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The 1980 ITV franchise auction

Any videos? (October 2016)

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TT
ttt
623058 posted:
Riaz posted:
Border was close to not submitting an application in 1980 because they were financially struggling. After deciding to re-apply they won by default because nobody else contested their region. If Border had decided not to re-apply then would their region have been deemed economically unviable by the IBA resulting in its transmitters being re-allocated to surrounding regions?


Is that part of the main reason for switching the barrow area over to border from granada agiast the public will. I dare say IBA would have run the station.


I'm sure the IBA would have just split the Border area up... the Scottish bit to STV and Cumbria to either Granada or Tyne Tees (probably the latter - possibly with some level of share transfer for the Border owners). I doubt the IBA would have wanted to run the station for long, and I very much doubt that Border would have walked away before the start of 1982, so it would most likely be a clean transfer.
RI
Richard
Steven O posted:
ttt posted:
JAS84 posted:
, how ITV would look different now if Granada had lost their franchise... That would've changed the fate of Yorkshire-Tyne Tees and the UNM stations.


The whole sorry mess with the northern franchises was completely avoidable. There was a gentleman's agreement that ITV companies didn't run tanks on the lawns of other contractors... until Granada decided to bid for Anglia as they were after an empire. But apparently Anglia had board members who were ex Granada staff and they persuaded Granada not to bid against them so Granada turned their sights on the North East. The decision by Yorkshire and Tyne Tees to go for Granada was retaliation... if Granada had not been so aggressive, it's unlikely that either North West TV or North East TV would have been taken seriously, and around 25 million quid wouldn't have been taken out of the ITV system in the north. It's also likely that Yorkshire would have failed on financial quality without the prospect of the Tyne Tees merger, and this would have had the effect of the Leeds licence also being much cheaper. I think it's fair to say that Granada unleashed a massive self inflicted wound in 1991.

I think Granada were attempting to take over the whole of the northern bloc in 1991 by weakening Yorkshire fundamentally. It's quite telling that when Granada launched its hostile takeover of LWT, the latter responded by trying to seal a deal with YTV instead. This would have meant Tyne Tees being sold on to Anglia, but the latter took one look at the state of the Newcastle station by this point and walked away.

I think Granada probably saw the small stations either side of YTV as potential merger targets for YTV and so wanted them out of the picture. It was pretty obvious that Granada's ultimate aim was control of both large northern areas.


Although Border managed to retain independent until 2000, it entered into an agreement with Granada to share transmission facilities together with some programming, and this saw Border air the likes of Granada Sports Action and Granada Soccer Night along with a few late-night discussion shows. Granada also established the Border Scotland opt-out, IIRC.


When Granada took over the transmission facilities, Border had already been taken over by Capital Radio who wanted it for the Century Radio stations it owned.
TT
ttt
Richard posted:
Steven O posted:
ttt posted:

The whole sorry mess with the northern franchises was completely avoidable. There was a gentleman's agreement that ITV companies didn't run tanks on the lawns of other contractors... until Granada decided to bid for Anglia as they were after an empire. But apparently Anglia had board members who were ex Granada staff and they persuaded Granada not to bid against them so Granada turned their sights on the North East. The decision by Yorkshire and Tyne Tees to go for Granada was retaliation... if Granada had not been so aggressive, it's unlikely that either North West TV or North East TV would have been taken seriously, and around 25 million quid wouldn't have been taken out of the ITV system in the north. It's also likely that Yorkshire would have failed on financial quality without the prospect of the Tyne Tees merger, and this would have had the effect of the Leeds licence also being much cheaper. I think it's fair to say that Granada unleashed a massive self inflicted wound in 1991.

I think Granada were attempting to take over the whole of the northern bloc in 1991 by weakening Yorkshire fundamentally. It's quite telling that when Granada launched its hostile takeover of LWT, the latter responded by trying to seal a deal with YTV instead. This would have meant Tyne Tees being sold on to Anglia, but the latter took one look at the state of the Newcastle station by this point and walked away.

I think Granada probably saw the small stations either side of YTV as potential merger targets for YTV and so wanted them out of the picture. It was pretty obvious that Granada's ultimate aim was control of both large northern areas.


Although Border managed to retain independent until 2000, it entered into an agreement with Granada to share transmission facilities together with some programming, and this saw Border air the likes of Granada Sports Action and Granada Soccer Night along with a few late-night discussion shows. Granada also established the Border Scotland opt-out, IIRC.


When Granada took over the transmission facilities, Border had already been taken over by Capital Radio who wanted it for the Century Radio stations it owned.


I was under the impression that Border's transmission was run from Manchester from 1993 ... it moved to Leeds when Granada's transmission area was shut down. Is that not correct?
RI
Riaz
ttt posted:
I'm sure the IBA would have just split the Border area up... the Scottish bit to STV and Cumbria to either Granada or Tyne Tees (probably the latter - possibly with some level of share transfer for the Border owners).


IoM into Granada?

My own gut feeling is that it would have resulted in the Border region abolished and split up rather than be placed under a 'caretaker' until somebody else applied for the franchise. This is a long shot but it's remotely possible that the Border region could have been bundled into the breakfast slot franchise so would have ended up being run by a daytime division of TV-AM.

