Associated Television Corporation
now, in view of its highly diversified activities, renamed
Associated Communications Corporation

‘I am anticipating new record profits in our current financial year’

Review of the year to 26 March 1978

For the third year in succession the figure of profit has risen most significantly.

The 1977/78 profit before tax of £13,700,000 [£71.1m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] is 22% higher than for the year 1976/77 which was, at the time, the highest in the history of the Company.

Comparison with the preceding year, 1975/76, is even more striking inasmuch as the 1977/78 profit shows a rise of no less than 122%.

Profit after tax attributable to members is £8,050,000 [£41.8m].

Once again the Group Results amply justify the confidence which I expressed in my last Annual Statement, and I have every reason to enjoy that same confidence today. I am happy to be able to say that all divisions in the Corporation are trading profitably.

Earnings and Dividends

For 1977/78 the earnings per “A” stock unit after taxation were 16.83p [87.35p] (1976/77 – 14.68p [76.19p]). Accordingly, the Board is able to recommend a dividend of 6.606p [34.29p] per “A” stock unit, being the maximum permitted by the Treasury.

An interim dividend of 2.772p [14.39p] per unit was paid in March and a final dividend of 3.834p [19.9p] per unit (which reflects the reduction in the standard rate of income tax) was approved at the Annual General Meeting.

Tribute to Staff

My thanks are due to all staff at home and overseas – numbering nearly 5,000 – for the part they have played in building the Corporation to its present size and prominence.

Group Activities

Television

Despite the change of name of the Corporation, the name of ATV Network Ltd., which holds the Midlands franchise granted by the Independent Broadcasting Authority, remains unchanged.

ATV is most favourably placed. “Crossroads”, the ever-popular series of which the 3,000th episode was broadcast in August 1978, is produced in ATV’s Birmingham studios; and ATV’s up-to-the-minute topical programme, “ATV Today”, also a product of the ATV Centre, Birmingham, and already recognised as an outstanding service of Midland television news and information, is being still further strengthened by the setting up of regional news centres in Nottingham and Oxford respectively.

One of the year’s most notable and acclaimed programmes from the Midlands production team was Trevor Nunn’s two-and-a-half-hour musical version of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors”, specially recorded at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon.

It is against this background of 339 hours of programmes produced in the Midlands that the Company’s national contribution produced in ATV’s other studio production centre at Elstree should be reviewed.

I need hardly say that, at the appropriate moment, ATV Network will automatically be applying for the continuation of the 7-day Midlands franchise which it has held since 1968, following on the 5-day Midlands franchise granted at the inception of Independent Television in 1954.

Film Production

ATV Corporation, through its ITC Entertainment subsidiaries, is already one of the world’s major film producers, and over the years I have been at pains to stress the large-scale investment required to finance film production. It is therefore highly gratifying to be able to draw attention to this year’s earnings from the film division, and to remind shareholders that the flow of revenue from this source is just beginning.

In order to streamline the marketing operation of ITC Entertainment films, a new subsidiary – ITC Film Distributors Ltd. – has been formed.

The setting up of a new American subsidiary, Marble Arch Productions Inc., marks yet a further stage in the Corporation’s progress.

Theatre

The Stoll-Moss Theatre Group had a most successful year. “A Chorus Line” continued to break all records at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. In addition, the past ten months have seen such productions as “Filumena”, “Cause Celebré”, The Old Country”, “Donkey’s Year”, “The Kingfisher”, and “The Rear Column”. Our new international star policy has brought many of the world’s most famous artists to the London Palladium, including Bing Crosby, Sammy David Junior, Julie Andrews, Shirley MacLaine and Liberace, as well as the record-breaking American musical, “Annie”, to the Victoria Palace.

Music Publishing, Records and Tapes

Music publishing has enjoyed an excellent year. There has been a substantial investment in the development of a background music library and considerable effort has been made in the development and encouragement of new writers.

In the UK, ATV Music was placed in the top three music publishers for 1977 by “Music Week”, and our USA company had its most successful year to date.

The Results of Pye Records showed further improvement, with The Brotherhood of Man and The Muppets scoring notable successes.

Other Interests

Property

Bentray Investments has made conspicuous progress and now ranks among the outstanding property-owning companies in the UK. Profits over the past three years have risen by no less than 45% and the valuation of Bentray’s assets, recently completed by outside valuers, shows an increase of over £11 million [£57.1m] in the period.

Theatrical Costumiers

Bermans & Nathans, our theatrical costumiers, has shown steady improvement with a continuing development of its export business.

Telephone Answering

Following the reorganisation at Ansafone, previous losses have been converted into a profit and we expect the current year to produce record results.

Insurance

The Marbarch Insurance Group is trading profitably and we plan considerable developments both at home and overseas.

Licensing

ATV Licensing made excellent progress in all fields and is one of our most rapidly expanding subsidiaries.

Copies of the Report and Accounts are available from The Secretary, Associated Communications Corporation Limited, 17 Great Cumberland Place, London W1A 1AG.

The post ATV financial results: 1978 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“POLICY OF PLANNED EXPANSION WILL BE VIGOROUSLY PURSUED”

Before I comment on the year’s results — which, for the fourth successive occasion, I must describe as truly excellent — let me refer to four important events in your Company’s history.

(i)        ATV Network Ltd., your wholly-owned subsidiary, has been awarded the seven-day-a-week Contract for the Midlands from 30th July, 1968, for a period of six years. This is the major Contract offered by the Independent Television Authority.

(ii)        Associated Television, the first television, film and programme producing Group to be recognized in this way, has been honoured by being chosen as a recipient of the Queen’s Award to Industry for Export achievement in 1967.

(iii)        The range of your Company’s operations is now so extensive that your Board has felt for some time that a new title would be more proper Accordingly, it is being proposed that Associated Television Ltd., the parent Company of the Group, should be renamed Associated Television Corporation Ltd.

(iv)        Mr. Lew Grade has been appointed a Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of your Company, and Mr. Robin Gill has been appointed Managing Director.

GROUP RESULTS

The consolidated Profit and Loss Account shows a profit for the Group, before Levy and taxation, of £11,838,787 [£179.3m in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed], an increase of £779,476 [£11.8m] over the results of the previous year (£11,059,311 [£167.5m]).

