television' still being retained as the company name.

Acquisition by Granada
On 26 June 1997, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc was acquired by the Granada Media Group plc (now ITV plc). The takeover concentrated ownership of the ITV network into three large groups: Granada, Carlton and United News & Media.

The new guidelines, published by the ITC in 1998, about the Channel 3 licence renewals signalled substantial cuts in the companies' payments to the Treasury. Licences awarded in 1991 were due to expire in January 2001. However, companies, including Tyne Tees, which had bid high in 1991 were allowed to apply early to try to win financial relief. The new 10-year contract began in January 1999. In 1999, the cost of the tender fee that Tyne Tees was paying fell to £46 million, from the £70.5 million that it paid in 1998.

ITV centralisation
Days after the two largest companies in the network, Granada and Carlton, announced that they would merge, the regional names were withdrawn from networked programming in an "attempt to make ITV1 more marketable nationally with a single generic brand." (Scottish, which does not trail any of the network shows under any ITV1 branding, Grampian, Ulster and Channel, each kept their own names but used their own versions of the new look. ) Tyne Tees Television was rebranded as ITV1 Tyne Tees on 28 October 2002. The name "Tyne Tees" only appeared before regional programmes; the rest of the time, only the "ITV1" name was shown. The Tyne Tees logo continued to appear after its own programmes. Graeme Thompson was appointed MD and Controller of Programmes at ITV Tyne Tees in 2004, having been appointed Director of Broadcasting in December 1997 and then Controller of Programmes in 2001. He became Dean for Arts, Design and Media at the University of Sunderland in June 2009.

In 2004, Granada plc and Carlton Communications merged, creating a single company for all ITV franchises in England and Wales. Tyne Tees became part of ITV plc, the largest television production company in the world, which now owned 90 percent of ITV.

On 9 February 2005, Ofcom issued a proposed timetable for ending analogue terrestrial television transmissions as part of the switchover to digital television. Tyne Tees was the penultimate region to cease broadcasting in analogue, which occurred during September 2012. Tyne Tees took over the relay transmitter at Berwick-upon-Tweed in December 2006 from Border Television in order to extend the deadline of the town's upgrade to digital TV by four years, since Border was the first to switch off its analogue signal in 2008.

In September 2007, Executive Chairman of ITV plc Michael Grade announced that as part of ITV's five-year business strategy, Tyne Tees' newsroom would merge with Border Television. Politicians have expressed concern, however, that the merger would affect the quality of news for southern Scotland, in particular, would fail if it lost its customised bulletins. The changes would mean that aside from the merged Border-Tyne Tees regional news and political programmes, the station could broadcast only 25 minutes of dedicated North East news every weekday. In October 2008, the National Union of Journalists threatened industrial action if ITV tried to force any of the changes without discussion. Between December 2008 and February 2009, around 50 staff at the station were made redundant or accepted voluntary redundancy, including presenters, journalists and production staff. The new merged ITV Tyne Tees & Border service launched on 25 February 2009.

Bullying at Tyne Tees
In March 2009, The Guardian newspaper reported that there was bullying at Tyne Tees that lasted for six years. One manager was accused of using inappropriate language about people with disabilities, women reporters, Chinese people and Romani people. The manager was disciplined after one inquiry, but then more journalists complained about the same manager. The manager defended himself by claiming he was using black humour. He finally left the company with a pay-off of about £50,000. The original whistleblower left the company in 2006 and was paid £80,000 after threatening to take his case to an employment tribunal. Following this incident, ITV adopted an anti-bullying programme. An ITV spokesman advised that the total cost of the five bullying investigations was £1 million.

2010s
On 23 July 2013, proposals to reintroduce fully separate regional news services for the ITV Tyne Tees and ITV Border regions were approved by OFCOM. On 16 September 2013 both ITV News Tyne Tees and Lookaround were restored as two single 30-minute regional programmes on weekdays with separate shorter daytime and weekend bulletins reintroduced.

