Granada's TV Rental Stuff

[reworP wehttaM]

Back when Granada wasn't absorbed into the ITV behemoth we know today, they were apparently running a TV/video rental service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3vLuS77iNQ

Which was apparently so big they expanded from the UK to Canada, and even the US:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqtJCt_jv4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCmX46BelCY
(You may act coy, but we all know where that arrowed "G" came from)

Anyone else know of/remember that?

[Markymark]

Err, you release Granada the company was formed in 1930, (26 years before they got into TV) as a cinema company.

Further reading
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada_plc

We had a Granada rental telly in the 70s, and the first cinema I ever enteted was the Granada in Chichester

I was in Seville last week, I thought this street sign was missing the G

https://maps.app.goo.gl/myNtJC8gv5VzbJGQ6

[Neil Jones]

Back when Granada wasn't absorbed into the ITV behemoth we know today, they were apparently running a TV/video rental service:

Which was apparently so big they expanded from the UK to Canada, and even the US:

(You may act coy, but we all know where that arrowed "G" came from)

Anyone else know of/remember that?

Granada had many fingers in many pies, not just the rental service and the ITV company, as it was a Conglomerate company that did far more than just make Coronation Street. They also owned some motorway service stations as well and had all kinds of weird and wonderful things over the years particularly in the 1960s.

But of course all that's gone now, either in new ownership, new brands or was just closed. IIRC they owned The American Adventure theme park and whatever the other one they owned was. Both ultimately closed for one reason or another.

[Humphrey Hacker]

We used Radio Rentals in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I always felt a frisson of excitement seeing what the latest technology was.

During the miners strike of 1984/85 RR refused to take any money from us because they knew it would leave us worse then we were already. They did that with every mining family in the area. That’s something I’ve never forgotten and I never will.

[johnnyboy]

My first Ondigital box and widescreen CRT(!) TV (24"!) was through Granada's Gosforth branch in Newcastle.

Neil Jones is entirely correct when he mentions how big Granada were back in the day and just how far the spread themselves across other ventures.

[Scrotnig]

We used Radio Rentals in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I always felt a frisson of excitement seeing what the latest technology was.

During the miners strike of 1984/85 RR refused to take any money from us because they knew it would leave us worse then we were already. They did that with every mining family in the area. That’s something I’ve never forgotten and I never will.

I didn’t know that. Certainly something you’d never see today (even if there were any miners left to strike).

[RR]

Granada merged their TV rental business into Boxclever, which went bust shortly after, but was bought out, and is still being run by someone today. Most of the others ended up there as well, the ones that come to mind as national chains:

Radio Rentals
DER
Visionhire
Rediffusion
Multi Broadcast

In addition the standard electrical chains, such as Currys and Rumblelows offered rental at least at one point, as did many local and department stores.

[London Lite]

We rented from Radio Rentals and later Granada. The last thing we got from Granada was an OnDigital box and sub.

[Spencer]

We had a TV in the early 80s rented from Granada - one of those with a wooden case, and it even had the famous ‘Giro G’ on it which appealed to the young TV pres anorak in me.

It only had 4 push-button channels on it though, which meant when Channel 4 came along, we had to watch that through the video.

[Ben]

Ah the days when technology was built to be repaired and last a lot longer than it is thesedays. Obsolete just wasn't a word used often for your TV set.

We rented from Radio Rentals but I think our branch became a Granada prior to the companies merging.

We later purchased an ex-rental set which often went wrong but I discovered could be fixed with a firm smack on the side.

Branding wise the Granada rental chain had a different logo to the broadcaster as did the motorway service stations but I do remember the day when I joined up all the dots as a kid with ridiculous excitement that only a PresHead would gave.

[Larry the Loafer]

Ah the days when technology was built to be repaired and last a lot longer than it is thesedays. Obsolete just wasn't a word used often for your TV set.

It's easy to forget that, after colour sets were introduced, there was no real chance of a set being rented deemed obsolete until into the 2000s when digital and HD were becoming the norm. Sure, you had niceties like Teletext and wide-screen that would made you want to upgrade, as would the jump in technology from CRT sets, but you're looking at about a 40-50 year gap where your TV didn't "need" upgrading.

[London Lite]

We later purchased an ex-rental set which often went wrong but I discovered could be fixed with a firm smack on the side.

Yes! The smack to the side saved on many repairs.

I remember the Granada sets having the logo and font used by the television channel until I think the late 80s when they used a different font. One of the first sets we had had a coin box which took 50p coins.

[nwtv2003]

Granada merged their TV rental business into Boxclever, which went bust shortly after, but was bought out, and is still being run by someone today. Most of the others ended up there as well, the ones that come to mind as national chains:

Radio Rentals
DER
Visionhire
Rediffusion
Multi Broadcast

In addition the standard electrical chains, such as Currys and Rumblelows offered rental at least at one point, as did many local and department stores.

We used to rent from Martin Dawes which had several stores throughout the north west at one time. However unlike the other rental chains they very much still exist and have a store opposite IKEA in Warrington. Renting is still an option according to their website. 

Going back to Granada they did have a huge hospitality and leisure business at one time. In terms of leisure they had Granada Studios Tour and Camelot in addition to the American Adventure. There’s an excellent documentary on YouTube about the Studio Tour and why it eventually closed at the end of 1999. 

https://youtu.be/fqICtsXnLZI

By this time Granada’s focus was mostly on ITV and other digital ventures. Leisure dwindled and hospitality was eventually spun off not too long after they acquired the Compass Group. 

Rentals as a medium started to die off when technology became more reliable and more affordable. The rise of the likes of Currys probably didn’t help rental either.

[RR]

On the Granada TV Rental front - for most of the time the sets they rented were branded Finlandia

[Markymark]

We had a TV in the early 80s rented from Granada - one of those with a wooden case, and it even had the famous ‘Giro G’ on it which appealed to the young TV pres anorak in me.

It only had 4 push-button channels on it though, which meant when Channel 4 came along, we had to watch that through the video.

That's interesting, we moved in 1974 from DER with a four push button Thorn telly, to Granada with a six button Finlandia telly, which meant we could have (in addition to Southern and London ITV) ATV Midlands. Exciting times!