Do we know much about the failed CPV-TV bid, who were rejected on quality despite bidding more than Carlton.
CPV-TV also bid £10.1m for the East of England and £22.1m the South and South East regions. What would the longer term result have been for ITV if CPV-TV had won one of these regions? Would it have eventually sold out to Carlton or Granada or ended up taking over ITV?
If Meridian had not contested the South and South East region then would it most likely have been awarded to Carlton who bid just £18.1m, resulting in Thames surviving, or CPV-TV with Carlton winning London weekdays - assuming that TVS was doomed because of its poor financial situation. CPV-TV (officially) failed on quality grounds so if Carlton was the winner because it was the only acceptable applicant then could it be said with any confidence that Meridian effectively killed Thames without contesting them?!
Could Carlton have been awarded both the London weekday and the South and South East regions, as well as holding its stake in Central?
:-(
A former member
The other reason was because CPV was very arrogant, and bank the mortgage money on TVAM staying.
Also is was possible for Carlton or anyone else to won two francise, the law allowed this to happen, both companies would be totale separate to begin with etc
Actually what was in Thames bid? at least Carlton said yes we want a joint london news service, which had been on the IBA wish list for a while...
I think I'm right in saying that the detail of the bids will be released in May 2021 under the 30 year rule.
The 30 year rule doesn't exist any more, it's now the 20 year rule and they're releasing 2 years every year until they catch up. So they should average released 1991 by now. However the ITC (and Of on) being a Quango not a government department I'm not sure whether they count.
Since I made that FOI request, it's not legislation per se that prevents the details being released, its more that the information in question was obtained through the 1990 Broadcasting Act which makes it's disclosure exempt.
Section 393(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, information with respect to a particular business which has been obtained in exercise of a power conferred by—
(a)this Act [Communicatios Act 2003],
...
(c)the [Broadcasting] 1990 Act, or
(d)the [Broadcasting] 1996 Act,
is not, so long as that business continues to be carried on, to be disclosed without the consent of the person for the time being carrying on that business.
As I wrote in the annotation on that FOI request, you may do better rather than just requesting copies of this, that and the other, narrowing your sights/targets a bit and going for narrow chunks.
The other reason was because CPV was very arrogant, and bank the mortgage money on TVAM staying.
Something that has stuck in my mind was a (rather miserable) science teacher who had serious beef with CPV-TV. He stated that David Frost has a dubious track record running TV stations. LWT was a disaster at the outset and had to completely transform itself in order to survive. TV-AM also had a bad start, and nearly went bust, but was only saved from collapsing by a stuffed rat – the only rat to join a sinking ship – so why should David Frost be given a third opportunity to cock things up? He then went on about how Richard Branson might be famous but he knows sod all about TV production and broadcasting. He just wants a piece of the ITV cake for more fame and money to spend on his airline. The ITC would be fools to pick what looks like a project run by shady and opportunist businessmen who are only interested in making millions, and not providing a public service. To cap it off, the men behind CPV-TV also have the audacity to contest three regions whilst thinking that they will actually win all three.
After the results were announced he joked that CPV-TV should have contested the Border region with a bid of just £2000 – they might have won it!
The same teacher was also a supporter of Meridian although he didn’t (appear to) have any financial interests or personal connections with the company. He explained that TVS was up $#!+ creek financially after losing millions on MTM. It’s all public knowledge but TVS tries to brush this dirt under the carpet. He didn’t mention anything about a potential merger between TVS and LWT or the size of the TVS bid.