Studios

Tyne Tees's original studios were located on City Road, Newcastle upon Tyne and were converted from two furniture warehouses purchased by the company. These new studios formed the basis of Tyne Tees operations and featured the company offices. The location was deliberately chosen because of its proximity to the telephone exchange in Carliol Square. Television signals were relayed by land-line from the studios to the switching centre; a distance between the studios and the exchange greater than 1 mi would have significantly increased the cost of receiving the networked programmes from the other ITV stations.

The complex initially contained four studios, with a fifth built in 1981 to accommodate productions for Channel 4. Two nearby pubs, The Egypt Cottage and Rose & Crown, became affectionately known as Studio 5 because of the amount of time that the station's staff spent in them. Scottish and Newcastle Breweries offered to sell the adjacent The Egypt Cottage to the station when it was established, but Tyne Tees declined. However, the upstairs room was used as rehearsal space, and the pub would regularly feature in the '80s music show The Tube.

The complex continued until 2004 following the merger of Granada and Carlton to form ITV plc. As a result of the merger, ITV plc had (according to the company) an over-capacity of studio facilities and production units around the country, which had previously been rivals, but were now all part of the same group. In order to save money, several large regional headquarters, studio sites and programme departments closed and merged. The decision was taken to close the City Road studios and relocate to a smaller purpose-built complex housing a newsroom and studio, resulting in the loss of up to 30 jobs. A documentary about the move to new premises, The Big Move, reflected that over the years the staff numbers had dropped by about 800, and around 170 people would be moving to the new site.

Tyne Tees moved to Television House at The Watermark, a new business park adjacent to the MetroCentre in Gateshead, in 2005. The first broadcast from their new base took place on 2 July 2005. Along with the move, news reporters had to learn a range of new skills, such as editing their own reports. The new practices contrasted with early reporting, which had an average crew of five. The new equipment required only a camera operator, who could also operate sound equipment, and a reporter. Television House also acts as a base for ITV SignPost, Britain's biggest supplier of British Sign Language (BSL) services for television, video, CD-ROM, DVD, film and the Internet.

In 2010, the studios at City Road along with the neighbouring pub, the Egypt Cottage, were demolished with plans for a residential development on the site.

Tyne Tees also has smaller studios and offices in Billingham, York, London and within the Media Centre at the University of Sunderland.

Sub-regions
Tyne Tees operated two sub-regional news programmes from around 1983 until 2009, having been a commitment in the 1980 contract round. An opt-out was used from the main Northern Life bulletin was launched to provide localised news from each area. These two sub-opts were:
 * Tyne Tees North – Broadcasting from the Pontop Pike and Chatton transmitters to viewers in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. Bulletin presented by normal team from Newcastle Studio.
 * Tyne Tees South – Broadcasting from the Bilsdale transmitter to viewers in County Durham, North Yorkshire and the Teesdale. During the 1980s and early '90s, this was a recorded segment (complete bulletins during weekday afternoons) presentation of which alternated between Newcastle and Middlesbrough studios (Tyne Tees was unable at the time to broadcast different content live to both transmitters simultaneously and so had to pre-record the southern opt even when presented from Middlesbrough). From 1993 to 1995 a completely separate broadcast "Network North" was produced from new studios in Billingham (this was intended by YTTTV to be broadcast on some YTV transmitters, and was advertised in the press as such, but in reality it went out on Tyne Tees only. Both local news programmes were renamed Tyne Tees News in 1996). From September 1996 a live 15-minute broadcast from Billingham was inserted into "North East Tonight", which continued until 2005 when separate live programmes were produced from the Gateshead studios, before these ended in 2009. For nearly a decade during the 1990s and 2000s, the Billingham studios were used for the pan-regional late weekday bulletin, and for a time in the early 2000s Billingham was also used for a sub-regional version of "North East Today", a daytime magazine programme.

