Your television subsidiary, ATV Network Ltd, commenced its new contract with the Independent Television Authority on the 30th July 1968. The results for this past year have therefore included approximately four months of the old licence period when the company operated partly in the Midlands and partly in the London area, and eight months of the new licence period when our operation was for all seven days of the week in the Midlands.

The Board of this subsidiary company was reconstituted during the year and two very distinguished figures with widespread involvement in the life of the Midlands accepted our invitation to become directors. Dame Isabel Graham Bryce had retired some two years previously as a Member of the ITA. She has, thus, a detailed knowledge of the working of IndependentTelevision and clear views about its future development and its responsibility in each region of the country. In addition, her work as Chairman of the East Midlands Hospital Board and in many other fields of social work in the Midlands, gives ATV Network a new strength.

Sir George Farmer is Chairman of the Rover Car Company and brings to your Board a lifetime of experience from the exceptionally competitive British engineering industry. He is also a Director of the great British Leyland Motor Corporation, and his knowledge of modern industrial practices, of labour relations work and marketing, including the vital export field, will be an immense benefit to the Company. Sir George’s interests also include his Chairmanship of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Pro-Chancellorship of Birmingham University.

In addition, Mr Leonard Mathews, the General Manager in the Midlands, was elected a Director during the year. We welcome all three.

The repercussions of the Independent Television Authority’s decision to change the structure of the industry have been both profound and disturbing.

A very great deal of time has been involved, both in internal reorganisation of ATV Network, and also in arriving at new networking and other arrangements for the exchange of programmes between the various companies for the new licence period.

A new contractor was brought into the group of companies which supply the network with most of its programmes. Thus five companies were called upon to make the same number of programmes as four did previously-with a commensurate rise in everyone’s costs. In the initial months of the new licence period ATV Network, therefore, found itself with a reduction in total output.

Subsequent network re-scheduling resulted in a sudden considerable increase in the total output required from ATV’s studios. This produced a most difficult and continuing problem for our staff at Elstree and Birmingham.

Television Levy

The increase in the Levy announced in the Chancellor’s Budget speech came like a bombshell. It is quite clear that a major miscalculation has been made. The financial viability of ITV had been drastically altered as a result of the redistribution of licences and the past decisions of the Government to change the line standard from 405 to 625, and to introduce colour. These decisions, together with the requirement for new Midland studios, created an additional capital requirement, which will amount to about £7 millions in ATV Network alone. Your Board had come to the conclusion before the Budget that every effort should be made to impress upon the Chancellor that the Levy should be reduced.

We have made representations and will continue to press the Government with the utmost vigour to make a very substantial reduction in the Levy.

Staff relations

Almost immediately following the change of licence last summer, the industry was subjected to a major and quite unnecessary national strike by its ACTT members. This strike was created partly by the lack of confidence within the industry as a result of the licence change. Only after the industry had suffered considerable losses was it possible to return to the ordinary negotiating machinery and ultimately find a solution.

Concurrently with the negotiations with ACTT, the industry reached new agreements with its other major Unions – NATKE, ETU, NUJ and Equity. It is well worth mentioning that the new agreement reached with Equity was extremely complex but was negotiated with great goodwill, with each side adjusting its position so that benefits could flow to both.

It is the earnest hope of your Board and the Board of ATV Network, that a new basis of sound relations has been created within the company for the future. Short term productivity agreements were reached both at our Elstree studios and at Birmingham to cover our present production activities. We have now asked each of the main Unions to negotiate with us long term productivity deals protecting both their individual interests and your company’s throughout the remaining five years of the present television licence. We have been pleased with the initial response from the Unions to these proposals. They are now under detailed negotiation but we will need the full understanding of our Union employees that the only way the company can afford to pay additional wages beyond the exceptionally high levels which already apply in this industry is in return for further direct calculable improvements in individual productivity.

New Midland Studios

We are well pleased with the progress in completing our new television studios at Paradise Centre in Birmingham. Both our architects and the equipment manufacturers have worked well with us to ensure that the new studios will be available for transmissions from the target date next month.

By the early part of 1970 all parts of the Paradise Centre Television Studios will be fully operational.

Programmes

The centre of ATV Network’s activities is in its programmes. In spite of the many difficulties of the past year, ATV has once again produced a wide range of programmes of all types. Some of the highlights of the past year are shown on page 13.

