We're currently revamping the website to give you much more from the archive of Associated Television. We're proud and respectful of ATV past, and we place the written word as far more important than posing with old logos. So we're very much working hard to compile the information from what survives of the document archive along with information from the archives of the ITA, IBA and Independent Television. So while we rattle off the rest of the site, here's the page on the founding of ATV - 1952-1956.

Before we begin we would like to note that we use the names ATV, Associated Television, Incorporated Television Company and ITC throughout. Earlier company names are noted at the base of this page.

Independent Television: The Beginnings in Brief

Before Independent Television the BBC had sole monopoly of broadcasting in the United Kingdom. After many years of debate in the Houses of Parliament and Lords, and pushing by government MPs for a commercial rival to the BBC, the Television Bill was finally published on March 4th 1954. The first White Paper looking into commercial broadcasting had been issued on May 15th 1952.

The passage of the bill took sometime - with further debate, concerns and amendments suggested. The Television act finally reached the Statute Book on July 30th 1954. On August 4th the Independent Television Authority held its first meeting, setting the wheels in motion to launch ITV – which the authority would successfully achieve fifty-seven weeks later.

Welcome to Associated Television

In 1952 the Associated Broadcasting Development Company Limited [ABDC] had been formed, by Norman Collins, C.O. Stanley and Robert Renwick, to support and campaign for commercial television in the United Kingdom. ABDC was deemed to be a natural choice for an ITV contract, given the effort the company had placed in the campaign to pass the Television Act.

However the Independent Television Authority, while in agreement ABDC should be awarded an ITV region, found the consortium failed to meet their requirements on the grounds of financial backing, the regulator required all companies to have up to £3 million in capital. The authority offered ABDC the ITV London Weekend franchise and the ITV Midlands weekdays franchise, should ABDC reveal their backers. The television company wasn’t entirely keen on the offer by the ITA, they had hoped for the ITV London licence for weekdays.

While the authority wanted Associated Broadcasting Development Company Limited to be part of the new ITV – mainly due to Collins’ experience at the BBC and Stanley’s technical experience with the Pye Group - they couldn’t grant a licence to a company with no secure financial arrangements. The Midland and London Weekend licence was to be awarded to a new company instead, one formed from ABDC and the Incorporated Television Company Limited*.

ITC had been founded in August 1954 to also bid for a place on the independent television network. ITC’s backers were noted by the authority; Messrs S.G Warburg & Co. Limited (merchant bankers). As well as strong financial backing the Incorporated Television Company also had a wealthy talent bank with The Grade Organisation agency and theatre group Moss Empires Limited on board.

The ITC failed to gain an ITV licence on its own. Grounds for this are believed to be that the authority felt the company may have too much monopoly over the show-business talent, leaving other ITV broadcasters without star performers and that the ITC may be great at entertainment and variety, but it lacked in other areas of output.

Initially the ITC was offered the role of ‘sub contractor’ to ITV – the ITA saw the company as a provider of programmes to other ITV companies, however the ITC wouldn’t have a licence to broadcast itself. ITC were far from pleased with this suggestion.

However with the issues surrounding ABDC, ITC was to become a lead player in independent television. On March 11th 1955 the London Weekend and Midlands licence was awarded to Associated Television Limited**, a new company formed by the Incorporated Television Company and the Associated Broadcasting Development Company on the 2nd February 1955.

From the outset Associated Television was to be very much controlled by the ITC side of the organisation with the role of Chairman in the joint venture going to Prince Littler (Moss Theatres), Managing Director to Val Parnell (Moss Theatres) and Deputy Managing Director to Lew Grade (Grade Organisation). From ABDC Norman Collins took up the position of Deputy Chairman.

Sharing ATV

ABDC and ITC together, formed a founding capital of £1,020,000 with the backing of S.G Warburg and The Birmingham Post and Mail. In a controversial move, the capital was increased to £2,020,000 when in a surprise move The Daily Mirror invested in the company. The newspaper had previously vigorously campaigned against newspapers being ‘part’ of the new ITV.

By 1955 Chairman of the Daily Mirror Cecil King wanted ‘in’ on the commercial broadcasting action. Initially he had told the Mirror shareholders that the company would become part of independent television after the ‘second bankruptcy’. King foresaw that ITV would end up initially having a large expenditure with little in the way of profit.

However after discussing ITV with the Managing Director of The Daily Mail, Donald McClean, King reviewed his stance when McClean suggested there would be no first, never mind second bankruptcy.

On 29th May 1955 the Capital Issues Committee approved the Daily Mirror’s share holding with ATV. Cecil King picked to invest in the ABDC and ITC formed company due to its associated expertise in the electronics business (Pye) and the wide knowledge of entertainment (Moss Empire/Grade Org).

