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The 1980 ITV franchise auction

Any videos? (October 2016)

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RI
Riaz
I have wondered what the outcome could have been if the IBA decided on any of the following in 1980:

1. Two, or more, regions have weekday / weekend franchises.

2. A single national weekend franchise.

3. A single national weekend franchise that, apart from a handful of programmes, functions as a publisher broadcaster and priority is given to programmes from ITV companies that are not the big 5.
TC
TonyCurrie
Well, the IBA had a responsibility to maximise advertising revenue for their contractors, so deliberately screwing up the weekend by shutting out programmes made by the majors would have been a daft thing to do. A single national weekend franchise would have been totally impractical, especially since many contractors provided local football highlights somewhere over the weekend. The contractors in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would have taken great exception to such an idea. As for increasing the weekend/weekday franchises - such splits only worked in very big franchise areas, and having sliced up 'The North' the only possible franchise that you could still divide was The Midlands - where much had been made of the need for ATV to provide a 7 day service in a single region.
Night Thoughts, DE88 and Steve Williams gave kudos
RI
Riaz
TonyCurrie posted:
Well, the IBA had a responsibility to maximise advertising revenue for their contractors, so deliberately screwing up the weekend by shutting out programmes made by the majors would have been a daft thing to do.


?????????

Remember that LWT was the most vocal of all the ITV companies when it came to wanting to abolish the Sunday evening God slot because they were the most hurt by it.

After 1992 LWT wanted to become more of a publisher broadcaster than a programme producer.

Quote:
A single national weekend franchise would have been totally impractical, especially since many contractors provided local football highlights somewhere over the weekend. The contractors in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would have taken great exception to such an idea.


How about if central and north Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland had 7 day franchises but there was a single weekend franchise for England and the south of Scotland - with a small number of regional opt-outs if necessary?

Quote:
As for increasing the weekend/weekday franchises - such splits only worked in very big franchise areas, and having sliced up 'The North' the only possible franchise that you could still divide was The Midlands - where much had been made of the need for ATV to provide a 7 day service in a single region.


An even more sophisticated model is as above but London also has a separate weekend franchise!
:-(
A former member
Riaz posted:
TonyCurrie posted:
Well, the IBA had a responsibility to maximise advertising revenue for their contractors, so deliberately screwing up the weekend by shutting out programmes made by the majors would have been a daft thing to do.


?????????

Remember that LWT was the most vocal of all the ITV companies when it came to wanting to abolish the Sunday evening God slot because they were the most hurt by it.

After 1992 LWT wanted to become more of a publisher broadcaster than a programme producer.


I've never seen that reply to Mr C before. Remember LWT wasn't happy with half the output being suggested by the other Big 3, there is a whole thread about that somewhere on here. 2.5 days to get alot of ad money in and it wasn't easy.

Riaz posted:

Quote:
A single national weekend franchise would have been totally impractical, especially since many contractors provided local football highlights somewhere over the weekend. The contractors in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would have taken great exception to such an idea.


How about if central and north Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland had 7 day franchises but there was a single weekend franchise for England and the south of Scotland - with a small number of regional opt-outs if necessary?

Quote:
As for increasing the weekend/weekday franchises - such splits only worked in very big franchise areas, and having sliced up 'The North' the only possible franchise that you could still divide was The Midlands - where much had been made of the need for ATV to provide a 7 day service in a single region.


An even more sophisticated model is as above but London also has a separate weekend franchise!



That wouldn't have worked either, it would cost alot of money just to have alot of teams doing nothing all week.
RO
robertclark125
Could a 4/3 split have worked better in London in the 1980 franchise auction? Thames broadcasting Monday to Thursday, LWT all of Friday as well as Saturday and Sunday? Would've gave LWT a bit more airtime.
SW
Steve Williams
robertclark125 posted:
Could a 4/3 split have worked better in London in the 1980 franchise auction? Thames broadcasting Monday to Thursday, LWT all of Friday as well as Saturday and Sunday? Would've gave LWT a bit more airtime.


