Red Heart was a joint venture between the Seven Network and Granada PLC between c. 1999 and 2001. It brought together all of its Australian parents' TV production resources, except those used for Seven's news and soaps.
One theory states that Granada was looking to buy Seven's core, through it eventually owning 100% of Red Heart. Red Heart may have also eventually controlled Seven's news and soaps. This was a time when "content is king" was a popular idea.
Australia's Broadcasting Services Act 1992 disallows foreign entities owning more than 15% of any TV station licence holder, but owning a company that provides a station with 100% of its content for 99% of its income is fine. (CanWest found another way around the law to own a majority stake of Network Ten).
However, Granada decided to pull out of Red Heart when it realised it could make more money selling Australian programs to other Australian broadcasters than it would just supplying Seven. It has been rare to see Australian-made Granada programs on the screen.
Famous quotes containing the words red and/or heart:
“It might become a wheel spoked red and white
In alternate stripes converging at a point
Of flame on the line, with a second wheel below,
Just rising, accompanying, arranged to cross,
Through weltering illuminations, humps
Of billows, downward, toward the drift-fire shore.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)