Granada Sky Broadcasting

[Humphrey Hacker]

I've been reading "The Dream That Died" by David Liddiment about Granada's fortunes from the 1980's onwards and in a reference to GSkyB he says that as well as the channels we did get (Plus, Men and Motors etc) there were also plans for the following

Granada Health, Granada Education and Citizen TV

Does anyone know anything about them?

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books...1906221836

[nwtv2003]

Those are channels I’ve never heard considered. But considering this was the mid 1990’s, every broadcaster seemed to want to expand to have a multi channel presence. The BBC wanted this and for it to be BBC branded, but because of the rules they had to compromise and UKTV was born.

I’m guessing in this case it was also whatever was deemed as viable for both Granada and Sky. Back in 1996 there wasn’t an infinite amount of space available, and Sky didn’t have exclusivity over Astra.

You could argue Granada Health did happen, but that was a joint venture between Granada and Boots, not Sky. This one I believe was On Digital only, as a result it didn’t hang around for long. I believe this one was ran from Kirkstall Road.

Whilst Granada Education never materialised, Granada still had an Education supply business at this point, as well as making Schools programmes on Channel 4. Whether a channel would have been viable, I don’t know.

Citizen TV isn’t clear, but it has elements of Talk TV which played big on viewer interactivity.

[Humphrey Hacker]

Those are channels I’ve never heard considered. But considering this was the mid 1990’s, every broadcaster seemed to want to expand to have a multi channel presence. The BBC wanted this and for it to be BBC branded, but because of the rules they had to compromise and UKTV was born.

I’m guessing in this case it was also whatever was deemed as viable for both Granada and Sky. Back in 1996 there wasn’t an infinite amount of space available, and Sky didn’t have exclusivity over Astra.

You could argue Granada Health did happen, but that was a joint venture between Granada and Boots, not Sky. This one I believe was On Digital only, as a result it didn’t hang around for long. I believe this one was ran from Kirkstall Road.

Whilst Granada Education never materialised, Granada still had an Education supply business at this point, as well as making Schools programmes on Channel 4. Whether a channel would have been viable, I don’t know.

Citizen TV isn’t clear, but it has elements of Talk TV which played big on viewer interactivity.

I never had On Digital so can't comment on Granada Health. Granada Education could have been an interesting station. I can see it being about practical education eg how to paint etc.

Citizen TV could simply be another name for Talk TV.

[nwtv2003]

I never had On Digital so can't comment on Granada Health. Granada Education could have been an interesting station. I can see it being about practical education eg how to paint etc.

Citizen TV could simply be another name for Talk TV.

I should have said the Granada/Boots venture was called Wellbeing. It was one of those ventures between TV and retail that never took off, such as Taste CFN (Carlton/Sainsburys) and Shop! (Granada/Littlewoods).

[AaronLancs]

I never had On Digital so can't comment on Granada Health. Granada Education could have been an interesting station. I can see it being about practical education eg how to paint etc.

Citizen TV could simply be another name for Talk TV.

I should have said the Granada/Boots venture was called Wellbeing. It was one of those ventures between TV and retail that never took off, such as Taste CFN (Carlton/Sainsburys) and Shop! (Granada/Littlewoods).

Hang on, I knew Shop! had Littlewoods' involvement but didn't know it had Granada involvement too.

[VMPhil]

Granada definitely made educational CD-ROMs that were used in schools. My school, at least.

[nwtv2003]

Hang on, I knew Shop! had Littlewoods' involvement but didn't know it had Granada involvement too.

Indeed, they used the Albert Dock studios in Liverpool for Shop!, which breathed new life into them not long after Granada News moved their main studio back to Manchester. I had it on tape a long time ago when they announced Shop! was going to close, it was more of a decision taken by Littlewoods, rather than Granada who seemed to be happy to keep it running. Sadly ITV moved out of the Albert Dock a few years after Shop! ended.

Talking about satellite ventures, I’m certain Granada had 33% control of MUTV at one time. (The other partners being Manchester United and Sky.) But their ownership didn’t last too long, as the station is now 100% controlled by United.

This was Granada don’t forget, they had their fingers in many pies back in the day. I was only reading recently outside of TV, for a few years they also owned the Camelot Theme Park at Charnock Richard in Lancashire.

[DJ Dave]

Yeah they did run Camelot, I remember going in year 7 with school and it was run by Granada then. It was all Sooty and Co themed etc, a few years later we went back after Granada had sold it and it was very poor tbh.

Like I said on TVF they also ran the School dinners in my school at one point under the Granada compass group I think it was called?

I remember a guy from Nynex coming round our street the day Granada Plus and Granada Goodlife etc launched to add them to the box.

[Andrew]

They famously used to own the motorway service stations that are now Moto as well.

I used to think it was quite apt that when travelling westbound on the M62 from Yorkshire, quite soon after entering Lancashire you’d be greated with Granada logos on display as you went past Birch services

The Granada and Compass mergers and demergers and all the various ownerships of various hospitality brands are very complicated, it’s all on Wikipedia. I think they owned Little Chef at one point, but then again who didn’t own Little Chef, they had a new owner every week, which is half the reason why they failed.

[Inspector Sands]

This was Granada don’t forget, they had their fingers in many pies back in the day. I was only reading recently outside of TV, for a few years they also owned the Camelot Theme Park at Charnock Richard in Lancashire.

Granada was always more than a TV company, and of course was around as a cinema company in the south long before it got the TV franchise in the north

It owned TV rental, motorway service stations, publishers, it only became solely a media company for a few years from when it merged and demerged from Compass in 2001 until it merged with Carlton to form ITV Plc

[Robertclark125]

Would Granada Health and Granada education have shared the same channel space, so education during the day, health at night?

[Inspector Sands]

Would Granada Health and Granada education have shared the same channel space, so education during the day, health at night?

Originally their Granada Good Life channel was actually lots of little sub channels time sharing throughout the day. They might well have been planned to be two of those.

Incidently a few moths ago I was involved in something t that was coming from the old Granada studios and one of them was referred to still as the 'Breeze Studio'

[James2001]

Yeah they did run Camelot, I remember going in year 7 with school and it was run by Granada then. It was all Sooty and Co themed etc, a few years later we went back after Granada had sold it and it was very poor tbh.

They ran The American Adventure too, another theme park which went to rack and ruin after they sold it on.

[nwtv2003]

Incidently a few moths ago I was involved in something t that was coming from the old Granada studios and one of them was referred to still as the 'Breeze Studio'

Given the extensive redevelopment of the old Granada Studios, I’m surprised the Breeze studio is still standing. From memory it was purposely built for Breeze, and then I think Granada used it for the odd regional programme, other than that as I say, I’m amazed it’s there still.

I’m sure GSkyB had office space in an old building opposite the studios, albeit on Atherton Street. However this was converted into a Hotel a long time ago.

[Inspector Sands]

Given the extensive redevelopment of the old Granada Studios, I’m surprised the Breeze studio is still standing. From memory it was purposely built for Breeze, and then I think Granada used it for the odd regional programme, other than that as I say, I’m amazed it’s there still.

Just looked it up and it's still there and hirable: https://manchesterstudios.co.uk/studios/breeze-studio/
I assume it got it's name from the channel.

I’m sure GSkyB had office space in an old building opposite the studios, albeit on Atherton Street. However this was converted into a Hotel a long time ago.

I remember having an interview for them in London and they were based in Hatfields, just round the corner from The London Studios (the road where TalkSport moved to a few years later, I don't know if it was the same building)