Trident Television Limited was a British holding company with broadcasting interests. Trident acquired

Halas and Batchelor Halas and Batchelor was a British animation company founded by husband and wife John Halas and Joy Batchelor. Halas was a Hungarian émigré to the United Kingdom. The company had studios in London and Cainscross, in the Stroud District of Glouce ...

(well known for their cartoons),

Scarborough Zoo Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, s ...

Windsor Safari Park Windsor Safari Park was a popular family attraction built on St Leonard's Hill on the outskirts of the town of Windsor in Berkshire, England; it has since been converted into the site of Legoland Windsor. Billed as "The African Adventure", the ...

, Trident Casinos,

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, Watts & Cory Scenery, Victoria Casino, The Clermont Club, as well as Trident Holdings (Australia Pty Ltd) and several other companies.

History

Trident was set up in August 1970 to deal with the problem of fairly allocating commercial airtime from a television transmitter at

Bilsdale Bilsdale is a dale in the western part of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England. The head of the dale is at Hasty Bank, and the dale extends south to meet Rye Dale near Hawnby. The dale is the valley of the River Seph, formed wher ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

which straddled the catchment areas of two Independent Television (ITV) companies. The transmitter itself was owned by the

Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" ( ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA existed from 1954 un ...

(ITA), the governing body of ITV. Due to the geographical nature of the area it served, allocating the transmitter to either of the two closest broadcasting companies,

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

and

Tyne Tees Television ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from studios at a converte ...

, would have given one an advantage over the other in terms of selling commercial airtime. By October, the name "Trident" was chosen, while share holders in Yorkshire had agreed to the merger, with Yorkshire Chairman Sir Richard Graham becoming Trident chairman and Yorkshire Managing Director Ward Thomas becoming MD at Trident. Three other Yorkshire TT directors and Telefusions Mr Wilkinson, Mr James Hanson and made up the Trident board. The solution was to create a holding company for the selling of airtime in both television regions but with each company retaining its own separate identity and management control. The creation of the company created the second largest ITV sale area with 16%. Although Yorkshire had engaged in discussions with

Anglia Television ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

in early 1969 over shared use of

outside broadcast Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of television or radio programmes (typically to cover television news and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video camera a ...

units and regional offices as a cost-cutting measure, Anglia were never considered as potential partners for the new holding companies' interests. The third 'prong of the trident' therefore became the non-television interests of the company. However, in separate developments the Belmont transmitter was reallocated to Yorkshire in 1974. On 1 January 1974, a reverse takeover of both YTV and Tyne Tees was performed by Trident. Plans to rename the stations 'Trident Yorkshire' and 'Trident Tyne-Tees' were vetoed by 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 Author ...

, but it pre-tax profit rose to £2.76 million, with its profits raising to £4.82 million in 1976, and increase again to £7.355 million in 1977. In 1977, the group expand into other remits with the purchase of Windsor Safari park for £3 million, before it was sold on in 1984. In 1979, Trident Television launched an American-based New York headquarter distribution company Trident Television Associates, which is led by Elliot Abrams and Arthur Zeiger. It struck a deal with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

to sell 23 telemovies to the company for use in syndication.

Australian subsidiary

During 1975, Trident acquired Australia Pty Ltd, after helping creating Luke's Kingdom In August 1978, Group sold off its 77% stake in Australian subsidiary of Trident Television plc (Australia Pty Ltd), to Visionshire pty for £3.4 million. It was hinted during much of 1978 plans were afoot to sell the loss-making company on.

De-merger

In December 1980, both

and

had their contracts renewed but were forced to de-merge by the IBA.''Guardian'' Monday, 29 December 1980 p. 1 TV axed by Plowman The de-merger meant Trident's participation in ITV was effectively over. It continued to retain minority shareholdings in both companies which were eventually disposed of. Although it continued to receive rental funds from the studios and equipment leased to the two companies, it no longer earned funds from selling airtime. The company then moved into the leisure and gaming industries, owning (amongst others)

, several London casinos and, for a short while, a chain of betting shops. In 1982 it merged with the leisure and brewing giant

Grand Metropolitan Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to for ...

. In 1992, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees merged again, to create

Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television was a British broadcasting company, which is now part of ITV plc. History The company was created in June 1992 from the merger of the Independent Television broadcasters Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television ...

References

External links

Guide to channels on Astra satellites
{{Authority control Television broadcasting companies of the United Kingdom Television production companies of the United Kingdom Yorkshire Television Mass media companies established in 1970 Mass media companies disestablished in 1982 1970 establishments in the United Kingdom 1982 disestablishments in the United Kingdom