BBC and ITV rivalry
Andy Birkenhead
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Do you remember when there was so much rivalry between the BBC and ITV that they didn't even acknowledge each other ?
For example, a BBC talk show wouldn't have guests who appeared on ITV shows !
For example, a BBC talk show wouldn't have guests who appeared on ITV shows !
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I do remember one example at the turn of the century when then Eastenders actor Michael Greco was blocked by the BBC from appearing on Frank Skinner's chat show, which had recently moved to ITV from BBC.
Similarly in 2006, Gabby Logan - when at ITV - was offered a spot in Strictly Come Dancing, but ITV blocked her from competing in that and offered her Dancing On Ice, which she quite rightly refused (this was around the time ITV really peed her off and luckily for her BBC offered an escape route and she joined them the following year and appeared in that year's Strictly and to this day she is one of the BBC's - and the country's - top sports presenters. If ITV treated Logan - or any other female presenter - today like they did back then, it would go down like a lead balloon).
In the main, there's more acknowledgement; in the mornings for example, BBC Breakfast would have a guest on plugging a programme that they are starring in on ITV (or any other network) and vice versa on Good Morning Britain. Referring to either BBC or ITV as "the other side" is passé in this age of multiple broadcast networks with freelancers - especially in sports broadcasting - holding sway.
Up to that point, there was the Radio Times for BBC and TV Times for ITVC4.
That all changed in 1991 when that rule was relaxed and, not only could ITV listings appear in RT and vice versa but other TV listings mags were allowed for the first time.
Oh right
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/60236910
Going back to the (perceived) rivalry, I remember back last summer after the England v Ukraine Euro 2020 quarter-final live on BBC, I remember seeing a tweet by Gary Lineker saying something like "we now pass the baton on to ITV and the excellent Mark Pougatch; take us to the final chaps". So in some cases there is favourable acknowledgement from the corporation to ITV.
BBC Wales.supply quite a few key programmes for S4C so there is more of a connection between the channels than with ITV.
I don’t know what they are called, but I’m pretty sure ITV Wales also make one or two shows for S4C as well
That's correct.
True, I think both need to focus on their own niches now rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
When S4C opened in 1982, all Welsh language programming on BBC and HTV ceased, and most of it was transferred to S4C.
Then as now, BBC programmes are supplied free of charge to the channel (because they are funded by the licence fee).
In fact even before the deregulation of the TV listings, Radio Times carried details of the Welsh programming on S4C (but not the English stuff supplied by C4)
Today S4C have their play-out suite situated within the new BBC Central Square building
STV do Antiques Road Trip for the BBC as well as sop0me others.
Thames (though after they ceased being an ITV company) produced This is Your Life for the BBC in the 90s (Although it started life in the 50s and 60s as a BBC programme, (based on a US format))
The daily live daytime programme City Hospital in the 90s was a Meridian production for the BBC
ITN often provided the virtual studio facilities for Jeremy Vine's BBC election night antics
Wasn't Kilroy's Silk's morning 'discussion' programme a Thames production, or was it just produced using Teddington studios as the facility supplier ?
"One of the jobs I had [on Grandstand] after the racing was over... was to update the [football] scores. The trouble was, there was so much hatred of ITV at the BBC then - I'm not saying it's good, I'm not proud of it certainly, but I was very much part of it.
"We had the ITV monitor beside us - what ITV were showing. And in those days, the two big matches, ITV had going straight into their Thames headquarters. So ITV got the results first.
"I wouldn't put those results up, because ITV had shown them. It was ridiculous.
"Nobody was sitting with two televisions, thinking 'oh God, ITV have beaten the BBC' or anything like this. It was absolutely parochial, totally inconsiderate of the viewers themselves, what they wanted.
"The other ones I was flashing up... because we were faster. I was determined to be faster. I was shouting up at the gallery: 'here's the results, get them up, quick, please, hurry up!', and all that sort of thing, and they were fed up of this voice going on. But the big games, they weren't getting up-to-date scores! Can you believe that anyone had that attitude?
"If ever there was something really wrong... millions of viewers were watching, say the big rugby international on the BBC, and weren't getting flashed across the footy scores of the big two games."
S4C is available on the BBC iPlayer too.
One of the ITV companies, I think Granada, made What The Papers Say, although it had been on ITV for years then moving to Channel 4 before ending its TV run on BBC2.
It then moved to BBC Radio 4 but it's been a few years since it was last broadcast.
Yes, What The Papers Say was indeed a Granada programme. I don't think it was fully networked on ITV, Granada (obvs!) and Thames showed it. I don't recall Southern or TVS did?
Its move to C4 in Nov 1982 gave it national exposure for the first time (except I'm not sure S4C carried it?)
How come Channel 5 never picked up the rights to it?
Did Yorkshire, Central, LWT etc ever show it too?
Late night on Southern
Saturday lunchtime on S4C
You've clearly never actually have seen the programme !
And LWT wouldn't have shown it, (It was a Thursday night prog, (in the 60s, 70s and 80s)
Ta ! I don't remember it on Southern at all, (did TVS carry on with it ?)