ITV Central - History

History

During the 1970s, the previous Midlands licence holder ATV had often been criticised for its lack of regionality to its area. Although ATV had purpose-built a modern colour production complex in the centre of Birmingham many of its major productions were recorded at its main studios at Elstree, near London, a legacy of when the company also served London at the weekends prior to 1968. Equally, its corporate headquarters were in central London. ATV attempted to address its problem in 1980 as part of its franchise re-application; with plans for a second major facility in the area (to be based in Nottingham) and as part of the Independent Broadcasting Authority plan for the contract to be a dual region, they would provide separate news coverage for both the East and the West Midlands. The company name would also be changed from ATV Network Limited to ATV Midlands Limited, thus reinforcing the new regional focus. The IBA accepted ATV's assertion that ATV Midlands Ltd planned to take a more local identity, and awarded the contract to ATV Midlands Ltd on the basis that further changes were to be implemented, including that the parent company Associated Communications Corporation would divest 49% of its shareholding in ATV Midlands Ltd in an attempt to introduce local shareholders and that ATV Midlands Ltd's registered office should be within the region. To demonstrate this change of share structure, the IBA insisted that ATV change its company name, to show that it was a substantially new company.

It has been reported that, around the time of the franchise changing hands, a local businessman had registered dozens of company names (some of which included the words "Central" and "Television"), in the hope of being offered substantial financial compensation to relinquish the rights to one of these, if chosen by the new company. Central got around this by simply inserting "Independent" into their name on registering it (something the businessman had not thought of).