Carlton was a British media company. It was led by
Michael P. Green
Michael Philip Green (born 2 December 1947) is an English businessman and psychotherapist, who is the owner of Tangent Communications. He was previously the chairman of Carlton Communications, until it merged with Granada to form ITV plc.
Early ...
and listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
from 1983 until 2 February 2004, when it was bought by
Granada plc
Granada plc (previously called Granada Ltd, Granada Group plc, and Granada Media plc) was a British conglomerate best known as the parent from 1954 to 2004 of the Manchester-based Granada Television.
The company merged with Carlton Communica ...
in a
corporate takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...
to form
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom.
ITV plc is listed on the ...
. Carlton shareholders gained approximately 32% of ITV plc.
As well as being the parent company of
Carlton Television
Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Televi ...
Limited it was also involved in several other media and broadcasting businesses and was a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...
.
History
Founding
In 1967 Michael Green established a printing and photo-processing company, ''Tangent Industries'', with his brother-in-law and his father-in-law (the future
Lord Wolfson). In 1982, Green bought Transvideo, renaming the company ''Carlton Television Studios''. A year later the name was changed to Carlton Communications when the company went public. Soon after, the Moving Picture Company (MPC), Europe's largest video facilities provider, joined Carlton in a joint venture to acquire the UK subsidiary of California's International Video Corporation, IVC UK Ltd. Carlton acquired MPC itself in July 1983 for £13 million, with Mike Luckwell as managing director of the enlarged company.
During 1985, ''Abekas Video Systems'' was purchased for £30m, helping to expand the company's operations in the field of video editing and allowing Carlton to produce projects as diverse as commercials, rock music videos, and corporate videos. (Abekas and its consolidation of IVC was sold to Scitex Corporation in 1992 for $52 million). Green valued strict financial controls to allow cash flow, so when new companies were acquired they used Carlton's accounting practices to enable easy consolidation. Carlton's consolidated gross profit reached £38.1 million in 1985, mostly coming from IVC, MPC, and Carlton Studios. Abekas results further enhanced the profits in the following year.
Green tried unsuccessfully to acquire a broadcasting station. He first tried for Thames (see below) before trying for
LWT
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...
. The
Independent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television (ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Authorit ...
(IBA) intervened, allowing Green only a 10 percent share. In response, Green sold his existing 5 percent share for £1 million. Carlton also failed to win the direct satellite broadcasting franchise (despite the fact that Carlton was already operating their own DBS system called "Skyscan"- and presumably continued offering the service until BSB launched in 1990), which went to
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with ...
(BSB). In March 1987, Carlton acquired a 20 per cent in
Central Television from Ladbrokes for £30million which finally gave Carlton its first stake in a terrestrial broadcasting company Bob Phillis became Carlton's representative on the board of directors, having previously worked for Central before joining Carlton as managing director. Carlton increased its portfolio of media companies with the acquisition of Zenith Productions for £7.3 million.
Carlton purchased Skyscan, the satellite dish manufacturer, in 1986. The company was sold on in 1988 because of slow sales and continuing delays in new start-up television services. Carlton's biggest acquisition of the decade came in October 1988, when it bought
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
for $780m, which led to Carlton becoming the world's largest producer of video cassette duplication and motion picture film processing, serving Hollywood studios and software companies. A year later, Carlton bought United Engineering Industries (UEI) plc for £580m, incorporating
Quantel
Quantel was a company based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1973 that designed and manufactured digital production equipment for the broadcast television, video production and motion picture industries. They were headquartered in Newbury, ...
and
Solid State Logic
Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound ...
, which designed and manufactured professional video and sound products. Carlton later disposed of Solid State Logic in 1999 and Quantel in 2000.
Carlton's most significant move was to outbid
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...
for the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
London weekday licence in 1991.
[ITV plc: History]
/ref> Previously, in 1985, Carlton had executed a failed take-over bid for Thames after Thorn EMI and British Electric Traction decided to sell its share of Thames. The deal was blocked by both Richard Dunn, chief executive of Thames, and by the IBA, which concluded "the proposal would lead to a major change in the nature and characteristic of a viable ITV programme company". Michael Green was left "bewildered", saying: "We are surprised at the IBA's decision. I'm absolutely certain it would not have been a major change to Thames. We have always suggested that we would make absolutely sure the company would continue to be what it is at this moment in time." IBA said it had nothing against Carlton owning part of an ITV company, but believed 'any' single ownership of an ITV company was undesirable.
Thames finally floated on the stock market in July 1986. A few days afterwards, speculation appeared that Carlton had attempted to buy a sizable number of shares. Michael Green, chairman of Carlton, was quoted as saying, "I can't possibly comment", but a Thames spokesperson said: "It does seem quite likely; however, no one shareholder can own more than 10% of our equity, so it's difficult to see what they might have in mind".
It has been said that Green talked to the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
on the matter, which in turn may have helped to shape the 1990 Parliamentary Act which replaced the IBA with the Independent Television Commission
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003.
History
The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...
and the change in franchise allocation procedures. Carlton Television had a policy of being a publisher-broadcaster, not producing any programmes of its own; even its news was outsourced to London News Network
London News Network (or LNN) was a television news, production and facilities organisation in London. It was created in 1992 as a joint operation between London's two ITV contractors, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television, with each c ...
. By 1994, the ITC had criticised the channel for its "poor network programming", and said further improvements could be made.
