Granada Productions

Infobox_Company
company_name = Granada Productions
company_
company_type = Public
foundation = 1954
location_city =
location_country =
location = London, England, UK
key_people =
num_employees =
owner = Granada Ltd. (1954-2004)
ITV plc (2004-)
industry = Media
products = Television
revenue =
homepage = [http://www.granadamedia.com granadamedia.com]

Granada Productions is one of Europe's leading commercial television production and distribution companies.

Since January 2006, the company has used the name ITV Productions when making programmes for the ITV family of channels. Productions for other broadcasters and internationally are still credited to Granada Productions.

Output

Granada is the largest commercial TV producer in the UK, creating over 3,500 hours of original programming each year across all genres except news.

Many brands on UK television are part of the Granada family, including Britain’s most watched programme, "Coronation Street"; "Emmerdale", "Heartbeat", "Marple" and "Agatha Christie's Poirot", "", "University Challenge", "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!", "Parkinson", "Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway", "Tonight", "The Jeremy Kyle Show" and "This Morning" are all produced by Granada Productions.

Granada produces programmes for UK television channels including the ITV Network, BBC One and BBC Two, Channel 4, Five and Sky One, based in key production centres in London, Manchester and Leeds, with a small internationally-focussed operation (Anglia Factual) in Norwich. The Bristol arm which was originally part of HTV closed in 2006. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/5088662.stm]

ITV Productions

ITV Productions comprises the following network production divisions from its predecessor companies*:

* Anglia Television
* Carlton Television
* Central Independent Television
* Granada Television
* HTV Wales and West
* London Weekend Television
* Meridian Broadcasting
* Tyne Tees Television
* Yorkshire Television

^{* Border Television and Westcountry Television rarely contributed network programmes, so were largely unaffected by the creation of ITV Productions.}

The division is also responsible for ITV's production facilities The London Studios, 3sixtymedia at Granada Studios, The Leeds Studios, location hire company ProVision and Leeds-based post production companies Film Lab North and The Finishing School. Granada International and Granada Ventures are part of ITV Global Entertainment. Both arms have been re-united and recently merged as part of the new Global Content division of ITV, led by Lee Bartlett (a former Fox executive and previously chief operating officer of the division under Dawn Airey).

Programmes on non-ITV channels (except S4C, which uses the name ITV Cymru) still retain the Granada brand. Examples are Channel 4's Countdown and The Royle Family for the BBC.

Granada America

The Sherman Oaks, California and New York-based US arm, Granada America, is one of the Top 3 largest international commercial producers for the US market. In Summer of 2005 they had more primetime network programming on air in the US than any other producer.

Granada America is a major force in acquiring, developing and producing Hollywood TV movies, scripted series and reality programming for US networks and the international market, with over 25 Granada shows on US TV every week.

A leading producer of reality programming, Granada America has shows in production at many of the major broadcast and cable networks, including "Hell's Kitchen" and "Nanny 911" for Fox, "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and "Little Friends" for NBC, "But Can They Sing?" and "Celebrity Fit Club" for VH1, "Airline", "The First 48" and "House Of Dreams" for A&E and "Room Raiders" for MTV.

In 2006, Granada, in association with RTL Group, produced a US version of "Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon".

Granada America is also one of the largest producers and distributors of Hollywood TV movies. An average of 12 Hollywood TV movies are produced or acquired by Granada America each year and regularly feature big name stars such as Molly Shannon in "12 Days of Christmas Eve", Jason Priestly in "The Reality Of Love", Farrah Fawcett in "Hollywood Lives", based on Jackie Collins’ best selling novel, Anne Heche in "Dead Will Tell", Melanie Griffith in "Lethal Seduction", Aidan Quinn and Mary Louise Parker in "Unexpected Journey" and Susan Sarandon in "Icebound".

Until recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Granada America was David Gyngell, son of the late Bruce Gyngell, the former managing director of ITV breakfast franchisee TV-am and Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television.

Granada Australia

Granada Productions Australia is one of Australia’s leading independent television producers.Established in 1998, Granada Productions has grown to the point where it now produces over 120 hours of television every year.

The company was originally Artist Services, a company formed by a group of investors including Steve Vizard, producing many shows such as "Fast Forward", "Full Frontal" and "SeaChange". Granada purchased the company in the late 1990's.

Its core business is to produce and develop television shows across all genres primarily for the Australasian television market. Its current slate includes the new hit show for the Seven Network "Dancing with the Stars"; "Mars Venus" for W on Foxtel; the acclaimed show "Merrick and Rosso Unplanned", "World Comedy Unplugged" and "Celebrity Super Powers" for the Nine Network; the FOX8 hit, "Australia's Next Top Model" and the new show for Network Ten, "Australian Princess".

Granada Germany

Granada Germany is one of Germany's top five television producers.

"Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!", Granada's German production of "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!" is one of the most successful entertainment shows ever on leading channel RTL, with two series produced in 2004.

Other recent Granada productions include three MANIA shows, celebrity music talent show "Star Duell" and "Deutschlands Beste Doppelgänger" ("Stars And Their Doubles") for RTL, and East-West German comedy "Ei Verbibbsch" for Sat.1.

Granada International

Granada International is Britain’s leading commercial distributor, representing more than 35,000 hours of programming across all genres from Granada’s own production teams and independent producers.

Distributing to over 155 territories worldwide, Granada International’s portfolio includes the largest British feature film collection, including "Brief Encounter", and the "Carry On..." films. Also a part of this collection is the ITC Entertainment feature film library, including "The Eagle Has Landed", "The Return of the Pink Panther", and "On Golden Pond". The television library features programming by most of the major ITV companies ("except" Thames Television, which belongs to RTL Group) including award-winning drama titles such as "Prime Suspect", "Dr. Zhivago" (2002 miniseries), "The Forsyte Saga" (2002), "Inspector Morse" and "Agatha Christie's Poirot", through to innovative formats, captivating children’s shows, star-studded Hollywood TV movies, stunning wildlife documentaries and outstanding factual programming.

Granada International has also established strong relationships with key broadcasters and producers around the world, and is a major player in programme financing and co-production partnerships.

Current independent producer relationships include Wall to Wall ("Ancient Egyptians", "The Story Of Us"), Darlow Smithson ("Seconds From Disaster"), Wark Clements (A Mother's Journey), Aardman ("Creature Comforts"), Chorion ("Agatha Christie's Marple and Poirot"), Carnival Films ("Rosemary & Thyme") and Red Productions ("Bob and Rose", "Second Coming"), with broadcaster relationships including A&E, WGBH, Mediaset, National Geographic, Discovery and NDR. It also produced the children's series "Allsorts".

Granada International's sister company Granada Ventures is the publishing and consumer licensing division, responsible for merchandising and exploiting the rights of ITV Productions and third-party programmes (including CBeebies' "Numberjacks"). Both have recently been merged in a restructuring of ITV's international arm, which saw the new entity firstly named ITV Worldwide and now ITV Global Entertainment.

ee also

*Granada Television
*ITV plc

External links

* [http://www.granadamedia.com Granada]
* [http://www.granadaamerica.com Granada America]
* [http://www.granadaproductions.com.au Granada Australia]
* [http://www.granadamedia.de Granada Germany]
* [http://www.granadamedia.com/international Granada International]
* [http://www.granadaventures.tv Granada Ventures]