2004 central independent television 1982 1999 based in birmingham broadcast area midlands first airdate 1 january 1982 closed lost on air identity 27 october 2002 known as itv at all times replaced associated television owned by itv plc website itv central former logo the central cake logo used from 1985 98 1 itv central previously known as central independent television carlton central and popularly shortened to central is the independent television contractor for the midlands 2 and was created following the restructuring of atv and commencing broadcast on 1 january 1982 . the station is owned and operated by itv plc under the licensee of itv broadcasting limited . contents 1 history 1.1 launch 1.2 operations 1.3 ownership and takeover 1.4 incidents 2 studios 3 sub regions 4 identity 4.1 globe 1982 85 4.2 cake 1985 98 4.3 central 1998 99 4.4 carlton 1999 2002 4.5 itv central 5 programmes 5.1 children s 5.2 drama 5.3 comedy 5.4 documentaries and features 5.5 game shows 5.6 reruns 6 references 7 external links history edit this section is incomplete . august 2013 during the 1970s atv the previous midlands licence holder had often been criticised for its lack of regional output and character . although atv had purpose built a modern colour production complex in the centre of birmingham most of its major productions were recorded at its main studios at elstree in hertfordshire a legacy of when the company also served london at the weekends prior to 1968 . equally its corporate headquarters were based in central london . atv attempted to address its problem in 1980 as part of its franchise re application ; with plans for a second major facility in the area to be based in nottingham and as part of the independent broadcasting authority plan for the contract to be a dual region providing separate news coverage for both the east and the west midlands . the company name would also be changed from atv network limited to atv midlands limited thus reinforcing the greater regional focus . the iba accepted atv s assertion that atv midlands ltd planned to take a more local identity and awarded the contract to atv midlands ltd on the basis that further changes were to be implemented including that the parent company associated communications corporation would divest 49 % of its shareholding in atv midlands ltd in an attempt to introduce local shareholders and that atv midlands ltd s registered office should be within the region . to demonstrate this change of share structure the iba insisted that atv change its company name to show that it was a substantially new company due to the requirements of a dual region . 3 4 reputedly around the time of the franchise changing hands a local businessman registered dozens of company names some of which included the words central and television in the hope of being offered substantial financial compensation to relinquish the rights to one of these if chosen by the new company . central got around this by simply inserting independent into their name on registering it something the businessman had not thought of . 5 launch edit the station opened transmission at 9 25 am on friday 1 january 1982 with an authority announcement by duty announcer su evans followed by an extended 5 minute promo entitled welcome to central voiced by peter wheeler previewing the company s network and regional programming and the schedule for the first day of transmission . 6 central initially ran a sole pan regional service from birmingham as a result of an industrial dispute which prevented its east midlands service from nottingham commencing before september 1983 . the split allowed central to serve the west midlands with its own service from birmingham . 7 there were few differences between the east and west sub regions but each had its own news service advertisements and during the early years of operation continuity . this would lead to the bbc launching its own sub regional service for the east midlands during the 1980s which became a region in its own right in january 1991 with the launch of east midlands today . operations edit by march 1984 the reorganisation of the company was complete allowing pre tax profits to double from 3.5 million to 6.5 million in its first two financial years . 8 shortly afterwards zenith productions was established as a subsidiary of central television which produced programming for the uk and the usa most famously including the company s television adaptations of the inspector morse novels . 9 central s interests in on screen fiction saw the company buy the korda film library in 1986 . 10 11 in january 1987 central acquired the british animation company filmfair for 1.5 million 12 which went on to produce several of the station s networked children s series before being sold onto the storm group caspian in 1991 . 13 14 on the same day central brought a stake in starstream who co founded and operated the children s channel the 22 % stake was sold in november 1991 to united artists cable international . a few months later central became the first itv station to broadcast its own overnight service including short news bulletins imported output and the long running jobfinder service launched in 1986 in partnership with the manpower services commission which went on to run for 17 years and won a royal television society award . central was also awarded the queen s award to industry for export twice for selling its range of programming to over 80 countries around the world in april 1987 15 and april 1989 16 17 under its growing business portfolio central created cte central television enterprises in december 1987 and opened international bureaux in hamburg new york city and sydney for sales sponsorship and newsgathering operations . cte the company s key international distributor of programming would later represent output sales for htv meridian and carlton 18 who took over central in 1994 . in 1989 the company founded zodiac entertainment an american entertainment firm specialising in the production and distribution of animated cartoons . central invested 35 million in the company before deciding to discontinue its production business in 1994 leaving zodiac to become a distributor . also in 1989 19 20 central established television sales and marketing services ltd tsms a joint venture with anglia television providing airtime sales and program sponsorships in part to recover production costs . 