Limited is the
ITV television contractor for
North East England . It is a part of
ITV Plc .
ITV Tyne Tees broadcasts from Television House at The Watermark, Gateshead following their relocation from their famous home of over 40 years at City Road Studios in
Newcastle Upon Tyne . The first broadcasts from their new home took place on
2 July 2005 .
Television House also acts as a base for ITV SignPost, "Britain's biggest supplier of ,
York ,
London and within the Media Centre at the
University Of Sunderland .
It went on air at 5pm on
15 January 1959 . The then
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was interviewed live on the opening night.
The station is named after two of the region's three primary rivers. The other major river, the
Wear (which runs between the
Tyne and the
Tees ), was represented within the company's early ''Three Rivers Fantasy''
Signature Tune .
Tyne Tees Television's
Flagship regional programme is ''
North East Tonight '', a local news programme broadcast at 6pm, primarily hosted by Mike Neville. Although it is not a prolific contributor to ITV's network programming, it has produced a range of popular shows, such as adaptations of
Catherine Cookson novels and the ''100 Greatest...'' series of clip shows for
Channel 4 . Previously, it made ''Face The Press'', ''Crosswits'' and ''
Supergran '', among others for ITV.
The architecture of the public entrance to the City Road complex gave music show ''
The Tube '' its title.
On
1 January 1974 , Tyne Tees Television merged with its neighbour
Yorkshire Television to form Trident Television Limited. The two stations remained separately run and were required to demerge in
1981 as a condition of the re-award of their ITV contracts. However following rule changes in
1993 , the two stations resumed their alliance under the name Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc.
In
1996 , Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television made the controversial move of dual branding its stations as "Channel 3". (Channel 3 was for a time the "official" name for ITV, but was not used by other stations.) At this stage, the continuity studios in Newcastle were closed and continuity in both the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees regions was centralised in Leeds. Tyne Tees Television was forced to use the rather long winded name "Channel 3 North East - Tyne Tees Television". The famous "TTTV" logo was dropped in favour of a large "3". The name "Tyne Tees Television" was only seen in small letters at the bottom of the screen. Its neighbour Yorkshire Television was allowed to keep its own logo alongside the "3", but Tyne Tees was not.
In
1997 Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television plc was acquired by Granada Group plc (now
ITV Plc ). One of Granada's first moves was to scrap the often derided Channel 3 branding. The "TTTV" logo returned to screens in a new form on
9 March 1998 . However dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later.
On
28 October 2002 , Tyne Tees Television was rebranded as ITV1 Tyne Tees. The "Tyne Tees" name only appears before regional programmes, the rest of the time only the name "ITV1" is shown. The Tyne Tees logo continued to appear after its own programmes, accompanied by a small Granada logo to identify its parent company. However, on
1 November 2004 this was replaced with a new Granada endcap with the words "A Granada Tyne Tees Production".
On
9 February 2005 ,
OFCOM issued a proposed timetable for ending analogue terrestrial television transmissions as part of the switchover to digital television.
2011 is the target year for Tyne Tees.
Company names:
- Tyne Tees Television Limited ( 1959 -present)
- Trident Television Limited ( 1970s - 31 December 1981 ) - parent company
- Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc ( 1995 -present) - parent company
On-air names:
- Tyne Tees (1959- 1996 , 1998 -2002, although still used inconsistently 1996-1998 and 2002-2005)
- Channel 3 North East (1996-1998)
- ITV Tyne Tees (2005-)
Initials used:
- TTT (1959- 1970 )
- TTTV (1970-2002, although still used inconsistently 2002-present)
Nicknames used:
- Tees (1959-present, still used by viewers and (rarely) used on air until about 1996)
