Equally, its corporate headquarters were in central London. 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 with its own service from Birmingham. 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 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. Central's interests in on-screen fiction saw the company buy itv central news catch up Korda Film Library in 1986. In January 1987, Central acquired the European division of the American production company for £1. On the same day, Central brought a stake in Starstream, who co-founded and operated — the 22% stake was itv central news catch up in November 1991 to United Artists Cable International formerly a subsidiary of United Artists Theatres, the parent company now a division ofand the former cable company merged intothe predecessor of. In 1989, the company founded — an American entertainment firm specialising in the production and distribution of animated cartoons. In March 1994, Anglia acquired Central's stake in the company to take full control with Central moving over to Carlton's sales department. In March 1990, Central formed a partnership with newspaper to create Central Observer, making environmental themed films for and terrestrial channels, with funding from the charity Television Trust for the Environment. Central was unopposed in retaining its franchise in 1993, which allowed the company to bid only a token £2,000 a year just over £5 a day — though the company stressed the need to cut more jobs to become more cost efficient, 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 aftera consortium in which Central held a 20% stake, won the franchise to serve the South and South East of England. By April 1993, with the added increase of 8. By January 1983, 167 staff had bought shares in the itv central news catch up for a £1 each as part of an innovative shareholding scheme to help offload shares to local people in the Central region. In January 1994 Central was bought in its entirety by Carlton for £750 million 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. 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 was also used on Central's sister stations in the and regions. On 15 July 2008, the station was fined £25,000 for contempt of court. Upon winning the franchise, Central decided to construct new studios for its East sub-region, based in Lenton Lane, — the new complex was to be called 'East Midlands Television centre'. Up until the studios were opened, Central's East Midlands operations were based on an industrial estate atnear Eastwood on the outskirts of Nottingham. The Nottingham studios were to be staffed by employees originally based at Elstree, which led to many problems due to the relocation, including industrial action, which resulted in a long delay for the promised separate until September 1983. The Nottingham studio complex finally opened in January 1984, followed by an official opening by the on 2 March 1984 Five years later, Central opened a computerized news centre in for the launch of its third sub-region, serving the South Midlands. The Broad Street studios in Birmingham — which were rented — came under Central's ownership in November 1991, by which time, its network and large scale programming capability had been transferred to Nottingham, scaling down the Birmingham operation to providing Central News West, regional programming and presentation operations, including those for. In 1994, Central's new owners Carlton acquired land on nearby Gas Street to begin work on building a new, smaller digital studio complex. The new centre was completed in 1997, when Central West's regional news department moved from its Broad Street base, which was eventually demolished during the spring of 2015 to make way for the new 'Arena Central' development. In February 2004, announced plans to close and sell the Lenton Lane production centre in Nottingham with over 350 jobs being axed in the process Following the closure of the studios, a new news-gathering centre was established in the city, but production and transmission of Central News East moved to the Birmingham studio in Spring 2005. The former studio complex is now part of The and is known as ''. It still maintains one Studio Studio 7and this is rented out to television and film Companies, generating income for the University. Although there was heavy opposition, the role of presentation and transmission at Birmingham had been significantly reduced after network presentation was centralised to in London in 2002 and so there was an inevitability that this function would be moved out. While Central maintains office space and a single ground floor studio, the other studio and floors are available to rent as office space. The property is marketed as. Initially, as a result of a long-running industrial dispute, Central broadcast a single pan-regional news service from Birmingham. The East Midlands service of news, local advertisements and presentation was launched in September 1983, leaving the Birmingham-based service to adopt its focus on the rest of the region. In January 1989, Central launched a third sub-region for the South Midlands the Oxford and Ridge Hill transmitters previously served by Central Westcarrying its own news service and local advertisements. The Central South region was disbanded in December 2006 after 17 years in operation — with the eastern half of the area merging with Meridian's North region to form an region. At the same time, 's broadcast footprint was expanded to cover North Gloucestershire from the West's studios, while re-joined Central News West from. While all Thames Valley news programmes were