1989-90 What if?

Still didn't mean the London weekday franchise had to change hands, though...

This is true, but it was handy that London Weekday was won by a publisher broadcaster.

Probably strengthened the regions outside of London actually by not having a London franchise who ended up as kind of the default producer of primetime programming in the way LWT kind of was on Saturday nights at least.

Not really, all it did was bring in some strange players. Many ITV stations like LWT, Scottish, central had all ready instigated big cuts all over the place to stream line the company. Would Thames have sold of there studios and moved in to Kent house? TVS would have lost because the IBA would not have been happy with them.

Those weren't a threat at the time. Broadband was a decade away and gaming was still Commodores and Amstrads.

You've misinterpreted me. I didn't say that all those things were a threat at the time - I said that the Act correctly shaped the ITV of the future in order to deal with them.

In theory yes but I don't remember many big new successful new shows filling the weekday evening slots that Thames used to. In fact gradually extra episodes of soaps ended up filling those hours.



Thames would have had to have instigated massive cuts post 1993 too, and become even more streamlined as time went on and ITVs output changed.


As for its studios but Teddington had already been spun off and Euston was bought back by its landlords for redevelopment a few years after Thames went off air. Even if that hadn't have happened they'd have wanted somewhere smaller and more modern eventually.

I've no doubt they'd have entered into some sort of facilities sharing like Carlton and LWT did. That's just sensible, especially the next time both needed a tech refresh

Yorkshire and Tyne Tees re-merged post Broadcasting act. Was "Network North" their answer to the tricky York/North Yorks overlap?

Wasn't network north a pre-merger attempt to grab more of N Yorkshire from, er Yorkshire?

https://www.transdiffusion.org/2006/03/29/networknorth

Wish the franchise applications were available online

I believe some are, you could email ofcom and put in a request for FOI, Its how we find out why CPT TV lose London weekday even thought it bidded more.