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73-520: The Men Who Killed Kennedy began with two 50-minute segments originally aired on 25 October 1988 in the United Kingdom, entitled simply Part One and Part Two. The programmes were produced by Central Television for the ITV network, and was followed three weeks later with a studio discussion on the issues titled The Story Continues, chaired by broadcaster Peter Sissons . The original broadcast

146-426: A "primitive piece of conspiracy-mongering" and wrote that "the documentary's ever deepening mess of charges and motives is never less than clear about its main point—that Lyndon Johnson personally arranged the murder not only of the president, but also seven other people, including his own sister." In a letter to the chief executives of the three parent companies of A&E Networks – Victor F. Ganzi of

219-584: A "studio crucifixion" of Turner and his inaccuracies. The United States corporation, Arts & Entertainment Company, purchased the rights to the original two segments. In 1989, the series was nominated for a Flaherty Documentary Award . In November 1991, the series was re-edited with additional material and divided into three 50-minute programmes, which were also shown by ITV on consecutive nights. An additional episode appeared in 1995. The series typically aired in November every year and from time to time during

292-534: A 20% stake, won the franchise to serve the South and South East of England. Post-1993, the company's ITV network presence was further strengthened when it took over commissioning, presentation and compliance responsibility for a number of continuing Thames Television productions, such as Count Duckula , The Tomorrow People , This Is Your Life , Des O'Connor Tonight , Mr. Bean , Minder , Strike It Lucky and Wish You Were Here . By April 1993, with

365-496: A bullet fired through it from the front, and discrepancies between observations made by the doctors who treated Kennedy at Parkland Hospital after the shooting and the official autopsy and photographs of the president's body which were cited by the Warren Commission. "The Love Affair" focuses on the claims that Judyth Vary Baker was Lee Harvey Oswald 's lover in 1963, and that she worked with Oswald and others to develop

438-598: A cancer-causing biological weapon as part of a CIA plan to assassinate Fidel Castro. The third of these additional segments – "The Guilty Men" – was based substantially on the book Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K. by Barr McClellan . The book and the episode directly implicate Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) – who was the U.S. Vice President at the time of the assassination – and its airing in 2003 created an outcry among Johnson's surviving associates, including Johnson's widow, Lady Bird Johnson , former LBJ aides Bill Moyers and Jack Valenti (longtime president of

511-515: A few animated end captions in ITV’s history, a few months after pre-programme ITV idents were dropped. 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 symbol, nicknamed "The Aspirin", or more popularly The Cake , would have

584-604: A four-part series directed by Ken Loach about trade unions' responses to government actions. The IBA was concerned it breached balance guidelines, while the unions criticised it as defamatory. Even after several re-edits, the series was never transmitted, which was described as political censorship. Central also played a major role in the ITV network's infrastructure – not only producing children's and schools programming, but also providing scheduling and presentation services with its dedicated Children's ITV and ITV Schools ' strands –

657-560: A full-time ITV1 identity. Before regional programmes, the logo 'ITV1 Carlton' was used, until late 2003, when they were known as 'ITV1 for Central England'. 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. It would then be known as just ITV1 at all times. The Carlton brand continued to be seen on production captions until February 2004, with

730-652: A long delay for the promised separate news service for the East Midlands until September 1983. The Nottingham studio complex finally opened in January 1984, followed by an official opening by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , on 2 March 1984. Five years later, Central opened a computerized news centre in Abingdon for the launch of its third sub-region, serving the South Midlands. Central News South

803-531: 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 the period when the company had also served London at the weekends until 1968. Its corporate headquarters were in Central London. ATV attempted to address its problem in 1980 as part of its franchise reapplication; with plans for

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876-496: 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 percent 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

949-401: 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." Having been one of the first fully computerised news programmes, Central News South was again a pioneer of new technology when, in

1022-474: 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. 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