The shares when ATV went on air were as follows: Daily Mirror 13%, Sunday Pictorial 13%, Moss Empire Group 27%, Pye Electronics 11%, Westminster Press 7%, Birmingham Post and Mail 5% and AEI 5% with the remaining 19% split between Grade Organisation, Howard and Wyndham Theatres and ABDC.

Getting ATV On The Air

ITV was to broadcast 35 hours of television during the week between 9am and 11pm, with a maximum of 8 hours per day. The companies were not allowed to broadcast between 6pm and 7pm to allow parents to put their children to bed! At weekends there was to be a maximum of 15 hours of broadcasting across both days. Stations were also required not to transmit between 6.15pm and 7.30pm as to not distract from Sunday Church Services. Any afternoon broadcasting on a Sunday had to be of a ‘grown-up’ nature so that it wouldn’t tempt children to stay away from Sunday school.

The run-up to launching ATV London saw the company undertake – along with ITV London weekday franchise holder – Associated Rediffusion – major challenges to get on air. Studios, talent, crews, programme planning and technical equipment all had to be put together in less than a year. A September 1955 launch date had been pencilled in with the first round of licences issued by the Independent Television Authority.

Associated Television had in place a studio centre at Highbury via the ABDC link. This facility, managed by former BBC Television Controller Norman Collins, had been producing filmed television programmes for the viewing of the regulator authority since 1954. The first noted recording for the ITA at the studios was on the 16th September 1954.

With the involvement of ITC the company moved many theatre directors over to the television production. Associated Television utilised the production talents of crews from the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the London Palladium, the London Hippodrome and the London Coliseum Theatre.

In the early months of Associated Television programme creation many other Moss Theatre producers and directors from across the UK were used by ATV in their fledgling productions. Lew and Leslie Grade’s talent agency provided the majority of the on-screen faces.

By September 1955 ATV had also founded a control base at Foley Street in the Capital, as well as fully completed a conversion of an old theatre in Wood Green into a television studio [pictured right]. In addition to the Highbury studios, the company had also secured use of the Elstree and Nettlefold Studios for film television programming.

ATV also had equipped two outside broadcast units, which in 1955 consisted of three bulky studio cameras, a vision mixer, an eight-channel sound mixer and four monitors – one for each camera and one showing the live output. The company by launch night had hired circa 200 staff.

Going Live – The Gala Launch

ATV’s first night would be a joint venture with the London weekday franchise holder Associated Rediffusion due to independent television taking to the airwaves on a Thursday evening.

The first night was planned and arranged by Rediffusion, with ATV providing some of the evening’s programming. The first programme welcoming viewers to the new ‘Independent Television Service’ was to be a co-production between the two London companies, broadcast live from the Guildhall.

On September 22nd at 7.15pm a pre-recorded film showing London landmarks lead into the live transmission of guests arriving at the Guildhall. In total 500 dignitaries and television executives gathered at the hall, while other celebratory parties were held across London. At the Mayfair Hotel a party was held for 900 guests, mainly made up of stars of the entertainment world – many who were to star on the new network – while ITA staff held their own celebration at the authority’s headquarters in Princes Gate.

The Gala celebrations live from the Guildhall included classical music performed by the Hallé Orchestra [pictured left] and inaugural speeches. The first “proper” programmes on independent television came at circa 7.55pm when ATV broadcast a live variety and entertainment show from the Wood Green Television Theatre, hosted by Jack Jackson and produced by future ATV programme controller Bill Ward. Entitled Channel Nine, the show was host to many big variety names of the day – and former BBC stars too. These included Hughie Green, Reginald Dixon and Michael Miles.

The first commercial break in British television history aired at 8.12pm with advert spots for toothpaste, drinking chocolate and margarine. On Saturday 24th Associated Television began their weekend London service with their first programme, The Weekend Show. A magazine and lifestyle series aimed at ‘homemakers’ presented by Daphne Anderson.

Adverted Disaster

While visually the first evening from ITV had proved successful to viewers, off screen it proved to be anything but. Both ATV and Rediffusion failed to make any profit  - in fact both companies suffered losses. It had been estimated the London companies on the first night would be in the black by upwards of £10,000. So sure of their success both broadcasters had in their pre-launch publicity announced that all profit from the commericals aired on the night would be donated to fifteen charities. However with no profits made the public embarrassment was lifted somewhat by both ATV and Rediffusion issuing small donations to all the charities concerned.

It wasn’t just charities left unhappy by ITV’s first night. Advertisers too were left disappointed by the first night’s transmissions. A number of advertisers had been led to believe they had ‘firm bookings’ for the opening night, but their commercials never aired.

