EMG UK Chairman Barry Johnstone Dead at 76 In 2013, Johnstone became the first European inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, June 24, 2022 - 11:21 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Barry Johnstone, chairman of EMG's UK companies, co-founder of CTV in 1980, and a key industry figure in the UK and global sports production marketplace for more than 40 years, died of a heart attack last night at the age of 77. He is survived by his son Adam, Ben, and Lucy.
Barry Johnstone, co-founder of CTV and chairman of EMG UK
Johnstone was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2013 and in his Hall of Fame biography he said he was proud of only having three jobs during his long career. Born and educated in New Zealand, he arrived in the UK in 1970 and from 1971 to 1980 he was International Director at Magnet Records. In 1980 he co-founded a small post production facility which was acquired by Carlton Communications, and the company was rebranded Carlton Television Facilities (CTV). In 1981, Barry was appointed CEO and broadened its services in the mid 80s to include studios, OBs and transmission / playout. For more than 40 years Johnstone would remain at the center of one of Europe's leading mobile-production-truck providers. Since beginning work at age 15, Johnstone has had some remarkable adventures, but OB trucks were his love and business passion.
Since the 1980s, he was a mainstay in sports and music production in Europe and has also developed a reputation among U.S. and world broadcasters as someone who could be relied on year after year. For example, for more than 35 years CTV OB has played a key role in helping ABC Sports, ESPN, NBC Sports, and Sky Sports deliver the British Open to viewers. And during the London Olympics, CTV OB was at the center of the TV production of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, one of the most complex ceremony productions ever.
Tasked with developing Carlton's mobile-production-unit business in the 1980s, he soon found that mobile units were to become the love of his life. Johnstone would later serve as COO of Euro Media Group between 2007 and 2010 and as International Director between 2010 and 2019 prior to becoming Chairman of EMG UK.
I got the opportunity to join a group of people that wanted to build a mobile-edit suite, he said in 2013. It was quite unique. One-inch-tape machines had just been introduced into England. We decided that, if we bought these machines and put them into a truck, we could go around to all the network television stations and edit 10 times faster on 1-inch as opposed to what they did on 2-inch.
As Carlton grew, opportunity again knocked. Carlton agreed to sell Johnstone the editing studio and postproduction assets but not the OB vans, so, when Johnstone started his new company - Corinthian Television (CTV) - in 1995, he had a company with postproduction and a studio but no mobile-production units.
Within a year, that all changed, he said, and my life changed with it.
The success at the Open nearly 40 years ago created a domino effect that made CTV OB the primary force in golf coverage in Europe. In 1990, the company took over technical facilities for the Senior Open, another TWI event. Then, in 1992, European Tour Productions was launched as a joint venture between the European Tour and TWI. CTV OB was again involved in a major European golf production and, in 1997, was awarded a five-year contract for ETP, allowing a fleet of OB units to be built specifically for golf coverage.
Over the years, CTV OB has accomplished many impressive technical feats as part of its technical contract for the Open. Going all digital, going all HD, and expanding the coverage to fully unilateral production are just a few of the notable milestones. And now as part of EMG the company's legacy continues to evolve as the combination with Telegenic has transformed both companies.
Johnstone also served on the SVG Europe advisory board and in 2018 was presented with the SVG Europe Outstanding Contribution to European Sports Broadcasting Award. SVG and SVG Europe will have additional details regarding services in the coming days.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
EMG UK Chairman Barry Johnstone Dead at 76 In 2013, Johnstone became the first European inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
