The London Studios
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The London Studios is a television studio complex which forms a part of LWT's London Television Centre in the heart of London. It is situated on the South Bank next to the Royal National Theatre.
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[edit] Building & History
It encompasses the distinctive black and white layered tower that is home to London Weekend Television and a neighbouring building known as Gabriel's Wharf. Studios 1,2 & 3 is not attached to the main tower block building but stands several meters away next to the Royal National Theatre.
There was also a studio 4, 9 and 10, but are no longer in use. Studio 4 was used by LWT when they had the in vision announcers. Studio 9 was used for ITV2's in vision announcements and was located next to studio 7, it is now used for the studio's tapeless recording system allowing editors to edit programmes shortly after they have been recorded. Studio 10 was on the 10th floor of the tower part of the building and was used for LWT news and Crime Monthly before studio 7 was built, you can still see where the studio was by looking towards the tower on the south bank with your back facing St. Paul's cathedral (the windows are slightly blue).
The site for the development was purchased in 1969 and construction work commenced in 1970 with the centre opening for transmission in 1972, although it was not fully operational until 1974. At that time it was the most advanced television centre in Europe. The builders were Higgs and Hill Limited.
[edit] ITV Productions
The studios are home to many ITV and independent shows, all across a range of channels. LWT also leased space to weekday broadcaster, Carlton Television (it housed Carlton's London-based post-production facilities) until 2002 when an agreement was reached for Carlton to be permanently based within space used by LWT and for the two to work together as ITV London. The site is also home to breakfast broadcaster GMTV. The studios also handle transmission and presentation of ITV Meridian, ITV Westcountry, ITV West, ITV Anglia, the unofficial ITV Thames Valley region and ITV Wales from ITV's Southern Transmission Centre. The centre also provides network feeds to transmission centres in Leeds (home of the Northern Transmission Centre), Glasgow (STV), Belfast (UTV) and St. Helier (Channel Television - which also receives a feed of ITV Meridian).
The site was owned by LNN (jointly owned by Carlton and LWT) until 2004, when the broadcasting arm of the company was integrated into ITV plc. Also housed here is ITV plc's digital channel's ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and Men & Motors. In 2007, the service was outsourced to Technicolor Network Services (owned by Thomson), and there are plans for all of ITV's southern transmission operations (and staff) to be moved to TNS's broadcast centre in Chiswick. This is likely to happen in August 2008. Today, The London Studios is the main studio production facility for the ITV Network.
[edit] Studio Programming
The London Studios is home to many popular game, chat and comedy entertainment programmes. Full list of shows, studio used and network below.
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[edit] External links
- Map sources for The London Studios
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