Red Heart was a joint venture between the Seven Network and Granada PLC between c. 1999 and 2001. It brought together all of its Australian parents' TV production resources, except those used for Seven's news and soaps.
One theory states that Granada was looking to buy Seven's core, through it eventually owning 100% of Red Heart. Red Heart may have also eventually controlled Seven's news and soaps. This was a time when "content is king" was a popular idea.
Australia's Broadcasting Services Act 1992 disallows foreign entities owning more than 15% of any TV station licence holder, but owning a company that provides a station with 100% of its content for 99% of its income is fine. (CanWest found another way around the law to own a majority stake of Network Ten).
However, Granada decided to pull out of Red Heart when it realised it could make more money selling Australian programs to other Australian broadcasters than it would just supplying Seven. It has been rare to see Australian-made Granada programs on the screen.
Famous quotes containing the words red and/or heart:
“The poppy that my heart was,
formed to bind all mortals,
made to strike and gather hearts
like flame upon an altar,
fades and shrinks, a red leaf
drenched and torn in the cold rain.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“So immense are the claims on a mother, physical claims on her bodily and brain vigor, and moral claims on her heart and thoughts, that she cannot ... meet them all and find any large margin beyond for other cares and work. She serves the community in the very best and highest way it is possible to do, by giving birth to healthy children, whose physical strength has not been defrauded, and to whose moral and mental nature she can give the whole of her thoughts.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)