Acquisitions
In January 1992, Carlton strengthened its media library when it acquired Pickwick Video, which in turn was re-branded and merged with the existing Carlton library to create '' Carlton Visual Entertainment''. The company acquired a 20% stake in GMTV
GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...
a month after it won the ITV breakfast franchise 1991 and bought 18% stake in Independent Television News
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, ...
in 1993.[ Carlton increased its stake in Central Television to 81% in 1994][ and two years later added ]Westcountry Television
ITV Westcountry, formerly known as Westcountry Television and Carlton Westcountry, was the ITV franchise holder for the south west of England, covering Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, southern and western Somerset and western Dorset. The com ...
to its portfolio.[ The acquisition of Central made Carlton one of the largest television producers in the UK, when Action Time and ]Planet 24
Planet 24 is a television production company, which produced ''The Big Breakfast'' and '' The Word'' for Channel 4. It had an animation division called Impossible TV, founded in 1997.
History
Bob Geldof and Tony Boland (television producer) fou ...
were added to the company's holding.[Carlton Communications: History]
/ref>
The future Prime Minister, David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
was director of corporate affairs at Carlton from July 1994 to February 2001, his only venture into employment outside of the political world. Within six months the company expressed its concerns that the government "must allow ITV firms the commercial freedom already granted to the BBC to expand their businesses abroad" and that the restrictions of the Broadcasting Act 1990
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, initiated in part due to a 1989 European Council Directive (89/552), also known as the Television Without Frontiers directive. The aim of the Act was to liberalise and deregulate the B ...
should be replaced by normal competition policy, allowing further consolidation among ITV companies.
Carlton expanded its non-TV interests by acquiring the Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...
's film library as well as the cinema advertising company Cinema Media (formerly Rank Screen Advertising), the UK's largest cinema sales house at the time, from The Rank Group, renaming it Carlton Screen Advertising
Pearl & Dean Ireland, formerly known as Wide Eye Media, is the main cinema advertising company in Ireland. The company is owned by SGO Products Ltd and is a sister company to Pearl and Dean, the worlds longest established cinema advertising s ...
. In 1997, along with Granada and British Sky Broadcasting, Carlton bid successfully for the UK national digital terrestrial television licence. Sky was excluded from the eventual company, ONdigital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...
, for competition reasons, and this marked the start of Granada and Carlton working more closely together.
In early January 1999, the company bought the ITC television and film library from PolyGram/Seagram for £91 million, which reunited the programme library of Associated Television
Associated Television was the original name of the British broadcaster ATV, part of the Independent Television (ITV) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and ...
and Central Television and doubled the stock of its library division ''Carlton International'', by giving it a total of 15,000 hours of programming. Carlton chairman Michael Green said: "The ITC library is a jewel in the crown. We can now unite it with the other gems from Britain's film and television heritage in our excellent library." From September 1999, Central Broadcasting and Westcountry Television were re-branded as Carlton. This later paved the way for the eventual downgrading of all of ITV's regional identities, though the names were never fully dropped as their news programmes '' Central News'' and ''Westcountry Live
''Westcountry Live'' was the flagship regional news programme of ITV Westcountry, serving South West England.
History
The programme was first broadcast on Monday 4 January 1993 - four days after Westcountry Television took over the ITV regional ...
'' continued, and eventually returned to the air (albeit as ITV1 Central and ITV1 Westcountry) in 2004. In 2000, United Business & Media proposed a merger with Carlton. However, the parties were outmanoeuvred by Granada, which took over only the television interests of UNM (the rest of the company remains in existence). The broadcasting arm of HTV (though not the majority of its production operations) were sold to Carlton[ for competition reasons, becoming the company's final major acquisition.
In 1999, Technicolor continued expansion with the acquisitions of wholly owned businesses in Canada and Australia and started the development of digital cinema within two years. In 2001, Technicolor was sold to Thomson multimedia for $1.9bn and in 2002 ITV Digital (the renamed ONdigital) collapsed.
]
2003: Merger with Granada plc
In late 2003, Carlton and Granada
Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
finally agreed to merge. While described as a merger, it was essentially a take-over by Granada as its shareholders would own two-thirds of the new company, Charles Allen would become chief executive and Michael Green would leave the company he had built. After the merger, the Granada brand would remain in Granada Television and Granada Productions. In contrast, the Carlton franchises dropped the Carlton name for local programming from the day of the merger (2 February 2004) with the Carlton network production brand disappearing from 1 November 2004; even the London weekday franchise started trading as ITV1 London (Weekdays), and was operationally (though not legally) merged with London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...
as ITV London
ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ''ITV Broadcasting Limited'' for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is tra ...
. The Carlton brand continued being used by Carlton Screen Advertising (and then only in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) by Dermot Hanrahan and Claude Morgan inc until it was renamed Wide Eye Media
Pearl & Dean Ireland (formerly Wide Eye Media) is the main cinema advertising company in Ireland. The company is owned by SGO Products Ltd and is a sister company to Pearl and Dean, the worlds longest established cinema advertising sales compa ...
in 2014, ending the use of the Carlton name 10 years after the creation of ITV plc.Hanrahan acquires Carlton Screen Advertising from ITV
/ref>
References
{{Authority control
*
Mass media companies based in London
Technology companies established in 1982
Companies disestablished in 2004
1982 establishments in the United Kingdom
2004 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange