ITV Studios

ITV Studios Ltd
Subsidiary
Industry Television
Genre Television production
Founded 1954 (as Granada Productions)
Founder Granada Limited
Headquarters MediaCityUK, Greater Manchester,
The London Studios, London, New York, Los Angeles
Area served
 United Kingdom, USA, Germany, France, Australia, Nordics
Key people
 Kevin Lygo
(Managing Director)
Kieron Roberts
(Manchester ITV Studios)
Kate Bartlett
(London ITV Studios)
Mike Beale
(Director of International Formats)
Services Television programme production
Owner ITV plc
Website ITVstudios.com

ITV Studios is a television production company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It is primarily based in Greater Manchester and London in the United Kingdom. It was formerly ITV Productions, and originally Granada Productions (the in-house production arm of Granada Television).

History

ITV Studios Limited's history can be traced back to Granada Productions, which was founded in 1954 as Granada Television's in-house production arm, and Central Television Enterprises, Central Independent Television's international sales operations founded in 1987. Granada Productions and Carlton International (re-branded name for CTE) were merged in 2009 to form ITV Studios; however, some of ITV Studios' subsidiaries, such as ITV Studios Australia, still carried the Granada name until 2013.

ITV Studios not only makes programmes primarily for its parent company ITV plc, but also for other networks such as the BBC and Channel 4. It was formed from a gradual amalgamation of the production divisions of all ITV plc owned 'channel three' licensees which occurred from 1994 to 2004, and for a number of years thereafter following the creation of ITV plc.

The division is also responsible for ITV's production facilities The London Studios, 3SixtyMedia (based at ITV Granada, and co-owned with BBC Studios and Post Production), and location hire company ProVision (based at ITV Yorkshire, with sales offices at ITV Granada and The London Studios). ITV Studios Global Entertainment (formerly Granada International and Granada Ventures) is responsible for sales of finished programmes, formats and commercial licensing deals.

Programmes on non-ITV channels (except S4C, which has always used the name ITV Cymru) retained the Granada brand (examples are Channel 4's Countdown, and The Royle Family for the BBC) until 2009. Many of the programmes shown on ITV network show the end-board featuring the ITV Studios logo after the credits as of 2009.

Output

ITV Studios is a major commercial TV producer in the UK, creating over 3,500 hours of original programming each year across all genres except news. Its network programmes include Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Heartbeat, Marple and Agatha Christie's Poirot, Brainiac: Science Abuse, 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, Parkinson, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Tonight, The Jeremy Kyle Show and This Morning.

ITV Studios also produces programmes for other UK broadcasters outside of its own network. These include the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB. ITV Studios is based in London and Manchester, with the centre in Leeds now only home to Emmerdale and Shiver Productions (formerly Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television's then Granada Productions' northern features department). The production centres in Bristol and Norwich closed in 2006 and 2012 respectively. ITV Studios also owns So Television after acquiring Graham Norton's production company in 2012.[1] On 22 April 2013, ITV announced they had acquired production company The Garden for £18 million; which is best known for producing Channel 4 series 24 Hours in A&E.[2] In 2013, ITV launched a new production company named Potato.[3] 2016 sees ITV Studios secure a four-year British horse racing deal which will see the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National and Royal Ascot broadcast on the channel.[4]

Since 14 January 2013, the ITV logo has been added to the opening credits of the majority of ITV Studios-produced shows airing on ITV's channels, similar to the BBC.

Divisions of ITV Studios

In 2004, a duopoly had formed, and Granada owned six franchises, whilst Carlton Communications owned five. Granada bought a 64% controlling stake and took over Carlton in 2004 with the amalgamation of ITV. Consequently, programmes produced by all divisions were referred to as 'A Granada Manchester Production', 'A Granada London Production', etc., at the end of credits. ITV Studios comprises the network production divisions from its following predecessor companies:

* ITV Border and ITV Westcountry rarely contributed network programmes, so were largely unaffected by the creation of ITV Studios.

ITV Studios America

Co-based in Sherman Oaks, California and New York City, ITV Studios America produces programming primarily for US networks, such as: Fox's Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Sit Down, Shut Up, and Nanny 911; NBC's Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, the American version of their crime drama Prime Suspect, and Little Friends; CBS' Eleventh Hour; VH1's But Can They Sing? and Celebrity Fit Club; A&E's Airline, The First 48 and House of Dreams; and MTV's Room Raiders.

In 2006, Granada, in association with FremantleMedia North America, produced Gameshow Marathon, an American version of Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon for CBS.

Television movies from Granada and ITV Studios America include: Molly Shannon in 12 Days of Christmas Eve; Jason Priestley in Reality of Love; Farrah Fawcett in Hollywood Lives, based on Jackie Collins’ best selling novel; Anne Heche in Dead Will Tell; Melanie Griffith in Lethal Seduction; Jon Voight and Cary Elwes in Pope John Paul II (2005) Aidan Quinn and Mary-Louise Parker in Unexpected Journey; and Susan Sarandon in Ice Bound.

