Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

I still wonder what would have happened if TVS never lost? maybe with a better bid like £40million,
I get the felling there would have merged with LWT. There had a close relationship since about 1985. this would have put a spanned in Granada works in making a grab for it.

What would have happened if Anglia went instead? Sir David Frost got in,

I'm sure I read somewhere that they also chose the north because it rains a lot thus guaranteeing a big audience.

You can also see it on their website. (http://www.itvstudios.com/au)

And Carlton Screen Advertising (http://www.carltonscreen.ie)

I'm guessing that's because most of the franchise bidders committed themselves to running an hour of regional news in their bids, so with that and Home and Away there was nowhere to run Blockbusters at teatime and the last series was demoted to mid-afternoons in most regions, Carlton being the obvious example. Hence ratings plummeted, hence the axe.

In the book Under The Hammer about the franchise round it does say that the main reason nobody bid against Central was because it was a complicated region to operate with the three sub-regions. Central opened up their South sub-region completely off their own back, the IBA didn't force them to do it or anything, having the happy side-effect of ensuring any competitor would have to match it. I know it could be said that potential bidders could have decided not to do that, but I'm thinking in that case the ITC would have let Central through on exceptional circumstances.

It's right to say, too, that Capital bought Border purely to get hold of Century Radio, immediately after buying it they flogged off Border TV itself to Granada.

Blockbusters had problems since 1989, with trying to found slots. H&W started in February 1989 add to the fact many compaines were showing Emmerdale farm at 18.30pm on Tuesday and thursdays ( it moved to 7pm late 89) around that time slot there were not easy to come by,

Picture is become clear that from January 1990 Blockbusters got networked to Tues/Wed/Thursday at 18.30pm, since most itv station ( expect Central, Anglia, Granada) postponed 1989 series of BB to ealry 1990, as there was no room:

* Border
* Grampian,
* HTV,
* TVS,
* TSW
* UTV and
* Yorkshire.

Thames kept it at 17.10 until its dying day. I think the last series was seen at 15.20 in london, westcountry and UTV. I got the Bad feeling that TSW made blockbuster 3 episodes a week for whole year 84- 88,

Was H&W really give ITV big viewing figures?

Another so called slot filler for 17.15pm is Granada Connections from 1985: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_%28game_show%29 Was this really truly networked? I can see this myself. Half the company push BB over a longer period. Then there had to try and push in Winner take all in 1988,

Stv, TT, TSW, Gtv slotted in tones of local out-put as well, there had no room to swing a cat!

The newshour never lasted long did there, especial in london. Companies that put H&W at 6pm and networked from Central ( Stv, Anglia etc) where able to start there news 6.25 ish

Wouldn't have happened. The ITC had the power to exclude a company on quality grounds, but not the power to promote a company on the same terms.

Just because Central made decisions that benefitted the area did not make the slightest bit of difference come the franchise round -- it was not a beauty contest by this time.

Therefore, I would say that the book is dead wrong on this one.

Unless the 1993-onwards franchise was to include a South region?

What evidence is there that any sub-regional details were included in any franchise requirement? And why would Central bidders be put off, when there was no shortage of interest in the HTV, Yorkshire, Anglia or Meridian areas, all of whom operated similar sub-regional structures?

Three local news programmes in an area as lucrative as Central was a small price to pay. I suspect the real reason was that Central were fortunate; as I said before Granada would most likely have ultimately also gone unopposed were it not for their own expansionist attempts.

HTV, Central and TVS were franchised as Dual Regions throughout the 80's (HTV a lot longer before that of course). As Steve said above, Central introduced the third sub region and then that became a requirement of whoever bid for the midlands in 1991.

Stations like Yorkshire and Anglia introduced their own split news but these weren't 'dual regions' and weren't a requirement of the licenses in 1991. Although of course a bidder who didn't offer to continue the practise might have risked getting marked down for it by the ITC, indeed many bidders offered to do more split news including Westcountry and Meridian

didn't Anglia only bring in duel news in 1990? I wonder if they took a gamble and risk to keep the licence. Yorkshire was that also not the same time when its 3 duel service. Central could have lost it. Someone went up, as bar local news what else did there put out locally. Shortland street

Do you not understand that (as long you did what was required under the terms of the franchise) that was unimportant under the 1990 act?

Central had as much regional programming as the next franchise as well.

Reputedly Yorkshire set up the Sheffield sub-region without involving the IBA - the first they knew of it was complaints that the NICAM sound channels were silent!