January 1st, 2008: ITV Franchise Time Again!

As I've previously written in this thread, this has never been proved. The 1990 Broadcasting Act was not solely to rip the heart out of ITV, it did a lot of other things as well, such as allowing the three national radio stations to launch (Virgin, Classic and Talk) on frequencies previously used for other means (and Radio 1). Also the ITC was introduced at this time and had its powers extended to cover satellite and cable broadcasts, though this was strengthened again in the 1996 act. A lot of good did come out of the 1990 Act in some ways, but bad in others.

Well, some people think that, others look at some statistics which show that the level of service has generally improved. The biggest issue holding back the railways was decades of under investment thanks to "Government Failure".



As a Private Limited Company they have fewer obligations, but still some; for example they must submit their annual accounts to Companies House.



Strong unions? Yipee, artificially higher wages at the expense of jobs - just got to love those unions... or maybe not.

Not totally owned by members of the public, the vast majority of the shares in a PLC are held by other companies

Where does approx 80% of the funding come from now.... the government so nothing has changed apart from making money in giving licenses to companies to operate certain services. Remember a railway company has to go to the DfT before they can even consider buying new trains, starting new routes, changing timetables etc.... and 9 times out of 10 if it doesn't include London the a refusal is often given.

Think First Group and then think about the old British Rail - which would YOU rather have. I would rather have BR as First Group cut services, shrink trains and have astronomical prices (although the prices are not as bad as Virgin - and most of the ticket prices are just pure profit for the companies!!!)

First do that to the bus service aswell!! look at First Edinburgh there just liek ITV there keep using Crap

According to TTTV, they renewed their broadcasting contract for 10 years in 1999... so doesn't that make it 2009?
I should imagine they'd just do the same when the time comes.

and the same with First Manchester (especially Bolton where they have withdrawn 78% of the routes they used to run and not replaced!!!), First Leeds, First PMT and the list goes on....


sorry for going off topic.


I wonder if ITV have shares in First, or the other way round then that might explain as to why ITV is carp!!!!

What it does prove is that the business ideas that ITV have are not unique to them and actually happen across many industries

For example getting rid of the regional names. First have done that and so have some untilities, obviously no one complains about the latter

But can we prove otherwise? Thatcher's dislike of "restrictive practices" in ITV during her tenure are well documented, but it seems strange that the PM should experience such seismic shift in her opinion of British television within the space of a year.

Governments will always try control broadcasters' impartiality, and readily slap them down if they don't toe the line. The Conservative administration was perhaps the most vindictive in this respect. Although Labour were just as bad, with the sham that was Hutton.

I think it's worth pointing out that the way BR was carved up, wasn't really the Government's responsiblity-- it was actually EU Directive 91/440 that caused the break-up of British Rail AIUI.

As much as I want LWT programmes back on the air, they still operate don't they? Or am I not realising that Dancing On Ice and the rest of that bo***cks is all made by Granada?

Isn't most of ITV's real rubbish, somewhat ironically, made by Thames though? (Along with Endemol).