The Levy on Television Advertising Revenue amounts to £5,761,068 [£87.2m] and is £328,702 [£5m] higher than last year. After deducting this levy, the profit before taxation amounts to £6,077,719 [£92m] (last year £5,626,945 [£85.2m]).

Taxation for the year is £2,348,188 [£35.6m] as against the previous year’s figure of £2,780,325 [£42.1m]. After adding back £528,697 [£8m] in respect of a provision for depreciation no longer required, the Group profit after deducting the Levy and taxation amounts to £4,258,228 [£64.5m] as compared with £2,846,620 [£43.1m] last year.

The Shareholders’ funds, at £22,708,000 [£344m], are more than £5,000,000 [£75.7m] greater than at the end of the previous year. The total increase since 1963 now amounts to £12,589,000 [£190.7m].

ATV GROWTH FACTOR. In an article, entitled “British Business Growth League,” published in the June, 1967, issue of “Management Today,” ATV was shown as the top company in the country for percentage increase in pre-tax profit for the period 1957-66.

In the same article, ATV was included in the list of Top Ten companies for percentage increase both in net capital employed and gross cash flow for the same period.

FUTURE PROSPECTS. I must refer to the disturbing economic conditions which prevail, but in your Company’s affairs, two major factors, both highly encouraging, now colour the whole situation.

In the first place, the matter of the ATV Network Licence is satisfactorily settled, and your subsidiary’s profitable working into the mid-1970s can realistically be predicted.

Secondly, in the year under review, the non-licence operations within your Group contributed some 42% to the Company’s overall profits; and the high level of these non-licence earnings should be at least maintained.

I am able, therefore, to inform shareholders that I find both sides of your Company’s activities in good order, and can assure them that our announced policy of Planned Expansion will be vigorously pursued.

ATV NETWORK

THE NEW MIDLAND CONTRACT. I have already referred to the new seven-day-a-week Contract for the Midlands (10.4 million population) which the Authority has awarded to your Company.

This is the Contract for which your Company applied. It enables us to enlarge our long-standing interest in the Midlands, and also to maintain the greatest possible output of programmes for the national network.

From the outset of Independent Television, ATV has urged undivided weekly working as preferable in every way to the weekday/week-end split; and your Company is delighted that it will now be able to provide the unified and unbroken seven-day-a-week service which the Midland viewer deserves.

Shareholders will appreciate that the previous short Licence period of three years, the extension of one year, and uncertainties as to the future shape of Independent Television, rendered long term planning impossible. For the first time, your Company con see a clear course ahead of it, and a new studio complex will be erected. Plans for this were commissioned over three years ago. The studios will be the most up-to-date in the country and will be built with all the requirements of Colour in mind.

Now that the Authority has clarified the whole position, and ATV Network con concentrate its interest on the Midlands viewer, the Board of ATV Network will be strengthened by the addition of leading Midlands figures, and resident Executive Directors from within the Company.

I am very happy indeed that it should be Mr. Bill Ward, for so long one of the key men in ATV who becomes an Executive Director of ATV Network. Mr. Leonard Mathews, who, as Midlands Controller, has played such an important role for the Company, has also been appointed to the Board.

THE MIDLANDS. Both local and nationally networked programmes hove shown a notable increase during the past year.

The daily serial, “Crossroads,” continues to enjoy top programme ratings, and the televising of the 500th episode in 1966 was celebrated by a dinner in Birmingham attended by viewers drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom.

ATV’s weekday network programme for children, “Tingha and Tucker Club” — the most popular in British television — has been joined by a Sunday network programme, “Tree House Family,” which is now seen in over 4 million homes.

The new regular weekly programme, “Midland Member,” enables a Member of Parliament from one of the 107 constituencies in the area to give a first-hand account of the work at Westminster; this is now recognised os providing one of the most important political contributions to Midlands life.

The magazine programme, “ATV Today,” continues to attract an audience of well over three million viewers; and, during the year ATV’s film unit covered more than 70,000 miles in collecting items for “Midland News.” No fewer than 66 Midland news stories provided by ATV appeared in the national news service of ITN.

In co-operation with the Midlands Police Forces, ATV has presented 52 episodes of the weekly “Police Five” programme. Over 250 crimes have been reported, and the police regard the information provided by television viewers as responsible, in at least ten per cent of the cases, for the successful outcome of police enquiries.

For the fifth successive year, ATV’s presentation of the Royal Show from the National Agricultural Centre, Kenilworth, received nation-wide coveroge.

VIEWING HOURS. ATV shareholders and the viewing public at large should be aware of the fact that your Company, in common with all other Independent Television companies, is denied the right to provide the full and comprehensive service which it is naturally anxious to present. Hours of transmission ore rigidly restricted by order of the Postmaster General, and protests from the Company have proved unavailing. The Authority has listened sympathetically, and is fully aware of the extra programmes which your Company is seeking to provide. Your Company has all the facilities for the immediate provision of the extra hours. Nevertheless, the ban remains, in spite of the fact that the BBC with its two services now provides some thirty more hours of broadcasting each week than is permitted to Independent Television.

COLOUR. In my last Report I stressed the fact that the ATV Network studios at Elstree would, by the autumn of 1966, be fully equipped for Colour operations in the various international line standards. This has been accomplished, and major drama productions electronically recorded in Colour now include three plays, namely “Ivanov” with Sir John Gielgud; “The Tormentors” starring James Mason and Stanley Baker; and “Present Laughter” with Peter O’Toole and Honor Blackman.

Light entertainment productions in Colour include the two-hour programme, “The Heart of Show Business,” in aid of the Aberfan victims; a series of 13 one-hour productions, “Piccadilly Palace,” with Morecambe and Wise, and Millicent Martin; and a series of 26 one-hour programmes, “Spotlight,” with British, American, and other international star artists.

All these productions are additional to the Colour programmes on film, to which I have referred earlier, and to mony documentary programmes made in Colour. Taken together, they constitute the largest library of TV Colour productions in Great Britain.

