ITV Granada
television network | |
Branding | ITV1 |
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Country | |
First air date | 3 May 1956 |
TV transmitters |
|
Headquarters |
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Broadcast area |
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Owner |
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Dissolved | lost on-air identity on 27 October 2002 | (now known as ITV1 at all times)
Former names | Granada Television |
Picture format | Yorkshire Television in Yorkshire from 1968 |
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend Television was its weekend counterpart. Granada's parent company Granada plc later bought several other regional ITV stations and, in 2004, merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc.
Granada Television was particularly noted by critics for the distinctive northern and "social realism" character of many of its network programmes, as well as the high quality of its drama and documentaries. In its prime as an independent franchisee, prior to its parent company merging with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc, it was the largest Independent Television producer in the UK, accounting for 25% of the total broadcasting output of the ITV network.
Granada Television was founded by Sidney Bernstein at Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester and is the only surviving franchisee of the original four Independent Television Authority franchisees from 1954. It covers Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, and parts of Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and North Wales. In 2009, the Isle of Man was transferred to Granada from ITV Border.
Broadcasting by Granada Television began on 3 May 1956 under the North of England weekday franchise, the fifth franchise to go to air. It was marked by a distinctive northern identity and used a stylised letter "G" logo forming an arrow pointing north, often with the tagline "Granada: from the North".[1] Granada plc merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004 after a duopoly had developed over the previous decade. The Granada name, as with those of the other former regional licence holders, is only referenced onscreen during regional news bulletins and the weeknight regional news magazine; ITV Broadcasting Limited operates the service with national ITV branding and continuity.
The North West region is regarded as ITV's most successful franchise.
History
Origins
Granada originated as Granada Theatres Ltd, which owned
In the 1950s, the Bernsteins became involved in commercial television, a competitor to the cinema chains, through the launch of
The north and London were the two biggest regions. Granada preferred the north because of its tradition of home-grown culture, and because it offered a chance to start a new creative industry away from the metropolitan atmosphere of London … the north is a closely knit, indigenous, industrial society; a homogeneous cultural group with a good record for music, theatre, literature and newspapers, not found elsewhere in this island, except perhaps in Scotland. Compare this with London and its suburbs — full of displaced persons. And, of course, if you look at a map of the concentration of population in the north and a rainfall map, you will see that the north is an ideal place for television".
— Sidney Bernstein on why he decided to form Granada Television in Manchester in 1954[7]
Bernstein selected a base from Leeds and Manchester. Granada executive Victor Peers believed Manchester was the preferred choice even before executives toured the region to find a suitable site. Granada Studios, designed by architect Ralph Tubbs, was built on a site on Quay Street in Manchester city centre belonging to Manchester City Council, which the company bought for £82,000.[8]
The opening night featured Meet The People hosted by Quentin Reynolds and comedian Arthur Askey.[9] Reynolds became inebriated before the broadcast and had to sober up.[8]
Granada Television was broadcast by the ITA on VHF Channel 9 (405 lines, monochrome) from the Winter Hill transmitter starting on 3 May 1956, and from 3 November 1956 on VHF channel 10 (405 lines, monochrome) from the Emley Moor transmitter. The weekend programme service was provided by ABC Television covering both the North and Midlands regions. Following the 1968 franchise awards, Granada Television provided the programme service from Winter Hill for all seven days of the week but lost the seven-day service from Emley Moor to Yorkshire Television. With the national launch of the UHF 625 line colour television service for both BBC1 and ITV on 15 November 1969, the ITA commenced broadcasts of Granada Television on UHF channel 59 from Winter Hill, with high power relays subsequently put into service at Pendle Forest (channel 25 on 2 August 1971, the first UHF relay service to be operated by the ITA), Lancaster (channel 24 on 26 June 1972), Storeton (channel 25 in September 1979), and Saddleworth (channel 49 on 28 June 1984).