As part of a cost saving initiative within ITV plc, Michael Grade announced in 2007 that the regional news service would be reduced from seventeen distinct news programmes and services to nine, affecting all the sub-regional services. As a result, all Tyne Tees sub-opts were ceased immediately. As part of the same plans, he also announced that Tyne Tees would be merged with Border Television, subject to Ofcom approval which occurred the following year, resulting in one large programme covering both regions. The two services were demerged in September 2013 and ITV News Tyne Tees and ITV Border once more began making their own 30 minute news programmes, although unlike other ITV regions which had offered sub-regional services, the Tyne Tees opt-out services were not reinstated at this time.

Station identification
The station identification, or idents for short, of Tyne Tees varied over time; however, most were based the letters TTTV arranged in a box format. The launch ident featured a white anchor which then gradually turned into three letter T's alongside each other. This ident was accompanied by a shortened version of the station's signature tune "Three Rivers Fantasy", a specially commissioned work by composer and arranger Arthur Wilkinson. The musical overture merged several regional folk tunes, such as "Water of Tyne", ending in The "Blaydon Races". Part of the medley was based upon "The Sailor's Hornpipe".

The arrival of colour to ITV in 1969 led the companies to re-evaluate their on-screen identities. Tyne Tees replaced the triple-T logo in 1970 with the basic layout of two letter Ts above 'TV', an icon which would be incorporated into many future redesigns. Commentator Andrew Bowden observes that this interlinked design remains strongly associated with the company. The ident also introduced the blue and yellow colour scheme that would remain in use for many years. The dark blue was popular amongst ITV contractors because it closely approximated to black on a black and white television set. The version of the logo included the word 'COLOUR', boasting the new technology.

In 1979, the ident was modified once more to remove the word 'colour' and to give it a more dynamic form up. The result was the yellow logo flying down onto a black background before the outline extended out towards the screen, set to a synthesised tune. The name 'Tyne Tees' then flew in below and the background colour faded to blue.

The ident was again redesigned in 1988, in which the colour scheme was reversed and lighter shades of blue and yellow used. The form up was also altered to water flowing along sand, before the water divided into the Tyne Tees logo. The logo used computer animation for the first time.

However this bold new look was not to last, as Tyne Tees adopted the 1989 ITV generic look. The look consisted of the top left corner of the logo being inserted into the 'V' segment of the ITV logo, with the station name placed underneath the Tyne Tees ITV logo. However, not every ITV station embraced the new logo, and Tyne Tees abandoned it in 1991.

The generic ident were replaced with ones produced by Tyne Tees, featuring a large reflective block which the viewpoint rotated around, before panning up to reveal it is the Tyne Tees logo. The music from the previous generic look was retained. Three variations were used, one with a black background, one with a multi coloured background and one with a grey background, with each version taking over from its predecessor after only a few months of use.

In 1992, Tyne Tees dropped their famous logo which they had previously been using since 1970 and opted instead for four separate letters stacked atop each other like previously accomplished spelling TTTV. The form up was over a grey background with a line moving across the screen, forming the letters as they went.

When Tyne Tees adopted the Channel 3 North East branding in September 1996, the traditional "TTTV" logo arrangement was dropped in favour of a large '3', with the region written to the left of the '3'. The name "Tyne Tees Television" was only seen in small letters at the bottom of the screen, whereas Yorkshire, who also adopted the Channel 3 brand a month later, was allowed to keep its 'chevron' logo alongside the '3'. On-screen announcements said, "This is Tyne Tees Television, broadcasting on Channel 3 in the North-East." The new branding was launched on 2 September 1996, with "Going Home (The Theme of the Local Hero)" by Mark Knopfler regularly accompanying ident sequences. Following Granada's takeover in June 1997, the Channel 3 branding was scrapped in March 1998. As Bob Conlon, regional executive with the Independent Television Commission, said: "People never really grasped the name – it didn't exactly trip off the tongue and it was still referred to as Tyne Tees Television, because it has been there for years." All other regions in the network had retained their own identities rather than conforming to the generic 'Channel 3' brand.

