Associated British Corporation
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|
| Based in | Manchester, Birmingham, London |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
Midlands (weekends) North (weekends) |
| First airdate | 18 February 1956 in the Midlands 5 May 1956 in the North |
| Closed | 28 July 1968 |
| Replaced by |
ATV in the Midlands Granada Television in the North West Yorkshire Television in Yorkshire |
| Owned by | ABPC |
The Associated British Corporation (otherwise known as ABC Television) was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences. In this case, the parent company was the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), which initially did not wish to become involved with the new broadcasting system, but were persuaded to do so by the Independent Television Authority (ITA) and the manager of their Pathé News subsidiary Howard Thomas, who became the new company's managing director.
When Kemsley-Winnick, one of the consortia that had been awarded a franchise in the new Independent Television network in 1954 collapsed, the ITA approached ABPC to step into the breach. Accordingly, the Corporation agreed to assume the franchises to broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays to the Midlands and the North of England. The contract agreeing to do so was signed on 21 September 1955, the day before Independent Television (ITV) began in London.
This gave the new ABC five months to begin broadcasting in the Midlands, the service beginning on 18 February 1956. Soon afterwards, they were also up and running in the North - they began broadcasting there for the first time on 5 May 1956. They were aided in part by the failure of the original contractor; Kelmsley-Winnick had ordered over £1 million (equivalent to £23.7 million today) of production equipment from manufacturer Pye which they sold to ABC at a much discounted price.
Structural changes in the regional contract areas meant that ABC no longer had a contract to re-apply for. The Northern area (renamed Lancashire) became a seven-day operation as did the Midlands. Existing weekday contractors (Granada and ATV respectively) were correctly considered the favourites. ABC consequently submitted two applications: one for the service for London at the weekend, the other for the Midlands seven-day operation although they favoured the first contract.
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