Timeline of Tyne Tees Television

This is a timeline of the history of Tyne Tees Television (now known as ITV Tyne Tees).

1950s
  • 1959
    • 15 January – At 5pm, Tyne Tees Television launches.

1960s
  • 1960
    • No events.
  • 1961
    • No events.
  • 1962
    • Tyne Tees receives significant criticism in the 1962 Pilkington Report criticised ITV, and Tyne Tees in particular. Some companies, historian Simon Cherry notes, were scrambling "very readily for the lowest common denominator ... Tyne Tees was notorious for avoiding minority programmes and putting out cop shows or westerns instead."[1]
  • 1963
    • No events.
  • 1964
    • March – The final edition of Tyne Tees' lunchtime variety programme The One O'Clock Show is broadcast. Consequently, Tyne Tees no longer transmits at lunchtime, and does not do so again until 1972.
    • 30 March – Tyne Tees introduces a nightly regional news programme called North East Newsview. Previously, regional news had consisted of short bulletins and a weekly Friday night programme called North East Roundabout.
  • 1965
    • No events.
  • 1966
    • No events.
  • 1967
    • No events.
  • 1968
    • August – A technicians strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary ITV Emergency National Service with no regional variations.
    • September – The final issue of Tyne Tees’ listings magazine The Viewer is published. After this, listings are carried in the magazine TV Times
  • 1969
    • Tyne Tees’ regional news programme is renamed Today at Six.

1970s
  • 1970
    • 17 July — Tyne Tees Television starts broadcasting in colour.
    • August – Yorkshire and Tyne Tees Television announce plans to merge when the two are brought under the control of a new company, Trident Television Limited, which is formed to deal with the problem of effective usage of the Bilsdale transmitter and the allocation of airtime.[2]
  • 1971
    • No events.
  • 1972
    • 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service.
  • 1973
    • No events.
  • 1974
    • 1 January – The 1974 franchise round sees the Bilsdale transmitter, based on the border between Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television and much disputed over, transferred from Yorkshire to Tyne Tees.
  • 1975
    • No events.
  • 1976
    • 6 September – Northern Life replaces Today at Six as Tyne Tees’ regional news programme.
  • 1977
    • 28 March – Tyne Tees Television begins a nine-week trial of breakfast television. The experiment ends on 27th May.
  • 1978
    • No events.
  • 1979
    • 10 August – The ten week ITV strike forces Tyne Tees Television off the air.
    • 24 October – Tyne Tees marks the end of the ITV strike by launching its most famous logo.[3]

1980s
  • 1980
    • 28 December – The Independent Broadcasting Authority announces the new contractors to commence on 1 January 1982 and Tyne Tees Television is reawarded its licence on the condition that it demerges with Yorkshire Television.[4]
  • 1981
    • Tyne Tees opens a fifth studio at its Newcastle studios so it can provide programming for the soon to launch Channel 4.
  • 1983
    • 1 February – ITV’s breakfast television service TV-am launches. Consequently, Tyne Tees Television’s broadcast day now begins at 9:25 am and the channel no longer starts its day with a religious programme, apart from on Sundays.
  • 1984
    • No events.
  • 1985
    • 3 January – The last day of transmission using the 405-lines system.
    • 23 August – The station is off the air all day (from 9.25am) due to industrial action.
  • 1986
    • No events.
  • 1987
    • 7 September – Following the transfer of ITV Schools to Channel 4, ITV provides a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins. Tyne Tees has the honour of producing the very first programme broadcast on the new service - a quiz show called Chain Letters.
    • November – Tyne Tees begins 24-hour broadcasting. It does so by launching a Jobfinder service which broadcasts each night from its usual close-down time until the start of TV-am at 6 am.
  • 1988
    • 1 September – Tyne Tees broadcasts an end of day Epilogue for the final time, having done so since the station went on air 29 years earlier.
    • 2 September – Tyne Tees begins a full 24-hour service.
    • 5 September – Tyne Tees introduces its ‘’flowing rivers’’ logo. [6]
  • 1989
    • 1 September – ITV introduces its first official logo as part of an attempt to unify the network under one image whilst retaining regional identity. Tyne Tees adopts the look.[7]

