Former ITV service for Midlands & North England
"ABC Television Limited" redirects here. For other uses, see
ABC Television
.
ABC Weekend Television
ABC Television Limited
Logo 1964?1968
|
The two ABC regions when it lost its franchises in 1968
|
Type
| Region of
television network
|
---|
Branding
| ABC
|
---|
Country
| United Kingdom
|
---|
First air date
|
- 18 February 1956
; 68 years ago
(
1956-02-18
)
in the Midlands
- 5 May 1956 in the North
|
---|
TV transmitters
| |
---|
Headquarters
| |
---|
Broadcast area
|
North
|
---|
Owner
| Associated British Picture Corporation
|
---|
Dissolved
| 28 July 1968
; 55 years ago
(
1968-07-28
)
|
---|
Former names
| Associated British Cinemas (Television) Limited
|
---|
Picture format
| 405-line
black and white
|
---|
Affiliation(s)
| ITV
|
---|
Language
| English
|
---|
Replaced by
| |
---|
ABC Weekend TV
was the popular name of the British broadcaster
ABC Television Limited
, which provided the weekend service in the
Midlands
and
Northern England
regions of the
Independent Television
(ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one of the "
Big Four
" companies that between them produced the majority of ITV networked programmes during this period.
Originally created as
Associated British Cinemas (Television) Ltd
, ABC was one of a number of commercial television companies established during the 1950s by cinema chain companies, in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television, which was taking away their cinema audiences. In this case, the parent company was the
Associated British Picture Corporation
(ABPC) ? owner of
ABC Cinemas
? which initially did not wish to become involved with the new broadcasting system, but was persuaded to do so by the
Independent Television Authority
(ITA) and the manager of its
Pathe News
subsidiary
Howard Thomas
, who became the new company's managing director.
ABC operated two franchises, one in the Midlands, which was the fourth ITA franchise to go on air, in 1956, and the other in the North of England, which was the sixth franchise to go on air, later the same year. It lost both its franchises in 1968, but merged with another franchisee to form
Thames Television
, which held the London weekday franchise for 24 years.
From 1967, ABC's sister company, ABC Television Films, used the name
Associated British Corporation
on its exports to the US, such as the last two series of
The Avengers
.
History
[
edit
]
Formation
[
edit
]
When
Kemsley-Winnick
, one of the
consortia
that had been awarded two
franchises
in the new
Independent Television
network in 1954, collapsed, the
ITA
approached
ABPC
to step into the breach. The Corporation agreed to assume the franchises to broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays to the Midlands and the North of England. The contract agreeing to do so was signed on 21 September 1955, the day before Independent Television (ITV) began in
London
.
This left the new ABC five months to begin broadcasting in the Midlands, the service beginning on 18 February 1956.
[1]
Soon afterwards, it was also up and running in the North; it began broadcasting in the North West on 5 May 1956,
[2]
and in Yorkshire on 3 November 1956.
[3]
It was aided in part by the failure of the original contractor; Kelmsley-Winnick had ordered over £1 million (equivalent to £33.1 million today)
[4]
of production equipment from manufacturer
Pye
, which it sold to ABC at a much-discounted price.
[5]
Relations with ITA, ITN and ATV
[
edit
]
The London weekend contractor had launched under the name "Associated Broadcasting Company" (ABC), but ABPC wanted to use the ABC brand for its own service, to match its existing
ABC Cinemas
brand, so it took legal action against the Associated Broadcasting Company who subsequently agreed to rename as
Associated Television
(ATV) after broadcasting for three weeks as "ABC".
[6]
This allowed ABPC to launch its own station as "ABC".
ABC's late entry into Independent Television meant that some of the details of how the new system would run were already agreed between the ITA regulator and the other three contractors. ABC felt that some of these details were unfair on itself as the smallest contractor, and the only contractor that broadcast only at weekends.
[7]
In particular, ABC objected to paying one-quarter of the costs for
ITN
, provider of national news broadcasts for the network, as there would be fewer news programmes at the weekend than on weekdays. ABC's managing director Howard Thomas, former head of
Pathe News
, felt that ABC could provide its own news for a fraction of ITN's price, but the ITA would not allow this: regional companies were responsible only for regional news, and national news should be independent of the regional companies. ABC lobbied both ITN and the ITA for change, which eventually resulted in a cutback to the amount of programming to be provided by ITN to the network and a substantial reduction in ITN's costs.
[7]
Presentation
[
edit
]
Once the "Big Four" companies were in profit, the ITA reviewed the performance each of them. ABC escaped with little criticism, except for its presentation, which was considered to be dull and too closely aligned with its sister "ABC Cinemas" brand. ABC took this to heart and launched a new look in September 1959.
[7]
[8]
ATV again
[
edit
]
Of the original four ITV contractors, ABC had difficulty getting its programmes shown in the London region, which was hampering its reputation. Two of the other contractors had London franchises, and
Granada
seemed to have a good working relationship with
Associated-Rediffusion
to show its programmes. ABC found itself in a head-to-head battle with ATV, as, in the early years, these were the only two companies whose franchises operated at the weekend.
