Thames now isn't the same company as it was in 1993 - they got taken over by Pearson, which later became Fremantle Media, their current owner. At one point Thames got merged with indie producer Talkback, before splitting up again a few years later. Had they remained an ITV company, would they still have been taken over by Pearson and remained owned by them to this day? The Talkback thing definitely wouldn't have happened.
As has been said before, much of what came out the 1990 Broadcasting Act would have happened anyway, it just sped things up a bit. The 1991 franchise auction wasn't good and had a detrimental effect on 90s television, but its effects are hardly noticeable now. It's hard to see how ITV plc would have been any different had Thames or TSW been merged into it instead.
I don't see how Murdoch has been helped that much by the act. Newscorp's involvement has mainly been in activities that already weren't heavily regulated. If anything, the act meant he faced increased competition from a more market-oriented ITV. My understanding is that the act also meant he had to get licenses for his channels from the ITC, which meant they were more directly regulated.
Some of the IBA ethos of using "beauty contests" to franchise new services survived with the licensing of Channel 5, DTT muxes and DAB radio, but it is obviously much harder to get substantive PSB commitments from people investing in new technologies these days.
I think, for me, the key issue regards the loss of Thames, as a broadcaster on ITV, was that it held up very high standards in what should be broadcast. As an example, Rainbow. When it was made by Thames, and when they also were a broadcaster, it was a kids show that both entertained, through the antics of Zippy Bungle and George, along with Geoffrey, but also educated. Some episodes are on youtube, and some include the gang learning about Mail Order, Music, even a mystery tour. Thames took programming very seriously.
And Granada didn't?
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A former member
Lets be fair here, LWT, Thames, Central and even STV made big cuts and overhauled its working practices, before the Bids went in.
I agree the match to a single ITV would have happened, BUT I believe if Thames was in control, we may not have had some awful content nor would we have had that awful ITV digital dogs dinner.
Lets be fair here, LWT, Thames, Central and even STV made big cuts and overhauled its working practices, before the Bids went in.
ALL ITV companies overhauled their working practises in the late 1980s due to the virtual collapse of the unions and the economic downturn.
You hold Thames in some form of untouchably high regard, even though they were by no means perfect. In the same way as every franchise had its good and bad programming... for every World At War there was a Love Thy Neighbour.
With regards to ITV Digital... Thames more than most other ITV franchises got involved with multi-channel television.
I agree the match to a single ITV would have happened, BUT I believe if Thames was in control, we may not have had some awful content nor would we have had that awful ITV digital dogs dinner.
ITV Digital (as OnDigital) was in trouble long before ITV branding came along. In fact it was finished off by its ill-fated decision to get involved in football coverage but it was doing a BSB from the off. It says more about the project that its mascot, Monkey, outlived the service it was promoting and was more successful to boot.
Wasn't ONdigital effectively doomed as soon as Sky had to pull out?
That didn't help, nor did choosing an encryption system that had already been hacked.
Being in Marco Polo House was asking for trouble too, after BSB had cursed the place !!
Not everything was their fault, the initial transmitter powers were flea powered in some areas, and led to severe reception problems. The FTA muxes were higher power, so there was the bizarre situation of a platform operator, operating a system where only the third party FTA (PSB) broadcasters were receivable by thousands of viewers. (All of which had to pay a subscription to get the box !)
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A former member
Point trying to make is Certain ITV know how to make alot of money while cutting cost, without destroy the programmes in the process.
STV throw out alot of programme, between 1989-2002. Central was the same.
With regards to ITV Digital... Thames more than most other ITV franchises got involved with multi-channel television.
Yeah, they were the founders of UK Gold, alongside BBC Worldwide - and before their ITV franchise ended too. It was another four years before Granada Plus, Sky Scottish, and Carlton Select launched.
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A former member
Thames and central were part of Children channel, Remember Granada had shares in Sky.
Before that nearly all were part of Super channel, LWT also made claims it would just moved to Sky and Cable if it lost.
One thing I do think though is that the gap left by Thames wasn't really filled- it certainly wasn't by Carlton. Thames was a major producer for the network, just what did Carlton make of any note (discounting what they made via Central). They seemed to make some crap in their first year that didn't get recommissioned, the only thing I can think of that's any note is Catchphrase, and that was really just continuing what TVS had been making for years.