1990s
  • 1991
    • May – Tyne Tees reintroduces its own logo.[9]
    • 16 October – The Independent Television Commission announces the results of the franchise round. Tyne Tees Television is reawarded its licence, having bid £15.1 million to see off a rival bid from North East Television.
  • 1992
    • June – Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television merge, beginning a process that would see the consolidation of ITV over the next decade.
    • 5 October –
      • Following the merger, Yorkshire simulcasts its overnight service on Tyne Tees and relaunches it as Nightshift.[10]
      • A new logo is introduced.[11]
      • Tyne Tees' regional news programme Northern Life is replaced by Tyne Tees Today.
  • 1993
    • 31 March – Network North launches, providing the south of the region with its own regional news magazine. It is available to viewers served by the Bilsdale transmitter. Tyne Tees Today therefore becomes the name of the north of the region programme for those served by the Pontop Pike and Chatton transmitters.
  • 1994
    • No events.
  • 1995
    • November – Tyne Tees Today and Network North are renamed Tyne Tees News although the separate news services for the North and South of the region continue as before.
  • 1996
    • 2 September –
      • Tyne Tees is renamed Channel 3 North East.[12]
      • The two separate regional news magazines end and are replaced by a single news programme called North East Tonight.
  • 1998
    • 9 March – The unpopular Channel 3 North East branding is scrapped and the Tyne Tees name returns to the airwaves.[14]
    • 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place.

2000s
  • 2000
    • No events.
  • 2001
    • No events.
  • 2002
    • 28 October – On-air regional identities are dropped apart from when introducing regional programmes and Tyne Tees is renamed ITV1 Tyne Tees.
  • 2003
    • No events.
  • 2004
    • January – The final two remaining English ITV companies, Carlton and Granada, merge to create a single England and Wales ITV company called ITV plc.
  • 2005
    • After more than 45 years the final broadcasts from Tyne Tees’ City Road studios in central Newcastle take place ahead of the move to smaller studios in Gateshead.
    • August – North East Tonight becomes two separate programmes for the north and the south of the region. However all other regions news bulletins remain as a single pan-regional bulletin.
  • 2006
    • November – The Tyne Tees branding, still seen before some regional programming, is discontinued.
    • 13 December – The Berwick-upon-Tweed transmitter transfers from Border to Tyne Tees as part of the preparations for the digital switchover of the Border region in 2008.[15]
  • 2007
    • No events.
  • 2008
    • No events.
  • 2009
    • February – ITV makes major cutbacks to its regional broadcasts in England. The separate sub-regional news programmes are merged into a pan-regional programme although more localised news continues to be broadcast as a brief opt-out during the early evening programme.
    • All non-news local programming ends apart from a monthly political discussion show.
    • 25 February – The ITV Tyne Tees & Border region is created.

2010s
  • 2010
    • No events.
  • 2011
    • No events.
  • 2013
    • 4 January – The Tyne-Tees news service is rebranded as ITV News Tyne Tees.[16] and pan-regional bulletins are branded as ITV News Tyne Tees & Border
    • 23 July – Proposals to reintroduce full regional services for the Tyne Tees and Border regions were approved by OFCOM, effectively leading to a demerger of the Tyne Tees and Border services.
    • 16 September – Lookaround and ITV News Tyne Tees are restored as fully separate regional programmes on weekdays with shorter daytime and weekend bulletins reintroduced.[17] Consequently, the weekday daytime, late evening and weekend bulletins as well as 20 minutes of the 6pm programme are once again more localised. Both programmes continue to be broadcast from Tyne Tees' Gateshead studios with extra journalists recruited for newsgathering in the Border region.

See also

References
  1. Cherry 2005, p. 165
  2. Yorkshire and Tyne Tees TV plan to merge. By ROSS DAVIES. The Times, Friday, 21 August 1970; p. 17;
  3. TV Live: Tyne Tees
  4. Guardian Monday, 29 December 1980 p. 1 TV axed by Plowman
  5. Bowden, Andrew (12 June 2006). "Forging the Trident". City Road. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  6. TV Live: Tyne Tees
  7. TV Live: Tyne Tees
  8. Fitzwalter 2008, p. 130
  9. TV Live: Tyne Tees
  10. Ident Central - Yorkshire Night Time
  11. TV Live: Tyne Tees
  12. TV Live: Tyne Tees
  13. MAM unlikely to back Granada's YTTV offer.Eric Reguly. The Times (London, England), Thursday, 26 June 1997; p. 27
  14. TV Live: Tyne Tees
  15. Baldwin, Thomas (27 July 2006). "Digital switchover confusion is resolved". Berwick Advertiser. Archived from the original on 22 February 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2007.
  16. ITV launches rebrand on air and online, itv.com, 14 January 2012
  17. OFCOM sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5 Archived 2013-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, OFCOM, 23 July 2013
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