A little bit more, but almost entirely commercially unimportant, including three hours of schools programmes, plus even more of an obligation to create regional news which they were totally underequipped for.

Riaz posted:
3. A single national weekend franchise that, apart from a handful of programmes, functions as a publisher broadcaster and priority is given to programmes from ITV companies that are not the big 5.


Love the idea of Saturday night telly being dominated by Border, Channel and Grampian.
RO
robertclark125
was it a good idea to have a lonodn weekend/weekday split by 1980s? After all channel 4 was coming onstream in 1982, and whilst ITV sold the airtime, there were other things on the horizon; there was cinema advertising, which had been ongoing for years. Satellite wasn't that far off. The idea of one itv contractor, whilst having a "monopoly" of the ITV market in London, in those contexts, maybe wasn't a bad idea after all.
:-(
A former member
Quote:
under equipped for.


Yet LWT had a tone of journalist because of the london Programme.
MA
Markymark
robertclark125 posted:
was it a good idea to have a lonodn weekend/weekday split by 1980s? After all channel 4 was coming onstream in 1982, and whilst ITV sold the airtime, there were other things on the horizon; there was cinema advertising, which had been ongoing for years. Satellite wasn't that far off. The idea of one itv contractor, whilst having a "monopoly" of the ITV market in London, in those contexts, maybe wasn't a bad idea after all.


The IBA certainly had some fear in the 70s and 80s of creating London based giants.

They did the same for radio, London General (Capital) and London News (LBC). Until the 1990s London was
the only city in the UK to have two commercial radio stations.

It didn't really work. In 1979 there were just 19 ILR stations, and Capital's advertising revenue, equalled that of the other 18 combined (inc LBC's) !
Night Thoughts and DE88 gave kudos
IS
Inspector Sands
623058 posted:
Quote:
under equipped for.


Yet LWT had a tone of journalist because of the london Programme.

But that was a weekly current affairs programme, doesn't make them equipped for a news service
NL
Ne1L C
FANTASY ALERT:

If the IBA wanted to keep ATV in the system they could have said to Grade:
"Right you stay in ITV as a programme provider not a regional licensee"

The Midands is given to a new company eg Midlands Television

Straying even further into fantasy LWT goes down the same route as ATV. They lose their weekend license, change their name to say Independent Weekend Television (IWT).

Let Thames take over London 7 days a week

ITV set up a network control centre 10 years earlier and ensure an even as split as possible between "nationals" (ATV and IWT), "major regionals" (Thames, Yorkshire etc) and "minor regionals" (Border)

Not very likely but still.... Very Happy
:-(
A former member
ATV is still around it just had to sell of share and rename the company. It a tad confusing: There just wanted to water down Lew grade controls, then come the battles...

Quote:

The IBA accepted ATV's assertion that ATV Midlands Ltd planned to take a more local identity, and awarded the contract to ATV Midlands Ltd on the basis that further changes were to be implemented, including that the parent company Associated Communications Corporation would divest 49% of its shareholding in ATV Midlands Ltd in an attempt to introduce local shareholders and that ATV Midlands Ltd's registered office should be within the region. To demonstrate this change of share structure, the IBA insisted that ATV change its company name, to show that it was a substantially new company due to the requirements of a dual region


Quote:

Shortly after the station began broadcasting, Australian entrepreneur Robert Holmes à Court – via his Bell Group – started the process of acquiring ACC, but was halted by the IBA, since the law prohibited foreign companies from controlling British television companies.[31] By March, a rival bid from Gerald Ronson's Heron Corporation also entered the race to takeover ACC.[32][33] In April 1982, ACC was taken-over by Robert Holmes à Court,[34] with the IBA approving the deal in June on condition that ACC's 51 percent stake in Central be put in trust, thus divesting ACC of all voting power until it had reduced its shares in the broadcaster.[35]


By 1983 it deffo had new owners.

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