Early years
Most ITV franchisees viewed their territories as stopgaps before winning a coveted London franchise. In contrast, Granada determined to develop a strong northern identity – northern voices, northern programmes, northern idents with phrases such as Granada from the north, From the north — Granada and Granadaland.[10] Bernstein refused to employ anyone not prepared to live in or travel to Manchester and Jeremy Isaacs called him a "genial tyrant" as a result.[11]
I think that what Manchester sees today, London will see eventually.
— Sidney Bernstein on his hopes that Granada would eventually develop as a key player in British broadcasting in the 1950s.[12]
Bernstein decided to build new studios rather than hiring space or converting old buildings, an approach favoured by the other ITV companies and by the BBC at its original Manchester studios. The investment in new studios in 1954 contributed to Granada struggling financially, and the company was close to insolvency by late 1956. All four ITA franchisees were expected to make losses in the first few years of operation, but Granada's was a significant sum of £175,000[13] (nearly £3.5m in 2011).[14] When it first became profitable, it had the lowest profits of the quartet.[13][15]
Granada sought the help of
Franchise changes
In the 1968 franchise round, Granada's contract was changed from weekdays across the northern England region to the whole week in the North West from Winter Hill transmitting station.
Granada retained its franchise in the 1980 franchise review, and invested in multimillion-pound dramatic serial productions such as
The Broadcasting Act of 1990 instigated the 1991 franchise auction round, in which companies had to bid for the regions.
Takeover bids
The so-called "Big Five" ITV franchisees, Thames, LWT, Central, Granada, and Yorkshire were expected to take over the ten smaller franchises. Granada wanted to consolidate with Yorkshire and Tyne Tees to "counter the potential dominance of the south east",[27] and the prospect of being taken over by Thames. Granada made a hostile bid for LWT in December 1993, but LWT believed Granada had "little to offer" despite having three times the market capitalisation;[28] Granada, however, completed the take-over in 1994.[29] Granada continued to expand by acquiring Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television for £652m in 1997[30] and bought UNM's television assets for £1.75 billion in 2000 – by which it acquired Anglia and Meridian and some divisions of HTV[31] – the remaining divisions passing to rival company Carlton due to competition laws.[32] A year later, it acquired Border from Capital Radio Group.
By 2002, Granada had established an effective duopoly of ITV with
Granada was in a poor financial state and closed the Granada Studios Tour in 2001, citing decreasing visitor figures.[33] The real reason was the decision to increase production of episodes for Coronation Street to five per week. Without access to that set, the highlight of the tour, the Granada Studios Tour venture was no longer viable. The company also closed Granada Film.[34] The emergence of digital television cut ITV's viewing share, decreasing advertising revenue, which was already suffering from competition with the internet.[35] The failure of ITV Digital cost Granada and Carlton losses estimated at over £1 billion[36] reducing the company's value from 2001 to 2003.[37]
ITV Granada and the unification of ITV
On 28 October 2002, in a network-wide relaunch, Granada was rebranded as ITV1 Granada. The Granada name was shown before regional programmes, but this has ceased; its name has all but disappeared from screens, as have all other ITV regional identities.[38] Since rebranding, all continuity announcements are made from London. The Granada logo appeared at the end of its own programmes until 31 October 2004.
Granada was permitted by the government to merge with Carlton
From 1 November 2004, Granada productions were credited "Granada Manchester", the brand of the unified in-house production arm but on 21 September 2005, it was announced that Granada's name would no longer appear at the end of programmes. The in-house production arm was renamed
In November 2006, Granada lost its on-air identity when regional programming voiced ITV1 or ITV1 Granada over a generic ident. Local news coverage was branded Granada News except for the main 18.00
Present
ITV made cutbacks, dropping 600 jobs in 2009, which effectively closed the Yorkshire Television Leeds Studios; more redundancies were made in London, leaving Granada relatively unscathed.[46] In the 2009 ITV regional news cutbacks, Granada was one of three regions unaffected by changes, except for extending its coverage area to include the Isle of Man, which had previously been served by ITV Border.[47]
ITV is obliged by UK communications regulator Ofcom to produce 50% of its programmes outside London, something it failed to achieve in 2007 and 2008.[48] With this obligation, retaining Manchester as the northern hub, and an £80m move to MediaCityUK on 25 March 2013, ITV appears to be committed to the Granada region for the foreseeable future.
