26th Anniversary of the biggest shake up in ITV

MTM would have been a disqualified person from being a television programme contractor under s20(6)(a) of the Broadcasting Act 1981 as a non-EEC company, and the IBA would have had no choice but to require the sale of the TVS Television company or terminate the contract.

Was the proposal that TV-AM supplied the news only applicable for the CPV London weekday region or did it apply to the south and south east and East Anglia regions as well? Far less has been published about the CPV applications for these regions than the London weekday region.

If it was a choice between TVS, CPV, and Carlton then who would most likely have won?

Why not ask Ofcom? Thats how we found out the mess cpv was wheeling out for its below par news service.

I think it was the London weekday that CPV put their news eggs in one basket for, that's the most documented of the failed bids from 1991. Presumably it would have been the same for another region if they'd won it but again if its dependent on TV-am lasting into 1993 and no back-up plan, they could have bid for the entire country and won nothing. They were presumably so confident of TV-am surviving that little or no thought was given to any alternative, or if it was it wasn't submitted to the ITC in the pitch.

It may be worth doing a Freedom of Information request to Ofcom; they won't release the full bids due to law exceptions and data protection but I dare say if you cherry-pick specific points you may get some information.

CPV had dreams of winning all three regions and creating a super region from them. Could TV-AM have realistically provided a news gathering service for such a large territory?

Are you actually going to argue and debate with anybody or just throw questions around?

As to newsgathering, the national satellite networks managed it so presumably TV-am could have done it, given enough money and resources.

Surely there should be a statute on FoI requests. Such a request may interest a few here but I really don't think it's in the taxpayers interests to have employees at OFCOM fulfilling it.

The Heathfield opt WAS presented from Maidstone, using their bulletin studio and gallery facilities, with tapes played in from a booth in the VT area. Local MCR would have switched that studio into the Heathfield circuit.

Remember that Ofcom does not solely regulate TV. It is the UK government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.

Therefore FOI requests to it will accommodate not just random elements of past ITV franchise applications but everything else it covers. I'm not saying we should bombard Ofcom with requests on a daily basis just to burst a fellow member's ego.

Although it's extremely anti-Gyngell in tone, the book Morning Glory does speculate that Gyngell hoped that his recognition from Thatcher would have pulled TV-am through.

It might be worth a shot but I'm not confident that the ITC even gave consideration to a 'hard' choice between TVS, CPV, and Carlton when Meridian was an option on the table.

According to Wikipedia, CPV failed on quality grounds whilst Carlton appears to have been outbid judging from the size of their bid and no additional comments. Therefore it might be better to phrase the FOI request more towards why CPV failed on quality grounds. Also ask if Meridian was chosen over Carlton purely on the size of their bid or whether there were other factors.

Regarding that. Kerry Packer had a minority share in TVAM, if they had survived then its possible that he would have sunk more cash into the station making it in time the cornerstone of PBL's operations. Just a thought