There have been indications of a reduction in the total amount of viewing for television programmes. The largest proportion of the decline has fallen to BBC programming in spite of its control of two channels and monopoly of free advertising for its television programmes on BBC radio – a very great advantage which BBC Television enjoys. In the last six months, ATV Network’s proportion of the total television audience has risen substantially, and now stands at approximately 56%, with BBC1 and BBC2 combined having 44%.

ATV Network’s Educational Advisory Committee has been reconstituted under the Chairmanship of Professor Ronald Maudsley.

ITN

Like the rest of the industry ITN must operate on the 625 line system and in colour later this year. ITN’s Board therefore had no alternative but to agree plans for the building of a new ITN Studio Centre in London. These studios when equipped will cost about £1.5 million and represent a further large but unavoidable capital outlay for the industry. There will also be higher running costs when programming is in colour.

We were delighted to hear that Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, have agreed to honour the industry by making the official opening of these studios in November.

UN’s major news programme, ‘News at Ten’, continues to appear regularly in the Top 20 charts and draws widespread international acclaim.

Your Managing Director, Mr Robin Gill, became the Chairman of ITN during the year.

Viewing Hours

Last Autumn the Government allowed a tiny extension in the hours of broadcasting available to the BBC and ITV. We were grateful for this first indication that our long-standing request for the complete removal of all restrictions on the hours of broadcasting might yet be brought about.

We do most earnestly recommend that this restriction should be removed. It is wholly out of date and against the interests of the viewer. There are significant minority and other groups in the population who cannot be reached so long as such restrictions continue to apply.

TV Times

The year saw the unhappy closing of our very successful Midland magazine TV World. This came about as a result of the ITA’s new policy, which required all companies to use one programme magazine for the whole country.

The new national magazine was a re-creation of the TV Times. This new project involved heavy pre-operational charges, and it has taken a very considerable time to produce a continuing trading profit from the venture.

EVR (Electronic Video Recording)

ATV Network continues to keep a careful watch on the many technological developments within the television and electronic industries.

One of the most promising of these developments is a process for playing cassetted programmes through your home television set. This system is called EVR and we are pleased that the first full programme produced for this new system will be one of ATV’s.

Some of ATV Network’s programmes in the past year

Plays
‘Macneil, Cornelius and Emlyn’ a trilogy by Alun Owen shown in world markets as ‘Male of The Species’*, ‘A Heritage and its History’ adapted from novel by Ivy Compton Burnett, ‘A Matter of Diamonds’ by Paul Lee, ‘Retreat’ by John Hale, ‘The Marrying Kind’ by David Reid, ‘Colombe’ adapted from Jean Anouilh, ‘The Square on the Hypotenuse’ by Anthony Skene, ‘Uncle Jonathan’ by Linette Purbi Perry, ‘Stealers of Darkness’ by Jacques Gilles, ‘A Most Unfortunate Accident’ by John Bowen.

Drama Series
‘The Power Game’, ‘Fraud Squad’, ‘Love Story’, ‘Crimebuster’, ‘Crossroads’, ‘Honey Lane’, ‘Virgin of the Secret Service’, ‘Driveway’.

Light Entertainment and Comedy
‘This is Tom Jones’, ‘The Liberace Show’, ‘The Des O’Connor Show’, ‘George & The Dragon’ starring Peggy Mount and Sid James, ‘It’s The Bachelors’, ‘The Golden Shot’, ‘Goodbye Again’ starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke, ‘The Big Show’, ‘The Jimmy Tarbuck Show’, ‘The Real Mike Yarwood’, ‘Stars’ with Maurice Woodruff, ‘With Bird Will Travel’, starring John Bird, ‘John Brown’s Body’, starring Peggy Mount & Naunton Wayne, ‘It Must Be Dusty’, with Dusty Springfield.

Late Night Shows
‘Tonight with Dave Allen’, ‘Tonight with David Nixon’.

Current Affairs
‘Man of The Month’ including Governor Wallace, Dr Borlaugh, Deputy Prime Minister Allon of Israel, General Lemnitzer, Dr Lindt of the Red Cross. ‘Midland News’, ‘ATV Today’, ‘Police Five’, ‘Meet The Mayor’, ‘The Power from Beyond’.

