Thanks. This goes back to before the C4 days as well but I know Central were responsible for co-ordinating the output but were all regions expected to contribute content, and if so did LWT get away with not doing so being a weekend franchise?
I'm not sure what you mean here, LWT weren't "getting away" with not making schools programmes because they were never on air when schools programmes were required. But similarly, Thames didn't do things that LWT had to do, like programmes for the God Slot, as they weren't on air on Sundays.
Most things on ITV were done by committee, and I think there was a lot of horse-trading going on, I think it was acccepted that the Big Five would do the vast majority of things but there'd be opportunities for the smaller companies. In the One Day In The Life Of Television book Granada's David Boulton talks about being part of the religion committee who would decide who'd make what for the various slots, and saying it was in many ways a ridiculous way of working, as the committee was made of representatives from all the regions, and they all had two totally incompatible aims - they were expected to choose the best programmes on merit, but as they were all representing their individual companies, they all wanted as many of their own programmes chosen as possible. He does say that a lot of it was very political and the big companies would often sit back and let a smaller company do something instead, in return for a favour later.
Obviously some of the ITV companies were bigger than others so the bigger ones would have greater obligations. The smaller companies met their licence obligations by broadcasting programmes from other regions. All ITV companies were obliged to broadcast a set amount of news, current affairs, religion and so on, but they didn't have to make it all themselves.