Granada Sky Broadcasting

[This is UTV]

Here are the idents and bumpers from the channels final era as PLUS.

https://vimeo.com/111727353

https://www.rosejamesdesign.com/granada-...nd-bumpers

By the time I got Sky Digital, this is the era of PLUS I remember, never got to see it as Granada Plus/G+/GPlus.

Regarding the final years of PLUS, I remember the idents as the orange background and the spinning around green +balls, but dont recall any of these animated characters?

Were these animated characters dropped towards the end in favour of the basic green +balls just spinning around etc (the +balls were also break bumpers but used as idents as well?)

Here's the type of PLUS continuity link I always remember from my era of watching PLUS

Break bumper at 0:13
Ident starts at 0:25
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W_KDJ_Dd3B...e=youtu.be

And a trailer for PLUS with the +balls animating how I remember them.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MtJjnep4wS...e=youtu.be


Heres another typical junction
Break bumper at 0:25
Ident starts at 0:37
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlpzIqO-gIg

[James2001]

I remember those characters, though I don't think they were particularly long lived. Interesting they were made in 16:9 seeing as they were never seen that way.

Edit: Actually, comparing it with the off-air recordings below, it looks like that first video is actually 4:3 cropped to 16:9.

[swaggyboi128]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

[Inspector Sands]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

Why is that notable? Granada was still at Quay Street in 2008

[nwtv2003]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

Why is that notable? Granada was still at Quay Street in 2008

I think it was because they still had the old ITV branding which had stopped two years prior to that. But Quay Street was hardly known for being up to date with branding. Notably the neon Granada TV sign in italics was on prominent display for half a century. The Stage One complex had the G Arrow on its clock tower long after it had stopped being used.

[WillPS]

https://youtu.be/qUbyTNqKE9M

The Plus closedown slide from Ntl cable which lasted many years after the closure of the channel.

Seems bizarre that was still running for several years, you'd think someone would notice the piece of equipment broadcasting the caption and the bandwidth it was taking up.

By this point the analogue platform was being unofficially wound down; when channels disappeared they were not replaced, so there was no immediate use for that bit of spectrum. As mentioned the channel allocation was removed from the set top boxes, and that card just continued to playout to whoever tuned in to it (in the Nottingham area).

As another example, the Sky channels which were removed in 2007/8 were not added back.

I believe the exceptions were the former BT Cable areas (Milton Keynes and Westminster) where the only service available was the analogue one right up to the end.

[WillPS]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

That slide wouldn't have originated from Quay Street, the clue being the ntl: logo. It was most likely originating from the headend at Diamond Plaza.

[Inspector Sands]

I think it was because they still had the old ITV branding which had stopped two years prior to that. But Quay Street was hardly known for being up to date with branding. Notably the neon Granada TV sign in italics was on prominent display for half a century. The Stage One complex had the G Arrow on its clock tower long after it had stopped being used.

It's not exactly unusual for a company to not update branding on purely functional signage at loading bays etc. As long as the content is still accurate it doesn't matter.

[swaggyboi128]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

That slide wouldn't have originated from Quay Street, the clue being the ntl: logo. It was most likely originating from the headend at Diamond Plaza.

I didn't say that Granada put up the slide. I said the slide was a Granada slide, as in it was a slide on a channel that had belonged to GSkyB. I knew it wouldn't have come from Quay Street anyway, as usually (like in this case) it's inserted by whoever's carrying the channel; even if it was on the Granada side, it would have come from TLS because ITV plc owned the channel, not ITV Granada.

[bluecortina2]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

That slide wouldn't have originated from Quay Street, the clue being the ntl: logo. It was most likely originating from the headend at Diamond Plaza.

I didn't say that Granada put up the slide. I said the slide was a Granada slide, as in it was a slide on a channel that had belonged to GSkyB. I knew it wouldn't have come from Quay Street anyway, as usually (like in this case) it's inserted by whoever's carrying the channel; even if it was on the Granada side, it would have come from TLS because ITV plc owned the channel, not ITV Granada.

For info, TLS had no involvement in the transmission side of GskyB.

[gottago]

And a trailer for PLUS with the +balls animating how I remember them.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MtJjnep4wS...e=youtu.be

Blimey that long promo is a bit on the lazy side. Like they've just chosen some timecodes at random and bunged them together.

Does anyone know if Plus and Men and Motors remained based in Manchester till the end?

[RegularCapital]

Does anyone know if Plus and Men and Motors remained based in Manchester till the end?

By the looks of things, by the end of Plus's life, it was already based in London.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/...v3-1127779

The Manchester Evening News article says "The channel, which employed a small staff in London, ceased broadcasting last night after eight years on air." No mention of any Manchester-based staff in the article, and if there were, it would've been mentioned as this is the MEN. Ignore the year on the article, that's obviously wrong, that was probably when the article was initially archived on the website.

From what I found on LinkedIn, towards the end, scheduling for Men and Motors was done at Leeds, continuity announcements were recorded in London.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethan-wilkin-61550731/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-booker...bdomain=uk

[WillPS]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

That slide wouldn't have originated from Quay Street, the clue being the ntl: logo. It was most likely originating from the headend at Diamond Plaza.

I didn't say that Granada put up the slide. I said the slide was a Granada slide, as in it was a slide on a channel that had belonged to GSkyB. I knew it wouldn't have come from Quay Street anyway, as usually (like in this case) it's inserted by whoever's carrying the channel; even if it was on the Granada side, it would have come from TLS because ITV plc owned the channel, not ITV Granada.

Even so, it clearly wasn't Granada's slide, it was NTL's slide advising of the channel's closure. The colours and fonts are all NTL's of the time, not GSB/Plus'.

[swaggyboi128]

Seems like Plus's shutdown slide wasn't the only old Granada thing left around (Quay St., 2008)

That slide wouldn't have originated from Quay Street, the clue being the ntl: logo. It was most likely originating from the headend at Diamond Plaza.

I didn't say that Granada put up the slide. I said the slide was a Granada slide, as in it was a slide on a channel that had belonged to GSkyB. I knew it wouldn't have come from Quay Street anyway, as usually (like in this case) it's inserted by whoever's carrying the channel; even if it was on the Granada side, it would have come from TLS because ITV plc owned the channel, not ITV Granada.

Even so, it clearly wasn't Granada's slide, it was NTL's slide advising of the channel's closure. The colours and fonts are all NTL's of the time, not GSB/Plus'.

... I know, what I meant is that it was a slide featuring a Granada service. I never said Granada made the slide.