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Defunct ITV Regions:What Still Survives

A TV Treasure Hunt (December 2012)

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NL
Ne1L C
Before Film 24 went off the air it showed some programmes from the last few years of Southern Television such as "Take A Letter Mr Jones" and "That Beryl Marston"

It made me think. What else still survives from that period of ITV's history, who owns it and will it ever been seen ?
:-(
A former member
Anything from TVS past which was not given to another company, is VERY unlikely to see the light of day again. Apart from that everything else has popped up, even old Southern stuff, which has been released on DVD.

I still wonder why ITV has not broadcast more of its old Archive on ITV3.
Last edited by A former member on 28 December 2012 7:43pm
IS
Inspector Sands
Anything from TVS past which was not given to another company, is VERY unlikely to see the light of day again. Apart from that everything else has popped up

Not everything has, lots of old programmes just don't exist.

Back to the OP's question, the majority of ITV's old programmes are owned by ITV PLC now. The exceptions are:
*Those made by the other two non-ITV PLC broadcasters: STV (inc Grampian) and UTV
*ABC/Thames (owned by Freemantle Media)
*Southern (owned by a company called Renown Pictures)
*Redifusion (owned by a company called Archbuild
*TVam (owned by Moving Image)
*TVS (owned by Disney, but not usable because it's lost it's paperwork)
*TSW (held by the South West Film and TV Archive

Although if you want to find out what there actually is in existence the best thing to do is to look around some of the archive TV forums

Quote:
I still wonder why ITV has not broadcast more of its old Archive on ITV3.

Because some programmes just aren't worth showing - either they won't pull in an audience or they're just not good or relevant enough to show. Of course even if the programme and the associated paperwork exists it can't necessarily be shown... it might just be to expensive.
NL
Ne1L C
I didn't know TVS was owned by Disney?
WP
WillPS
They didn't specifically buy the TVS archive.

TVS was essentially purchased by The Family Channel (an American cable station), who used the TVS facilities to launch The Family Channel in the UK as a joint-venture with Flextech (later VMTV, now part of Sky). The Family Channel made use of the MTM library which TVS had acquired at great expense. Later, Flextech bought The Family Channel UK operation outright, and it became Challenge TV. The archive stayed with The Family Channel, who were later purchased by Fox and bundled in to their Fox Kids (international) operation, which in turn was sold to Saban who were immediately purchased by Disney.

The TVS archive was incidental to all the above transactions, to the extent that it appears the paperwork which allows the programmes to be distributed/shown was lost, and may well have been junked altogether. This means that the TVS archive is essentially useless, although it continues to be stored at Maidstone.

I think the MTM archive is now managed as part of the Disney/ABC archive in the States.
PE
Pete Founding member
This means that the TVS archive is essentially useless, although it continues to be stored at Maidstone.


so what exactly is the situation here, do you think they are keeping it in case the paperwork ever resurfaces or just leave it until copyright expires?
:-(
A former member
They didn't specifically buy the TVS archive.

TVS was essentially purchased by The Family Channel (an American cable station), who used the TVS facilities to launch The Family Channel in the UK as a joint-venture with Flextech (later VMTV, now part of Sky). The Family Channel made use of the MTM library which TVS had acquired at great expense. Later, Flextech bought The Family Channel UK operation outright, and it became Challenge TV. The archive stayed with The Family Channel, who were later purchased by Fox and bundled in to their Fox Kids (international) operation, which in turn was sold to Saban who were immediately purchased by Disney.


That 1996 Deal which never included the programme Archive, which continued to be held by Family Channel, I have tried unsuccessful to ask why Flextech never brought the TVS archive in this deal? I have even tried asking Nigel Pickard but No reply!
WP
WillPS
I imagine the answer is that they had no interest in it - it wouldn't have been cheap either as it still included the MTM stuff at that stage.
HA
harshy Founding member
They didn't specifically buy the TVS archive.

TVS was essentially purchased by The Family Channel (an American cable station), who used the TVS facilities to launch The Family Channel in the UK as a joint-venture with Flextech (later VMTV, now part of Sky). The Family Channel made use of the MTM library which TVS had acquired at great expense. Later, Flextech bought The Family Channel UK operation outright, and it became Challenge TV. The archive stayed with The Family Channel, who were later purchased by Fox and bundled in to their Fox Kids (international) operation, which in turn was sold to Saban who were immediately purchased by Disney.


That 1996 Deal which never included the programme Archive, which continued to be held by Family Channel, I have tried unsuccessful to ask why Flextech never brought the TVS archive in this deal? I have even tried asking Nigel Pickard but No reply!


Maybe you should ask Disney instead, it's a shame really I want to watch shows like Motormouth again like they used to on the Family Channel.
JA
JAS84
They didn't specifically buy the TVS archive.

TVS was essentially purchased by The Family Channel (an American cable station), who used the TVS facilities to launch The Family Channel in the UK as a joint-venture with Flextech (later VMTV, now part of Sky). The Family Channel made use of the MTM library which TVS had acquired at great expense. Later, Flextech bought The Family Channel UK operation outright, and it became Challenge TV. The archive stayed with The Family Channel, who were later purchased by Fox and bundled in to their Fox Kids (international) operation, which in turn was sold to Saban who were immediately purchased by Disney.

The TVS archive was incidental to all the above transactions, to the extent that it appears the paperwork which allows the programmes to be distributed/shown was lost, and may well have been junked altogether. This means that the TVS archive is essentially useless, although it continues to be stored at Maidstone.

I think the MTM archive is now managed as part of the Disney/ABC archive in the States.
Almost, but slightly wrong. Fox Kids International was actually part-owned by Saban, they didn't buy Fox Kids later. When Fox Kids bought Family Channel, it became Fox Family. That was in 1998, three years before Disney bought it, at which point Fox Family Channel became ABC Family, Fox Family International was fully absorbed, and the Fox Kids block was axed, the international versions becoming Jetix and then Disney XD.
:-(
A former member
I imagine the answer is that they had no interest in it - it wouldn't have been cheap either as it still included the MTM stuff at that stage.


There continued to use alot of the TVS content until 2001, Like I said there could have spilt the archive up, English tvs show go to Flextech and MTM goes back to the USA.



That 1996 Deal which never included the programme Archive, which continued to be held by Family Channel, I have tried unsuccessful to ask why Flextech never brought the TVS archive in this deal? I have even tried asking Nigel Pickard but No reply!
Maybe you should ask Disney instead, it's a shame really I want to watch shows like Motormouth again like they used to on the Family Channel.


Disney would not know about past deals...
WE
Westy2
I used to like CATS Eyes meself.

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