TV Live Forum

Anyone got a link to TVAM the morning after the announcement?

Spencer post_id=47913 time= user_id=891 Wrote:

harshy post_id=47840 time= user_id=970 Wrote:

Scrotnig post_id=47568 time= user_id=2047 Wrote:It was an absolute travesty and marked the beginning of the end for what we knew as ITV back then.


I've no doubt that end would still have come about one way or another, however.

Spot on couldn’t agree more itv was ruined permanently Thames disappearing meant all those wonderful weekdays network programmes ended as well, I loved the fact I could switch over to tyne tees to a different style itv.

You were able to switch over from Thames to Tyne Tees? Bilsdale certainly did have one hell of an overlap area! :lol:

Ha I meant from the YTV area :-)

Here's the BBC Look North (Newcastle) report on Tyne Tees retaining their franchise, which I mentioned above.

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=110132

And if you scroll down this second link, you'll see the section on the 1991 franchise round.

https://www.tvark.org/?page=1483#/

Neil Jones post_id=47942 time= user_id=961 Wrote:The recommendations are well documented But I've never been able to find a copy of the report itself. News Reports though are plentiful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ew06cG1Wk

That was a fascinating video, which I very much enjoyed watching. Thank you for sharing it.

harshy post_id=47840 time= user_id=970 Wrote:Spot on couldn’t agree more itv was ruined permanently Thames disappearing meant all those wonderful weekdays network programmes ended as well.

Except it didn't. Thames continued to produce many programmes. In fact this article from 1994 states that at the time of publication Thames was producing 42 per cent of all weekly peak time programming for ITV:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media...92970.html

Whataday post_id=48165 time= user_id=1029 Wrote:Except it didn't. Thames continued to produce many programmes. In fact this article from 1994 states that at the time of publication Thames was producing 42 per cent of all weekly peak time programming for ITV:

Yes, and The Bill went from two to three times a week from January 1993, so there was very heavy Thames presence on the new ITV. And famously in early 1995 there were a few weeks when there were Thames programmes on BBC1, BBC2 and ITV at the same time on a Wednesday night, in This Is Your Life, The World at War and Wish You Were Here respectively, and I remember reading Thames had something like a 93% audience share.

Of course, it was a very different Thames and it didn't make the current affairs or kids' shows it used to, but it was hugely successful.

And Thames is now pretty much the only legacy brand to get their name on ITV having produced the big Cowell shows and continuing to produce other shows for ITV.

Well 1993 saw the dismise of so many shows that was part and parcel of itv referring to Thames I was talking about the childrens shows and the sitcoms like Shelley etc all gone yeah sure a few shows remained but for me itv was profoundly changed as mergers and takeovers started taking away the itv that was itv and has become the boring itv of today.

Brekkie post_id=48175 time= user_id=976 Wrote:And Thames is now pretty much the only legacy brand to get their name on ITV having produced the big Cowell shows and continuing to produce other shows for ITV.

Thames is said to be the only ITV company to survive a franchise/license loss, which is kind of true although TVS kind of did as it was bought by an American company and used to set up in the UK

Others survived in a different form (TSW as a shoe company, TVam as a Casino and TWW as an opticians) but its the only one to continue making programmes

While the Thames label has a reduced role today, when you follow the timeline from 1993 onwards, what is now Fremantle is essentially the original Thames Television. When Pearson bought Thames, they renamed it Pearson Television and used it as the foundation for their TV empire, with Thames remaining as a label. When Pearson sold Pearson Television, the entire operation very nearly rebranded as Thames but it was decided it was too difficult to pronounce in some territories, so they went for FremantleMedia.

1991 needed to happen. Thinking about it with a cold, hard 'rear view' look at the past, the simple fact was that Independent Television would not have worked in the satellite era of broadcasting (and, for the sake of an arbitrary time period, the satellite era is 1990-2010). When Sky and BSB showed up, that was already a warning that the old ways of broadcasting were on their way out, and the BSkyB merger sealed the deal on that. How would Yorkshire Television stand out, for example, if nothing changed about ITV, and the Broadcasting Act never passed? How would they make money from advertising when there are hundreds of other channels? What about programming, if independent companies were bidding to make it?

I don't think Independent Television, as a business model, made sense. Do I think we could have kept more localised television? I think so, and I also think there's a market for that to make a comeback, with the right backing. The Satellite era of television is over, and we are currently in, what I will call the Streaming Era of Television, which stands to be something that will change Linear Television forever. ITV the company (which is different from Independent Television, the concept) could do more to make their channel mean something again. Invest more in news, some more local programming, and less stuff in London (This Morning moving back to Liverpool? I'd love that). Maybe even allow the regional news shows to customise their studios.

At the time ITV was first created, there was no competition for advertising. Then, in the late 1960s, came screen advertising in cinemas. In the 1970s, commercial radio was mooted, and the likes of Radio City started in 1974 offering advertising slots. The most significant competition was satellite and cable tv from the 80s onwards. So yes, ITV was once a licence to print money, but by 1991 it wasn't.

Whether the change in the TV landscape competition wise meant that those providing ITV had to change is, of course, open to debate, and will be in this thread. But, whilst there are those who say "Death on the rock" cost Thames its franchise, I wonder if both Carlton, and Meridian, were successful also because they were publisher broadcasters, and not producing the programmes. There was a requirement going forward, ITV franchise holders had to commission 25% of their programming from independent production companies. Those two were going to, well and truly, meet that requirement.

Hatton Cross post_id=47570 time=1634384839 user_id=1471 Wrote:I love how everyone forgets another commercial television broadcasting franchise that also lost it's bit of stamped paper to broadcast.
OK - so it happened slightly downstream of this anouncement, but Oracle Teletext also bit the dust at 23.59.59 on 31.12.1992.

Ah the teletext franchise announcement of April 1992, totally seperate from the main Channel 3 (ITV) franchise announcements of October 1991 but equally as sad with the announcement.

Inspector Sands post_id=48189 time= user_id=1003 Wrote:Others survived in a different form (TSW as a shoe company, TVam as a Casino and TWW as an opticians)

Shoe company? Casino? Opticians?

Really? ?

Please are you able to expand on any of those?

Thanks in advance. ?

Stanley Matravers post_id=48242 time= user_id=1435 Wrote:

Inspector Sands post_id=48189 time= user_id=1003 Wrote:Others survived in a different form (TSW as a shoe company, TVam as a Casino and TWW as an opticians)

Shoe company? Casino? Opticians?

Really? ?

Please are you able to expand on any of those?

Thanks in advance. ?

TV-am became Crockfords then changed its name in 1995 and has since stopped trading. You can follow the trading history on Companies house, company number 01533947. I think it was a reverse takeover, though I'm not entirely sure how those work.

TSW became UK Safety Ltd, and traded for a number of years, before entering administrative receivership.

Re: TWW - look up Dollond & Aitchison, though that's now part of Boots. Dolland was a subsidiarity at the time of TWW, though I think the link was broken years ago, probably when they quit their franchise early in 1968. TWW threw all their toys out the pram in protest when they lost the licence in 1967 (apparently as "government revenge" against something the News of the World had done/said/printed/fabricated or whatever the story was), so five months worth of broadcasting was flogged to the incoming Harlech for a fortune and TWW took their ball home in the process.