This was seen as a desperate, and rather underhand, ploy to lure as much of the potential audience as possible from tuning in to the new station's opening night of broadcast entertainment.

It did introduce popular game shows, but also provided quality programming across all genres gaining large audiences both in its own London area and, as the ITV network grew, for its programmes shown across the country.

Boris Ford became Associated-Rediffusion's first head of schools broadcasting (1957–58), during which time he persuaded Benjamin Britten to compose his church opera Noye's Fludde for a series of programmes.

[4] During the 1960s, the studios were home to some of the most popular programmes on the ITV network, including The Rat Catchers, Blackmail, At Last, The 1948 Show and The Frost Report.

Most titles are the intellectual property of Archbuild Limited, with the exception of some of Rediffusion's musical output such as Ready Steady Go!

[2] In the 1990s, the name "Associated-Rediffusion Television" and the adastral trademark were acquired by British journalist Victor Lewis-Smith, and were used by his own production company.

This gave its name to A-R's logo, the 16-point Adastral Star, which appeared not only at the start and end of each commercial break but also between each advertisement.

The station's archives were also kept at these properties, with the original programme library situated on the roof of Television House with some storage in the film vaults at Wembley Studios.

When Rediffusion originally launched, as Associated-Rediffusion, presentation consisted of a simple animated ident, featuring the station name, and a spinning star called the Adastral.

To accompany the ident, a timepiece was created based on a heraldic coat of arms and nicknamed 'Mitch' after Head of Presentation Leslie Mitchell.

[9][10] In 1964, Associated-Rediffusion rebranded itself on screen as Rediffusion London, using a black and grey ident featuring the same spinning star as previous, but with the new name now in a stripe and in a sans serif font.

A new seven note strident theme was adopted to replace the original fanfare, and a new and simpler clock was designed featuring a 24-hour display at the bottom of the face and an adastral at the centre.

[9] Rediffusion used a number of continuity announcers throughout its 13 years on air, with Redvers Kyle and Muriel Young being the most recognised.