Welcome to Transdiffusion
This is the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System (TBS), a not-for-profit historical society dedicated to documenting and preserving broadcasting history.
We have over three dozen websites devoted to all aspects of broadcasting and broadcasting history [sitemap], backed by the largest known private physical archive of historical presentation material.
In the latest update...
Φ Baby Boomer's Revenge Advice for programmers
Φ One Born Every Minute Hidden phone quiz scandal
Φ The Word and the Deed Watch your language!
Φ Catalogue of Woe BBC Catalogue is off the air
Φ On The Run The story of London's pirates (1973)
Φ Humph: A Tribute Nigel Stapley on Humphrey Littleton
Φ Tested to Destruction Stuff the bloody focus groups
Φ Pay-per-PSB? An idea that doesn't quite work
Our editors' latest musings in the MediaBlog
30-second guide to...
Yorkshire
Television (1968-2002)
Telefusion Yorkshire, operating as Yorkshire
Television was the ITV franchise holder based in Leeds, which
came into being when the ITA abolished
the pan-North franchise with its split between Granada in
the week and ABC at
weekends to create
separate franchises for North West England (held by Granada) and for Yorkshire.
The company's core broadcast area was always Yorkshire, but due to technical
complications resulting from the switch to UHF it lost much of North Yorkshire
to Tyne
Tees while gaining from Anglia
Lincolnshire and parts of North Norfolk and North Cambridgeshire. From 1974
to 1982 Yorkshire and Tyne Tees were owned by Trident
Television - it had originally been planned for Anglia also to become part
of this group. In the 1980s Yorkshire and Tyne Tees would develop something
of a rivalry again, but Yorkshire would acquire Tyne Tees in 1992 (the first
of the 1990s takeovers) and the two companies would adhere to the same schedules,
other than for programmes specific to each region, from the start of 1993.
Yorkshire's programming tended to be comparatively serious by ITV standards,
with many documentaries (such as First Tuesday), informational series (such
as Where There's Life) and prestigious period dramas (such as Flambards).
Its soap Emmerdale Farm, launched in 1972, would eventually metamorphose
into Emmerdale and become a key part of ITV's schedules after deregulation,
while YTV had briefly experimented with breakfast TV (under the title Good
Morning Calendar, one of many variants on the regional news programme Calendar
which began with YTV and continues today) in 1977, six years before it started
nationally. The company's original start-up music, the
last of the ITV marches
was briefly
replaced with a standard piece of 1980s corporate music. Redvers Kyle, formerly
of Rediffusion
was YTV's chief announcer for its first 25 years on air. From the mid-1990s
YTV programmes became more populist, with game shows such as Bruce's Price
is Right and the short-lived Raise the Roof. From 1996, all continuity for
Tyne Tees came from Leeds: subsequently, continuity for Granada and Border
also moved
there. The Yorkshire brand was dropped, other than before regional programmes,
in 2002 when the Leeds
continuity centre closed, although the company's endcap and famous Chevron
logo
would still appear after programmes produced by ITV plc in Leeds until 2004,
and the name has lived on in the small print of copyright credits.
Get involved!
Transdiffusion is run entirely by volunteers - staff, meta editors and contributors all working to keep hundreds of thousands of readers up to date with the latest broadcasting issues and the best in broadcasting history.
If you'd like to join us, we've got plenty for you to do! You can subscribe to our free email newsletter (below right), get chatting with us and fellow enthusiasts on our email forums, write articles on your favourite subjects, or become a meta editor of one of our sites.
