Emoa Television

Emoa Television (pronounced eh-mo-ah; commonly referred to as emoa* as per the logo) is a Network Six broadcaster and producer, and currently operates the North East England franchise (as NETV), Midlands franchise (Mercia) and the National News franchise (Six National Broadcasting). It owns a variety of affiliated companies and interests in other broadcasters, and has been in operation since April 2006.

History

 * ''See: History of Emoa Television



Emoa Television was formed in March 2006 as a joint venture between Emoa Networks and Neptune Television. Emoa subsequently purchased Neptune, and later sold 40% of the company. In its time, it has operated four franchises (Borders, North East, Midlands Weekend and North West Scotland), briefly established the DETV Group and was a founding member of the Six Mix television channel before re-focusing its assets on its two regional companies.

Assets and Franchises
Up to 90% of Emoa's business is undertaken by its primary subsidiary companies; NETV, Mercia, Emoa Productions and Emoa Neptune,

Emoa Television also owns some shared ownership in the Scottish broadcaster GTV, and its infrastructure is closely integrated with that of NETV's. The Mercia franchise, won by Emoa in 2009, operates more independently, however is the largest of the three regions Emoa has interests in. All three stations share a number of programmes and common background infrastructure.

NETV

 * ''See: NETV

NETV is the operator of the regional North East England franchise.

Mercia

 * ''See: Mercia Television

Mercia Television is the Network Six regional franchisee for the Midlands, and is a subsidiary of Emoa Television.

GTV

 * See: GTV

Emoa Television Ltd owns a 15% stake in the North West Scotland franchisee, GTV. Emoa won the GTV franchise in late 2006, and sold 85% of the franchise to Forest Media following a period of financial instability.

Emoa Productions

 * See Emoa Productions

Emoa Productions is the non-regional network production facility. It was set up as an obligation to Emoa's Network Six contracts. Its headquarters are based in the Cheviot Studios, Newcastle, but it also has minor network production facilities in Gael Studios, Scotland and the Midlands.

Emoa Neptune

 * See: Neptune Television

Emoa Neptune a design, creatitivity, teletext and technical infrastructure Group Subsidiary of Emoa Television. Formally part of the original Neptune Television which merged with Emoa Networks in 2006, its design services were rebranded as Emoa Plus in July 2006, however it was re-merged with Emoa Text in May 2007 as Emoa Neptune once again.

It produces almost all of the presentation designs and programme graphics of Emoa's assets, and works alongside all of Emoa's sub-companies. It has produced presentation packages for Emoa Television, Six Mix, Solar Commission and Emoa Productions.

Since May 2006, Neptune has also handled the broadcasting arm of Emoa Television, and holds all the playout facilities for NETV, GTV and Six Mix, inclusive of satellite, terrestrial and cabled systems.

In addition, it also produces all of Emoa's interactive content, including its teletext services on analogue and digital television, and web portals.

Six Text

 * See: Six Text (Emoa owned)

Six Text is a Group Asset operated by Emoa Neptune, producing digital and analogue teletext services. It has a whole wealth of information including news, sport, entertainment, children's and financial information, alongside dedicated local information and news. It is available by pressing the TEXT button on the viewers remote on all platforms, but in addition, available on channel 111 on Freeview.

Emoa and NETV

 * See: Emoa and NETV

Emoa and NETV is a sub-group which consists of all of the Emoa TV's companies which have their headquarters in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, currently comprising of Emoa Television, NETV, Neptune Television and Emoa Productions.

Emoa Performance

 * See: Emoa Performance

Emoa Performance is the marketing, sales, PR and property management body of Emoa. It took on the work of Emoa Worldwide in March 2009, when that body was dissolved, although the brand will continue on DVD releases for at least 6 months.

Property
Emoa Television owns programme production studios in Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Oban, Birmingham, Nottingham, Northampton and Oxford.

Its Newcastle and Middlesbrough combined bases employ around 260 staff, and consists of 3 studio large studio facilities (often partitioned into 5 studios; 1A, 1B, 2, 3A, 3B) in Newcastle, with one further small news studio and presentation studio in Middlesbrough (4, 5).

Its Oban base employs around 60 staff, and consists of 2 small studios (1 and 2). Since March 2009, GTV operates the main complex and Studio 1, where Emoa Productions owns and operates external Studio 2. The GTV franchise was subsequently sold to Forest Media in August 2009, and is gifted unlimited usage of studio 1. The site remains the property of Emoa Television for the forseeable future.

The Birmingham facilities employ around 90 staff, but is currently recruiting staff as the central base for Mercia. It consists of 1 small studio and 1 medium sized one (0 and 1). The small studio was also once medium sized, however was partitioned in 2006 and half was converted into offices. Between the end of Mercia Weekend Television and the re-launch of Mercia in 2009, Emoa sub-leased the complex to a variety of broadcasters and production companies.

The Nottingham base was acquired by Emoa in March 2009 from Spectrum, as the base of Mercia East. It employs about 54 people, all of whom were former Spectrum employees. It currently has one studio in operation for the Mercia News East programme.

The Oxford base was also acquired from Spectrum, and is the base of Mercia South, and employs 72 people. It has one studio in operation for Mercia News South, but has the prospects of future expansion.

The Northampton base, again acquired from Spectrum, is currently used for the production of non-news regional programmes on Mercia, and employs 60. It should be noted however that Northampton is mostly considered in the TVEast region of the Network.

Emoa Radio

 * See: Emoa Radio

Although owned by Emoa Group directly, Emoa Radio was created and continues to share management with Emoa Television. Emoa Radio operates the dance music station Vibra, which operates in the NETV, Mercia and GTV regions on Digital Terrestrial Television, along with DAB in the North East region. It will also launch a second station, "LNER", in the North East region by the end of 2009.

Identity
Emoa's defining feature since launch has been its corporate "star". Initially, the five-sided solid star, with a smaller star inset, was only used for corporate identity while the same logo albeit without the "star" was used to define its television interests. However in 2006, the identities of Emoa's corporate and television assets became one under a new identity, initially designed by V Group, and the star became the main feature of both NETV's and GTV's on-air identities. This was dropped in November 2006 when the two franchises lost recognition to their parent company, but the Emoa logo continues to be used extensively by Emoa Productions and dual-branded on regional television programmes endcaps.

Broadcasting style
Emoa Television fashions itself as an "evolving 21st Century television organisation", and has five company aims:
 * To endevour to provide a competitive and professional approach to Broadcasting
 * To place viewers at the centre of our television channels
 * To diversify into new and exciting ways of producing and delivering local television content to all social and age groups
 * To provide a secure and rewarding working position for employees
 * To be able to adapt and change to current relevant broadcasting needs whilst still providing a service of high quality to viewers, staff and advertisers.