The 1980 ITV franchise auction

When the physics of UHF propagation conflicts with national and cultural frontiers we end up with Border TV! Cunning placement of transmitters across the region – at extra cost - could have eliminated the problem enabling viewers in the south of Scotland to watch STV and viewers in Cumbria to watch whatever English ITV company serves the area.

The ultra cynical explanation is that the IBA was Unionist at heart so they deliberately ensured that one ITV region covered both Scotland and England and another ITV region covered both Wales and England.

Is this a fault? there a post missing before I post this message>

Edit : why did P13 not appear until I postage this ?

The original VHF TV transmitters that the BBC built in the 40s and 50s were chosen for maximum population coverage, and little to no attention was paid to regionality. The Beeb opted to use Sandale to provide a TV service to the Solway Firth area in 1956. The ITA came along in each area a few years later, and generally attempted to choose sites close to the BBC sites, to allow the use of combined Band I (BBC) and Band III (ITA) aerials to easily receive both services.

For UHF everything is derived from the 1961 Stockholm conference that planned UHF coverage on a Europe wide basis. The BBC, ITA, and GPO attended this conference on the behalf of the UK. Planning for the UK's eventual four channel service was etched out there. The primary UHF station in each region was without exception selected from either an existing BBC or ITA site, in the area under discussion this was ITA Caldbeck.

The same problem exists in the Severn Estuary area, the BBC selected Wenvoe, the ITA nearby St Hilary. That led to two services on VHF from each broadcaster, to serve Wales and the West of England. It led to TWW ( later HTV )being a dual region franchiseie

In that area Mendip helped solve the problem for UHF, but Mendip's major objective was still to serve areas Wenvoe couldn't reach on UHF

That is the nub of the problem. A frequency plan is drawn up around existing transmitter sites without taking into account potential national / cultural interests and whether the Border region ITV franchise will be economically viable in decades to come. The situation is further complicated by the existence of VHF running in parallel with UHF at the time of the 1980 franchise auction if the decision to abolish the Border region went ahead.

Was the Border region actually a kludge more so than anything else?

The seeds were sown back in the 1950s by the BBC, but actually, the best location to serve
SW Scotland and N Cumbria from, is exactly where Sandale and Caldbeck are. Back then
engineering choice took priority.

The Beeb however were able to fix things on VHF by the mid 60s, by grabbing a second VHF allocation
in Band III and using it for BBC 1 Scotland. However, it didn't (still doesn't) matter for them, that viewers
had effectively a choice of two versions of BBC 1. For ITV, it would have affected Border's advertising
revenue if STV had been additionally available in their area, and they'd have been rendered unviable.
If the Border region hadn't been formed, we'd have ended up with Tyne Tees or Granada being
provided from Caldbeck in addition to STV. Again more financial complications



Yes, I suppose it was. However so was the TWW/HTV region. The ITA were forced
to make the same ITV company responsible for Wales and the West, because
of the unpopularity of Welsh language programming, and the ease of reception
of the 'English' ITV service from St Hilary in Cardiff and Newport that would have
damaged a Welsh only contractor.

Again, the area of Glamorgan where Wenvoe and St Hilary are is idea to serve the SE Wales coast,
and the other side of the Bristol Channel, (and the Beeb were there first !)

That is the nub of the problem. A frequency plan is drawn up around existing transmitter sites without taking into account potential national / cultural interests and whether the Border region ITV franchise will be economically viable in decades to come. The situation is further complicated by the existence of VHF running in parallel with UHF at the time of the 1980 franchise auction if the decision to abolish the Border region went ahead.

Was the Border region actually a kludge more so than anything else?

Something odd is going on with this thread. Duplicate posts, then posts disappearing and reappearing!

That usually means posts have been deleted at some point. Known bug.

The reason why Central had no competition, I believe its the same reason why STV had no competition either:

Well, Gutteridge must've been lying, because LWT didn't lose its franchise.

He wasn't, his consortium did bid more but remember the highest bidder didn't necessarily win

What is even more interesting is ITV in 1993, Had to cuts its programme budget, a marketing company believe there would be no real growth until 2000

ITC think it could be ITV managed to provide the same level for less money, which of course was hogwash, its I dare say the reason why certain show were dropped like high road and cheaper ideas where used. I was lead to believe the programme budget was set in stone and wasn't able to be cut which lead to more trouble for everyone.