[7]
ATV had close connections with the
Moss Empires
theatre chain (through ATV's
Val Parnell
) and the Grade Organisation theatrical talent agency (through ATV's
Lew Grade
and his brother
Leslie
) and felt they had the expertise to make expensive, high-status drama, variety and comedy shows, and leave the cheaper "provincial" off-peak weekend programming to ABC. This would have been to ABC's financial disadvantage, since ABC (with its two regions to ATV's one region at the weekends) would have to pay two-thirds of the expensive costs of ATV London's shows, while ATV would pay only one-third of the costs of ABC's cheaper shows.
[9]
ABC fought back, first of all, by selling some of its pre-recorded shows, including the popular
The Avengers
, to
Associated-Rediffusion
(instead of ATV) to broadcast to London on weekdays. Secondly, it refused to buy some of ATV's top-rated shows such as
Sunday Night at the London Palladium
and broadcast its own alternatives such as
Blackpool Night Out
. Eventually ATV gave way and agreed to buy more of ABC's shows.
[9]
Loss of franchise
[
edit
]
Structural changes in the regional contract areas meant that ABC no longer had a contract to reapply for in 1967. The Northern area (split into North West and Yorkshire) was to become a seven-day operation, as would the Midlands. Existing weekday contractors (
Granada
and
ATV
respectively) were correctly considered the favourites. ABC consequently submitted two applications: one for the service for London at the weekend, the other for the Midlands seven-day operation, although it favoured the first contract.
It was expected that ABC would be awarded the weekend London licence, but the strength of another application (from the
London Weekend Television consortium
) ruled this out. This led to a situation where a successful company could be closed down through no fault of its own. To prevent this, the governing body of ITV, the
Independent Television Authority
, ordered a merger with the existing London weekday company
Rediffusion
, with ABC having majority control of the new operation.
Despite protests from Rediffusion, the two companies eventually became
Thames Television
. ABC ceased weekend broadcasting in the North and Midlands regions on Sunday 28 July 1968 and resumed on Tuesday 30 July in the London region as weekday company Thames.
Studios
[
edit
]
ABC operated three production sites and had a further sales office. The main production facilities were the
former Warner Studios
in
Teddington
,
Middlesex
. Although this was outside its contract area, ABC wanted a
London
base, as many performers could not venture outside of the capital to record programmes because they were often committed to runs of theatre plays in the
West End
. Upon the merger with
Rediffusion
, this site became the main production base for the new company
Thames Television
.
In the Midlands, ABC formed a joint venture with Midlands weekday licensee
ATV
to oversee the running of a production and transmission facility to be used by both.
Alpha Television
purchased a former cinema in
Aston
, near
Birmingham
, and extended it by the construction of additional studios and office space; the site was known as the Alpha Studios.
ABC operated a northern studio centre in
Manchester
and a sales office based in Television House in the city centre. The production facility was converted from a
former Capitol cinema
in
Didsbury
. ABC vacated both premises during 1968. ABC also made some entertainment shows such as
Blackpool Night Out
and
The Blackpool Show
at the
ABC Theatre in Blackpool
(owned by ABC-TV's sister company ABC Cinemas). For its pre-filmed series, such as
The Avengers
(from 1965), ABC used its parent company's
Associated British Elstree Studios
.
Identity
[
edit
]
When ABC first went on the air, it used the branding of its sister company
ABC Cinemas
. This featured a triangular shield with the letters ABC upon it, and a bar across it with the caption 'Television'.
[10]
This lasted from the station's launch in 1956 until September 1959.
[8]
The ITA had criticised ABC's original presentation style for being bland and too much attached to the existing ABC Cinemas chain.
[7]
As a result, ABC created a new brand ident featuring three arrows pointing to the bottom of the screen to reveal the letters ABC in turn and leaving a triangle behind and on top of the letters. At the end of this, the three triangles would snap together into the new ABC logo. This ident lasted until 1964 when the lettering font was altered slightly from a serif font to the latest bold used by the company, this revision lasting until the company's demise.
[10]
[11]
The logo uses the notion of threes, three triangles making another triangle, with the points of a triangle often being labelled 'A', 'B' and 'C' in geometry. The tune that was used for all of ABC's idents was a vibraphone playing the notes A-B-C (
la-te-doh
). Out of this look, ABC Television developed a strong corporate identity
[
original research?
]
, effectively becoming the first British TV station to recognise the importance of corporate branding.
[
citation needed
]
The company itself was originally called
Associated British Cinemas (Television) Limited
,
[12]
which by 1957 had been shortened to
A.B.C. Television Limited
. However, from about 1967, on exports made by its sister company A.B.C. Television Films Ltd. (such as the last two series of
The Avengers
), the name 'Associated British Corporation' was used, to avoid confusion with the US
ABC network
.
[13]
As for on-air, the name was for a few months 'Associated British', before becoming 'ABC Television', or just 'ABC'. The names 'ABC Television Network' and 'ABC Weekend Network' were also used, for example in
TV Times
listings.
[14]
The station received a joke nickname from
Bob Monkhouse
, namely "All Bloody Commercials".