21 in march 1994 anglia acquired central s stake in the company to take full control with central moving over to carlton s sales department . 22 in march 1990 central formed a partnership with the observer newspaper to create central observer making environmental themed films for british satellite broadcasting and terrestrial channels with funding from the charity television trust for the environment . 23 central was unopposed in retaining its franchise in 1993 which allowed the company to only bid a tiny sum of 2000 a year 24 25 though the company stressed the need to cut more jobs to become more cost efficient 26 as the company had agreed to pay 11 % of their annual advertising revenue on top of their winning bid . the station s workforce was reduced to 1500 by 1990 and then to 900 by the start of 1992 less than half of the payroll central had employed in 1987 . central also profited from the auction after meridian a consortium in which central held a 20 % stake won the franchise to serve the south and south east of england . 27 28 by april 1993 with the added increase of 8.8 % in advertising revenues to 250 million and its income from programme sales rising to 83.4 million central became the most successful itv company after the start of the new franchises . 29 ownership and takeover edit although the iba required 49 % of the new station to be owned locally by companies and individuals 30 the take up was nowhere near as expected leaving companies outside the region to buy shares including dc thomson 15 % ladbrokes 10 % pergamon 9 % and british rail 2 % . shortly after the station began broadcasting australian entrepreneur robert holmes court via his bell group started the process of acquiring acc but was halted by the iba since the law prohibited foreign companies from controlling british television companies . 31 by march a rival bid from gerald ronson s heron corporation also entered the race to takeover acc . 32 33 in april 1982 acc was taken over by robert holmes court 34 with the iba approving the deal in june on condition that acc s 51 percent stake in central be put in trust thus divesting acc of all voting power until it had reduced its shares in the broadcaster . 35 by january 1983 167 staff had brought shares in the station for a 1 each as part of an innovative shareholding scheme to help offload shares to local people in the central region . 36 in may 1983 acc finally sold off its stake in central sears holdings purchased 20 % 37 while ladbrokes and dc thomson also increased their stakes to 20 % each and pergamon took its ownership to 12.5 % with 27.5 % being held by single stakeholders . 38 in march 1987 carlton communications acquired 20 per cent of central from ladbrokes for 30million 39 which finally gave carlton its first stake in a terrestrial broadcasting company after a bid to buy thames television was blocked by the iba two years beforehand . 40 in january 1994 41 central was bought in its entirety by carlton for 750 million 42 43 the new owners later restructured the company further by combining central s operations into one and moving its birmingham studios to a smaller complex elsewhere in the city centre . network programmes were now classed as carlton uk productions and around 140 jobs were lost from the downgraded birmingham operation . 44 45 on 6 september 1999 the station was rebranded on air as carlton central though the registered company name remained central independent television limited . the new identity produced by lambie nairn was also used on central s sister stations in the london and carlton westcountry regions . only the carlton name was used on air however central s regional news programmes retained the central brand . with the merger of carlton and granada on 2 february 2004 the brand became itv1 central . it is currently owned by itv plc and on 29 december 2006 the registered company name was changed from central independent television ltd to itv central ltd. this company is along with most other regional companies owned by itv plc listed on www.companieshouse.gov.uk as a dormant company . incidents edit on 5 april 2005 it was revealed itv central could be fined by regulator ofcom for broadcasting a pre recorded late central news bulletin for the east midlands . the regulator later permitted itv to pre record some regional news bulletins shortly before transmission . 46 on 15 july 2008 the station was fined 25 000 for contempt of court . 47 48 studios edit main articles gas street studios and carlton studios nottingham initially central inherited atv s broad street studios atv centre which was renamed central house when the contractor changed its name they were retained as central s headquarters west midlands studios and transmission facilities until 1997 . upon winning the franchise central decided to construct new studios for its east sub region based in lenton lane nottingham the new complex was to be called east midlands television centre . 49 up until the studios were opened central s east midlands operations were based on an industrial estate at giltbrook near eastwood on the outskirts of nottingham . the nottingham studios were to be staffed by employees originally based at