Until recently the Chief Executive Officer of ITV Studios was David Gyngell, son of the late Bruce Gyngell, the former managing director of former ITV breakfast franchisee TV-am and Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television.

The company was formerly Granada America but was re-branded in May 2009.[5]

ITV announced on 7 May 2014, the acquisition of Leftfield Entertainment Group, which produces shows such as Pawn Stars, Counting Cars and American Restoration. ITV has taken an 80% stake in the company initially, according to ITV this will make them "largest unscripted independent producer in the US"[6]

ITV Studios Australia

ITV Studios Australia is the Australian arm of ITV Studios, based at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney.[7] The company has its origins in production company Artist Services, a company formed in 1989 by a group of investors including Steve Vizard, producing many classic shows. Half of the company was sold to John Fairfax Holdings in 1995 for A$9 million, at a time when the company was generating about $50 million per year.[8] In 1998, the entire company was acquired by Granada for A$25 million.[9]

The company rebranded as ITV Studios Australia in January 2013, with the first program carrying the new branding being the second season of ABC comedy program Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell.[10][11]

ITV Studios Germany

ITV Studios Germany programmes include Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus! (the local version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!), Star Duell and Deutschlands Beste Doppelgänger (Stars And Their Doubles) for RTL; and East-West German comedy Ei Verbibbsch for Sat.1. ITV Studios Germany was previously known as Granada Germany.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment

ITV Studios Global Entertainment is the worldwide distributor of programming produced by Granada/ITV's production teams, as well as independent producers. Programmes include films like Brief Encounter, and the Carry On... films. Also a part of this collection is the ITC Entertainment feature film library, including The Eagle Has Landed, The Return of the Pink Panther, and On Golden Pond. ITV also owns the rights to the film catalogues of The Rank Organisation and Alexander Korda. These films are currently distributed theatrically by Park Circus.[12]

The television library features programming by most of the major ITV network companies (except for Thames Television which belongs to FremantleMedia; Television South (TVS) which currently belongs to Disney, and Southern which until recently belonged to Southern Star Entertainment); including titles such as Prime Suspect, Doctor Zhivago (2002 miniseries), The Forsyte Saga (2002), Inspector Morse and Agatha Christie's Poirot, plus children’s shows, TV movies (e.g. 2005's Pope John Paul II), wildlife documentaries, and other factual programming.

Independent productions distributed by ITV include programming produced by Wall to Wall: (Ancient Egyptians, The Story Of Us), Darlow Smithson Productions: (Seconds From Disaster), Wark Clements: (A Mother's Journey), Aardman Animations: (Creature Comforts), Ragdoll Productions: (Rosie and Jim, Tots TV), Optimum Television: (Old Bear Stories), Honeycomb Animation: (Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids), Chorion: (Agatha Christie's Marple and Poirot), Carnival Films: (Rosemary & Thyme), and Red Productions: (Bob and Rose, Second Coming).

The company also incorporates ITV Studios Home Entertainment, and a publishing and consumer licensing division, responsible for merchandising rights of ITV Productions and third-party programmes (including CBeebies' Numberjacks and Tweenies). Both have recently been merged in a restructuring of ITV's international arm, which saw the new entity firstly named ITV Worldwide and now ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

Awards and nominations

Year Association Category Nominee(s) Result
2017 Diversity in Media Awards TV Moment of the Year Loose Women Nominated

See also

Other owned studios, producing content for ITV:

The producer of famous programmes:

References

  1. ↑ "ITV buys Graham Norton's So Television in £17m deal". Hearst Magazines UK. DigitalSpy.co.uk. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "ITV buys The Garden, producers of '24 Hours in A&E', 'The Audience'". Hearst Magazines UK. DigitalSpy.co.uk. 22 April 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "ITVS creates new label for The Chase exec". Media Business Insight Limited. BroadcastNow.co.uk. 1 March 2013. Retrieved 26 June 2013. (subscription required)
  4. ↑ Obeng, Edward (4 January 2016). "ITV secures four-year racing deal". www.GamblingInsider.com. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Schneider, Michael (27 May 2009). "Granada America gets ITV rebrand". Variety. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  6. ↑ "ITV acquires Leftfield Entertainment Group". ITV plc. ITV.com. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  7. ↑ "Granada Media Australia announces it will be rebranded as ITV Studios". If.com.au. 11 November 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  8. ↑ "The life and times of Steve Vizard". The Age. Fairfax Media. 16 July 2005. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  9. ↑ "Look who's laughing now". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax. 16 July 2005. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  10. ↑ Knox, David (11 December 2012). "Granada Australia rebrands as ITV Studios Australia". TV Tonight. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  11. ↑ Hicks, Robin (11 December 2012). "Granada Media Australia rebrands as ITV Studios Australia". Mumbrella. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  12. ↑ http://www.parkcircus.com/latest/325_put_your_hands_together_for_itv
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