1095-480: A program aired April 7, 2004, titled "The Guilty Man: A Historical Review", the panel agreed that the documentary was not credible and should not have aired. The History Channel issued a statement saying, in part, "The History Channel recognizes that 'The Guilty Men' failed to offer viewers context and perspective, and fell short of the high standards that the network sets for itself. The History Channel apologized to its viewers and to Mrs. Johnson and her family for airing

1168-453: A regional news provider by becoming the first British television station to offer three distinct services for different parts of the transmission area. It was also 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 The Cook Report and the long-running debate show Central Weekend , which ran for 15 years in

1241-645: A second major facility in the area (to be based in Nottingham ) and as part of the Independent Broadcasting Authority 's plan for the contract to provide separate news coverage for both the East Midlands 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

1314-537: A terrestrial broadcasting company, after a bid to buy Thames Television was blocked by the IBA two years beforehand. 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. Network programmes were now classed as Carlton UK Productions and around 140 jobs were lost from

1387-470: A variety of form ups, mainly involved with bringing the segments together or applying the colour to the symbol. The soundtrack was the same composition, but played in a variety of different ways. On 25 April 1987, a new promotional package was introduced with a new slogan Let's Get Together in 1988. Central also adopted the ITV 1989 generic look as another ident to use alongside the Cake . The generic ident

1460-428: Is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited . Historically Central made a major contribution to the ITV network schedule – especially in entertainment and drama – but today its main responsibility is the regional news service. During the 1970s ATV , the previous Midlands licence holder, was often criticised for its lack of regional output and character. Although ATV had purpose-built

1533-558: The Hearst Corporation , Michael D. Eisner of Disney , and Robert C. Wright of NBC  – former United States President Gerald Ford described the allegations as "the most damaging accusations ever made against a former vice president and president in American history." The first two episodes were followed by "The Story Continues" (16 November 1988), a critical studio discussion about them. The final episode

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1606-628: The Motion Picture Association of America ), as well as U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford – who was the last living Warren Commission member – and Jimmy Carter . These Johnson supporters lodged complaints of libel with the History Channel, and subsequently threatened legal action against Arts & Entertainment Company, owner of the History Channel. The History Channel responded by assembling a panel of three historians, Robert Dallek , Stanley Kutler , and Thomas Sugrue . On

1679-423: The colour spectrum appearing to its left hand side. This ident was dropped locally in 1985, but remained on the front and end of networked programmes until August 1988. Although the symbol is well known as the "globe", Russ J Graham of Transdiffusion said the ident passes through several stages that make the viewer wonder "what is it?", before "revealing nothing", noting he thought of it as an egg , but noted it

1752-434: 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 ". On 5 April 2005, it

1825-428: The 22% stake was sold in November 1991 to United Artists Cable International (formerly a subsidiary of United Artists Theatres, the parent company now a division of Regal Entertainment Group , and the former cable company merged into TCI , the predecessor of Liberty Media ). A few months later, Central became the first ITV station to broadcast its own overnight service, including short news bulletins, imported output and

1898-570: The BBC) and the multi award-winning Spitting Image , drama series Boon and game shows such as The Price is Right and Blockbusters . Perhaps the station's most successful drama title was its adaptations of the Inspector Morse novels, produced by its subsidiary Zenith Productions . Central also produced the critically acclaimed film Walter – starring Ian McKellen – for Channel 4 's first night of transmission. Less successful

1971-636: The Executive Office of the President from 1975 to 1981 sued A&E regarding the episode "The Smoking Guns", which claims Liggett was involved in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Liggett and A&E reached a settlement which required that a letter by Liggett be read on the show History Center . David Browne of Entertainment Weekly described the documentary as "well-researched, but still farfetched". Addressing "The Guilty Men" episode, Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal called it

2044-828: 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. By January 1983, 167 staff had bought 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. In May 1983, ACC finally sold off its stake in Central; Sears Holdings purchased 20%, 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. In March 1987, Carlton Communications acquired 20 percent of Central from Ladbrokes for £30million which finally gave Carlton its first stake in

