SP
According to his previous post BFBS did use the continuity studio during the week.
RI
Which company do you have in mind? The £59.8m a year for its licence would have been offputting to any company wishing to take over TVS but then Granada took over Yorkshire that was paying out £37.7m a year in a region with less advertising revenue. LWT was only paying out £7.59m a year. If TVS and LWT merged then it would have been on average £33.7m per region. Less than the £36.5m a year that Meridian ended up paying.
No chance. TVS was in financial difficulties already and would have had to pay £50 million a year for its licence. No way it would be in a position to take over anyone. It would have been sold fairly cheaply to a company with deep pockets
Which company do you have in mind? The £59.8m a year for its licence would have been offputting to any company wishing to take over TVS but then Granada took over Yorkshire that was paying out £37.7m a year in a region with less advertising revenue. LWT was only paying out £7.59m a year. If TVS and LWT merged then it would have been on average £33.7m per region. Less than the £36.5m a year that Meridian ended up paying.
IS
£59 million, more than I remembered!
It would have been one of the big 4 - Granada, Central, LWT, Thames/Carlton (whoever won). Though TVam was cash rich at the time, if that had survived then who knows? Operationally it would be a better fit with one of the London stations.
Remember that TVS had a big liability on its books that Meridian or Yorkshire didn't. It's American expansion really didn't work out for them
It would have been one of the big 4 - Granada, Central, LWT, Thames/Carlton (whoever won). Though TVam was cash rich at the time, if that had survived then who knows? Operationally it would be a better fit with one of the London stations.
Remember that TVS had a big liability on its books that Meridian or Yorkshire didn't. It's American expansion really didn't work out for them
NL
Nobody has mentioned whether – after factoring out news and popular networked programmes at prime time – Thames provided a good local service for their region. Some ITV companies were very strongly committed to providing a good local service with a range of quality local programmes but was Thames one of them?
Given the nature of the London weekday region then would it have been better served by a publisher broadcaster rather than a large in-house producer?
Carlton was a publisher broadcaster. I think the only programmes they made were the news (as part of LNN).
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.
Nobody has mentioned whether – after factoring out news and popular networked programmes at prime time – Thames provided a good local service for their region. Some ITV companies were very strongly committed to providing a good local service with a range of quality local programmes but was Thames one of them?
Given the nature of the London weekday region then would it have been better served by a publisher broadcaster rather than a large in-house producer?
Carlton was a publisher broadcaster. I think the only programmes they made were the news (as part of LNN).
:-(
A former member
There did make stuff to comply with the licence. I can't remember what.
IS
Carlton was a publisher broadcaster. I think the only programmes they made were the news (as part of LNN).
The only programme that had 'a Carlton production' on the end were the short 3 minute Crimestoppers reports.
They didn't make their news, as you say it was made by LNN, who also did their playout*. Carlton didn't really do much actual telly until they bought Central
*yes LNN was part owned by Carlton but it was a seperate company, so still 'out of house'
Carlton was a publisher broadcaster. I think the only programmes they made were the news (as part of LNN).
The only programme that had 'a Carlton production' on the end were the short 3 minute Crimestoppers reports.
They didn't make their news, as you say it was made by LNN, who also did their playout*. Carlton didn't really do much actual telly until they bought Central
*yes LNN was part owned by Carlton but it was a seperate company, so still 'out of house'
RO
The white paper on the future of ITV raises an interesting thought for me. ITV was expected to produce or source 25% of stuff from independents. How would that have been achieved at TV-am, assuming it was still broadcasting after 31st December 1992.
IS
Depends if that's 25% per company or 25% of the channels output.
TVam had already put some children's output out to indies. Having indies doing the weekends would be 35% of its output (I think, my maths is rusty!)
The white paper on the future of ITV raises an interesting thought for me. ITV was expected to produce or source 25% of stuff from independents. How would that have been achieved at TV-am, assuming it was still broadcasting after 31st December 1992.
Depends if that's 25% per company or 25% of the channels output.
TVam had already put some children's output out to indies. Having indies doing the weekends would be 35% of its output (I think, my maths is rusty!)
NL
Carlton was a publisher broadcaster. I think the only programmes they made were the news (as part of LNN).
The only programme that had 'a Carlton production' on the end were the short 3 minute Crimestoppers reports.
