Rebranding TTTV 

2 February 2004 tbs.pm/3428

The 1990s weren’t exactly a good decade for Tyne Tees. The ITV company for north east England had been taken over by Yorkshire Television, scores of staff left or were made redundant as departments were closed or moved to Leeds, and its name was replaced on screen by a giant golden 3. Still at least they’d poached Mike Neville from the BBC.

It had been a turbulent time as costs were slashed, partly due to the large license payments both companies had committed themselves to as part of the 1992 franchise round. So it was not surprising that one of the pioneers of ITV consolidation fell to a takeover itself.

The arrival of new owners, Granada, saw the much hated Channel 3 North East brand thrown away for good in 1998, but the subsequent return of Tyne Tees to our screens was still rather lacklustre with a new ident that looked liked it had been cobbled together in an afternoon.

It was a rather depressing sight to see the station looking such a mess, but in many ways, it continued the story that was the final decade of the 20th Century. Tyne Tees was in a great big muddy ditch and no one seemed to want to help it get out.

It took a new decade for someone to pass it the ladder and on 4 September 2000, Tyne Tees was reborn. The new look covered almost every aspect of Tyne Tees – idents, news, sport, weather, trailers and the production slide all got a makeover, based round a new TTTV logo.

Even the weather bulletins had a matching title sequence too.