Trident Television: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 02:29, 20 April 2024

Background

Trident Television was a British holding company with broadcasting interests. It was created in August 1970 to deal with the issue of fairly allocating commercial airtime at the Bilsdale Transmitter in North Yorkshire. Allocating it to either of the two closest broadcasting companies, Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television, would have given one an unfair advantage over the other when it came to commercial airtime sales. The solution was to create a holding company for the selling of airtime in both television regions, which is what Trident became.

Trident executed a reverse takeover of both Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television in 1974, and initially planned to rename both under the Trident brand. This was, however, vetoed by the IBA.

The third prong of the Trident was long rumoured to be Trident's attempt to buy Anglia Television, potentially stemming from Yorkshire Television discussing cost cutting measures with Anglia Television in early 1969, which would have given the 2 companies shared use of outside broadcast units and regional offices. This was not the case however, with Anglia not even being considered as potential partners in Trident's interests. The third prong instead was focused on the company's non-broadcasting interests.

It also started US-based Trident Television Associates in 1979 to syndicate 23 of CBS' telemovies.

In December 1980, Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television were forced to demerge as a condition of their ITV contract renewals. This effectively ended Trident's participation in ITV, with them disposing of their remaining shares in the company shortly after. Despite this, they continued to receive rental funds from the studios and equipment leased to the companies.

Trident eventually merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1982.

Logo (1975-1977)

Opening Variant
Closing Variant
"Luke's Kingdom" Variant

Opening Variant

Closing Variant

"Luke's Kingdom" Variant

Visuals:

Opening: On a black background, there is the text on the left reading "trident colour television", alongside a Trident-shaped object on the right. The Trident is split by its prongs, with each prong coloured blue, red and green respectively. It is shaped so that it resembles the letter "T".
Closing: There is the same Trident symbol from the opening logo on the left, and on the right is the text "trident colour television production". Below it is a copyright date.

Variant: On Luke's Kingdom, the symbol is larger and the text is yellow.

Technique: A printed image filmed by a camera.

Audio:

Opening: The same bombastic 5-note horn fanfare as the 1969 Yorkshire Television logo.
Closing: The end theme of the programme.

Availability: It was usually used to cover the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees logos on international prints of programmes.