[
citation needed
]
The station's spoken slogan varied through time, starting off as "ABC ? Associated British in the North/Midlands" before being replaced in 1958 to "ABC, your weekend TV" and again changed in 1964 to "ABC, your weekend television in the North/Midlands".
[
citation needed
]
Continuity announcers
[
edit
]
The following who have served as announcers for ABC Weekend TV include:
Programming
[
edit
]
Networked programmes from ABC included the drama series
Police Surgeon
,
The Human Jungle
,
Undermind
,
Redcap
,
The Avengers
, the
Armchair Theatre
series of single plays, the
Habatales
cartoons, the popular shows
Thank Your Lucky Stars
,
Opportunity Knocks
,
Big Night Out
,
Doddy's Music Box
and
Oh Boy!
,
Tommy Cooper
's shows
Cooperama
and
Life with Cooper
, the children's science fiction serials
Emerald Soup
,
Target Luna
and its sequels
Pathfinders in Space
,
Pathfinders to Mars
and
Pathfinders to Venus
, and the gritty drama series
Callan
and
Public Eye
(both of which continued as Thames productions after 1968). ITV's first weekly series devoted to the arts,
Tempo
, was introduced by ABC, as was its first hidden camera show,
Candid Camera
, and its first attempt to challenge the BBC's dominance of television sport, with
World of Sport
. ABC also introduced British television's first late night chat show,
The
Eamonn Andrews
Show
[15]
and, together with ATV, British television's first regular weekly series of adult education programmes.
[16]
Service areas
[
edit
]
Areas are described in terms of the county boundaries at the time. After ABC's closure there were significant county boundary changes in 1974, and ITV's regional boundaries have also changed over time.
ABC's two franchise regions each had their own continuity announcers, advertisements and regional programmes (mainly news and weather, and the magazine shows
ABC of the Midlands
and
ABC of the North
). Apart from those exceptions, both regions usually showed the same programmes simultaneously.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Elen, Richard G.
"ABC Television"
.
BFI Screenonline
. British Film Institute
. Retrieved
26 March
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Brown, Mike.
"ITV 405 line VHF TV TRANSMITTERS LANCASHIRE"
.
mb21
. Retrieved
26 March
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
Brown, Mike.
"ITV 405 line VHF TV TRANSMITTERS YORKSHIRE"
.
mb21
. Retrieved
26 March
2022
.
- ^
UK
Retail Price Index
inflation figures are based on data from
Clark, Gregory (2017).
"The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)"
.
MeasuringWorth
. Retrieved
7 May
2024
.
- ^
Black,P, The Mirror in the Corner, Macmillan, London, 1971
- ^
Elen, Richard G.
"ATV"
.
BFI Screenonline
. British Film Institute
. Retrieved
13 June
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Graham, Russ J (2 September 2005).
"Howard Thomas Part 6: The ITA"
.
Transdiffusion
. The Transdiffusion Organisation
. Retrieved
16 June
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Bowden-Smith, Kif.
"Indepth on ABC Weekend Television"
.
Transdiffusion
. Retrieved
3 June
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Graham, Russ J (2 October 2005).
"Howard Thomas Part 7: Lew Grade"
.
Transdiffusion
. The Transdiffusion Organisation
. Retrieved
16 June
2022
.
- ^
a
b
"Flash Files"
. 625: Andrew Wiseman's Television Room.
Archived
from the original on 20 July 2011
. Retrieved
21 August
2011
.
Contains flash recreations of the original ABC idents, complete with authentic soundtracks.
- ^
Barnes, Steve.
"ABC"
. TVARK. Archived from
the original
on 8 January 2009
. Retrieved
21 August
2011
.
Contains videos of the ABC idents.
- ^
Sendall, Bernard (29 September 1955).
"Independent Television: Present and future policy on development"
.
Kinematograph Weekly
. Studio Review.
462
(2518). Odhams: xi.
ISSN
0023-155X
.
OCLC
1127175701
. Retrieved
17 May
2022
.
- ^
Beaumont, Ian (11 January 2001).
"The Avengers"
.
ABC at large
. Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
. Retrieved
16 May
2022
.
- ^
Johnson, Piers.
"Dragonsfield"
.
The Avengers
. Retrieved
9 June
2022
.
- ^
Rinaldi, Graham.
"Andrews, Eamonn (1922-1987)"
.
BFI Screenonline
. British Film Institute
. Retrieved
15 July
2022
.
- ^
"BFI Screenonline: Broadcasters and Industry Bodies > ABC Television"
.
www.screenonline.org.uk
. Retrieved
4 September
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Brown, Mike.
"ITV 405 line VHF TV TRANSMITTERS MIDLANDS"
.
mb21
. Retrieved
26 March
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]
ITV
regional services
|
New service
|
Midlands (weekends)
18 February 1956 ? 28 July 1968
|
Succeeded by
|
New service
|
North of England (weekends)
5 May 1956 ? 28 July 1968
|
Succeeded by
|
Succeeded by
|
ITV
|
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Channels
| |
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Companies
| |
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Divisions,
brands and
services
| |
---|
ITV
(network)
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and
regions
| National
franchises
| |
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Current
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| |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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