Studios
In the eighteen months between the award of the franchise and the start of transmission, Granada built a brand new studio complex on
Bernstein exaggerated the scale of the studios, to make Granada appear a rival to the BBC, and gave the studios only even numbers so that it appeared there were twelve despite there only being six. The studios were operated by
In September 2010, the noted 1950s red landmark "Granada TV" sign on the roof and entrance of Granada Studios on Quay Street was removed
Relocation
After the ITV merger in 2004, the possibility of selling the Quay Street site was considered, with staff, studios and offices moved into the adjacent bonded warehouse building. ITV anticipated the BBC would buy the land but the BBC opted to move to the Peel Group's MediaCityUK development in Salford Quays.[55] ITV considered relocating to Trafford Wharf across the Manchester Ship Canal from the BBC at MediaCityUK. Discussions continued for several years and an agreement in principle was reached in 2008.[56] In March 2009, in the recession, Granada announced it would remain at Quay Street,[57] but after a change of management, talks resumed in January 2010.[58] Two years later, on 16 December 2010, Granada announced it would move to the Orange Building in MediaCityUK alongside the University of Salford. It planned to build a studio to produce Coronation Street on the opposite bank of the ship canal on Trafford Wharf. Planning permission was granted, and building work began on 6 September 2011[59] with the goal of completion in 2012.[60] ITV Granada moved to MediaCityUK on 25 March 2013.
Identity
Throughout its history, Granada Television used the logo of an arrow pointing northwards in idents, often accompanied by the tagline "from the North".[61] Sidney Bernstein wanted to present a northern identity.[62] Granada Television was considered "bolder", "
Granada was one of the few regions that did not play
In 1958, two years after its launch, Granada Television's northern style was apparent. Kenneth Clark, of the ITA, which let the franchise, remarked: "We did not quite foresee how much Granada Television would develop a character which distinguishes it most markedly from the other programmes companies and from the BBC."[1] Peter Salmon, of the BBC said: "Granada Television made TV programmes in the north west; for northerners, reflecting northern culture and attitudes."[64]
Idents
From its launch in 1956 until 1968, when an ident featuring the word "GRANADA" between two horizontal lines was introduced, the channel used captions and animations featuring a thin arrow pointing upwards and Granada, in a stylised font, in boxes. The arrow pointed at the "n" in Granada, pointing north and sometimes animated revealing the slogan "From the North", before the Granada name.
After the use of the word "GRANADA" between two horizontal lines was phased out in the first half of 1969, the famous pointed "G" logo, incorporating the upward/Northward facing arrow used previously into a letter "G" was introduced. This was to be the corporate logo for the
A colour emblem was used from the 1970s until it was replaced by a series of idents to celebrate Granada Television's 30th anniversary on 3 May 1986, when it was a computer-animated pointed "G" against a graded background and a cake covered in candles in the pointed G shape. On 1 September 1986, Granada Television reverted to using a caption featuring a gold or
On 5 June 1989, Granada Television launched a look featuring a translucent pointed G, which rotated into place in time to the music against a natural scene. When the first ITV generic look was launched, Granada Television refused to adopt it, because the Granada Television logo was incorrectly inserted into the "V" segment of the logo. The company used a version with its translucent logo shown at the beginning, before continuing with the generic ident and ending with the generic ITV logo.[65]
On 4 June 1990, Granada Television, in the run-up to the 1990 franchise round, relaunched its on-screen branding to a blue stripe descending from the top of the screen, containing the pointed "G", against a plain white background accompanied by the same music as previously. Variations were seen from which the stripe formed from a falling feather or was backlit. On 4 May 1992, the stripe descended to reveal a rainbow of colours before becoming the usual blue and this ident stays on screen until 1 January 1995.[65][68]
On 3 January 1994, Granada Television introduced a series of films featuring flags with its logo against various scenes in the region, accompanied by the slogan 'Setting the Standard'. These introduced local programming,