Documentaries
‘Big Fish, Little Fish’ by Anthony Firth*. ‘The Lion & The Dragon’ by Robin Brown, ‘Welcome to Britain’ by Ross Devenish, ‘The Three Happiest Years’ by Norman Swallow, ‘Anything Can Happen’ by Hugh Raggett, ‘The Old Boys’ by Ken Ashton, ‘Hospital’ by David Rea.

Sports & O.B.’s included:
‘Wimbledon 1968’, ‘Cup Final 1968’, ‘Royal Show 1968/69’, ‘British Grand Prix’*, ‘Sportsweek’, ‘Sports from the Midlands’, ‘Major Football Matches’.

Religion
‘All Creatures Great & Small’ by Jean Morton, ‘Once More with Feeling’ Music, ‘The Church and I’ Discussion Panel.

Children’s Programmes
‘The Tingha and Tucker Club’.

Education
‘Towards Mathematics’, ‘Primary French’, ‘Ici La France’, ‘The Universe’ with Sir Bernard Lovell.

* Programmes which have won International Awards

Amongst those appearing in our programmes have been the following: Anne Bancroft, Shelly Berman, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Harry Corbett, Jim Dale, Phylis Diller, Sacha Distel, The Fifth Dimension, George Gobel, Engelbert Humperdinck, Sid James, Michael Jayson, Tom Jones, Nemone Lethbridge, Liberace, Anna Calder-Marshall, George Maharis, Mireille Mathieu, Barbara Murray, Peggy Mount, Des O’Connor, Sir Laurence Olivier, Eric Porter, Nyree Dawn Porter, Marjorie Proops, Juliet Prowse, Lynn Redgrave, Cliff Richard, Peter Sellers, Paul Scofield, Sheila Scott, Lord Soper, Ann Todd, Terry-Thomas, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Kenneth Williams, Patrick Wymark.

The post Annual Report 1969 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

But these are the very much the exceptions. Weeks, even months, can go by with not one single thing going wrong – yes, even in the 1950s and 60s. And during those times, 99% of all broadcasting, everything in transmission control and continuity runs like clockwork.

It does so because it’s planned to the exact moment by a team of highly trained, highly talented people working long hours and producing copious amounts of paperwork – even now, in the days of ‘everything’ being on a computer.

The paperwork, and its computerised equivalents, still look something like these documents from 27 July 1968 – ATV London’s last Saturday on air. They are shared with everyone who could possibly need or want to know, since more information leads to better television.

Each day’s transmission schedule for each company is copied to the person responsible for co-ordination of the network at each company or branch. Here, someone in every TX studio in ITV on air that day, from Miss Leidan at STV to Geoffrey Lugg at ABC, gets a copy. The transmitter staff get a copy too; the Independent Television Authority, as the legal broadcaster of ITV at the time, gets one. The people at “ATC” (Associated Television Corporation, ATV London’s parent company) manning the lines from the transmission centre at Foley Street in Marylebone in London to the General Post Office television control suite in the nearby Museum Exchange, the chief engineer next door in the offices at Ogle Street and the duty officer at ITN all get a copy.

Elstree, the beating heart of ATV for nearly all of its life, gets 10 copies; Mr Summers gets a copy to edit down to share with the newspapers and the TVTimes; 24 copies go to head office on Great Cumberland Street, including one for Olive Hennessy, who must be prepared to look back when the inevitable letters from viewers – what was the advert I saw at 9pm on Saturday last? was the racing from Ripon or Richmond? who do I write to if I want to complain about the results of OpNox? – flood in over the next week.

Meanwhile, the output of the ITV companies trundles on, each advert, announcement and even the National Anthem at the end of the day timed to the very second.

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The post ATV London continuity appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Oh, yes, we’re expecting you, Mr. Adair,” she said. “Please come this way.” Arthur Adair was ushered into an imposing office where a friendly executive greeted him. “Thank goodness you’ve come,” he said. “Now about this film, we…”

Arthur quickly pointed out there was a mistake. He was applying for a job in the commercial radio department. The executive apologised and explained that he thought he was addressing Alan Adair. “We do need someone for a show tonight,” he said. “Come along and then we’ll talk about a permanent job.”

This strange introduction led to Arthur Adair joining the company. He stayed with them for the next seven years. Today he is one of ATV’s announcing team, sharing with Peter Cockburn and Dick Norton all announcing in London and Birmingham.

Although Adair is a permanent part of ATV, he still produces a weekly commercial radio show. For the past five years, he has produced a Bing Crosby record show every Sunday.