2117-438: The IBA insisted that ATV change its company name, to show that it was a substantially new company due to the requirement for a dual region. The station began transmitting at 9:25 am on Friday 1 January 1982 with an authority announcement by duty announcer Su Evans, followed by an extended five-minute promo entitled Welcome to Central , voiced by Peter Wheeler , previewing the company's network and regional programming, and

2190-419: The ITV logo. The cake lasted 13 years before being replaced on 27 April 1998, by adapting a version of the idents that had been used by Carlton since 25 November 1996. This featured the name Central in the font Gill Sans 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

2263-634: The Midlands on Friday nights. The programme was also the first on British television to examine seriously the AIDS virus, leading to a drama series on the topic, called Intimate Contact . 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 ,

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2336-581: The Spring of 2001, state-of-the-art Quantel digital video servers and edit suites were installed, along with a complete re-fit of camera and VTR equipment, placing Central South at the forefront of digital news-gathering in regional news. In February 2004, ITV plc announced plans to close and sell the Lenton Lane production centre in Nottingham with over 350 jobs being axed in the process Following

2409-519: 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. Although the IBA required 49% of the new station to be owned locally by companies and individuals, 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

2482-481: The allegations revealed they were "total nonsense". Turner justified his failure to interview one of the accused on the grounds that the individual was "too dangerous". Turner was censured by the British Parliament . The Independent Broadcasting Authority forced Central Television to produce a third episode dedicated to the false allegations, which aired on November 16, 1988, which was later referred to as

2555-662: The announcements that featured with idents used the name "Carlton for the Central Region" and separate continuity was retained. On 11 August 2001, the ITV1 brand was formed in which replaced the 'ITV' on the Carlton idents. As the ITV1 idents began to be used on their own more and more, and Carlton and Granada owned all the franchises in England and Wales, Carlton and Granada decided to axe regional branding, and replace it with

2628-465: The caption A Carlton Production or A Carlton Production for Central England being used. This was replaced, following the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications to form ITV plc , with an ITV regional logo featuring the word Central below the ITV logo with the caption ‘An ITV Production’. Today, the majority of productions have been moved away from the Midlands region, and any productions are accredited to ITV Studios . On 14 January 2013,

2701-539: 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 University of Nottingham and is known as ' King's Meadow Campus '. It still maintains one Studio (Studio 7), and this is rented out to television and film companies, generating income for

2774-508: The company before deciding to discontinue its production business in 1994, leaving Zodiac to become a distributor. Also in 1989, 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. 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

2847-663: The company buy the Korda Film Library in 1986. In January 1987, Central acquired the European division of the American production company FilmFair for £1.5million, which went on to produce several of the station's networked children's series before being sold onto the Storm Group (Caspian) in 1991. On the same day, Central bought a stake in Starstream, who co-founded and operated The Children's Channel –

2920-417: The company's key international distributor of programming, would later represent output sales for Carlton Communications (for its television channel program- HTV , Meridian and Carlton ), 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

2993-484: The downgraded Birmingham operation. 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

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3066-519: 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 BBC East Midlands Today . 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. Shortly afterward, Zenith Productions

3139-617: The eastern half of the area merging with Meridian's North region to form an ITV Thames Valley region. At the same time, ITV West 's broadcast footprint was expanded to cover North Gloucestershire from the West's Bristol studios, while Herefordshire and Ludlow re-joined Central News West from Birmingham . While all Thames Valley news programmes were broadcast from Meridian's studios in Whiteley in Hampshire, Central's former Abingdon base

3212-445: The former Thames Valley region, plans were approved for a ten-minute opt out within the 6 pm edition of ITV News Meridian for the south of England. Upon launch, Central's on screen presentation featured a sphere (which resembled a moon or a total eclipse) which would burst open with light, before reforming, accompanied by a light jingle, but was dropped and revised during 1983, so the moon ident would just appear of darkness with

3285-478: The heart, engulfing the screen, and showing the endboard, which featured a background of spinning stars in different colours with the brand name centre screen above an ITV logo. 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. These idents only featured the Carlton name on screen but

3358-464: The interior of the building. 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 '22 Gas Street'. Central currently operates two sub-regions: 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

3431-942: The latter moving to Channel 4 in 1987. With the creation of a dedicated ITV Sport network unit, Central also played a significant part in networked sports output under the leadership of Gary Newbon . The station produced nearly all of ITV's football coverage for over a decade – including the FA Cup , UEFA Champions' League , the FIFA World Cup , the UEFA European Championship and Premier League highlights, as well as extensive live regional coverage of Football League matches involving Midlands clubs in The Central Match . The station also played its part in coverage of key European athletics meetings and world championship boxing with The Big Fight Live as

3504-908: 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 and April 1989. 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,

3577-404: 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 after Meridian , a consortium in which Central held

3650-501: The outskirts of Nottingham. A temporary radio link from Giltbrook to the Waltham transmitter via BT Bowman/Sheriff (Nottingham) Telephone Exchange provided the contribution feed into the studio/transmission network. The Nottingham studios were to be staffed by employees originally based at Elstree (in the studio complex that became BBC Elstree), which led to many problems due to the relocation, including industrial action, which resulted in

3723-420: The remainder were never transmitted. Central also formed numerous international partnerships to produce major drama and documentary series – including Legacy of Civilization with Maryland Public Television , Nuclear Age with WGBH-TV (another key PBS affiliate) and NHK and Edens Lost (1989) with ABC . In the field of news and current affairs, Central had enhanced and bettered on ATV's reputation as

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3796-581: The schedule for the first day of transmission. 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. There were few differences between the East and West sub-regions, but each had its own news service, advertisements, and during

3869-585: The show." The channel said it would not show the episode again. Author Barr McClellan , on whose work the episode was largely based, complained that he had tried to cooperate with the reviewing historians to discuss his evidence with them and had been ignored. Malcolm Liggett, a retired economics professor, labor economist at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and employee of the Office for Wage and Price Stability in

3942-419: The station began broadcasting, Australian entrepreneur Robert Holmes à 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. By March, a rival bid from Gerald Ronson's Heron Corporation also entered the race to takeover ACC. In April 1982, ACC was taken-over by Holmes à Court, with

4015-451: The station's on-air identity reverted to ITV , along with all other ITV plc-owned franchises. Taking over from ATV as one of the ' Big Five ' of ITV companies, Central performed strongly on networked output, carrying on several ATV shows, most notably the soap-opera Crossroads and game shows including Bullseye and Family Fortunes . Original programming included comedy series such as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (more recently revived by

4088-484: The studios, and the programmes that were made there by Central, and predecessor ATV. The five-part documentary, produced by ATVLAND Productions, was followed up in November 2012 by From Headlines to Tight Lines , a DVD on the history of the regional news magazine programme ATV Today . ITV have since also sold the Gas Street office building to Cube Real Estate, a commercial property developer, which has refurbished

4161-694: The university. In October 2004, ITV plc closed Central's presentation/transmission department and moved transmission to the Northern Transmission Centre in Leeds . Although there was heavy opposition, the role of presentation and transmission at Birmingham had been significantly reduced after network presentation was centralised to LNN in London in 2002 and so there was an inevitability that this function would be moved out. CITV (Children's ITV), which had been presented by Central since 1983,

4234-409: The word being part of a larger scene, such as a cross word of place names in the region. The look was retired on 5 September 1999. Central adopted the Carlton 'Star' branding on 6 September 1999, shortly before much of the network adopted the second generic look under the theme of 'Hearts'. The Carlton idents featured an opening film featuring a heart at the end, before a star shaped light came from