It was resurfaced on Talking Pictures TV airings of some season 2 episodes of The Main Chance, however most episodes use the Yorkshire Television logos of the time.
It is presumably also kept on said show's Network DVD release as well.
The variant with yellow text was seen on Luke's Kingdom.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{distinguish|text=[[Trident Films Ltd.]]}}
-{{PageCredits|compiled=RSX-798}}
+{{PageCredits|compiled=RSX-798|edits=Luke2505, Michael Kenchington and KosMir}}
+{{Infobox company
+| name = Trident Television
+| image = TridentTelevision1975A.png
+| founded = August 1970
+| founder = Sir Richard Graham<br>Ward Thomas<br>James Hanson
+| defunct = 1982
+| fate = Merged with Grand<br>Metropolitan
+}}
 ===Background===
-'''Trident Television''' was a British television company that was the owner of two ITV franchisees [[Yorkshire Television (UK)|Yorkshire Television]] and [[Tyne Tees Television (UK)|Tyne Tees Television]] from 1970 to 1982, when the IBA forced to divest the franchisees during the 1980 renewal. It also considered purchasing [[Anglia Television (UK)|Anglia]], but it failed, and chose to make the non-television interests as the third prong of the company. It even started [[Trident Television Associates]] in 1979 to syndicate 23 CBS telemovies and a film subsidiary.
+'''Trident Television''' was a British holding company with broadcasting interests. It was created in August 1970 to deal with the issue of fairly allocating commercial airtime at the Bilsdale Transmitter in North Yorkshire. Allocating it to either of the two closest broadcasting companies, [[Yorkshire Television|Yorkshire Television]] and [[Tyne Tees Television|Tyne Tees Television]], would have given one an unfair advantage over the other when it came to commercial airtime sales. The solution was to create a holding company for the selling of airtime in both television regions, which is what Trident became.
-===1st Logo (1975-1977)===
-<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
-TridentTelevision1975A.png
-TridentTelevision1975B.png
-TridentTelevision1975C.png
-</gallery>
-'''Logo:'''
-*'''Opening:''' On a black background, we see the text on the left reading "{{color|red|'''''trident colour television'''''}}", and then we see the symbol on the right, which has three sword-like objects in {{color|blue}}, {{color|red}} and {{color|green}}, making it look like the letter "'''''T'''''".
-*'''Closing:''' We see the same symbol from the opening logo on the left, and to the right is the text "{{color|red|'''''trident colour television production'''''}}". Below it was a copyright date.
+Trident executed a reverse takeover of both Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television in 1974, and initially planned to rename both under the Trident brand. This was, however, vetoed by the IBA.
-'''Variant:''' Sometimes, the symbol is larger and the text is in yellow.
+The third prong of the Trident was long rumoured to be Trident's attempt to buy [[Anglia Television|Anglia Television]], potentially stemming from Yorkshire Television discussing cost cutting measures with Anglia Television in early 1969, which would have given the 2 companies shared use of outside broadcast units and regional offices. This was not the case however, with Anglia not even being considered as potential partners in Trident's interests. The third prong instead was focused on the company's non-broadcasting interests.
-'''FX/SFX:''' None.
+It also started US-based [[Trident Television Associates]] in 1979 to syndicate 23 of CBS' telemovies.
-'''Music/Sounds:''' For the opening, either the 1969 [[Yorkshire Television (UK)|Yorkshire]] or the 1970 [[Tyne Tees Television (UK)|Tyne Tees]] logo playing. For the closing, it's the end theme of the programme.
+In December 1980, Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television were forced to demerge as a condition of their ITV contract renewals. This effectively ended Trident's participation in ITV, with them disposing of their remaining shares in the company shortly after. Despite this, they continued to receive rental funds from the studios and equipment leased to the companies.
-'''Availability:''' Rare. It was usually used to cover the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees logos on international prints of programmes, like Yorkshire Television's ''The Main Chance''. It was also seen on ''Luke's Kingdom''.
+Trident eventually merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1982.
-===2nd Logo (1978)===
+===Logo (1975-1977)===
+<tabber>
+Images=
 <gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
+TridentTelevision1975A.png|Opening Variant
-TridentFilmsLtd.png
+TridentTelevision1975B.png|Closing Variant
+TridentTelevision1975C.png|"Luke's Kingdom" Variant
 </gallery>
+|-|
-'''Logo:''' On a {{color|brown}} background, we see a black line on top, and below it we see the following text:
+Videos=
-<center>
+{{YouTube|id=1ZMf3VTLXTI|description=Opening Variant|id2=eFi4Wd78rrg|description2=Closing Variant|id3=kfmE87stsTE|description3="Luke's Kingdom" Variant}}
-{{Font|Times New Roman|{{Big|'''Trident Films Ltd.'''}}}}<br>
+</tabber>
-{{Font|Times New Roman|'''London, England'''}}
-</center>
-in a Didot font.
-'''FX/SFX:''' None.
+'''Visuals:'''
+*'''Opening:''' On a black background, there is the text on the left reading "{{color|red|'''''trident colour television'''''}}", alongside a Trident-shaped object on the right. The Trident is split by its prongs, with each prong coloured {{color|deepskyblue|blue}}, {{color|red}} and {{color|green}} respectively. It is shaped so that it resembles the letter "'''''T'''''".
+*'''Closing:''' There is the same Trident symbol from the opening logo on the left, and on the right is the text "{{color|red|'''''trident colour television production'''''}}". Below it is a copyright date.
+'''Variant:''' On ''Luke's Kingdom'', the symbol is larger and the text is {{color|gold|yellow}}.
-'''Music/Sounds:''' The end theme of the TV movie.
+'''Technique:''' A printed image filmed by a camera.
-'''Availability:''' Rare. It was kept intact on the DVD release of the 1978 TV movie adaptation of ''The Four Feathers''.
+'''Audio:'''
+*'''Opening:''' The same bombastic 5-note horn fanfare as the 1969 [[Yorkshire Television|Yorkshire Television]] logo.
+*'''Closing:''' The end theme of the programme.
+'''Availability:'''  It was usually used to cover the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees logos on international prints of programmes.
+* It was resurfaced on Talking Pictures TV airings of some season 2 episodes of ''The Main Chance'', however most episodes use the Yorkshire Television logos of the time.
+* It is presumably also kept on said show's Network DVD release as well.
+* The variant with yellow text was seen on ''Luke's Kingdom''.
+{{Navbox-ITV}}
+{{TV-Navbox}}
 [[Category:British television logos]]
-[[Category:British logos]]
+[[Category:United Kingdom]]
 [[Category:Television logos]]
-[[Category:ITV (UK)]]
+[[Category:ITV]]
-[[Category:ITV Studios (UK)]]
+[[Category:ITV Studios]]