Timeline of Central Independent Television

This is a timeline of the history of Central Independent Television (now known as ITV Central).

1980s
  • 1980
    • 28 December – The Independent Broadcasting Authority announces the new contractors to commence on 1 January 1982. Midlands licensee ATV is allowed to retain its licence on the condition that 49% of the company is owned locally.[1] Another condition is that the company is renamed to demonstrate that it is effectively a new business.
  • 1981
    • Central Independent Television is the name chosen for the new dual-region Midlands franchise.
  • 1982
    • 1 January – At 9:25 am, Central Independent Television goes on air for the first time.
  • 1983
    • 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service TV-am launches. Consequently, Central's broadcast day now begins at 9:25 am.
    • 7 May – ACC sells its stake in Central and Sears Holdings purchases a 20% stake[2] while Ladbrokes and DC Thomson also increase their stakes to 20% each, and Pergamon takes its ownership to 12.5%, with 27.5% being held by single stakeholders.[3]
    • July – Central uses ATV's studio complex at Elstree for the final time. It does so in order to comply with a condition of the licence renewal which requires the company to stop using any London-centric facilities.
    • September –
      • Central's Nottingham studios begin operating[4] and they are officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 2 February 1984.[5]
      • Central finally launches its East Midlands service. An industrial dispute was the reason why the new service had been delayed by more than 18 months.
  • 1985
    • 3 January – The last day of transmission using the 405-lines system.
    • 2 September – A new presentation package is launched. The sphere is replaced by a ‘cake’.[7]
  • 1986
    • 17 January – The first edition of Friday night debate programme Central Weekend is broadcast. The 90-minute programme proves to be popular, quickly establishing a 40% audience share.
    • 2 April – The first in-vision teletext service is seen on ITV when Central launches its Jobfinder service which broadcasts for one hour after the end of the day's programming. Many other regions launch their own Jobfinder service later in the 1980s.
  • 1987
    • 6 January –
      • Central acquires the European division of the American production company Filmfair for £1.5million.[8] Filmfair goes on to produce several of the station's networked children's series before being sold onto the Storm Group (Caspian) in 1991.[9][10]
      • Central acquires a 22% stake in Starstream, which operates The Children's Channel.[11]
      • Inspector Morse, based on the books by Colin Dexter debuts, with John Thaw in the title role.
    • 16 March – Carlton Communications acquires 20 per cent of Central from Ladbrokes for £30 million.[12]
    • 25 April – Central becomes the first station to keep its transmitters on air all night when it launches More Central. Programmes are shown until around 3am on weekdays and 4am at the weekend, with the rest of the night filled by its Jobfinder service.[13]
    • 7 September – Following the transfer of ITV Schools to Channel 4, ITV provides a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins.
  • 1988
    • 13 February – Central launches a full 24-hour service.[14]
    • 4 April – After nearly 24 years on air, the final edition of Crossroads is broadcast. Central had taken over production of the programme from ATV.

1990s
  • 1990
    • 4 March – Central forms a partnership with The Observer newspaper to create Central Observer, making environmental themed films for British Satellite Broadcasting and terrestrial channels, with funding from the charity Television Trust for the Environment.[17]
  • 1991
    • 16 October – The Independent Television Commission announces the results of the franchise round. Central is unopposed for the Midlands licence and retains it with a token bid of only £2,000 per year, plus 11% of their annual advertising revenue.
    • November –
      • Having previously rented its studio complex, Central now owns its studios.[18]
      • Central sells its stake in Starstream to United Artists Cable International.
  • 1992
    • No events.
  • 1993
    • 19 May – After ten years and ten series, the final edition of Blockbusters is produced for ITV. However, Central produces one further series for the satellite channel Sky One.
  • 1995
    • February – Central ends its own night-time programming and carries the London overnight service although opt-outs for Jobfinder and other regional programming continues.
  • 1996
    • No events.
  • 1998
    • 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place.
  • 1999
    • 8 March – Central News' teatime programme is renamed Central News at Six to co-inside with the programme being rescheduled from 6.25pm to 6pm.
    • 6 September – Carlton Television drops the Central Independent Television name and brands the region as Carlton Central.[21]
    • 8 November – A new, hearts-based on-air look is introduced.

