Launch In May 1960, the
Independent Television Authority (ITA) invited applicants to provide the ITV service for the
Borders region – an area that covered the English counties of
Westmorland and
Cumberland, the south of Scotland and later, the
Isle of Man. Prior to this, the ITA had moved away from the idea of
satellite stations (companies owned by distant management as seen with
Southern Television in the south of England) towards companies that had strong local ownership. The contract covered two new transmitters at
Caldbeck, near
Carlisle and
Selkirk, near
Saint Boswells in the
Scottish Borders. Meanwhile, a 15-minute music show,
The Sound of ..., was seen across several ITV regions and featured
The Spinners, British
folk music band
The Settlers and other similar artists. Financial and industrial problems began to hit the company during the 1970s – a fall in net profits to just £13,587, led to job losses and a cut in programme production in September 1975. In November 1978, a dispute with the ACTT (
Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians) led to 40 staff at the Durranhill studios being locked out for three weeks by management – several members of staff resorted to a sit in until the strike ended in stalemate and compromise. By 1980, Border was again in severe financial trouble owing to a national economic downturn which affected advertising revenue on the whole ITV network, with the station losing £70,000 before tax in October 1981. The situation was deemed so serious that at one point the company considered not re-applying for its licence when it expired in December 1981 – though it proved successful, as it did in July 1967 and October 1991. From January 1982, Border began broadcasting to south Cumbria from the Kendal transmitter, which previously carried Granada. Border had lobbied the IBA for over a decade to serve the southern Lake District – a move backed by Cumbria County Council. On the Isle of Man, officials voiced a preference to switch signals to Granada, citing inclusion in regional news coverage would benefit the tourism industry, with direct ferry links from Liverpool and Heysham. The dispute led to several members of management resigning – with Jim Graham moving from the BBC to become managing director and Paul Corley joining as director of programming. Graham and Corley began to transform Border by targeting a greater presence on the ITV network, despite the company's weak financial position. Graham hired Melvyn Bragg to present new programming. The launch of Channel 4 in 1982 also bolstered Border's network portfolio – providing extra finance for many of the new programmes being produced from the Carlisle studios (themselves being expanded) and commissioning to make a number of programmes, most notably
Land of the Lakes (presented by
Melvyn Bragg), a music show entitled
Bliss (hosted by
Muriel Gray) and Border's very first sitcom,
The Groovy Fellers with
Jools Holland and
Rowland Rivron. produced in conjunction with
Tyne Tees Television, and others. Melvyn Bragg became deputy chairman of Border Television in 1985 and its chairman in 1990. In 1996, he left the post In August 2000, Border began to use the opt-out service to provide split coverage of sports and occasional political programming. The station also opened an Edinburgh bureau to provide coverage of the
Scottish Parliament. By May 1995, Grampian had bought out Border's stake in the company. Border's second venture was Century Radio, conceived as the second regional station for North East England, on 1 September 1994, with John Myers (a former continuity announcer) as managing director and John Simons as programming director. During the rest of the 1990s, Border launched an additional Century radio station in Manchester while holding interests in a number of other stations including Sun FM in Sunderland and Cumbria's CFM Radio, and in 1997 formed a subsidiary, Border Radio Holdings, for its radio business. In March 2000, a takeover battle broke out between
Capital Radio and
Scottish Radio Holdings for Border – the latter went on to state that Border's ongoing status as a truly independent media business was no longer
a realistic option in a consolidating industry. By April,
Capital Radio had purchased the company and the following year sold Border's television assets to
Granada Media Group for £50.5 million. Rumours over its future persistently dogged Border and it trod a difficult path to balance the interests of three different nations. As with many of the other ITV regional stations, a steady reduction in the range and quantity of its output continued its decline. In July 2006, it was announced that the
Berwick-upon-Tweed transmitter was to transfer to
Tyne Tees as part of the preparations for the digital switchover of the Border region in 2008, and to bring Berwick into line with the rest of the North East which was scheduled to switch over to digital in 2012. The transfer took effect from 13 December 2006, although Border news programmes still carry stories about Berwick-upon-Tweed due to its proximity to the eastern
Scottish Borders.
Merger In 2008, the United Kingdom began its five-year programme to cease
analogue television broadcasts as part of the switchover to
Digital television starting with Border. Towards the end of his tenure as ITV plc executive chairman,
Michael Grade began dismantling the ITV regional layout, arguing the existence of ITV Border "no longer makes sense" relative to the regional audience it serves. On 12 September 2007, Grade announced plans to close ITV Border and merge the region with ITV Tyne Tees. On 25 September 2008, Ofcom gave ITV the go ahead to merge the Border and Tyne Tees operations from early in 2009. Following a survey of Isle of Man viewers in autumn 2008, coverage of the
Isle of Man was transferred from ITV Border to
ITV Granada on Thursday 16 July 2009. ITV Border's own regional news service ceased production on Tuesday 24 February 2009, replaced by a dual-regional service the next day. The sub-regional service for southern Scotland was also closed. The main ITV Border newsroom is now based in the Kingstown area of Carlisle with reporters living and working in Carlisle, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Kendal, Selkirk and Whitehaven. ITV Border won the RTS awards for
Best News Programme: Nations and Regions for
Lookaround, whilst
ITV Tyne Tees & Border was nominated in three categories in February 2011.
Restoring a full regional service On 23 July 2013, proposals to reintroduce a full service of news and regional programmes for the ITV Border region were approved by
OFCOM. In September 2013,
Lookaround was restored as a full half-hour programme on weekdays with shorter daytime and weekend bulletins reintroduced during the month. The programme continues to be broadcast from Gateshead with extra journalists recruited for newsgathering in the Border region, including a Scottish political editor in Edinburgh, a sports correspondent and district reporters. ITV Border was also required to reopen its former opt-out service for southern Scotland, previously used to broadcast split news bulletins and select
STV programming. A minimum of 90 minutes a week of bespoke local programming is broadcast on ITV Border Scotland while viewers in Cumbria continue to receive network output. The opt-out service was launched on Monday 6 January 2014 and initially broadcast over Freeview only, with programmes also available on the ITV Border website. ==Studios==