Back with the ITV story… big changes happened in 1968 when the Independent Television Authority (ITA) renewed the franchises. The Midlands were now to have ATV all week and in the north, Granada would also broadcast every day. Thus ABC Television lost both its franchises. The north region was split into east and west and Yorkshire TV began to broadcast from Leeds with Granada looking after the north west from Manchester.
ATV lost its weekend London franchise but decided to stay on at Elstree, making many big entertainment shows there for ITV and under the entrepreneurship of Lew Grade exporting many to the USA. They also changed their name to ‘ATV Network’.