The "TTTV" logo returned to television screens in a new form, "three-dimensional gold metallic lettering on a blue background", on 9 March 1998. This logo was more stylised than the 1992 equivalent and kept the music used throughout the '3' era. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later, as part of the 1999 generic look. In this, the Tyne Tees logo was reduced to minuscule lettering in a blue box at the top of the screen, with emphasis being placed on the station name and ITV logo. However, this ident was supplemented by an ident to introduce local programming. This ident introduced on 4 September 2000 featured a new logo: a TTTV variant that was simplified to strictly vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines only. An arc of circles also adorned the top right corner. The ident itself featured pictures from the region. However, despite the new logo, the new logo wasn't applied to the generic idents.

From 28 October 2002, all network programmes were introduced with a generic ITV1 ident. Regional programming used a generic ident with the name Tyne Tees below the ITV1 logo until November 2006, after which no regional idents existed. The Tyne Tees logo was last seen on production end boards until 2004, when they were replaced with, first an ITV logo, and then with an ITV Studios caption.

Programming
The station's founding executives George and Alfred Black used their theatrical background to produce a lot of light entertainment programming on Tyne Tees in the early years. One of the best known was The One O'Clock Show, a 40-minute variety show broadcast on weekdays. After 1,098 editions and more than five years on air, the final show was broadcast in March 1964. Some editions of The One O'Clock Show were produced by David Croft, who would go on to co-write many BBC situation comedies. For Tyne Tees, Croft also directed and produced the Ned's Shed and Mary Goes to Market admags, as well as producing his first sitcom, Under New Management, set in a derelict pub in the North of England.

The bulk of Tyne Tees' output has been its regional programming, consisting of news, current affairs and local interest. Its longest running news programme was Northern Life, which ran from 1976 to 1992. The main news show has been rebranded several times; the current version is ITV News Tyne Tees. Until December 2008, local-interest programming was usually broadcast at 19:30 on Thursdays, which are low-profile slots due to the high-rating EastEnders being broadcast at those times on BBC One. Local non-news programming was also broadcast on early Sunday evenings and various late slots following News at Ten on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Such documentaries concentrate upon local history, landscape and architecture, such as the various shows by John Grundy. A monthly political programme, Around the House, continues to be produced for the Tyne Tees and Border regions.

Tyne Tees was obliged to contribute programming for the ITV network, although the bulk of network programming was purchased from the largest stations. Tyne Tees contributed game shows to the network, including Crosswits (1985–98) and Chain Letters (1987–97). Tyne Tees became a prolific producer of children's entertainment for the ITV network in the 1970s and 1980s. From the late 1970s, it produced series such as The Paper Lads, Quest of Eagles, Barriers and Andy Robson. This continued into the 1980s with Madabout, How Dare You!, Gilbert's Fridge and weekday pop-music show Razzamatazz, a pop programme that attracted many major recording artists to appear in a 17:15 slot. Tyne Tees also managed the production of Get Fresh, a Saturday morning show hosted in various weeks by different ITV regions. Super Gran, based on a series of books about a grandmother with superhuman powers, was also successful in the mid-1980s. Additionally they also dubbed the South African children's series Oscar the Rabbit in Rubbidge which featured narration by Lance Percival.

With independent production company Festival Films and Television, Tyne Tees produced several adaptations of books by local novelist Catherine Cookson. The second dramatisation, The Black Velvet Gown, was the number one drama of 1991, winning an Emmy Award for best TV drama. Long-running soap opera Coronation Street was briefly produced at Tyne Tees' City Road studios in 1963 while all of the studios at the show's home, Granada Television in Manchester, were occupied by a production of the opera Orpheus in the Underworld. However, not all of the station's output has been successful. The 1997 soap opera Quayside was axed after 17 episodes after competing with the BBC's EastEnders.