On 2 January 1995, the stripe theme was modified; the pointed "G" was larger on the blue stripe against a computer generated multicoloured background and the "G" was created by filming a large
All of the idents were replaced on 8 November 1999 when Granada Television took the generic hearts idents. Granada Television kept the pointed G logo, made slightly thinner and placed in a box at the top of the screen. The dual branding of Granada Television and ITV lasted until 28 October 2002, when regional identities were dropped in favour of the new ITV1 channel brand. The celebrities ident package featured plain ITV1 idents for all national programmes, and Granada Television placed under the ITV1 logo for regional programmes. This practice continued until 16 January 2006, when no name was used, and Granada Productions was replaced with ITV Productions on programme end boards. The Granada Television logo continued on end boards until this date. The Granada name was used on announcements before local programming over a generic ITV1 ident until all non-news regional programming was scrapped.[65][68][70]
On 14 January 2013, ITV1 reverted to its original name of
During the early days, the pointed G logo was used on two other subsidiary businesses. Firstly came the Red Arrow Television Rental chain. During the days when many families preferred to rent their TV sets to offset poor reliability and changing fashions, and due to the high price of television receivers, this company fared well alongside the established "heavy hitters" such as Radio Rentals. The company's opening promotion was to give every new customer a small, Hiawatha-style figurine to stand on top of their new TV set. Upon its success, the name was later changed to Granada TV Rental. Based on the results of this company, Granada Television dipped its toes into the office furniture rental business, and carpet sales and fitting for larger business customers, with Black Arrow. This business was less successful.
Programmes
In 1958, Granada Television broadcast coverage of the 1958 Rochdale by-election, the first election to be covered on television in Britain.[71] Granada's coverage was broad in scope, and it also broadcast two candidate debates.[72] Over 50 years later, Granada Studios hosted the first General Election debate among the leaders of the three main political parties.[citation needed]
Granada's boldness was seen in ambitious documentaries such as
The classic northern working-class soap opera, Coronation Street, began a thirteen-week, twice weekly regional run of half-hour episodes on 9 December 1960. It is still produced at the rate of three one-hour peak-time episodes a week after over sixty years, and is the longest-running television soap opera in the world.[76] Such set-pieces as Siege Week and the 2010 Tram Crash were filmed at the studio. The company also produced gritty drama series such as A Family at War (1970–72), set during the Second World War.
Granada produced
Another flagship programme, the long-running
Granada drew on 1970s pop music with shows such as
Granada Studios produced
Significant broadcasters
Denis Forman, chairman 1974-87, and David Plowright, chairman 1987–92, were the executives who led Granada Television during its most successful years.[78][79] Forman and Plowright have been described as embodying the Granada outlook, which was "non-conformist, alternative, non-London".[79]
Granada Television introduced many broadcasters to British television, and a number of its directors, producers and writers went on to create their own production companies. Some have been recognised for their achievements in British television with honours such as knighthoods, while others achieved senior posts such as Director-General of the BBC. Jeremy Isaacs developed a significant portion of Granada's factual programming, and the company produced a generation of major British TV "players" including John Birt, later Director-General of the BBC, and Gus Macdonald, his fellow World in Action producer. Many began work as researchers on World in Action.
- Directors, producers and writers
- Shameless.
- Jim Allen, a prolific socialist playwright best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach, contributed scripts to Coronation Street from 1965 to 1967.[80]
- Up seriesdocumentary.
- John Birt, Baron Birt began his career at Granada in 1966 as a researcher for World in Action before leaving in 1971. He became Director-General of the BBC from 1992 to 2000.