“This doesn’t mean that I have TV production ambitions,” he says. “I love my job in front of the camera. Oh yes, I would like the chance to act in television. I’ve had quite a bit of experience in the theatre.”

For three seasons before he went into commercial radio, Adair played in repertory in Jersey. But his introduction to show business began in Burma where, as a Royal Artillery sergeant, he was posted to the Chindits concert party. He was compere, entertainer, impressionist — a fitting start to his career which led, shortly before he left for England, to the Forces Broadcasting Company.

At that time, Adair was Arthur Smith. Back in this country, he changed his name. Still working for the Forces Broadcasting Company, he was to announce a Geraldo programme. “You won’t get very far with a name like Arthur Smith,” said the bandleader. Arthur agreed. For that programme and thereafter he used his mother’s maiden name of Adair.

True to theatrical tradition, Adair boasts that he has never missed a show. But only 30 seconds saved his record a few weeks ago. Due to open the London transmitter at two minutes to nine one Saturday morning, he awoke at 8.15. From his Roehampton flat, he rang the studio that he couldn’t make it.

But Arthur Adair hates giving in. He threw on some clothes and, breakfastless and unshaved, dashed to catch a bus. He arrived at Putney at 8.40 and flung himself into a taxi.

“I’ve less than 20 minutes to get to Oxford Circus,” he shouted. “There’s a bonus for you if you can get me there in time.”

The taxi made it. At 8.58½, just as the ATV signature tune was being played, Arthur Adair hurtled through the studio door.

“What an experience,” he recalls. “But it made me do a thing I had promised to do for several weeks: buy a louder alarm clock!”

The post For the record – a louder alarm appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“On the Braden Beat”, as far as television viewers are concerned, is a one-man show. That man is the Canadian-born actor Bernard Braden.

Braden describes his 20-minute programme as “a type of journalistic column of the little screen”. As such the main aim of the show is topicality. An item of news which has caught Braden’s eye can be commented on in a way which is essentially Bradenesque: searching, biting, sympathetic, as the occasion demands—and if it deserves the full impact of the Braden-type humour, then it gets it!

An experienced man of the stage, radio and TV, Bernard Braden can be, in turn, author, poet, composer — as well as displaying his natural talents as a mimic and entertainer.

In his attitude to life Braden has two definite and constantly underlined dislikes: discrimination (whether on grounds of race, religion or politics) and the exploitation of the little man. Much of the material he has featured in his programmes has its origin in these deep-founded beliefs. And he likes nothing better than to learn of examples of these from the very people to whom he speaks through his show.

Braden does not set himself up as a preacher, nor as a corrector of wrongs, but he honestly believes that, by bringing what he considers to be malpractices—whether of landlords, big business, politicians, civil servants or merely smart-Alec door-to-door salesmen—to the attention of the general public he will have done something to rectify a wrong.

Braden likes people. His programmes prove this, for it is essentially about people and what he thinks will interest them that is his governing approach to the planning of each programme.

From his relaxed position behind the big desk into which he slumps in a cloud of cigarette smoke at the beginning of each show he waxes, seemingly at random, about topics of the day which are currently occupying the attention of most of his viewers. He gives his opinion on new books, films, gramophone records, new styles of fashion, personalities in the news, incidents which have caught the public imagination.

But there is no random approach to the content of a programme. For the five days preceding each show Braden and his team of four writers will have been out and about — in pubs, clubs, offices, shops, meeting the people whose interests are mirrored in the programme, finding out what they are talking about and what is currently interesting them most.

With humbug and officiousness Braden is particularly scathing. Using a special talent for mickey-taking, where music and words can be married to tear away the last vestige of false respectability, ht has perfected a means of writing lyrics to popular songs which he sings while “doctored” photographs of some special subject whom he wishes to expose or hold up to ribaldry appear on the screen. It is often an embarrassing experience for the person under fire, but it is never undertaken purely with malicious intent. The presentation is always amusing, reflecting technique in its concept and presentation, and if behind the humour and impact the Braden message comes through, then this more than satisfies the author.

When Bernard Braden is “On the Braden Beat” anything is fair game for comment. This is how Braden likes it, and judging by the popularity of his , programme it is also to the liking of the millions who make a point of staying up late to be with him on one night of every week as he looks at life and all that goes to make it up.

The post On the Braden Beat appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.