Tyne Tees has also produced a wide range of music programming. One of the first attempts at reaching the teenage audience was Young at Heart, hosted by Jimmy Savile and Valerie Masters in 1960. In 1979, Tyne Tees launched two national series, Alright Now and Check it Out, the latter a mix of rock music and segments on youth-oriented social issues; among performances by established acts, the two shows offered early exposure to bands linked to the North East, notably Dire Straits and The Police. The most famous music show from the station, though, derived its name from the studios themselves. Produced for Channel 4, and first broadcast three days after the new station's launch in November 1982, The Tube acquired its name from the architecture of the public entrance to Studio 5, from where the show was broadcast, at the City Road complex. Under the direction of Gavin Taylor, The Tube filmed rock band Queen's 1986 Wembley concert for later broadcast and video and DVD release. Cameras bearing the Tyne Tees logo can be seen throughout the concert. The Tube was dropped in 1987 as a result of falling audience figures and an incident involving Jools Holland, who cursed during a live trailer. A couple of months later, Tyne Tees launched another music show, this time for the ITV network. Whereas The Tube featured rock and punk bands and emerging musicians, Tyne Tees' The Roxy, concentrated on the mainstream UK singles chart. The show suffered, however, from not having a regular slot on the ITV network. Also, unlike The Tube, which had gained a loyal fanbase and respect from artists, mainstream acts were reluctant to travel to Newcastle for a three-minute performance when they could appear on the BBC's more established Top of the Pops in the more accessible London.

title: ITV Tyne Tees


text:
Leafbird

The leafbirds (Chloropseidae) are a family of small passerine bird species found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They were formerly grouped with the ioras and fairy-bluebirds in the family Irenidae. As presently defined, the leafbird family is monogeneric, with all species placed in the genus Chloropsis. A large molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019 found that the family Chloropseidae is sister to the family Irenidae containing the fairy-bluebirds.

Description
The leafbirds range in size from 14 to(-), and in weight from 15 to(-). They resemble bulbuls, but whereas that group tends to be drab in colour, leafbirds are brightly plumaged, with the predominant green over the body giving rise to their common name. The family is mostly sexually dimorphic in their plumage, this can vary from the highly dimorphic orange-bellied leafbird to the Philippine leafbird, which exhibits no sexual dimorphism. Most of the differences between the sexes are in the extent of the other colours in the plumage, particularly in the colours around the head and the blue or black face mask, with females having less colour and a less extensive (or absent) mask. Some species have blue on the wings and tail. The plumage of juvenile birds is a duller version of the female's. To human ears, their songs are melodious, and several species are good mimics. The calls include whistles and chatters.

Like bulbuls, leafbirds drop many body feathers when they are handled. This may confuse predators, especially snakes.

Distribution and habitat
Leafbirds are always found in trees and shrubs. Most are restricted to evergreen forests except the golden-fronted leafbird and Jerdon's leafbird which live in deciduous monsoon forests, and the orange-bellied leafbird, which occurs in deciduous forests. Within this requirement, they occupy all broadleaf forest types in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The highest altitude they occur at is 2500 m (8200 feet). Some species, such as the blue-masked leafbird, have montane distributions, rarely descending below 1000 m.

The orange-bellied leafbird and the golden-fronted leafbird are amongst the more widespread species, with large ranges across mainland Asia. Some species have more restricted distributions, such as the yellow-throated leafbird, which is endemic to the Philippine island of Palawan, and the Bornean leafbird, restricted to northern Borneo. In general there are seldom more than three species occurring in the same area, although five species co-occur in the submontane forests of Sumatra. Co-occurring species are usually well-spaced on the spectrum of size, to reduce competition.