- Russell T Davies collaborated with Paul Abbott as a writer in the 1990s.[81]
- Bill Gilmour was a drama director.
- Paul Greengrass was a director of current affairs program World in Action in the 1980s before becoming a film director.
- Andy Harries was researcher before starting his television career on World in Action, and worked in various roles until the 2000s.[82]
- Tom Hooper directed two episodes of Cold Feet and directed Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect before becoming a film director.[83]
- Jeremy Isaacs joined Granada in 1968, where he supervised production of World in Action and What the Papers Say.[84]
- Brian Lapping produced major political and historical documentary series, including End of Empire.
- Gus Macdonald joined Granada in 1967 and went on to edit World in Action, leaving in 1986.
- Kay Mellor worked with Paul Abbott on Children's Ward and wrote other drama serials, such as Strictly Confidential and Between the Sheets.
- Norma Percy produced political and historical documentaries, working with Brian Lapping.
- Jack Rosenthal was a prolific playwright[85] producing The Dustbinmen and The Lovers.
- Cracker in 1993 before forming the Red Production Company.
- Presenters
- Gordon Burns joined in 1972 and presented Granada Reports, World in Action and The Krypton Factor. He later joined BBC North West in 1999 to present North West Tonight, where he became the programme's main anchor from then until 2011.
- Sacha Baron Cohen had a chatshow, F2F on Granada Talk TV in 1996.
- Richard Madeley joined Granada in 1982 where he met Judy Finnigan, who joined as a researcher in 1972.
- Lucy Meacock is Granada news presenter since 1988 and used to be an occasional presenter for the ITV national news.
- Michael Parkinson began his television career at Granada Television.[86]
- Tony Wilson presented Granada Reports and music programmes that promoted Manchester music, which gave him the nickname 'Mr Manchester'.[87]
Other ventures
Granada Studios Tour
The Granada Studios Tour opened in 1988 as an entertainment park on the Granada Studios Quay Street back lot, themed around television productions. The park featured a replica set of 10 Downing Street, and visitors were shown how television is produced. The main feature was the set of Coronation Street
G-Wizz
Several of Granada's programmes administered their websites using G-Wizz, including This Morning, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Its Flash-heavy pages were mostly unusable by subscribers, who were then still largely modem-based, and take-up was low. Less than a year after it opened, Granada closed G-Wizz in March 2001, after it had cost the company £9 million. It combined the remainder of its online presence with fellow ITV company Carlton to launch itv.com.[88]
Granada Sky Broadcasting
In 1996 Granada joined
ONdigital
From 1997 until 2002 Granada and Carlton invested, and lost, over £1 billion with a joint venture into
Additional channels
Granada Plus
Men & Motors
Granada Breeze
Originally Granada Good Life, Granada Breeze was another GSB venture which also launched on 1 October 1996. It was a lifestyle channel aimed at women viewers and showed programmes on, cookery, health and US daytime television such as Judge Joe Brown. It provided programmes split into themed sections called Granada Talk Television, Granada Food and Wine, Granada Health and Beauty, Granada Television High Street and Granada Home and Garden. Most shows were presented from a large conservatory studio outside the Coronation Street studio which was later used for daytime ITV Play programming. Granada Breeze was scaled down in July 2001[91] before ceasing operation in March 2002 due to poor viewing figures.[92]
Others
Wellbeing was a joint venture with
Granada Talk TV focused on chat shows and closed after less than a year on air.
Shop!, launched in 1998, was a partnership between Granada and Littlewoods. However, its closure was announced in 2002.[93]
Reception
Awards and accolades
Granada Television had a reputation for strong production values.[94][95] In 1999, Granada Television made eight of ITV's top-rated programmes and 30% of the UK's top-rated programmes came from its studios[2] and in 2005 supplied 63% of ITV original production.[96] It was the only ITA broadcaster created in 1954 that survived into the 21st century, and it flourished until it emerged as the dominant player in the ITV network by 2000.[97]
In the nineteen
Coronation Street became the longest running serial soap in 2010 when it celebrated its 50th anniversary, and the Seven Up documentary series was voted the greatest documentary in a Channel 4 programme by film makers.
