Alpha Television was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 limited company

Limited company

A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...

 which operated television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 studios in Aston

Aston

Aston is an area of the City of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Lying to the north-east of the Birmingham city centre, Aston constitutes an electoral ward within the council constituency of Ladywood.-History:...

, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

.

History

The company was formed in 1956 as a co-venture between two newly-created Independent Television

Independent Television

Independent television can refer to:* Independent Television , a Bangladeshi 24/7 news channel* ITV, a British television network.* Independent station, a terrestrial television station not affiliated to networks....

 (ITV) companies, ATV

Associated TeleVision

Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...

 and ABC Television

Associated British Corporation

Associated British Corporation 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...

. The former operated the contract to broadcast programming to the Midlands

English Midlands

The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

 during the week, the latter at weekends.

Both companies had established main production centres at Elstree

Elstree Studios

"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

 and Teddington

Teddington Studios

Teddington Studios is a large British television studio complex located in Teddington, South-West London, providing studio facilities for programmes airing on BBC television, ITV, and Channel 4 along with others...

, Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

 respectively but despite conflicts over contract applications and rivalry over the corporate acronym, the costs of creating separate facilities in the Midlands led to a decision to join forces. A separate holding company to operate the centre, Alpha Television Services (Birmingham) Limited, was formed.

The new company purchased the former Astoria Cinema in Aston Road North which had closed a few months earlier. Initial alterations created one studio with production facilities supplied by an outside broadcast vehicle, telecine

Telecine

Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....

 facilities and separate presentation suites for ATV and ABC.

In 1963 ATV and ABC took the decision to upgrade facilities at Aston and a substantial investment saw the creation of an office block, canteen and second studio adjacent to the existing site, while the facade of the original cinema was re-constructed to match. New facilities included an enlarged telecine facility, master control

Master control

Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room in television studios where the activities such as switching from camera to camera are coordinated...

 and presentation suites.

Closure

In 1967 the regulatory body for ITV, the Independent Television Authority

Independent Television Authority

The Independent Television Authority was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" , the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom...

, announced significant changes to the regional contracts to broadcast ITV. ABC Weekend Television lost its Midlands weekend contract as the authority decided to create a seven-day licence for the area, which they awarded to ATV. Instead ABC were offered the London weekday contract upon condition of merging with the existing holder, Rediffusion

Associated-Rediffusion

Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion, London, was the British ITV contractor for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 1954 and 29 July 1968. Transmissions started on 22 September 1955.-Formation:...

 (eventually becoming Thames Television

Thames Television

Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....

).

As a result ABC decided to sell their stake in Alpha Television to ATV as their interest in the Midlands had ended. However the Alpha studios were designed for monochrome

Monochrome

Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...

 broadcasting and as the ITV network was planning to launch colour transmissions in late 1969, ATV took the decision to construct new purpose-built colour studios in central Birmingham.

In October 1968, work started on the Paradise Centre (later known as ATV Centre), a £15m (2009:£200m) complex known as Alpha Tower

Alpha Tower

Alpha Tower is a commercial building in Birmingham, England. It was built to a design by George Marsh of Richard Seifert & Partners as the headquarters of the commercial television company ATV and part of the companies' production studio complex known as ATV Centre...

 off Broad Street

Broad Street, Birmingham

Broad Street is a major thoroughfare and popular nightspot in Birmingham City Centre, United Kingdom. Traditionally, Broad Street was considered to be outside Birmingham City Centre, but as the city centre expanded with the removal of the Inner Ring Road, Broad Street has been incorporated into...

. By early 1970 the Alpha Studios were closed with all employees being transferred to ATV (renamed as ATV Network), and Alpha Television Services (Birmingham) Limited went into voluntary liquidation and ceased trading.

Later use

The site had a variety of uses until purchased by the Independent Local Radio

Independent Local Radio

Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The same name is used for Independent Local Radio in Ireland.-Development of ILR:...

 station BRMB

Brmb

brmb is a local radio station based in Birmingham, UK, owned and operated by Orion Media. The station broadcasts on 96.4 FM, DAB Digital Radio in the West Midlands and online...

 in 1974. The station vacated the site in 1996 to new facilities at Brindleyplace

Brindleyplace

Brindleyplace is a large mixed-use canalside development, in the Westside district of Birmingham, England. It is often written erroneously as Brindley Place, the name of the street around which it is built...

, a few hundred yards from the former ATV studios on Broad Street. The office block remains although the converted cinema was demolished.