Was any consideration given to abolishing the Border region for the 1991 franchise auction?
RI
Richard
623058 posted:
Does Granada cover the isle of man have decently?

Not really. The Isle of Man population is quite insignificant in comparison to the North West region as a whole. Even the combined Border and Tyne Tees regions is smaller.

I don't know if ITV or the BBC have anyone based there full time, but I think there is a local company on the island both use from time to time.

Back in the analogue days, the IOM did switch transmitters for the local news because Caldbeck was more reliable but was the wrong region. As you'd expect, CEEFAX changed as well, though p169 which carried the IOM news was on both BBC NW and BBC NE&C. There was a noticeable "splat" any time the transmitter switch happened.

I do feel sorry for the IOM because although it has a smaller population than the Channel Islands it doesn't have any dedicated local news at all.
RI
Riaz
Some IoM residents watched UTV broadcast from the Divis transmitter.
WW
WW Update
Whataday posted:
That video has led me on to this one:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1t24zh_report-south-the-fight-for-the-franchise_shortfilms

Shows quite a lot of detail about the bidders in the south - even some of their logos.


Very interesting. Were similar programs about prospective franchise bidders shown in other BBC regions?
SC
Si-Co
ttt posted:
Richard posted:
Steven O posted:

Although Border managed to retain independent until 2000, it entered into an agreement with Granada to share transmission facilities together with some programming, and this saw Border air the likes of Granada Sports Action and Granada Soccer Night along with a few late-night discussion shows. Granada also established the Border Scotland opt-out, IIRC.


When Granada took over the transmission facilities, Border had already been taken over by Capital Radio who wanted it for the Century Radio stations it owned.


I was under the impression that Border's transmission was run from Manchester from 1993 ... it moved to Leeds when Granada's transmission area was shut down. Is that not correct?


No, Manchester never handled Border's transmission/playout as far as I know. In 1993/94 Granada took over responsibility for Border's advertising and many purchased programmes were shared, but Carlisle merely took the ads as an external source. All network programmes were still fed into Carlisle from the originating company.

In fact, I think Border's presentation department lasted longer than the other northern regions. Leeds took over transmission at weekends/off-peak times around 1999, but it was sometime in the early 2000s before they took full control.
Last edited by Si-Co on 29 October 2016 6:11pm
SD
sda|
sda| posted:
More essential reading is a great book I am in the middle of at the moment about Granada called The Dream That Died, The Rise And Fall Of ITV by Raymond Fitzwalter, which amongst other things goes into great detail on Granada's franchise battles and their competitors. I will go back and see what it says about Mersey.


I think it's already been said, but here are the main points from the book

1991

YTV didn't like GRA trying to buy TTTV with Border so invested in Redmond's franchise bid
Redmond was jealous of Granada
Reused and "dusted off" plans he had for a "naff" 5th tv channel with YTV 20% partners
Wanted 50 hrs pw regional TV and 52 single plays a year, YTV didn't like, Redmond wouldn't change anything, was "obstinate". also contradicted with YTV's own franchise bid
Last edited by sda| on 31 October 2016 12:22am
RI
Riaz
The best book about the 1980 franchise auction is The Franchise Affair: Creating Fortunes and Failures in Independent Television, by Asa Briggs and Joanna Spicer, although it is a bit tricky to find. It was published in 1986.

There is also some information in Independent Television in Britain: Volume 4: Companies and Programmes, 1968–80, by Jeremy Potter.
TC
TonyCurrie
Riaz posted:
Some IoM residents watched UTV broadcast from the Divis transmitter.

The problem has always been the topography of the island. When the BBC were forced to build a relay station there in 1953 (a local TV dealer had set up an 'unauthorised' relay to broadcast the Coronation and he only switched it off when Tynwald were given assurances that they would be brought to the top of the list for a relay), there were immense problems in finding the right site, as a station covering Douglas doesn't get into the north and west; and the off-air feeds were always marginal because the island's electricity supply is mostly overground and prone to arcing in the saltwater atmosphere. Likewise when the ITA built the Richmond Hill VHF relay, it only served the south east - other areas received variously Ulster (from Black Mountain) or Border direct from Caldbeck, or Granada from Winter Hill. The Douglas UHF transmitter has no fewer that TEN relays, and in analogue days some of those got a better RBL from Caldbeck, and some from Winter Hill so there was no single regional news magazine being viewed by Manxmen. The BBC were able to provide the solution already described whereby the RBL feed into Douglas could be switched between Caldbeck and Winter Hill although it did mean sometimes that Look North provided ropier pictures than the rest of the BBC-1 feed. An attempt to provide a local TV station about ten years ago floundered on the rock of unviability.
Night Thoughts, Si-Co and VMPhil gave kudos
SP
Steve in Pudsey
As I understand it there was a cue dot added outside the viewable area on Winter Hill output when it was opted out, and the presence of this switched Douglas over. How did this work when Newcastle was opting out but Manchester wasn't?

Would somebody have to sit in the pres gallery in Manchester and soft opt in order to keep network output on Douglas, or could Manchester Comms add the cue dot over network output? Or did the Newcastle opts go out in the IoM?

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