GTV

GTV (formally tv gael) is the Network Six franchisee for Northern Scotland and Highlands, and has been in operation since 22 May 2006. The franchise was set up as an autonomous subsidiary of Emoa Television, and was legally named Emoa Gael Television Ltd, although its operations have since been split into two companies, being Emoa Gael Television Ltd and Caledonia Media plc. It is headquartered in Gael Studios, Oban.

History
Between the closure of NST in October 2005 and May 2006, the North West Scotland region was operated directly by Network control due to a lack of interest for potential bidders. After a number of Network-wide changes, Network Control announced that Emoa Television was to take over the franchise as a result of its Midlands Weekend (Emoa Mercia) franchise being revoked prematurely, in an attempt to move regional franchises out of Network control. Whilst Emoa accepted the offer, it launched a legal battle against Network Six over loss of revenue and the additional expense it would require to launch a new service in the Highlands. Both parties eventually came to an out of court settlement which underpinned a lucrative advertising deal for the new Emoa Scotland region and its other franchise, Emoa North East.

Emoa announced on 2 May 2006 that the new franchise would be named "tvgael", operated by a new subsidiary, "Emoa Scotland Ltd". The company would acquire the entirety of Network Six North West Scotland's operations and staff, however Emoa decided that initially, tvgael would be broadcast from Newcastle, whilst a refurbishment of equipment at the Gael Studios was completed. The company hired in 17 portacabins to the car park of the Oban complex in a rushed attempt to launch the station on time. The channel eventually launched at 5pm on 22 May 2006, although it was meant to begin at midnight.

During the period in which its playout was based in Newcastle, it shared all non-regional presentation with Emoa North East, now re-named "tvne". Idents were solely branded as "emoa", except for those preceding regional programmes, which featured either "emoa tvne" or "emoa tvgael", accompanied by a pre-recorded regional announcement (Scottish announcers were hired in Newcastle for this purpose).

In August 2006 following the opening of phase 1 of the Gael Studios refurbishment, tvgael began producing its own continuity between the hours of 10am and 10pm, and all idents had the name "tv gael" superimposed on them, and local idents now featured a local landscape as appose to the Emoa corporate "star" branding. However in September 2006, tvgael reversed this decision and returned to the previous set-up of using "emoa" generic idents prior to non-regional programming, despite daytime output being produced regionally. However verbally, the only brand used at this time was "tvgael", and used on "tvgael News" and "tvgael Tonight". Overnight playout was handled by ESS.

Change of identity
In late September 2006, Emoa announced it was dumping the corporate brand on air and would focus more on the "Network Six" and regional brands, as it was confusing consumers. Following a period of reserach, it was decided that the name "GTV" would replace "emoa tvgael", and the Network Six brand would become more pronounced. A new presentation package was designed by Emoa Plus and unveiled on 12 October 2006. The last Emoa tvgael ident was played at 21.59 on 31 October 2006, voied by Mark Trevithick: "You're watching Emoa in the Highlands & Islands. Now the Taff Media Late News with Elaine Williams and tvgael Tonight with Jayne McCririck".

The re-brand occured at 9.25am on 1 November 2006, where viewers were introduced to GTV. Regional broadcasting hours for GTV were extended to 9.25am-11pm. At the same time, the Emoa Overnight Service was re-branded to a generic "Network Six" package. The Emoa name continues on-screen only on production endcaps.

GTV's presentation has since been re-branded on the following occasions:
 * Februrary 2007: Refreshed version of the Februrary 2007 design, now featuring a purple, smaller logo and purple "blobs" over elemental images. Designer: GTV in-house
 * February 2008: Total re-brand. 16 new 2D computer-generated idents were created featuring the redesigned GTV name involved in the animation. Idents included: Pulse, Rush, Bubbles, Discussion, Transmission rings, Traffic light, Stars, Sunrise, Sunset, Dictionary, Fruit Machine, Soap and Sombre Splash. In January 2009 they were complemented by Butterflies, Arrows and Equaliser. In January 2010, these idents were then re-adapted for use on ESS, replacing the GTV brand with "Six". Only Discussion, Butterflies, Equaliser and Pulse were ported.
 * March 2010: Live-action idents introduced following the sale of GTV to Caledonia Media, each focusing on a particular colour pallate. Idents include: Fire hydrant (red), Glitter eye (blue), Hand in grass (green), Sunflowers (yellow) and Beachhuts (multi).

