An independent television service that provided weekend services in London, and weekday services in the Midlands between 1955 and 1968. Between 1968 and 1981, they transmitted to the Midlands seven days a week, before rebranding themselves Central Independent Television and continuing the service up to 1999. They produced Gerry Anderson's SciFi shows between 1960 and 1975.
ATV (Associated TeleVision) launched the second and third independent television services in the UK, providing the weekend service for London between 1955 and 1968, and the weekday service for the Midlands region between 1956 and 1968.
The company was formed from the merger of the Associated Broadcasting Development Company (ABDC) and the Incorporated Television Programme Company (ITC), which was co-owned by showbusiness agent Lew Grade. The new company was originally named the Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC), but the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), which wished to call their station "ABC" and ran a large chain of cinemas under those initials, successfully sued for prior ownership of the name. After the Associated Broadcasting Company had been operating for three weeks the name was changed to Associated TeleVision Ltd (ATV).
Lew Grade was instrumental in bringing producer, director and writer Gerry Anderson to prominence when he and ATV decided to buy Anderson's new TV puppet show, which was Supercar (1960-61), after AP Films suffered financial problems. ATV and ITC financed Fireball XL5, Stingray, and Thunderbirds. ATV ceased co-producing Anderson shows when AP Films was renamed Century 21 Productions and their association with Anderson ended in 1975 after the first season of Space: 1999 when he moved onto LWT.
After the 1967 franchise review, London's weekend service was awarded to London Weekend Television (LWT) and ATV were offered the seven-day service in the Midlands.
ATV began broadcasting in colour from November 15, 1969. During the "Colour Strike" (November 13, 1970 - February 8, 1971), two episodes of Timeslip (1970-71) were recorded in black and white.
In December 1980, the Independent Broadcast Authority (IBA) announced that ATV had been re-awarded the contract but they had to focus more on the region. Amongst measures taken to comply, ATV sold their Elstree Studios to the BBC. IBA also told them to rename itself and ATV chose Central Independent Television.