broadcast from Meridian's studios in Whiteley in Hampshire, Central's former Abingdon base was retained as a newsgathering centre. Further changes in February 2009 saw the end of wholly separate programmes for Central's East and West sub-regions. The pan-regional service currently includes a short six-minute opt out within the 6pm programme and separate late night bulletins for the two areas. In the former Thames Valley region, plans were approved for a ten-minute opt out within the 6pm edition of for the south of England. This ident was dropped locally in 1985, but remained on the front and end of networked programmes until August 1988. On 2 September 1985, a new presentation package was launched, which saw the moon redesigned into a three-dimensional shape. It was initially used solely for regional continuity purposes, but by 1986, it itv central news catch up an ident in its own right. The new logo was a circle in shape, but with a curved line running down the left hand side and five horizontal lines dividing the sphere up into twelve segments. The left six segments were coloured red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple and the whole symbol was computer animated. The soundtrack was the same composition, but played in a variety of different ways. Central also adopted the as another ident to use alongside the Cake. The generic ident was used in its raw form, with altered music, and as part of another ident giving greater emphasis to the cake but was dropped a year later. This featured the name Central in the font in centre screen against a bright and colourful background. The idents featured a 2D animation of either the letters interacting in some way, a letter being replaced with another object, or the word being part of a larger scene, such as a cross word of place names in the region. The look was discontinued on 5 September 1999. The ident itself technically was praised, however the presentational package received complaints and criticisms due to the fact that the Central brand was replaced by the Carlton brand. The regional idents were gradually phased out, and by 2006, on most days, the only regional branding was for the regional news. In November 2006, the Central name was retired, when regional idents were axed. The Carlton brand continued to be seen on production captions until February 2004, when the caption A Carlton Production or A Carlton Production for Central England being used. itv central news catch up Today, the majority of productions have been moved away from the Midlands region, and any productions are accredited to. Perhaps the station's most successful drama title was its adaptations of the novels, produced by its subsidiary. Central also produced the critically acclaimed film — starring — for 's first night of transmission. Less successful was one of Itv central news catch up first networked contributions — the spin-offwhich drew high viewing figures but also heavy criticism for its racy adult content. It was axed after one series and replaced by a low-budget sequel entitled. The company also attracted ire with the 1987 sitcom starring about an anarchic comprehensive school. The first two episodes received so much public condemnation that the remainder were never transmitted. It was itv central news catch up a major contributor to current affairs locally and nationally — from its documentary output such as Viewpoint, 30 Minutes and England Their England to more populist series, including and the long-running debate showwhich ran for 15 years in the Midlands on Friday nights. Central also first reported on the Ethiopian famine in July 1984 with the documentary Seeds of Despair. In the same year, the company completed production on one of its more controversial programmes Question of Leadership, a four-part series directed by about trade unions' responses to government actions. Even after several re-edits, the series was never transmitted, which was described as political censorship. With the creation of a dedicated network unit, Central also played a significant part in networked sports output under the leadership of. The station also played its part in coverage of key European athletics meetings and world championship boxing with as a long-standing Saturday night fixture. In 2004, the department itv central news catch up moved to London and merged with the 's operations to form Productions. Archived from on 15 April 2012. The Times, Monday, 29 December 1980; pg. Archived from on 26 March 2012. The Times, Friday, 23 March 1984; pg. Itv central news catch up Times, Monday, 3 November 1986; pg. The Times, Tuesday, 21 April 1987; pg. The Times, Thursday, 23 March 1989; pg. The Times, Friday, 4 March 1994; pg. The Times Thursday, 16 May 1991; pg. All bids, sealed in an envelope. The Times, Monday, 29 December 1980; pg. The Times Thursday, 11 March 1982; pg. The Times London, EnglandThursday, 15 April 1982; pg. The Times, Saturday, 7 May 1983; pg. The Times London, EnglandSaturday, 28 May 1983; pg. The Times, Monday, 16 March 1987; pg. The Times London, EnglandFriday, 4 March 1994; pg. Martin Waller Deputy City Editor. The Times Tuesday, 30 November 1993; pg. The Times, Wednesday, 7 September 1994; pg. Archived from on 4 January 2012. Archived from on 27 January 2012. Pages contain video images of all the idents. Archived from on 20 December 2016. Archived from on 18 March 2012. Contains videos of the idents. The Times London, EnglandWednesday, 30 April 1986; pg. The Times London, EnglandWednesday, 26 November 1986; pg. By David Hewson Arts Correspondent. The Times, Wednesday, 1 August 1984; pg. Archived from on 4 March 2016.