Criticisms of perceived Manchester-centric bias
In three franchise rounds (1967, 1980, and 1991) three groups (Palatine Television, Merseyvision, and
Granada had increased investment in Liverpool moving its regional news service to the Albert Dock complex in 1986,[103] before moving back to Quay Street sometime in the early 2000s.
The daytime show This Morning broadcast from Liverpool's Albert Dock for many years before it moved to the London Studios in 1996, as it was difficult to get celebrity guests to travel from London to Liverpool.[104]
Criticisms and controversies over World in Action and Tonight
Granada's bold, hard-hitting television and documentaries resulted in a number of legal cases. David Plowright told junior researcher Paul Greengrass that Granada's role was to "make trouble".[74] World in Action was hard-hitting but resulted in expensive libel trials when false accusations were made in the 1990s.
In 1998 Granada paid £2 million, in two cases, to three
Nevertheless, Tonight had occasionally stirred controversy like its predecessor. An example is the 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson (a Tonight special). Its airing resulted in the threat of legal action by Michael Jackson.[108] The documentary gained an audience of fifteen million in the United Kingdom, and newspapers depicted Jackson in a negative light following the documentary.[109] Jackson did not, ultimately, bring any case to court.
See also
- Media in Manchester
- ITV Studios – Granada Television's production arm
- Granada plc – Granada Television's parent company
References
Citations
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Granada's creative strength makes it by far the most important ITV player. It made eight of ITV's 10 top-rated programmes last year (excluding sports coverage). Overall, 30% of the UK's top-rated programmes came from its studios in 1999. Last week it pulled off a further coup, with ITV announcing that Yorkshire's Emmerdale would be running five nights a week from the autumn.
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As he himself liked to quote, not for nothing had Granada been dubbed the best commercial television company in the world.
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... named after the Spanish city where he had been on holiday.
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- ^ a b "ITV1 Granada". TV Room. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2011. Page contains authentic images of Granada Television idents.
- ^ a b c "Granada Television Idents". TV Whirl. Retrieved 4 September 2011. Page Contains authentic images of Granada Television Idents and music files of announcements.
- ^ Walker, Hayden. "Granada Continuity". TVARK. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011. Page contains authentic videos of Granada Continuity gained from old recordings of junctions.
- ^ "ITV1 Regions". TV Whirl. Retrieved 4 September 2011. Page Contains images of authentic Granada Television generic idents as used after 2002.
- ^ "Manchester on TV: Ghosts of Winter Hill". BBC. 30 October 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
1958: Rochdale by-election is first British election to be televised
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- ^ Brockman, David (2006). "What The Papers Say: 50 years". transdiffusion.org. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
- ^ Purser, Philip (25 February 2013). "Sir Denis Forman obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
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Davies moved to Granada and enjoyed a successful spell on another children's favourite, hospital drama Children's Ward, for which he won a BAFTA in 1996.
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Recent high-profile Carlton productions include the short-lived revival of Crossroads, and Fortysomething, a ratings flop starring Hugh Laurie. By contrast, Granada has a reputation for quality programme making, such as Coronation Street and this month's drama Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone.
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On Monday 14 April 1986, Granada Reports was re-launched, complete with a new home in the converted Traffic Office at the Albert Dock in Liverpool.
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Bibliography
- Finch, John (2003). Granada Television: The First Generation. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-6515-1.
- Fitzwalter, Raymond (2008). The Dream That Died: The Rise and Fall of ITV. Matador. ISBN 978-1-906221-83-6.
- Forman, Denis (1997). Persona Granada: Memories of Sidney Bernstein and the Early Years of Independent Television. Andre Deutsch. ISBN 978-0-233-98987-7.
- Briggs, Asa (1995). The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, vol. 5: Competition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-215964-9.