TV Home Forum

ITV Breakfast

Was franchising the only option (July 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
BL
bluecortina
Neil Jones posted:
james-2001 posted:
buster posted:
As Morning Glory also points out, GMTV's business model assumed they'd have have a straight line to kids and young families who weren't interested in news on BBC1 and...whatever that was on C4, but they all watched the new Big Breakfast instead and by the autumn of 1994, BBC2 launched a CBBC breakfast show too. Power Rangers was one of the first things to really work for GMTV and bring people to it, I think.


GMTV almost mirrored TV-am in its early months with viewers deserting, people at the top quitting and a major relaunch a matter of months in. Not helped by their high licence payments which made it even harder for them to make a profit. You have those news reports from late December/early January with Lis Howell bigging up GMTV, then she was gone in a matter of weeks.


Of course they later went cap in hand to the ITC to get those licence payments significantly cut, eventually to below the level TV-am had bid in the first place. Which probably begs the question, had TV-am survived with the bid they went for (something like £14 million a year I think it was), would they have gone cap in hand to the ITC to reduce that figure?

But of course they were fairly profitable by the time of the franchise round so it would have been easier for them to stump up the cash had they survived. But of course by 1993 I'm almost positively certain a major rebrand would have occurred at TV-am which of course aren't always cheap, but it was well overdue by that point, and of course the news that they were going to close 14 months later probably poured water on any plans they had at that stage to update the look.


My bold. The financial payments of all the post 1993 Licences were all subject to regular review and GMTV took the first opportunity given to them in their licence agreement to argue for a reduction as did some of the other licencees. Who wouldn’t unless you’d only bid £2k a year. GMTV were treated the same as all the other companies and no more went ‘cap in hand’ than any other company.
NL
Ne1L C
james-2001 posted:
Neil Jones posted:
Of course they later went cap in hand to the ITC to get those licence payments significantly cut, eventually to below the level TV-am had bid in the first place.


One of the things which makes a mockery of how the 1991 franchise round was carried out.


That's one way of describing it. I would describe as "a total b**** up"
Last edited by Ne1L C on 9 July 2020 3:38pm
Stuart, james-2001 and Colorman gave kudos
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Ne1L C posted:
Returning to an earlier post regarding the embarrassment of TV-AM's coverage of the Brighton bombing in 1984. If the fallout from that and other issues led to TV-AM's licence to broadcast being revoked would the IBA have installed a temporary service but not re-offered the franchise instead telling the ITV regions "we'll do it in-house"


Doubtful I would have thought. Remember the only "broadcasting" the IBA did themselves was playing out a tape with the Engineering Announcements on them. They wouldn't have had the resources to do a temporary service themselves - even when there was the whole "Wales West and North Television" franchise going bankrupt, the solution to that from the ITA as it was then was to extend the coverage area, and then when TWW threw its toys out of the pram after losing their licence in 1968, there was the "Independent Television Service for Wales and the West" interim service which was effectively done I believe by HTV, who were due to take over four months later anyway.

So it's far more likely the franchise would have just been re advertised, although it may have been seen as a poisoned chalice since TV-am lost bucketloads of money and didn't make a profit at all until 1987, though the strike may have helped matters in that regards.
NL
Ne1L C
Neil Jones posted:
Ne1L C posted:
Returning to an earlier post regarding the embarrassment of TV-AM's coverage of the Brighton bombing in 1984. If the fallout from that and other issues led to TV-AM's licence to broadcast being revoked would the IBA have installed a temporary service but not re-offered the franchise instead telling the ITV regions "we'll do it in-house"


Doubtful I would have thought. Remember the only "broadcasting" the IBA did themselves was playing out a tape with the Engineering Announcements on them. They wouldn't have had the resources to do a temporary service themselves - even when there was the whole "Wales West and North Television" franchise going bankrupt, the solution to that from the ITA as it was then was to extend the coverage area, and then when TWW threw its toys out of the pram after losing their licence in 1968, there was the "Independent Television Service for Wales and the West" interim service which was effectively done I believe by HTV, who were due to take over four months anyway.

