YTTV / Channel 3

Hollywood Wives, I seem to recall, was chopped from primetime. One wonders what Gyngell would have made of Celebrity Love Island...

This was about the only decision of Gyngell's I could support. His "control freak" approach combined with his friendship with the Mad Cow of Downing Street ultimately harmed British television in the long run. Union power emasculated. ITV consolidated. Broadcasters run as business first, TV stations second...would the 1990 Broadcasting Act have happened were it not for Bruce Gyngell?

And the ultimate question - what was he doing over here in the first place?

AIUI when TV-am was having severe financial difficulty in their early days, Peter Jay & Co pulled out of their ownership and some Austrailian guy called (something) Packer bought up the company and one of the things he did was to bring in Bruce Gyngell as Chief Executive, as he worked with Packer in Austrailia, again AIUI, though correct me if I'm wrong.

You have to remember (and quoting alot from The Story of ITV: Episode 3) that ITV was the last bastion that the Unions had their iron grip on, if the Unions made a demand, ITV would do what the Unions said, if not then Industrial Action would be caused. Remember that Thatcher was out to get the Unions and she did, the most obvious and changing example of attitude was the Miner's Strike. Gyngell wasn't like any other ITV executive at that time, he took no shít from the Unions (neither did Thatcher), he also made cutbacks in order for the company to run effectively, then it became profitable and it gave ITV a kick up the arse to how it was ran at that time. Thatcher wanted every ITV station to be like TV-am in how it was ran.

Though at least the old cow had the dignity to apologise after TV-am's franchise wasn't renewed.

ITV was a lot better for it though, even if the unions' demands were at times extreme and there was a lot of excess (why should actors, never mind crew, have paid-for transport to locations?) It may have been more difficult for the ITV to consolidate with a strong union presence.


But the technicians had the last laugh when they lost their franchise! Mercifully, Thatcher and Gyngell are now both gone, time to sling out their anti-worker ethics with them.

None of this would've happened if North West TV had won the franchise in 1993.

TV-am during this period was one of the most exiting, frustrating and completely wierd places to work. Everyone who came in to work just made it up as they went along. You never knew what disaster was around the corner. If anyone wants proper work experience, work for a company thats always about one day away from going bust.

Not quite true, granted Granada either wouldn't be around or it would have ended up like how Thames is today. But the plan overall was to get one company running ITV. ITV during the 1990's was being consolidated thanks to cost cutting schemes at new stations like Carlton and Westcountry to reduce overheads and the amount of people who they employ.

If North West TV did get in, then it would have got bought up very quickly, it was a small thing, as it was only backed by Phil Redmond and Yorkshire Television, who were hardly making much of a profit at the time. Presuming if both NWTV and Carlton got in, then Carlton would have gobbled up most of ITV, with the real challenger being Yorkshire, assumed they would have bought up Tyne Tees if they had NWTV aswell.

In 1993 it was clear that there was only going to be one player in ITV and that would be Granada, as it was the only major that had the programmes and the finance, Carlton only had the finance, had no clue about programmes. LWT could have been Granada in terms of power, but it was only a Weekend broadcaster and Granada buying them up first meant Granada getting itself into ITV, with Granada now owning a station in London as well as the North.

that's a very simplistic view of things. how can you completely discard the aspirations of central tv, who did, until the carlton take-over, have aspirations to be a major force in itv. similarly yorkshire tyne tees (as demonstrated in this thread) by no means minnows. and its also easy to forget meridian, holders of the prime franchise.

i think its undeniable that things would be different had carlton merged with united only a few years ago. and its foolish to say granada were always going to be the winners, they have always been giants, but companies like lwt, central and ytttv (prior to take-overs) were forces to be reckoned with and could have taken the reins had circumstances been slightly different.

As far as Central were concerned, they instantly made themselves vulnerable as a takeover target by bidding so little for their licence (just £1000 wasn't it?). This always seemed like a rather short-sighted move.