I am delighted that one of our news film teams, Mr. Gary Hughes and Mr. Noel Smart, should have won the Bronze Medal in the “hard news” section of the 1966 British Television News Film awards. This is the second year running in which ATV network has won on award.

ALPHA STUDIOS, ASTON. ATV Midland transmissions are co-ordinated through the Presentation Centre of Aston, either for networking or for routing to the Authority’s transmitters at Lichfield and Membury.

The Alpha Studios accommodate nearly one hundred hours of rehearsals, recordings and transmissions each week.

SALES. During a year in which there was a standstill in television advertising rates under the tight economic conditions of the “Squeeze,” the Sales Department of ATV Network nonetheless achieved an increase in net revenue of some 4½%. This growth was accomplished in a year when total national advertising appropriations fell for the first time since 1946.

ATV Network has developed the whole scope of television advertising. Holiday Tours, Fashion, and the Big Stores ore all now represented on the London screen; and, in the Midlands, the service has been extended to small businesses, retail shops and garages. Local advertisements now amount to some 1,500 a year. Moreover, industry throughout the Midlands responded warmly to the introduction by ATV Network of a Staff Recruitment Bureau, and viewers have been informed of over 500 vacancies, ranging from drivers and clerks to management accountants and project engineers.

ATV’s “Midlands Merchandiser,” a trade paper for grocers, now reaches more than 8,000 shops, and provides the only service in the industry which forms a direct link between television and the retailer.

“TV WORLD.” The programme journal for the Midlands is owned jointly by ATV Network and ABC Television, and is published by Odhams Press.

From the outset, this magazine set up new publishing records. The circulation has risen steadily from 640,000 when the magazine first appeared in September, 1964, to the figure of over 737,000 at which it stands today. A long and prosperous future had, therefore, confidently been foreseen. Under a new ruling by the Authority, however, separate programme publications will cease after July, 1968, and a national weekly, with regional editions, published on behalf of all companies will supersede them.

I must, on behalf of viewers in the Midlands, enter a plea that the distinctive character and individuality of “TV WORLD” should be preserved intact in the new publication.

EXPORTS

QUEEN’S AWARD FOR EXPORT ACHIEVEMENT. “Her Majesty The Queen has been graciously pleased to confer Her Award in 1967 upon Associated Television Ltd., London, W.1, for export achievement” — I quote the wording of the official citation which gave the world of British entertainment its first Queen’s Award to Industry.

The formal presentation of the Award was made by Major-General Sir George Burns, Lord Lieutenant of the County of Hertfordshire. The ceremony, which the Postmaster-General and members of the Independent Television Authority attended, took place on 4th July in your Company’s Elstree Studios.

I will not attempt to conceal my feelings of pride when I first read the Royal message. Nor will I conceal the fact that I regard it, in unique degree, as public recognition of the untiring work and devotion over the years of one man, your joint Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive, Mr. Lew Grade.

Shareholders should know that the establishment of a television export market for films has been a long, arduous and, at the outset, a heart-breakingly frustrating business. One by one, Mr. Grade has overcome the objections raised by foreign buyers when offered British products; and it is not too much to say that, through his efforts, your subsidiary, Incorporated Television Company, is now one of the most sought-after production sources in the world.

Knowing the strains that are involved in the many and complex transactions I am glad to think that, on his visits abroad, Mr. Grade should have your Managing Director, Mr. Robin Gill, there beside him. Together I believe, they represent the world’s strongest partnership in television film production and international distribution.

ATV EXPORTS TODAY. The turnover figure for your Company’s export of television programmes continues to rise steadily. U.S. dollar sales have passed the $10,000,000 [$91.1m] mark and sales in the European Hemisphere have correspondingly increased. There is every indication that this present trend will not only be maintained, but will be improved upon.

INDEPENDENT TELEVISION CORPORATION. This year your Company will have no fewer than five Colour television series on the American networks. This is the highest number in the history of the Company. In addition, a number of individual plays and documentaries have been sold to the American networks.

These results in the United States could not have been achieved without your Company’s American subsidiary, Independent Television Corporation.

INCORPORATED TELEVISION COMPANY. Nor could these export results have been obtained had it not been for the magnificent work of your production group, Incorporated Television Company. The schedule of work in hand has never been so extensive as at the present moment, and the following series, all in Colour, are currently reaching completion: “Man in a Suitcase”; “The Prisoner”; “The Saint”; “Spotlight”; “Piccadilly Palace”; “The Champions.”

The wealth of British talent among producers, directors, script writers and actors available to I T C has led to a deal with United Artists for three feature films starring Roger Moore. Further feature film productions are in negotiation. All of these are for distribution to cinemas throughout the world.

In addition to its production activities, Incorporated Television Company is responsible for Eastern Hemisphere television sales where the year produced record results. Your company’s programmes are now being shown in 62 countries on this side of the Atlantic alone.

THEATRES

STOLL THEATRES CORPORATION. I am happy to be able to report that this Group, under the chairmanship of Mr. Prince Littler, has enjoyed another successful year.

The current production, “Fiddler On The Roof” at Her Majesty’s Theatre has proved a triumph, and “There’s A Girl In My Soup” at the Globe Theatre has established itself as one of the outstanding attractions of the West End stage. Earlier in the year the centre of theatrical London was to be found at the Queen’s Theatre, which housed Noel Coward’s “Suite In Three Keys,” and the National Theatre Season.

The London Palladium pantomime, “Cinderella,” again broke all records, and “The Black & White Minstrel Show” at the Victoria Palace continues undiminished into its sixth year.

The satisfactory results of the Stoll Theatres Corporation have been achieved despite the dual burdens of Selective Employment Tax and rising costs. Elsewhere in the West End, however, and among the provincial theatres the effects of rising costs and S.E.T. have been most damaging.

PROPERTIES — CENTURY 21 — PYE RECORDS — MUSIC PUBLISHING – MUZAK — BOWLING

PROPERTIES. During the year we have brought our many property interests together within Bentray Investments. We now have a steady programme of improvement and expansion planned for the years ahead.

CENTURY 21. On both sides of the Atlantic it is acknowledged that the “Thunderbirds” series of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson established entirely new levels in film-making ingenuity. Equally remarkable technical advances have now been achieved with a new range of puppets which will be seen for the first time in “Captain Scarlet,” a series of 32 half-hour episodes currently in production in Colour.

