26 years ago today...

It wasn't a takeover as that was not allowed, it was a merger, but your right its was all bar in name.

The point is, mergers weren't allowed at that stage either. The ITC made an exception as it was realised that neither YTV nor TTTV were likely to survive independent due to their franchise payments. The piece does mention "merge with each other" in any case so it's still wrong -- and in any case I'm pretty sure Anglia merged into MAI in 1993.

Because despite how it may have seemed, TVS was still smaller than the Big 5 contractors in terms of having the finance to produce programming.

The concept of the Big 5 was that the top earning franchises would be more able to produce the most programming (of a decent enough quality). TVS moaned and moaned about the situation even before they started broadcasting, which impressed the IBA to the point that they allowed them to sit in the monthly Big 5 meetings as an observer (with no real input).

It's arguably their battle through the 80s caused the creation of ITV Network Centre. In the same way Oracle's lobbying to continue a Teletext franchise didn't do them any good, TVS' hard work was also in vain.

The sad fact is that both TVS and TSW were stuffed by their high bids. Yorkshire-Tyne Tees was reduced to fraudulently over-selling advertising and other "creative" accounting methods, as well as an advanced proposal to close all non-news operations in Newcastle as early as October 1993, and this was a company with less onerous franchise commitments than TVS or TSW would have had.

TVS and TSW, had they won, would have been in very deep financial trouble early in their franchise term. Clive Jones said in an interview that he was dreading the company winning. The truth is that YTV and Tyne Tees should have had their franchises stripped, but I suspect that the ITC's hands were tied because the only alternative to the Tyne Tees bid, Granada's North East TV, were proposing a very similar stripping to the core of the Tyne Tees franchise in their bid. Tyne Tees panicked because they were going against Granada but frankly they should have held firm. If YTV's proposal to strip TTTV was unacceptable then the only logical conclusion to be drawn is that NETV failed the quality threshold and so the ITC were forced to let YTV and TTTV through, as they had no other choice.

With all of this in mind, the decision to eject TVS and TSW from the network can only be seen as the correct one.

I guess it's even worse that with the programming TVS did produce, the vast majority of it's in limbo and likely won't be seen again. Ironic that there's less broadcastable content from TVS than there is from Rediffusion even though TVS existed after wiping of tapes was a standard thing.

It's all hypothetical, but I have a feeling that had they kept their franchise, TSW would have merged with HTV, in a similar vein to TT & YTV. HTV was left extremely damaged by its high bid, although somehow managed to hang on for a good few years before a takeover.

GMTV should be added to the list of contractors which should have had their franchise revoked, but didn't due to the ITC's fear of having nothing to replace it

I had read on Wikipedia that the financial projections that TVS had put into its 1991 bid turned out to be correct, but that Meridian were allowed to reduce their payments to the ITC in 1995. I don't know if that is correct, but if it was, how galling must that have been for those previously involved at TVS?

In fairness, Meridian did also show innovation; TVS had promised a separate regional news bulletin for the south east part of the region. Meridian went one better in 1991, promising a new news region in Berkshire, based out of Newbury. How long did that last though?

Meridian probably did reduce their payments, and as I said a few poasts back, so did GMTV-to less than what TV-am bid! Makes you realise what a farce the 1991 franchise round was, really.

Central & Scottish getting away with £2000 cos nobody bid against them, companies crippling themselves through high bids, TVS and TSW kicked out cos they bid too high, payments being reduced a few years in, it was all a bit of a joke really.

But HOW did they know that? Who told them, or did they act to stop anyone from doing so? The Central region is hardly something any of the bidders would have turned their nose at. Even the Channel Islands had a few bidders.

Quite a few years, initally moved to Northam until Meridian moved from Northam to Whiteley. At that point the programme was presented from Whiteley, but soon afterwards it was merged with the Oxford half of Central South, and then all together ditched. It's been resurrected albeit the 'Thames Valley-Max' region (Hannington and Oxford)
but they were halcyon days when it was just Hannington, though you got the impression they were scratching about for news, there was often stuff about Heathrow, Slough, and Windsor, which was pushing the boundaries somewhat. Perhaps unsustainably small, (Forthcoming Reading and Basingstoke local TV stations beware !)

It would be impossible to compile a bid without making some noise - particularly you had to demonstrate support from independents. Central was probably better placed than any other to detect this with its fragmented ownership/board.


As for why nobody else bid - there was probably nobody better placed than Central themselves to serve the region; the business was sound (they had no sprawling assets like Granada, nor any risky investments like TVS) and the changes insisted by the 1990 act didn't represent a threat to them (Central were already doing quite a lot of independent commissions - particularly with the Childrens' output). The only weak spot was Oxford, which they had moved to protect in 1989. In short, there was no question of their ability to win, nor their ability to finance themselves - so it would have been suicide to bid against them.

I heard Scottish did alot of deals to outsource work for its programmes etc. Add in to the fact it employed alot of freelancers aswell as making the company a tight ship. Plus Sandy Ross and lord McDonald had alot of weight behide them, and did alot of deals with international companies etc.

I get the feeling its got something to do with it being a unemployment Blackspot, Glasgow, Fife, Lanarkshire, So you had to tried think would there be an upturn etc? STV promised ALOT of new content, made sure everyone else know because there asked them to help make them. STV probably would not have sold its Glasgow studios, since it was still making content for the network.

Is it worth it trying to defeat incumbent knows alot more than you? Grampian on the other hand had Aberdeen and the oil and very little optput etc.