Red Heart was a joint venture between the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

and

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 ...

between c. 1999 and 2001. It brought together all of its

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n parents' TV production resources, except those used for Seven's news and soaps. One theory states that Granada was looking to buy Seven's core, through it eventually owning 100% of Red Heart. Red Heart may have also eventually controlled Seven's news and soaps. This was a time when "content is king" was a popular idea. Australia's

Broadcasting Services Act 1992 The ''Broadcasting Services Act 1992'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, which broadly covers issues relating to content regulation and media ownership in Australia. The law stipulates what is political advertising and the speci ...

disallows foreign entities owning more than 15% of any TV station licence holder, but owning a company that provides a station with 100% of its content for 99% of its income is fine. (

CanWest Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place. It held radio, television broadcasting an ...

found another way around the law to own a majority stake of

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

). However, Granada decided to pull out of Red Heart when it realised it could make more money selling Australian programs to other Australian broadcasters than it would just supplying Seven. It has been rare to see Australian-made Granada programs on the screen.

References

* https://books.google.com/books?id=NUXIAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Red+Heart%22+granada+-yarn&pg=PA186 * https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/special-mip-tv-granada-shuts-red-heart-after-clash/1173431.article * http://www.c21media.net/granada-walks-away-from-red-heart/ * https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/apr/06/citynews.broadcasting * https://www.smh.com.au/news/business/vizard-finally-ends-long-time-at-the-top/2005/07/05/1120329446704.html * https://variety.com/2008/scene/news/itv-s-paul-jackson-exits-1117992326/ Joint ventures Television production companies of Australia {{Media-company-stub