CENTURY 21 MERCHANDISING LTD. — PUBLISHING LTD. — TOYS LTD. The business of these three companies is the exploitation of subsidiary rights in television and motion picture properties.

In conjunction with City Magazines Ltd., a subsidiary of the “News of the World,” four children’s weeklies are now being produced and “TV Century 21” and “Lady Penelope” in particular enjoy outstanding success.

PYE RECORDS. The year’s trading has been highly satisfactory. Among Pye Records successes are the First and Second Prize winners in the Eurovision Song Contest. Pye Records has, furthermore, established its Marble Arch Label in the forefront of the growing market for lower-priced LPs.

Overseas, the sale of Pye Records has increased by nearly 9%.

MUSIC PUBLISHING. Our joint companies with Chappells are progressing well.

MUZAK. Over 180 leading companies, practically all household names in British industry, now have the Muzak service of background music installed in one or more of their premises. The rate of recruitment to the Muzak service is greater than at any previous time in the company’s history, and shows recognition of the fact that Muzak provides the only programmed background music service with completely non-repetitive new programmes every day.

AMBASSADOR BOWLING. This company continues to operate profitably despite reduced attendance at bowling centres throughout the country.

TOP DIRECTION — YOUR BOARD – INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS — ATV STAFF

TOP DIRECTION. The rate at which your Company has developed and the steadily widening scope of what I have referred to in earlier Reports as our policy of “Planned Expansion,” has necessitated a new framework at the top.

The new post of Chief Executive has been created, ond this will naturally be filled by Mr. Lew Grade. Knowing, as I do, what every phase of your Company’s activities owes to the brilliant direction of Mr. Grade, let me add that it is only fitting that he should also be appointed a Deputy Chairman of your Company.

The name of Mr. Grade is synonymous with the emergence, over little more than a decode, of the name of ATV as a Company of world-wide standing; and I am delighted to have this opportunity of congratulating him.

I can, moreover, regard myself as fortunate in having on the Board a Deputy Managing Director in the person of Mr. Robin Gill, to whom the wider duties of Managing Director can so confidently be entrusted. I om happy to add my thanks to Mr. Gill for the great part which he is playing in your Company’s affairs. The partnership between Mr. Grade ond Mr. Gill to which I have referred earlier in connection with our Overseas Sales, is one which I am happy to say extends also to every aspect of your Company’s business.

During the post year. Mr. Grade become Chairman of Independent Television’s Network Planning Committee, and Mr. Robin Gill hos been asked to continue for a further period as Chairman of the Independent Television Companies Association.

My thanks, too, must go to the Company’s Finance Director, Mr. Jack Gill whose contribution to the running of the Company has proved of immense value.

Finally, I have to report that, owing to other business commitments, Mr. R. P. T. Gibson has tendered his resignation from your Board. Mr. Gibson has been a Director of your Company since 1957, ond I om only sorry that this long connection should now be broken.

BOARD OF ASSOCIATED TELEVISION. Let me say how deeply appreciative I am of all the help which I have received over the year from the various members of your most distinguished and experienced Board.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. Despite the unprecedented problems set by the Government’s Prices and Incomes policy, the Group has been able to continue its progressive approach towards the Unions, and has maintained good relations with its staff and with the Unions with which it negotiates.

A completely new system to productivity payments on the part of ATV Network Ltd. was worked out with the Unions and has been approved by the Ministry of Labour. New inter-Union arrangements were negotiated for Century 21 Productions, and these will eliminate various awkward lines of demarcation.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF. My co-Directors join me in expressing their warmest thanks to everyone at all levels: Managerial staff, sales staff, accountancy staff and secretarial staff play their part equally with the technicians, the skilled craftsmen and the artistic producers and directors within the Company, and without their loyal and untiring efforts these admirable results could never have been attained.

The post ATV financial results: 1967 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Results no less than excellent”

Profits, tax and levy

The Consolidated Profit and Loss Account shows a profit for the Group, before Levy and taxation of £11,059,311 [£171m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed]. This represents an increase of £1,699,370 [£26.3m] over the results of the previous year (£9,359,941 [£144.7m]).

Moreover, this year’s trading has had to bear the full brunt of 12 months’ Levy on Television Advertising Revenue. Thus, the sum of £5,432,366 [£84m] had to be set aside for this purpose, as against the sum of £3,837,593 [£59.3m] for the 8 months of the year to the 4th April, 1965 — the year in which the Levy was introduced.

Taxation for the year amounts to £2,780,325 [£43m] as against last year’s figure of £2,752,639 [£42.6m]. In total, therefore. Levy and taxation have consumed no less than £8,212,691 [£127m] (74%) of the Group profit.

It should furthermore be noted that this figure of Levy and taxation payable to the Exchequer is in addition to the sum of £985,253 [£15.2m] payable to the Independent Television Authority for the rental of the London and Midlands Transmitters.

Nevertheless, the Group profit after Levy and taxation amounts to the final figure of £2,846,620 [£44m] as compared with £2,769,709 [£42.8m] for the previous year.

EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY

In June your Directors announced the intention of recommending a final dividend of 10%, making a total of 26% for the year. The year’s accounts were accordingly drawn up on this basis.

In view, however, of the Government White Paper, “Prices and Incomes Standstill”, I have to tell you that your Directors now feel bound to recommend that the final dividend should be 6½% and not 10%, thus leaving the total dividend at 22½%, as for the previous year.

EXPANSION

The Chairman of a Company which is expanding so rapidly as Associated Television naturally finds himself at a disadvantage in preparing a Report which must suffer some delay before it can reach the hands of the shareholders.

Accordingly, even though these developments have occurred after the end of the financial year under review, I feel that I should report several new acquisitions to your Group’s interests.

First, there is our joint undertaking with Chappell’s in music publishing through our acquisition of a 50% interest in two companies New World Music Limited and Jubilee Music Inc. Secondly, there is the 50% interest in a new publishing company to be formed jointly with the International Publishing Corporation to operate in the general field of educational and industrial training publications and in connection with television programmes.

Thirdly, we have now acquired the remaining 50% of Pye Records making the company a 100% subsidiary of ours.

In addition we have acquired the remaining 49% minority interest in J. Rosenthal (Toys) and are arranging for the acquisition of a 7½ % interest in an insurance company already established by IPC, Reeds Paper Group and Eagle Star.

THEATRES

In my last Report, I referred to your Company’s “largest and most important single investment” in the shape of the acquisition of the whole of the share capital of the Stoll Theatres Corporation and of Moss Empires.

I am now happy to be able to speak of the eminently satisfactory – indeed substantially improved – results of the Theatre Croup, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Prince Littler.

A new record was established for the London Palladium; and, throughout the West End, our theatres played to well-filled houses. Conspicuous among other successes has been Noël Coward’s repertoire of three plays at the Queen’s Theatre which played to capacity business, and “Hello, Dolly!” at Drury Lane.

It is nevertheless sad that the theatre industry, so recently relieved of the burden of Entertainment Tax, should now be saddled with rising costs deriving from the Selective Employment Tax.

ATV NETWORK

In my last year’s Statement I referred to your Company’s policy of “planned expansion”. As this expansion of activities extended into fields other than television, it became increasingly apparent to your Board that a completely new Company framework was required. Accordingly, steps were taken to reconstruct the Group in such a way that the parent Company would become purely the holding Company of its various trading subsidiaries – including a new subsidiary company to be entrusted with the Television Service operated under licence from the Independent Television Authority.

In April, 1966, this major move was completed. A subsidiary company, ATV Network, was created. It was to this new company that, with the agreement of the Independent Television Authority. the Programme Contract with the Authority and the ancillary television activities were transferred.

TV WORLD

The Midlands programme journal for Independent Television is published by Odhams Press Limited on behalf of ATV Network and ABC Television Limited. The success of the magazine has been unprecedented, and sales have risen steadily to well beyond the 700,000 mark.

MERCHANDISING

In none of your Company’s subsidiaries has expansion been more rapid or more satisfactory.

The publishing venture, in association with the News of the World Organisation of the two magazines “TV Century 21” and “Lady Penelope”, has proved eminently successful, and their combined circulation is over the million mark.

The new subsidiary company, J. Rosenthal (Toys), which markets products associated with television programmes is now equipped to become the major distributor in this field, and shows substantial profits.

COLOUR

Colour on the 405-line standard could be made immediately available to the entire British receiving public in the existing VHF services. Those viewers content to watch only black-and-white pictures would remain entirely unaffected. If 405-line Colour Television were authorised in the New Year, ATV Network alone could immediately contribute not less than 20 hours of Colour programmes a week to the Independent Network.

In order that this country should not lag behind in the development of Colour Television, we therefore advocate the earliest possible introduction by the ITA of colour on the 405-line standard in the existing VHF service. By this Autumn, ATV Network’s Studios in London and Elstree will be equipped for Colour operations in the various international line-systems.

EXPORTS

For the first time in television history, British series have been purchased simultaneously by all three American TV Networks. Columbia Broadcasting System purchased 45 episodes of “Secret Agent” (known to British viewers as “Danger Man”), the National Broadcasting Company purchased “The Saint”, and “The London Palladium Show”, and the American Broadcasting Company purchased “The Baron”, “Court Martial” (jointly produced with MCA), and “McGill”, a new series for next season. The triple jackpot of selling to all three networks has at last fallen into British hands.

I am glad, moreover, to be able to say that, for the Eastern Hemisphere, the sales curve of ITC continues to point sharply upwards. Indeed, for the first six months of the current calendar year total sales approximate to the whole of the previous 12 months’ turnover. These sales have been made in more than 50 different countries.

FILM-MAKING

Another intensive programme of film production is currently in hand, including “The Saint” and “McGill” together with a new Patrick McGoohan series “The Prisoner”.

PYE RECORDS

This is the first Annual Report in which I am able to refer to Pye Records as a wholly-owned subsidiary, even though the results contained within the Consolidated Profit and Loss Account reflect only the dividends received under the 50% ownership which then existed.

During the past year, Pye Records has maintained a leading position within the industry. Although in the United States the sudden vogue for British Pop records has somewhat declined, sales have remained good and the overseas sales of Pye Records in other markets have shown a steady improvement.

THE MIDLANDS

At no time in your Company’s history, has the operation of the weekday licence played so conspicuous a part in Midland affairs and the scope of local programming has notably increased.

The first successful five-day-a-week serial, “Crossroads”, originates in Birmingham, and has proved to be nationally popular.

Another Midlands ATV Network programme – this time designed for the young – “Tingha and Tucker” has, as a result of its overwhelming local popularity, now won itself a place in the national Sunday network.

MUZAK

It is all the more agreeable, bearing in mind the originally slow acceptance of this commercial and industrial amenity, to be able at last to refer to its established success. Growth has been rapid, and the daily Muzak audience in the British Isles now numbers some 2,000,000 persons.

BOWLING

In the year under review, the ten bowling centres, comprising 273 bowling lanes, produced satisfactory results showing an improvement over the previous year.

The effects of the Selective Employment Tax cannot do other than affect future profitability.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

The debt which your Company owes to the efforts of its Managing Director, Mr. Lew Grade, can in no way be exaggerated. His energy, flair and foresight are apparent in every phase of the Company’s operations and, once again, I most gladly take this opportunity, on your behalf, of thanking him.

I am glad, too, to place on record how fortunate I feel that the Company was to secure the services of Mr. Robin Gill as Deputy Managing Director. The top management team of Mr. Lew Grade and Mr Robin Gill has proved an inestimable asset in the Company’s manifold and expanding affairs.

No less do I and my co-Directors wish to thank all members of Staff throughout the Group. The present healthy and vigorous condition of the Company could never have been achieved without their loyal and devoted work.

The post ATV financial results: 1966 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“Trading Profit £5.5 million”

“Another Excellent Year”

In my 1964 Statement I was able to report “an excellent year’s trading”, and I added that I had “every confidence in your Company’s prospects for the ensuing year”.

I am now happy to be able to say that my prediction has proved justified. Associated Television Limited has enjoyed another excellent year — in fact, despite the effects of 8 months’ levy on turnover, the second most profitable in the 10 years’ history of your Company’s activities.

The consolidated Profit and Loss Account shows that the profit of the Group, before taxation, stands at £5,522,348 [£88.9m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] for the 52 weeks to 4th April, 1965.

EXPORTS

This year has been historic as the first in which ATV has broken into the American networks. The series “Danger Man” — re-named “Secret Agent” in the United States — was sold to CBS. Its reception was unprecedented. Following upon three shows which hod failed one after the other it promptly reached first place in the national ratings for programmes in that time period. In consequence, CBS has now placed an order for a further series of “Secret Agent” for next winter. The United States contracts for “Secret Agent” alone ore worth more than $3,000,000 [$30m].

The unique puppet series, “Stingray”, has now earned the highest prices ever paid in syndication — that is to say in sales to individual stations throughout the United States The revenue from this series will, it is estimated, exceed $1,500,000 [$15m] in the United States alone.

During the year 1964/65, overall exports to some 100 Countries throughout the world have resulted in a Sales revenue of nearly £2,000,000 [£32.2m]; and in the current year this figure should be passed by a very substantial margin.

EXCHEQUER LEVY

The levy on turnover, collected by the Independent Television Authority on behalf of the Exchequer, will be in force for the whole 12 months of the ensuing financial year (1965/66). This levy rises at the top end of the scale to no less than 45% of advertising receipts — the highest rate of discriminatory taxation in the history of British industry.

It would be idle to pretend that the effect of the levy on your Company’s profits will not be adverse. It cannot be otherwise. On the other hand, it would be totally misleading to attempt any direct equation between the amount of the levy and the resultant amount of the profits.

In the first place, your Company’s revenue from advertising is substantially higher than it has been at any time in its history: this is due to the exceptional performance of the ATV Sales department. Secondly, internal economies affecting every phase of the ATV operation except programme production have already shown good results. Thirdly, the benefits of diversification are apparent in the form of additional revenue coming from sources which are not subject to the television levy.

EXPANSION

ATV’s policy has been one of planned expansion in those fields in which your Directors and their Management have the widest background of experience and therefore the greatest contribution to make for the future. It was in line with that policy that your Company made its largest and most important single investment by acquiring the whole of the share capital of the Stoll Theatres Corporation Ltd , and of Moss Empires Ltd.

In London, the Stoll Theatres Corporation controls — either freehold or leasehold — the following theatres Coliseum (leased to Cinerama Ltd); Palladium; Victoria Palace; Hippodrome (leased to “Talk of the Town”); Apollo; Her Majesty’s; Globe; Queen’s; Lyric; Phoenix; and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. And in the provinces: Birmingham Hippodrome; Bristol Hippodrome; Brighton Hippodrome; Liverpool Empire; Manchester Palace; Manchester Hippodrome (site awaiting development); Morecambe Winter Gardens; Nottingham Empire (closed); Nottingham Theatre Royal; and Stoll Picture Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Considerable as these interests are, they do not in any sense constitute a monopoly of the live theatre, either in London or in the provinces. Nevertheless they do provide a wide and substantial bridge between Television and the Theatre, and I am fully satisfied that this is to the advantage of both.

Still pursuing our line of planned expansion within the entertainment industry, in October of last year your Company purchased a controlling interest in M Berman Ltd., one of Britain’s leading firms of film and theatrical costumiers.

ATV AWARDS

Throughout the country the programmes produced by Independent Television have been preferred to those produced by the BBC in the ratio of 64% to 36%, and the programmes of ATV have greatly contributed to this success. Indeed, never before have so many distinctions for programmes been earned in any one year by the artists, personalities, writers and producers connected with a single Company.

The Guild of Television Producers and Directors made four ATV awards; The Screen Writers Guild made four ATV awards; The Variety Club of Great Britain made three ATV awards; and The Television Society two ATV awards. The awards constitute the acceptance of the outstanding position of Mr. Bernard Braden as the ITV personality of the year, and of “The Plane Makers” as the outstanding dramatic series of the year.

AUDIENCE

The Authority’s transmitter in the London area, where ATV is responsible for the week-end operation, reaches a potential audience of 13.8 million. In the Midlands, where ATV is responsible for the week-day operation, the audience has — as a result of the opening on 30th April, 1965, of the Authority’s Membury relay transmitter — now risen from a potential audience of 8.7 million to one of 9.2 million. This increase in audience potential will in due course be reflected in the revenue-earning potential of the Midand operation.

THE MIDLANDS

During the year we have entirely reshaped the pattern of our regional programmes in the Midlands. At a regular time throughout the week-days, our viewers now see a daily Midlands news and news magazine programme (“ATV Today”). ATV Midlands moreover has established the first successful five-day-a-week serial in British television. This programme, “Crossroads”, originating in the Alpha Studios in Birmingham, has now spread across almost the whole national network, and regularly appears in the regional Top Ten ratings. A national critic recently went so far as to say: “‘Crossroads’ is the biggest television success of 1965”.

COMMONWEALTH

In the past I have indicated that our investment in television companies in Canada has proved disappointing because of the heavy initial losses which these companies incurred. I am now, for the first time, able to report that the companies are soundly profit-making and that the value of ATV’s Canadian holdings has correspondingly increased.

ATV (Distributors) Pty. Ltd., is in the happy position of having been able to arrange sales in Australia of all the major ATV series and programmes which they have been asked to handle.

EDUCATION

ATV has continued to produce three fully networked programmes for schools. These have been well received throughout the entire country In the Midlands, where ATV maintains its own Education Officer, the number of schools in which there are provisions for regular viewing has increased during the year from 1,130 to 1,480.

Outstanding in the field of adult education was the series devised by Mr. Harold Wiltshire, Director of Adult Education at Nottingham, and produced by ATV in co-operation with that University. For the first time in the history of adult education on television in this country, the series (on basic economics) offered viewers the opportunity to enrol for a correspondence course based on the programmes and to have personal contact with tutors. Over 1,600 viewers enrolled, and a further course on a national basis is now being planned.

PYE RECORDS

Pye Records, which is 50% owned by ATV, has enjoyed a year of overall success and of individual successes.

On no fewer than five occasions, records under the Pye label reached the Number One position in the British Top Ten listings. Moreover, during this period British pop discs in general, including those of Pye Records, achieved a new fashionable status in the American market. No one would ever presume to predict how long any trend will continue in the pop record field particularly in the U.S.A. but, as a result of the sudden British boom — described by some critics as a “cult” — the dollar earnings of Pye Records more than doubled. Elsewhere in the world, where the trends are usually steadier, overseas sales of Pye Records have shown on increase of more than 50%.

BOWLING

Ambassador Bowling profitably operated 10 Tenpin Bowling Alleys with a total of 273 bowling lories. Three new Centres were opened during the course of the year — in Hounslow, Wolverhampton, Edgware.

Approximately 250,000 people visit our Centres each week. Tenpin Bowling is a sport which covers all age groups but, it should be noted, by far the greatest numbers fall between the ages of 16 and 26.

“TV WORLD”

The new weekly Midlands programme journal, “TV World,” published by Odhams Press Ltd. and jointly owned by ATV which provides the week-day programmes in the Midlands and by ABC Television Ltd. which provides the Midlands week-end programmes, was launched on 26th September, 1964. Its success was immediate. The circulation has grown consistently and now stands close to the 700,000 mark.

MUZAK

Though in the post the growth of this service of background music for offices, factories and public areas has proved slower than anticipated, the position has appreciably improved during the past year. The total value of contracts secured stands at a figure in excess of £1,000,000 [£16.1m], and is now growing rapidly as the benefits of the service become more widely appreciated.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

It would have been impossible for me to write in such confident terms of ATV’s overall buoyancy and prospects for the future if it were not for the vigorous, zealous and able leadership given to the Company by the Managing Director, Mr. Lew Grade. I also send my most sincere thanks and those of my colleagues on the Board to all the Staff throughout the Group for their loyal and hard work.

The post ATV financial results: 1965 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

TONIGHT is the biggest night in commercial television in Britain since its inception 12 years ago. For tonight the new contract period comes into operation —bringing the new companies of Yorkshire and Thames to the screen for the first time, putting Harlech officially on the ITV map and redefining the pattern of Granada in the north and ATV in the Midlands.

And at the end of this momentous week the new London Weekend Company — with David Frost as one of the principal figures both behind and in front of the cameras —takes the air.

But, unless you happen to watch the ITV channel tonight for half an hour before the 10 p.m. ITN news, you might be forgiven for not realising that a new era has dawned with ATV.

ONE OF 17

For though there are 17 new programmes advertised to start this week, only one — a twice-weekly serial called Driveway — carries the ATV label (notwithstanding tonight’s half hour introduction and the Royal Gala show on Thursday which are, after all, only one-off programmes).

Of the others, one is from Anglia, two from Granada, four from Yorkshire, two from London Weekend and seven from the new London weekday company, Thames TV. It is hardly an impressive start.

For example. ATV’s Midland contributions to tonight’s 7¼ hours’ viewing amounts to 15 minutes of Tingha and Tucker, ten minutes of regional news, 25 minutes of ATV Today and the 30-minute “hullo-to-the-new-contract” programme.

REPEATS

It even manages on this first night of the brave new world of independent television to devote 80 minutes to repeats of American film series.

Given the regional news and ATV Today each night, the rest of the week’s Midland contribution to our viewing is:

• Tuesday: Crossroads (25 minutes); Driveway (new series — 30 minutes).
• Wednesday and Friday: Tingha and Tucker (15 minutes); Crossroads (25 minutes); Pulse (new religious series — ten minutes).
• Thursday: Tingha and Tucker (15 minutes); Crossroads (25 minutes); Driveway (30 minutes); Pulse (ten minutes).

And of the other 27 hours of evening television this week ATV productions account for only three hours and ATV presentations, usually film series purchased from overseas (mainly America), amount to five hours — 25 minutes of which is a repeated programme: in total, less than a third of the week’s evening programme time.

Nor is the picture to be much better between now and the beginning of the autumn schedules at the end of September. For while the other programme companies pour out thousands of pounds worth of new programmes, and experiment with new ideas, ATV’s “new” offerings for the period are:

‘X’ SERIES

A late night “X” film series starting on Saturday; another new twice-weekly series Crimebuster (about a disgraced sportsman who turns exposé journalist for a Sunday newspaper); a documentary on Warwick University; another documentary about the racehorse Arkle; Sunday afternoon recordings of Midland soccer matches when the season starts; a series called Stars, with Maurice Woodruff and Marjorie Proops; and three programmes featuring Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore.

Again, not a line-up which really merits a heralding fanfare.

On ATV’s side, of course, it could be argued that it is bringing Midland viewers a choice of the best of the new programmes being produced by the other companies. This is true — and so it should.

TOO FACILE

But it is also a far too facile answer, and no excuse for a company which was one of the “big four” and is now one of the “big five,” being responsible for only one seventeenth of the week’s new programmes.

It would also be an all-too-easy reply that ATV is already known in the Midlands and, therefore, does not have to make such a big splash just because it enters a new contract period which now includes the weekends as well as the weekdays.

Neither does Granada, now seven-day contractors in the north-west area based on Manchester, have any need to re-establish its identity in that region. But, true to its tradition of liveliness and willingness to have a go, it is managing to introduce two new series this week, one of them an hour-long drama series in the mould of City ’68.

The sad fact is that this week, ATV had a once-for-all opportunity to make a real impact in the Midlands, to give us some foretaste of all that is promised for the future – but it chose not to take it.

Even if such a splash by ATV had only been a gesture — it is one that ought to have been made nevertheless.

NO SNAGS

What makes the picture even more damning from ATV’s point of view is the fact that it has not been beset with the chaos of moving or the uncertainties of starting from scratch that some of the other companies have experienced in recent months.

A few months ago Yorkshire TV had only a few odd rooms in Leeds to work in. Yet today, it has four new programmes ready for the network. Thames has had severe internal problems, mainly staff ones, as a result of its formation out of Rediffusion and ABC, yet has come up with no less than seven new programmes.

ATV has had no such problems. True, its faculties in Birmingham will remain limited until the new centre is ready.

FACILITIES

But it has had available all the marvellous facilities of its vast Elstree production centre and it would have mattered not one jot that the programmes were actually produced there provided that they had either a real Midland content or were worthy of networking under the ATV Midlands banner.

Having said all that, however, I am still prepared to take at face value the promises made by ATV that the autumn schedules will reveal all; that the new programmes being planned (some of them announced a few months ago) will be really new and extremely viewable; and that ATV will prove its allegiance to the Midlands as a region within the ITV pattern.

And if I have expressed doubts about independent television in the Midlands, nothing would please me more than that ATV should, with its new programmes and new interest in the Midlands, confound those fears and doubts and make me eat my words

Commentary

The post Watch carefully – it’s TV’s big night appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

WHATEVER ELSE life at the Crossroads Motel might have been, it has never been dull. And looking back over the 14 years since we opened our doors, I am amazed at how much has happened.

We’ve had our bad times and we’ve had our good, and although this is an occasion for celebrating, it’s as well to remember both.

Will I ever forget, for example, that night in 1968 when my car collided with motor-cyclist Vince Parker? The worry about Vince was terrible, and then came the shock of being sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for dangerous driving. I only spent a week in prison because I was released pending an appeal. Thankfully, that went in my favour, and I can’t tell you my relief at getting back to the Motel.

There was more than a little relief the following year when my nephew Brian and his wife Janice found their baby, which had mysteriously vanished. You can imagine the thoughts that go through your head at a time like that. It seems that some children had been playing with the baby and had locked the poor little thing in a shed. I thought the joy at finding the child unharmed would help bring Brian and Janice closer together and avoid them splitting up, but it was not to be.

Do you remember that silly argument between the Motel and the Manor House? Looking back, I can smile now, but at the time it all seemed very important. Miss Penn, the woman from the Manor House, and Mr. Sinclair, the man I thought to be their gardener, objected to us putting a caravan at the bottom of our garden. So I conducted all my business from the caravan. But it all ended happily. Miss Penn married the gardener — who turned out to be the owner of the Manor… Then there was Jill’s wedding. I must admit that at first I wasn’t too keen on my daughter marrying Stan Harvey. They met, if you remember, when he did some electrical repairs at her boutique. But their marriage was happy enough, although I’m not too sure what’s happening at present.

Sandy’s accident was one of those stupid things that never should have happened. He had insisted on driving some people home from a wedding reception because they were drunk. They stopped for petrol and a woman passenger demanded to take over the driver’s seat. Sandy tried in vain to stop her and the result was the inevitable crash. The woman was killed outright and Sandy was badly injured and paralysed. Condemned to a wheelchair, he went through terrible depression. Then he began to realise how many people had helped him through that awful period and he became a Samaritan. I think he feels he’s repaid some of his obligations by being able, in turn, to help others.

Hugh Mortimer and I were reunited in 1974. I hadn’t known beforehand that Hugh had married his partner’s daughter out of compassion. He knew — although I didn’t — that she was dying.

Hugh and I finally married in 1975, but I wasn’t to know how short our life together would be. He was kidnapped in Australia and they asked a fortune in ransom. I thought I’d never be able to raise the money. But I did. The tragedy, of course, was that he died of a heart attack while the money was on its way to the kidnappers.

Memories, memories, how many there have been over the years. We’ve had our share of heartache but, on the other hand, there’s been a lot of fun in running the Motel and I’ve met some marvellous people and made many good friends.

Now there’s just time for a little celebration, then it’s back to the Motel — and the next instalment of our story.

1 Nick Van Doren; 2 Kevin McArthur; 3 Jimmy Gudgeon; 4 Ken Church 5 Marylin Hope; 6 Peter Hope; 7 Sandy Richardson; 8 Mr. Lovejoy; 9 Shirley Perkins; 10 Meg Richardson; 11 Hilda Duvene; 12 Mrs. Hope; 13 Jill Richardson; 14 Dick Jarvis; 15 Kitty Jarvis; 16 Amy Turtle; 17 Bruce Sorbell; 18 Josefina Rafael; 19 Brian Jarvis; 20 Vince Parker; 21 Graham Parrish; 22 Edith Tatum; 23 Emily Vinson; 24 Janice Jarvis; 25 Nora Gillingham; 26 Ruth Fraser; 27 Diane Lawton; 28 Marcus Allison; 29 Johnny Patrick

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1 Mr. Lovejoy; 2 Mr. Booth; 3 Mrs. Hope; 4 Andy Fraser; 5 Charlie Forward; 6 Linda Ash; 7 Don Rogers 8 Miss Tatum; 9 Alan Johnson; 10 Mrs. Blundell; 11 Amy Turtle; 12 Meg Richardson; 13 Jill Harvey; 14 Stan Harvey; 15 Sheila Harvey; 16 Wilf Harvey; 17 Vince Parker; 18 Sandy Richardson; 19 Sandra Gould; 20 Diane Lawton

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1 Meg Mortimer; 2 Hugh Mortimer; 3 Sandy Richardson; 4 Vince Parker; 5 Jill Harvey; 6 Jane Smith; 7 Wilf Harvey; 8 Ruth Fraser; 9 Diane Parker; 10 Mrs. Hope; 11 Stan Harvey; 12 Mrs. Witton; 13 Brian Jarvis; 14 Shelia Mollison; 15 Mr. Booth; 16 Florrie Harvey; 17 Vera Downend; 18 “Carney”; 19 Andy Fraser

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Those lucky Lookalikes face their famous doubles

“It’s all a diabolical plot by the producer to replace the entire cast!” That’s how Roger Tonge reacted when he saw double — the winning Lookalike in our competition that most resembles him as Sandy Richardson, the Crossroads character he plays. His “double”, and the other winning Lookalikes have already come face to face with their other selves and, with their guests, will be V.I.P.s at the special Crossroads 3,000th. Birthday Party on September 19 at the same hotel where Meg’s wedding reception was held — the Chateau Impney, Droitwich, Hereford and Worcester. Now meet the stars — and their other selves

The post It’s Crossroads’ 3,000th Birthday appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.