4307-543: The year. In November 2003, three additional segments ("The Final Chapter") were added by the History Channel , entitled, respectively, "The Smoking Guns", "The Love Affair" and "The Guilty Men". "The Smoking Guns" examines claims of changes to the procedures normally followed by the Secret Service on the day of the assassination, bullet damage to the windshield of the president's limousine consistent with

4380-708: Was also re-homed to Granada 's studios in Manchester , with all content pre-recorded and with out-of vision presentation. A documentary about the Broad Street studios was later released on DVD in October 2011. Entitled 'From ATVLand in Colour' (referring to the nickname used on Tiswas, and the building being purpose-built by ATV for colour broadcasting), the documentary featured presenters, actors, announcers and behind-the-scenes staff talking about their time working in

4453-452: Was apparently based on a UFO hovering over the Midlands. On 28 August 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. It did not appear as a pre-programme front ident on network programming from Central, however, it having only been adopted for branding network programmes in April 1988, it began to be used as one of only

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4526-684: Was broadcast from the Abingdon studios, supplemented by news bureaux in Aylesbury, Gloucester and Swindon. 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 CITV . In 1994, Central's new owners Carlton acquired land on nearby Gas Street to begin work on building

4599-642: Was controversial in Britain. The episodes identify three men as the assassins of Kennedy: deceased drug trafficker Lucien Sarti and two living men (Roger Bocagnani and Sauveur Pironti). All three were later revealed to have strong alibis: Sarti was undergoing medical treatment in France, another was in prison at the time, and the third had been in the French Navy . One of the two living men threatened to sue, and Central Television's own subsequent investigation into

4672-576: 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. The formation of Zenith Productions on 3 April 1984 allowed the company to exploit markets outside of the US and UK, similarly to how Thames operated its Euston Films subsidiary. Central's interests in onscreen fiction saw

4745-522: Was followed by a critical review, "The Guilty Men: A Historical Review." (7 April 2004). ITV Central ITV Central , previously known as Central Independent Television , Carlton Central , ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central , is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands . It was created following the restructuring of ATV and began broadcasting on 1 January 1982. The service

4818-473: Was formally transferred to the Meridian region when the regional licence was renewed in 2014. On 23 July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved by Ofcom – ITV News Central extended the East and West opt-out services from six minutes to twenty minutes during the half-hour 6 pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two sub-regions. In

4891-408: Was introduced on 1 January 1997, in which the cake became more abstract with both more advanced computer graphics used and more live action models & sequences (including a physical neon sign version). From 19 January 1998, the channel started to be called ‘Central ITV’ during continuity announcements, although on screen it was just branded ‘Central’; trailers for programmes were now branded with

4964-592: 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 West), carrying its own news service and local advertisements. The Central South region was disbanded in December 2006 after 17 years in operation – with

5037-523: Was one of Central's first networked contributions – the Tiswas spin-off O.T.T. , which 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 Saturday Stayback . The company also attracted ire with the 1987 sitcom Hardwicke House (starring Roy Kinnear ) about an anarchic comprehensive school. The first two episodes received so much public condemnation that

5110-509: 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'. Up until the studios were opened, Central's East Midlands operations were based on an industrial estate at Giltbrook , near Eastwood on

5183-567: 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 included a short six-minute opt out within the 6 pm programme and separate late night bulletins for the two areas. In the former Central South area, ITV's Thames Valley operations were fully merged with those in Meridian's South sub-region and its former territory – including Oxfordshire, Swindon and Buckinghamshire –

5256-406: 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. On 15 July 2008, the station was fined £25,000 for contempt of court. Initially, Central inherited ATV's Broad Street studios, ATV Centre , which

5329-539: Was used in its raw form, along with altered music, and as part of another ident giving greater emphasis to the cake , and was only used into the ITN News. Between 1985 and 1997, well over 10,000 different sequences were made by Central's Presentation team in Birmingham, including break bumpers, idents, "next" animations and trail designs, which give the channel a wider range of presentation than any other British television station. The last batch of Cake idents to be created

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