It seems an error by someone in the Rediffusion advertising department had over estimated the advert slots on the night, and accordingly taken far too many bookings. Rediffusion tried to ease the issue by suggesting the ‘opening night’ had only been a ‘preview’ and not a ‘proper’ evening of ITV broadcasting. Ford Cars UK – who had booked a commercial spot that never materialised – were not so impressed with that response, their advertising manager commenting in a note to Rediffusion that “Any suggestion of preview [is] not acceptable. As in marriage there can only be one first night.”

Into The Midlands

In November 1955 ATV and ABC were informed that the ITV Midlands service was committed to begin transmissions on 17th February 1956. As outlined earlier, when awarded the London Weekend franchise, ATV would broadcast to the Midlands from Monday to Friday with ABC at weekends.

With only four months to launch ABC and ATV joined forces to create a new company that would provide the studio facilities to both companies in the Midlands. Alpha Television Limited would operate the Alpha Studios at Aston Cross in Birmingham.

However, unlike Granada Television in Manchester, there wasn’t time to construct a purpose built studio facility. ABC owned the New Theatre at Aston Cross and while profitable, it was closed in order to be converted into a television studio. The ABC Cinema became the Alpha Television Studios within three months. A modern office block would be added to the complex in 1959 [pictured right].

ITV Midlands was to both companies not top of their priority. ABC were mainly concerned with their Northern franchises, headed from Manchester, while ATV were very much a London company. This somewhat showed in the Alpha Television Studios and how they operated.

As the ITA noted the facilities for a considerable length of time were not furnished with studio equipment, instead an outside broadcast unit was parked at the rear of the auditorium in order to make the theatre a ‘studio’. The regulator continues to muse the fact that Alpha was never a ‘genuine programme company base’. However despite the lack of investment the complex proved to be an efficient and economical operation for ATV and ABC.

Bernard Greenhead, who joined the Midland company from Highbury Studios, managed Alpha Television. While the Aston Cross base had Greenhead as a permanent manager many of the producers and directors – either from Manchester or London -  ‘came and went to Alpha as and when required’ as the ITA note. ATV based some management at Aston, notably Reg Watson, head of Entertainment, Ned Sherrin, head of Factual, Noele Gordon, head of Lifestyle and Terence Macnamara, head of Technical Operations. However the studios, so lacking in employees, saw all senior staff operate in other roles.

In March 1956 a Gallup Poll was undertaken in the two ITV regions with the question posed which broadcaster do you prefer, the BBC or ITV?

The ATV and ABC service to the Midlands had been on barely a month, but 58% of those polled put the service above the BBC. 16% preferred the corporation. In London Rediffusion and ATV had also proved more popular with viewers than the BBC, with 16% opting for the licence fee funded service, while 60% opted for independent television. The rest in both polls were either unsure or had no preference.

Popular Pauper

While popular with viewers a number of factors during 1955 and 1956 placed ITV in a dubious position financially. Born to a Conservative government, Labour had vowed – if winning the next election – that ITV would be killed-off. This set an uncertain future for any investor. John Spencer Wills, of Rediffusion, stated it gave the companies only a ‘limited security of tenure’.  The fact advertising revenue was far less than expected caused the collapse of ITV daytime programming, which wouldn’t be, apart from some trial experiments in the late 1970s, resumed until the 1980s.

With profits far less than estimated the annual payment to the ITA regulator – payment for the licence to broadcast - suddenly seemed rather steep, and bosses of the commercial companies also suggested that airing ‘low rating minority’ programmes as the Independent Television Authority required also were damaging potential income. The regulator noted that the money problems were having negative effects throughout the departments at the ITV companies. Sales departments were over worked trying to find willing advertisers while the production arms were being left frustrated with cut-backs and lack of funds.

It was estimated that Associated Television would lose up to £1,500,000 in its first year on-air. The main problem was laid at an advertising recession, which had taken hold in December of 1955. The Independent Television Authority, concerned that independent television could fall off the air due to the companies going broke, cut the cost of the annual payment to the ITA by one-third.

However by the autumn the elusive advertisers, impressed by ever increasing viewing figures, returned to commercial television in their droves. As quick as the advertising recession arrived, it left.

The increase in revenue and, more so profits, lead to the now famous comment by Roy Thomson, of Scottish Television, that owning an ITV company was ‘just like having a licence to print your own money.’

Information from: ATV-ITC Company Archive, IBA ITV Formation Documents, Independent Television Companies Association publications and ATV Network paperwork. Other material courtesy of Carlton International archive and Central Broadcasting Nottingham. © ATV Network Limited, all rights reserved, 2010

The *Incorporated Television Company was originally known as Incorporated Television Programme Company, **Associated Television Limited was known initially as Associated Broadcasting Company Limited, and had to change its name when the ABC Cinema Group also entered into ITV television.