Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licenses to broadcast on the ITV network from 1955 until 31 December 1981. ATV began broadcasting in its own right on Saturday 24 September 1955 (after jointly presenting the network's opening night on Thursday 22 September). The name ATV was first seen in London on Saturday 8 October 1955. The company had won two ITV contracts, the weekend contract for London and the Monday–Friday contract for the Midlands. The latter service opened on 17 February 1956, with, ironically, ABC providing the weekend programmes. During the 1970s ATV had received much criticism over its lack of local programming, particularly for the east of its region; such critics held that any local shows had a Birmingham-centric focus. In 1981 the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) decided that ATV's lack of regional programming and production (it had a major studio centre at Elstree in Hertfordshire, a legacy of its London contract and well outside of its Midlands franchise) was hampering the region, so it insisted that the new applicant for the franchise be more clearly based in the region and have separate facilities for the East and West Midlands. Central took over the franchise on New Years Day 1982.
1955 - 1959
The first ident from ATV, featuring that soon to be familiar logo.
This ident was used to promote the fact that back in the days, ATV broadcast to the Midlands during the week and London during the weekend.
1959 - 1964
The first version of the infamous "Zoom" ident. This would have stayed on-screen until colour television arrived in the Midlands...
1969 - 1982
Possibly the most popular television ident in history, purely because of the animation, which was state-of-the-art at the time. This ident was to be the last version of the ATV idents, as in 1982, the company re-named themselves Central, and television presentation was about to change forever...