So it's far more likely the franchise would have just been re advertised, although it may have been seen as a poisoned chalice since TV-am lost bucketloads of money and didn't make a profit at all until 1987, though the strike may have helped matters in that regards.


And being a poisoned chalice the IBA may have taken the opportunity to revamp the idea root and branch to try and entice new applicants but would have taken their time. In the mid 1980's TV-AM was second placed to BBC Breakfast Time and its early demise would not have mattered much in the overall broadcasting climate except of course to those who lost their jobs.
MA
Markymark
Neil Jones posted:
Ne1L C posted:
Returning to an earlier post regarding the embarrassment of TV-AM's coverage of the Brighton bombing in 1984. If the fallout from that and other issues led to TV-AM's licence to broadcast being revoked would the IBA have installed a temporary service but not re-offered the franchise instead telling the ITV regions "we'll do it in-house"


Doubtful I would have thought. Remember the only "broadcasting" the IBA did themselves was playing out a tape with the Engineering Announcements on them.


And of course broadcasting on the fourth channel with their wholly owned subsidiary company, that was called 'Channel 4 Television' Cool However, you're right for ITV, they (the IBA) were a broadcaster that contracted out 100% of the programme supply
IS
Inspector Sands
Neil Jones posted:
and then when TWW threw its toys out of the pram after losing their licence in 1968, there was the "Independent Television Service for Wales and the West" interim service which was effectively done I believe by HTV, who were due to take over four months later anyway.

Kind of, Harlech took over the contract early but they weren't ready. So they took the revenue and paid the staff and kept the same on-air talent and local programmes that TWW had.
https://www.transdiffusion.org/2017/10/23/itsww


In those days when a franchise changed hands the IBA ensured that the staff and facilities carried over to the new company. I imagine if something had have killed off TVam early something similar could have happened and a replacement been achieved with the existing operation, just under different ownership and management. That said part of the issue that TVam had, as BSB after it, was the expense of the building.
JA
james-2001
Similarly, TSW took over several months before they were due to takeover, but unlike HTV, they kept the Westward name until the end of the year. That did allow them to switch branding at exactly midnight though, whereas Southern and ATV continued until closedown.
MA
Markymark
james-2001 posted:
Similarly, TSW took over several months before they were due to takeover, but unlike HTV, they kept the Westward name until the end of the year. That did allow them to switch branding at exactly midnight though, whereas Southern and ATV continued until closedown.


Although Southern remained in business and trading until that close-down at 00:45hrs, They handed the keys to the studios over to TVS in the early hours of that morning apparently.

ATV to Central was more of a rebranding thing by the time Jan 1st arrived, so they just closed down at 00:30ish as normal as 'ATV'
JA
james-2001
Markymark posted:
Although Southern remained in business and trading until that close-down at 00:45hrs, They handed the keys to the studios over to TVS in the early hours of that morning apparently.


After spending months denying them access and mocking them as "portakabin TV".

I've seen the final Day by Day and the fact they include the footage of that song, as well as their CEO giving a very angry, bitter speech just makes Southern look like children having a tantrum.
NL
Ne1L C
Compare and contrast with TVS' farewell in 1992 "Goodbye To All That" had a thousand times more dignity and respect.
MA
Markymark
james-2001 posted:
Markymark posted:
Although Southern remained in business and trading until that close-down at 00:45hrs, They handed the keys to the studios over to TVS in the early hours of that morning apparently.


After spending months denying them access and mocking them as "portakabin TV".

I've seen the final Day by Day and the fact they include the footage of that song, as well as their CEO giving a very angry, bitter speech just makes Southern look like children having a tantrum.


Yes. I remember the whole evening vividly, which is scary because it was almost 40 years ago. Sour Grapes was the underlying theme
IS
Inspector Sands
james-2001 posted:

After spending months denying them access and mocking them as "portakabin TV".

They weren't denied access to the building, TVS didn't just turn up on New Years Day and install all their stuff in a few hours.

The portakabins were temporary office space for TVS. Not that temporary, IIRC Meridian had office space in them 10 years later


Incidently Portakabin get very touchy about their name being used as a genericised trademark. I've seen it appear in a style guide, maybe a BBC one warning against using it

Newer posts