2008/9 financial crisis
GTV reported on 20 December 2008 that it had "no further" methods of sustainable income as it endures growing debts. On 24 December, Emoa's internal finance & audit body (EFA) were sent into the company to observe its practices and attempt to re-stabilise the company's finances. On 28 December, EFA called in Delta Associates, a former subsidiary of Neptune Television prior to its merger with Emoa in 2006 (but now independent), to discuss future prospects of the company. EFA announced that it plans to reduce GTV's production remit set by Emoa Productions, but is to help GTV with funding the advertising of its facilities for sub-letting to other and independent producers. EFA stated "GTV will retain full control over its regional programmes that it requires, however the number of which GTV itself will produce will fall", and that "we aim for GTV to commission up to 25% of its regional programmes from other producers by 2010". At present, GTV produces almost all of its own regional programming, unlike sister NETV, which commissions almost 50% of its non-news regional output. Other proposals set by EFA include a reduction of 60 minutes of regional playout each day, and over bank holidays, to operate a "minimal service". Problems in regional advertising are still to be addressed as the value of the medium decreases rapidly.

EFA created "G2 Television Ltd" on 28 December 2008 as a "legal object" to push forward a restructure of GTV, which temporarily dealt with GTV's lendings (owned 100% directly by Emoa Group rather than Emoa TV). On 3 January 2008, "G2 Media Plc" took over the GTV's broadcasting licence, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Emoa Group. EFA had previously suggested GTV's 51-strong workforce would be reduced to 34, however the plans were halted in light of the then poor economic climate.

In March 2009, GTV's assets were split between Emoa Gael Television Ltd and Caledonia Media plc (which was a re-naming of G2 Media). Emoa Gael Television Ltd retained ownership over GTV's studio facilities, 28 offices at the Gael Studios Site, its share of Emoa Productions and all non-regional programming produced in Oban, archive of GTV's non-news regional programming and playout. Caledonia Media was given the GTV broadcasting licence, the main GTV operation, brand identity rights, 71% of Gael Studios Staff, GTV Extra teletext all newsgathering centres and most of its capacity on digital platforms. The intention of this split was to sell off the CM part of the business.

Sale
It was announced on 31 August 2009 that Emoa Television sold 85% of Caledonia Media to Forest Media plc. The deal will see the daily operations of GTV pass to Forest Media, whilst Emoa will retain other aspects of the business. No immediate changes were named for the station, however a number of new regional programmes are due to go into production, and the daily flagship news magazine, GTV Tonight, will be re-branded to "GTV News at Six". A press release by both companies was released on that date. Therefore the operations of GTV which were once monolithic have now been split between Caledonia Media and Emoa Gael Television Ltd (See: Caledonia Media).

Broadcasting hours today
Between 9.25am and 00.40am, GTV is played out from the Digital Playout Suite on the first floor of the Main Block of Gael Studios. Its eventual output is a mixture in some form of three feeds; firstly the Network feed which is used to playout Network programming as it is being broadcast, secondly a generic feed from Newcastle, which carries certain Part networked programming which is shared with NETV/Mercia, and thirdly from GTV's own programming library and input.

After 00.40 however, playout is entirely handed over to Emoa's Cheviot Studios in Newcastle, where the ESS system replaces GTV as "Network Six". During this time, ESS takes some networked programmes but also additionally inserts its own, including repeats. There is no regional advertising or programming during this slot, however the regional programme Jobfinder occasionally requires an opt-out, which too is overseen by Newcastle. Since Newcastle does not possess any of GTV's presentation, the programme is introduced using a generic announcement and generic ident, however, the name "GTV" is often superimposed beneath the SIX logo. At 6.25am, breakfast franchise Six:AM takes over broadcast nationally.

Former subsidiaries
Under ownership of Emoa Television, GTV operated a number of subsidiaries which have since been closed.

GTV Sales was the Scottish equivalent of Emoa Performance, which is the distribution and advertising body for GTV only. It was abolished on 1 April 2009, and became an integral arm of the GTV operation.

Initially, GTV Productions operated separately from Emoa Productions, however the brand was abolished in May 2007 and it was re-integrated into EP. However from February 2008, the GTV Productions brand re-emerged on local news programming only, and since the sale of GTV in 2009, it is part of Caledonia Media.

GTV Enterprises was a short-lived organisation which produced Scottish regional opt-outs on digital channel Six Mix, and later attempted to create a daily opt-out GTV2 on the channel in early 2007. After Emoa sold its share in Six Mix, GTV Enterprises, then re-named to GE Residuary, was sold in the contract, which would allow the creation of a GTV2 on the channel at any point in the future. However GTV has stated it has no long-term intention to peruse this method of broadcasting, and staff formally working on the creation of GTV2 were re-assigned to GTV's regional programming teams. GTV, along with NETV, is currently looking into the feasibility of creating a VOD and Regional TV channel under the project name Breeze, however it is thought talks have now broken off.