Sadly though there will no BIG changes in 2011 within ITV like back in 1992. Shame though, I'd love to see Carlton get screwed once and for all. Just imagine if Thames came back to London? Oh HEAVEN!!!
But even if the same as 1991 happened in 2011, Thames et al would come back, once something is wound up it is impossible to re-create it. And don't think for one second that if Thames had continued that things would be much diffrent. ITV consolidation was inevitable no matter which companies were in charge
Surely the only difference between before 9:24:59 and 9:25:00 would be a legal one, ie technically the franchise holder broadcasting would technically change, but if they were broadcasting both franchises from the same place, you could in theory be mid-programme at the time.
Indeed, the changeover between Carlton Television and LWT has taken place during a programme for well over 10 years.
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If ITV did buyout the GMTV franchised, would ITV still be obliged to start 9.25, and still produces a Breakfast time show until 09.25. The point is there two different contracts and there can be lost at any time (like that ever going to happen) But the original terms of each ITV contract is been the same since at least the 1970’s ( I think) which states there start at 09.25 Each Morning and No earlier
If ITV plc buy out Disney's shares in GMTV, then nothing on paper will change. There will still be a national breakfast franchise holder running from 6AM-9.25, and a regional station running from 9.25-6AM. However, just as they operate all their regional stations as though they are a single channel, they presumably could also integrate GMTV in the same way. I'd imagine that the GMTV brand would be retained - it's too well known to ditch in favour of 'ITV Breakfast' or some other crap title, but it would no longer be so markedly different from the rest of the output.
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But even if the same as 1991 happened in 2011, Thames et al would come back, once something is wound up it is impossible to re-create it. And don't think for one second that if Thames had continued that things would be much diffrent. ITV consolidation was inevitable no matter which companies were in charge
This is the point I think a lot of people fail to grasp. People wax lyrical about Thames and Central as though things would all be so different if they were still here. They wouldn't be. The only reason ITV was as good as it was in the past is that it was *forced* to operate in that way. The 'big 5' would have happily merged together to form ITV plc in the 1960's if they'd been allowed to, and they'd have happily gone around snapping up the smaller stations too. Even in the really early days there was a precedence set for one company operating more than one station (ATV had Midlands Weekday *and* London Weekend, ABC had Midland Weekend *and* North Weekened - and even used such seemingly recent developments as joint continuity across more than one station and an integrated schedule, this only stopped because the ITA *told* them to).
A Thames/Central ITV monopoly would be exactly the same as the situation we have today. The way to stop the ITV Network from being destroyed was to properly regulate it, if that wasn't done, then today's state of affairs was inevitable, no matter which two companies eventually did the big merger.