They didn't make their news, as you say it was made by LNN, who also did their playout*. Carlton didn't really do much actual telly until they bought Central
*yes LNN was part owned by Carlton but it was a seperate company, so still 'out of house'
Carlton was a publisher broadcaster. I think the only programmes they made were the news (as part of LNN).
The only programme that had 'a Carlton production' on the end were the short 3 minute Crimestoppers reports.
They didn't make their news, as you say it was made by LNN, who also did their playout*. Carlton didn't really do much actual telly until they bought Central
*yes LNN was part owned by Carlton but it was a seperate company, so still 'out of house'
SW
Yes, as you say they were already using indies for their kids shows (although it was just the old TVam kids department acting as an indie) and they made reference in their application to working with other indies, they had Mersey TV lined up to do some stuff for them for a start.
TVam had already put some children's output out to indies. Having indies doing the weekends would be 35% of its output (I think, my maths is rusty!)
Yes, as you say they were already using indies for their kids shows (although it was just the old TVam kids department acting as an indie) and they made reference in their application to working with other indies, they had Mersey TV lined up to do some stuff for them for a start.
BL
In the same way, LWT wasn't "dark" on weekdays, making bits for Weekend World, The London Programme etc.
Wasn't LWT also playing out BFBS during the week?
Mr Cortina will give you chapter and verse on that, they were involved with BFBS playout at one point,
though not using the suite on the South Bank ?
They also provided the 'in programme pres/gfx' for C4 racing
Indeed. When LWT won the contract from the MOD to provide the technical wherewithal to produce a tv service for the troops in Germany, it was initially produced at the South Bank whilst the permanent base was being built and installed over at LWT's studios at Stonebridge Park. The truck that recorded the ITV/BBC1&2 programmes was parked along the side of the SB building, it was, I believe, eventually shipped over to Germany where it became the local playback facility (It had to be mobile to move around West Germany as the TV service expanded). The operation was only at the SB for a short period though. The South Bank was busy every day of the week. Racing graphics were sourced from a drive in truck parked alongside the building, the output of which was plumbed to the C4 presentation suite (not the LWT pres suite).
In the same way, LWT wasn't "dark" on weekdays, making bits for Weekend World, The London Programme etc.
Wasn't LWT also playing out BFBS during the week?
Mr Cortina will give you chapter and verse on that, they were involved with BFBS playout at one point,
though not using the suite on the South Bank ?
They also provided the 'in programme pres/gfx' for C4 racing
Indeed. When LWT won the contract from the MOD to provide the technical wherewithal to produce a tv service for the troops in Germany, it was initially produced at the South Bank whilst the permanent base was being built and installed over at LWT's studios at Stonebridge Park. The truck that recorded the ITV/BBC1&2 programmes was parked along the side of the SB building, it was, I believe, eventually shipped over to Germany where it became the local playback facility (It had to be mobile to move around West Germany as the TV service expanded). The operation was only at the SB for a short period though. The South Bank was busy every day of the week. Racing graphics were sourced from a drive in truck parked alongside the building, the output of which was plumbed to the C4 presentation suite (not the LWT pres suite).
TT
ttt
No chance. TVS was in financial difficulties already and would have had to pay £50 million a year for its licence. No way it would be in a position to take over anyone. It would have been sold fairly cheaply to a company with deep pockets
Which company do you have in mind? The £59.8m a year for its licence would have been offputting to any company wishing to take over TVS but then Granada took over Yorkshire that was paying out £37.7m a year in a region with less advertising revenue. LWT was only paying out £7.59m a year. If TVS and LWT merged then it would have been on average £33.7m per region. Less than the £36.5m a year that Meridian ended up paying.
It would have had to have been one of the large ITV companies as TVS would have been financially unviable. TSW, HTV, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees were all in the same boat, HTV rather less so than the others and it just about managed to stay afloat until the rules were relaxed a few years into the franchise. They were in no position whatsoever to be capable of making acquisitions.
YTV and especially TTT were torpedoed by their very high bids. Neither company was viable as a separate entity which is why the merger was allowed in 1992 in order to give them a head start in reorganizing.
TSW and TVS were over the line. If they had been given the franchises under the terms of their respective bids, they could not have remained independent for long. They would have been takeover targets, and completely incapable of acquiring anyone else, let alone LWT. Independent, at least one of them would have likely gone bust (or had their licence revoked) without external help, given that the early ITC was not minded to allow them to reduce quality by much. Even with the YTV takeover, their plans for TTT (very) nearly resulted in licence revocation of the North East contract in 1993.