Behaviour
Leafbirds usually feed in the canopy, eating insects and some fruit and nectar. Prey is searched for by nimbly moving along the branch ends and gleaned. They are also capable of hover-gleaning to obtain prey, and will pursue flushed prey into the air or even as far as the forest floor. The extent to which the leafbirds consume nectar is a matter of some debate; records are more common in Southern Asia compared to South East Asia. Some species join mixed feeding flocks now and then; others defend the blooming and fruiting trees and bushes where they forage.

Unlike most tropical Asian passerines, the nests of leafbirds are not located low down in the forest, but are instead found on the ends of branches near the tree crown. As such the nests of many species have rarely, if ever, been seen. The nests are open cups; of the few known, they are built of fine stems, leaf parts and rootlets. Some hang from thin horizontal shoots of trees; in others the rim is attached to a pair of vertical twigs. Females lay 2 or 3 pinkish eggs. The only information for incubation times comes from captive birds, and incubation lasts around 14 days. Incubation is apparently performed only by the female, although in at least two species the male feeds the incubating females.

Relationship with humans
Leafbirds are attractive birds and, combined with an attractive song and capacity to mimic sounds, they have become very popular cagebirds. The majority of the trade in this family is confined to Asia. Some populations have been locally depleted by the massive numbers captured for the trade. Overall the eleven species are mostly still common in suitable habitat, although the amount of suitable habitat has declined greatly with deforestation. Over half of leafbird species are either threatened or near threatened. The greater green leafbird, the blue-winged leafbird and the Sumatran leafbird are endangered because of trapping for the cage bird trade. One species, the Philippine leafbird, is listed as vulnerable due to habitat loss. The lesser green leafbird and the blue-masked leafbird are listed as near threatened.

Species

 * Family: Chloropseidae

title: Leafbird


text:
O'Connor Airlines

O'Connor Airlines was an airline based in Mount Gambier, South Australia. It operated scheduled services from Mount Gambier to destinations in South Australia and Victoria. Its main base was Mount Gambier Airport, with a hub at Adelaide Airport, which serviced Mildura Airport and Port Augusta Airport. The airline also serviced Whyalla Airport until September 2007.

History
The airline was established and started operations in 1973. Beginning as a one-aeroplane flight school in South Australia, O'Connor Airlines developed, over some years, into a freight and passenger service flying to 18 regional and country centres across the state. This was to change when it lost the freight contact. It subsequently relaunched itself, rebasing in Mount Gambier, and began services from that city to Adelaide and Melbourne. The IATA Code OL was used up to 1990. It then started flying to Whyalla. It began to service Mildura in 1998, purchasing a QantasLink route. In 2006, after Airlines of South Australia ceased operations, it began flying from Adelaide to Port Augusta.

The airline used Qantas facilities at both Adelaide and Melbourne airports. Originally, it used those of Australian Airlines.

In November 2007 O'Connor Airline was placed into voluntary administration with debts of between $4–5m AUD. This was largely blamed on high maintenance costs and high competition. Administrators McGrath Nicol was at the time looking for a buyer of the service.

O'Connor Airlines ceased operations on 14 December 2007 after its administrators were unable to find a buyer willing to purchase the airline as a going concern. On 21 February 2008, the airline's creditors voted for a pooled Deed of Company Arrangement (DoCA) for the airline group to be broken up and then commence trading again under new ownership. Many of the assets were subsequently purchased by Mount Gambier businessman Adrian de Bruin, including the Air Operator's Certificate, and used to establish de Bruin Air.

Destinations

 * South Australia
 * Adelaide Airport
 * Port Augusta Airport
 * Mount Gambier Airport
 * Whyalla Airport
 * Victoria
 * Mildura Airport
 * Melbourne Airport
 * O'Connor flew to Renmark for a brief period in 2001. During 2000 the airline carried 41,732 passengers.

Melbourne services ceased 1 July 2007 and Whyalla services ceased 3 September 2007

Fleet
The O'Connor Airlines fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at March 2007):

 * 2 BAe Jetstream 32

title: O'Connor Airlines