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In the most recent update...
Φ Back on the Late Shift NBC hasn't learned its lesson not to alienate its viewers... or its talent.
Φ Selling KERA An email to the local PBS stations leads to 60 seconds of fame
Φ City Road Tyne Tees's former home hits the wrecking ball
Φ Thirty Years of Grange Hill - Part III Popularity and hard hitting storylines.
Φ Paradise Lost Part IV - Central House Exploring the extension for the new company.
On the blog...
The latest musings from our editors
Φ 10 March 2010 - Marketing defeat
Φ 3 March 2010 - Most people like the BBC as it is
Φ 2 March 2010 - Beating the retreat
Φ 26 February 2010 - Sacrificial lamb
Φ 18 February 2010 - There's an app for that
30-second guide to...
Carlton (1993-2002)
Carlton
Television went on air in London in January 1993, taking over from Thames.
Its chairman, Michael Green, had set up Trident Industries in 1968 at the
age of twenty, and expanded the business by buying other companies. In 1985 Carlton
Communications, as it was now called, attempted to buy Thames with the
backing of BET and Thorn EMI, its two main shareholders, but was blocked
by the IBA and Thames’ boss, Richard Dunn. The group formed a television
subsidiary to bid successfully against Thames in the notorious 1991 franchise
auction. Carlton commissioned most of its programmes from independent production
companies until it bought Central in
1994, many of whose programmes it continued to produce. It was widely slated
early on for poor standards, and was fined a
record £2m by the then ITC for factual inaccuracies in The
Connection, a documentary purporting to show a heroin smuggling route
from Columbia to the UK. In 1999, Carlton controversially re-branded under
its own name both Central and Westcountry (which
by this time it also owned), although to its credit the result was far superior
to the equivalent branding used by the Granada-owned regions. Carlton merged
with Granada in 2004 to form ITV plc. Famous names associated with Carlton
include Dave Allan, Nigel Walmsley and Ted Childs, while famous programmes
included The Good Sex Guide, Heat
of the Sun, Inspector
Morse (through its Zenith subsidiary, which it acquired from Central
in 1987) and Kavanagh
QC.
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