2000s
  • 2000
    • No events.
  • 2001
    • 7 September – After more than 15 years, the final edition of Central Weekend is broadcast.
  • 2002
    • 28 October – Central's on-air regional identity is dropped, apart from when introducing regional programmes.
  • 2003
    • All remaining overnight regional programming, including Jobfinder, ends.
  • 2004
  • 2005
  • 2006
    • 24 July – Central News at Six is renamed Central Tonight.
    • November – The Carlton branding, seen before some regional programming, is discontinued.
    • 4 December – The South Midlands sub-region is disbanded. The parts of Gloucestershire served by Central South joins the majority of the county already covered by ITV West and begins receiving The West Tonight and Herefordshire is now covered by the West Midlands edition. In the rest of the area, news operations are merged with Meridian West, to form the non-franchise ITV Thames Valley service, broadcasting Thames Valley Today/Tonight from the Meridian West studio in Whiteley, Hampshire. The new programme, which also covers Berkshire, Hampshire and parts of Surrey and Wiltshire retained Central's Abingdon newsroom as the main newsgathering base for the new region but the studio was closed.
  • 2007
    • No events.
  • 2008
    • December – All non-news local programming ends after Ofcom gives ITV permission to drastically cut back its regional programming.[23] From 2009 the only regional programme is the monthly political discussion show.
  • 2009
    • February – ITV makes major cutbacks to its regional broadcasts in England. Central's separate sub-regional news programmes are merged into a pan-regional programme although more localised news continues to be broadcast as a brief opt-out during the early evening programme.[24]

2010s
  • 2010
    • No events.
  • 2012
    • No events.
  • 2013
    • 14 January – ITV's Midlands news service is relaunched and rebranded as ITV News Central.[25]
    • 16 September – Sub-regional news coverage is re-introduced and the weekday daytime, late evening and weekend bulletins as well as 20 minutes of the 6pm programme are once again more localised.

See also

References
  1. Southern and Westward TV lose franchises and others to be restructured. By Kenneth Gosling. The Times, Monday, 29 December 1980; pg. 1
  2. Sears buys stake in Central TV. By Jonathan Clare. The Times, Saturday, 7 May 1983; pg. 11
  3. Central Independent Television Plc. The Times (London, England), Saturday, 28 May 1983; pg. 13;
  4. Buxton, Roddy. "A trip to Giltbrook". Studio One. Transdiffusion Broadcasting System. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  5. Court Circular. The Times, Saturday,3 March 1984; pg10
  6. Zenith and the art of film-making, Peter Fiddick The Guardian; 5 October 1984;
  7. TV Live: Central
  8. "NEWS IN BRIEF". The Guardian. 6 January 1987.
  9. "/C O R R E C T I O N – CINAR Films Inc./(Correction Notice)". Thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  10. "News Briefs". Playbackonline.ca. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  11. NEWS IN BRIEFThe Guardian (1959-2003); 6 January 1987;
  12. Ladbroke sale fuels takeover speculation. Cliff Feltham. The Times, Monday, 16 March 1987; pg. 19
  13. TV Ark" Central
  14. "TV Live – ITV Night Time". Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  15. Central News South first edition, 9 January 1989
  16. TV Live: Central
  17. "Observer to pioneer green broadcasting". The Observer. 4 March 1990. p. 3.
  18. Buxton, Roddy. "A trip to Broad Street". Studio One. Transdiffusion Broadcasting System. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  19. Too much reward without risk. The Times (London, England), Friday, 4 March 1994; pg. 25;
  20. TV bid will spark more takeovers. Martin Waller Deputy City Editor. The Times Tuesday, 30 November 1993; pg. 23
  21. TV Live: Central 1999–2002
  22. "King's Meadow Campus". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  23. "ITV 'can cut' regional programming". BBC News. 25 September 2008. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  24. Douglas, Torin (25 September 2008). "Analysis: Ofcom's regional news proposals". BBC News. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
  25. ITV launches rebrand on air and online, itv.com, 14 January 2012
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