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TVS Post-1993

(February 2017)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
WH
Whataday Founding member
I think that we could all possibly agree that considering TVS Television Ltd was still exploiting Maidstone and the programme library until the latter was sold in March 1996 - the physical location of the library was at Maidstone.


I don't think Maidstone was being exploited by TVS Television Ltd - but that's incidental really. It was being exploited by a vehicle owned by IFE up to March 1996, then a vehicle owned by Flextech.


The vehicle being TVS Television Ltd.
IN
Interceptor
I think that we could all possibly agree that considering TVS Television Ltd was still exploiting Maidstone and the programme library until the latter was sold in March 1996 - the physical location of the library was at Maidstone.


I don't think Maidstone was being exploited by TVS Television Ltd - but that's incidental really. It was being exploited by a vehicle owned by IFE up to March 1996, then a vehicle owned by Flextech.


The vehicle being TVS Television Ltd.

Possibly, there's not any documentary evidence that it was that vehicle and not some other company also transferred as part of the deal. The annual report states that the principal activity was the sale of Television Programs (that doesn't mean they didn't own the studios, but I'd have expected that to be a larger part of their business by 1996 if they did). "Principal activity" does not necessarily mean 'biggest in terms of sales/whatever' though, I get that.


It matters not to the archive which specific company owned the studios either way.
WH
Whataday Founding member
There is evidence - TVS Television Ltd owned Maidstone Studios Ltd until 2004 and continued to file accounts that show income each year under the ownership of Flextech.

I agree, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but a lot of people suggested that the archive was hived off to IFC when they bought TVS along with that of MTM. The company paperwork filed at least shows that wasn't the case, and it remained with TVS Television until 1996. This is a good indicator that the physical archive didn't move until this point at least.

If the tapes remained under IFE when the studios were sold, but were still kept at Maidstone, surely there would have been some sort of storage agreement, and Maidstone would have to seek IFE/Disney's permission when it came to disposing of them?
IS
Inspector Sands
Other than commissioned programming I can't see any evidence Flextech were interested in archive programming and distribution. I refer you to a previous contribution of mine: http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forums/post989636#post-989636

On the contrary - I put forward that it's possible that when it came to buying the Family Channel, Flextech negotiated the price down by removing the TVS archive from the deal. Perhaps they saw it as a rather expensive way of securing the rights to Catchphrase rather than just agreeing repeat runs as required.

Yes, it depends what price they were asking for the archive as well as the channel. Also it's not like it's just something you buy and there's no other cost - storage needs paying for as does staff to market it and money to maintain it long term. Probably an expense they didn't want
:-(
A former member
Who owned tvs television? If you think this is a daft Q, then please look back to the bottom of page 1.
IS
Inspector Sands
If the tapes remained under IFE when the studios were sold, but were still kept at Maidstone, surely there would have been some sort of storage agreement, and Maidstone would have to seek IFE/Disney's permission when it came to disposing of them?

Unless they hadn't paid their rent on the space. Which is unlikely, if anything I think these sorts of things get paid long after they don't need to be!


However it's owners have changed hands several times, all to large foreign corporations. If the rental payment got lost or forgotten about and who should be paying for the space isn't known.......?
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 18 February 2017 1:10pm
WH
Whataday Founding member
Who owned tvs television? If you think this is a daft Q, then please look back to the bottom of page 1.


Sorry I didn't notice that post until now.

TVS Entertainment Plc owned TVS Television Ltd. TVS Television Ltd owned 100% of the shares of TVS Productions Ltd, which owned the studios. Southampton was sold to Meridian before the end of 1991 and TVS rented the space between then and December 31st 1992.

MTM has never had anything to do with TVS Television. MTM was owned through a separate holding company in the states called TVS North America Holdings, Inc.
IS
Inspector Sands
What about the other asset? If we know which sold which part of the company then maybe we're get a better idea:

* Southampton Studios
* Gillian threater
* London office


Southampton was sold to Meridian
Gillingham became a Laserquest
Any office in London would have been rented so presumably they closed when not longer needed
:-(
A former member
So Mary share where with tvs north America?
IS
Inspector Sands

Another footnote to this little investigation: TVS Television Ltd was actually incorporated on 8 October 1957... as Southern Television Ltd! Not too sure how this happened, as obviously Southern & TVS were two very separate licensees.

TVS Television Ltd eventually sold The Maidstone Studios in 2002. Amazingly, the company is only now currently being liquidated.


I've finally had a chance to look at their records online, and a couple of other interesting things not related to the location of the fabled archive...

* TVS Television is currently owned by Liberty Media (owners of Virgin Media, who of course bought Telewest who owned Flextech )
* After Flextech took over the whole of International Family Entertainment UK (The Family Channel) it became 'Maidstone Broadcasting'
*What is now Maidstone Studios was originally 'South & East Communications' when it was created in 1980 - presumably the company that bid for the franchise back in 1980
WH
Whataday Founding member
I mentioned the Maidstone Studios company legacy in my initial post, but it's worth mentioning that It was originally South-East Communications because their original expectation was that the IBA would split the region, with Southern retaining the South.

When TVS were granted the lot, they became South & South-East Communications Ltd. Presumably as the founding company it was the lease holder for the studio sites, but (for reasons previously suggested) they took over Southern Television Ltd for the broadcast operations and renamed it TVS Television Ltd.

Actually, when you think about it, perhaps that's the reasoning behind that odd name. Southern Television Ltd became TVS Television Ltd... when applying to change the name, did they just replace the word Southern with TVS?
IS
Inspector Sands

When TVS were granted the lot, they became South & South-East Communications Ltd. Presumably as the founding company it was the lease holder for the studio sites, but (for reasons previously suggested) they took over Southern Television Ltd for the broadcast operations and renamed it TVS Television Ltd.

Or maybe the old Southern TV company kept the lease on Southampton, but ownership of Maidstone was owned by South and South East? That later became 'TVS Productions'

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