1991 ITV franchise auction | BBC News coverage | 16 October 1991
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- BBC News coverage of the ITV franchise auction, Wednesday 16th October 1991.
For research towards a college project I recorded TV news coverage of the 'Channel 3' auction results, and the controversy.
I edited down the bulletins from VHS to VHS, using a manual 'play and record' method. The editing results vary! Over thirty years later I found that tape. I had no idea I'd kept it.
This is BBC coverage only - recordings of ITN, Thames News and Channel 4 News will follow.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:30 1100 News Summary
00:02:18 One O'Clock News
00:16:05 Six O'Clock News
00:28:00 Nine O'Clock News
00:39:44 Newsnight - Jeremy Paxman introduction
00:44:47 Newsnight - David Plowright, Granada
00:47:07 Newsnight - Phil Redmond interview
00:49:16 Newsnight - David Levy report
00:56:41 Newsnight - Michael Grade, Channel 4
01:00:24 Newsnight - tomorrow's newspapers
01:01:07 END
#itv
#thamestv
#tvam
#itvnetwork
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:30 1100 News Summary
00:02:18 One O'Clock News
00:16:05 Six O'Clock News
00:28:00 Nine O'Clock News
00:39:44 Newsnight - Jeremy Paxman introduction
00:44:47 Newsnight - David Plowright, Granada
00:47:07 Newsnight - Phil Redmond interview
00:49:16 Newsnight - David Levy report
00:56:41 Newsnight - Michael Grade, Channel 4
01:00:24 Newsnight - tomorrow's newspapers
01:01:07 END
BBC must have watched this with absolute delight, as originally the 1986 Peacock Committee on broadcasting was set up by Thatcher to get the BBC to use advertising. Instead the report said no to that and turned its fire to ITV, leading to the 1991 franchise auction rules. BBC dodged a bullet, and sat back and watched ITV take the bullet that was aimed at the BBC
This might one of the largest collections of News surrounding the 1991 ITV Franchise Auction which was a huge turning point in ITV and British broadcasting in general. Lovely to see all the different reports on it. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it!
From an American perspective: When they bought MTM (makers of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Newhart, WKRP in Cincinnati, St. Elsewhere, and Hill Street Blues among many iconic shows), it would be the beginning of the end for TVS.
I wonder if Anna Ford got a little kick out of reporting the demise of TV-am...
I wondered that too! Wasn’t there an incident of throwing glasses of champagne?
@@vhs_videohomesystem Not sure if it was champagne - but it was definitely wine and it definitely went over Jonathan Aitken.
I second the motion.
@@thatleeburton on HIGNFY she told that she had a half full glass of red wine and first had it filled up..🤣
I don't think so, as come 1991, the management who were the ones who sacked her in 1983 were long gone by 1991, and she always had sympathy for the hard working staff at TV-am - she blamed the 1983 management, not the rest of the staff.
Thames should've never have lost, they were THE ITV company.
BBC must have watched this with absolute delight, as originally the 1986 Peacock Committee on broadcasting was set up by Thatcher to get the BBC to use advertising. Instead the report said no to that and turned its fire to ITV, leading to the 1991 franchise auction rules. BBC dodged a bullet, and sat back and watched ITV take the bullet that was aimed at the BBC.
I wasn’t aware of the Peacock report. Very interesting. Amusing that the licence fee recommendations were not what the Conservative government had hoped for. Almost 40 years later governments are still trying to figure out how to replace the licence fee. The ITV ‘secret bid’ franchise auction was not the fairest way to keep it competitive.
Yes you are of course so right there then too. I remember reading about the Peacock Committee report in the now magazine of old The Listener in July 1986 at the time. For those who do not know, The Listener was a kind of sister magazine to the Radio Times, published then by BBC Publications, although it later was jointly owned by ITV as well but sadly ended though in January 1991so too.
Thank you for the reply there so then too.
@@brucedanton3669ITV Network
@@vhs_videohomesystemIndependent Productions
This was a massive blow to Thatcher. The Peacock report did the exact opposite of what she wanted. The loss of TV-AM was also particularly hard as she was close to the Aitken Brothers and Bruce Gyngell.
This was interesting thank you
Since Meridian took over TVS the South has seen a down grade in Television. They got rid of a great company TVS and let a not so good Meridant take over. Quality TV has gone down the pan.
Completely agree, TVS was a quality company.
@@jdgreen5422 Southern Television was good too
@@christopherhulse8385TVS should never have won in the first place, though Southern should perhaps have had to take on board some of their plans.
Thank you for this of course, which is most interesting too. The 1991 ITV franchise auction round did definitely make the channel different from January 1993 onwards, as we now know. Sadly in a way not for the better somehow, as many others have said before too. Well done though too.
Thank you there for that so too.
No outsider would ever want an ITV franchise today.
I actually hope ITV get shut down soon, they’re giving the Tories and Starmer a free pass!
And within a year David Plowright was booted out at Granada
Is there anybody out there that looked forward to all that local crap they were forced to make? At ATV, we had gardening in a greenhouse, Chris Tarrant with fish. The only show that was worth watching was Central Weekend Live
The Ulster logo was shown in its wrong way
And also they wrong the Channel Television logo
00:16:31 Anna Ford thinking about karma perhaps?
15:50 - Strong powers to penalise, fine or remove the franchise - so why wasn't that done to Carlton? Oh hang on because not long after George Russell got his feet under the table at the ITV Network Centre and was never brought to account on the disaster he put in place.
Westward TV - TSW - Westcountry TV
Southern TV - TVS - Meridian TV
How wrong they got it with TSW and WestCountry. TSW made programmed for the region, watched by the region, by passing some networked ITV programmes maybe. But West Country did nothing except a regional news programme, watched by no one as the BBC's Spotlight was so superior.
If North West TV had won the franchise Brookside and Grange Hill would have moved over to ITV
While Coronation Street would probably have gone to Sky
@@adeforeman86 It could have done
It must have been pretty exciting growing up with this on the cards every 10 years. I was born in the late 80s so never got to experience it.
this happened before since 1981
But previously it was a very different system. The "blind bid" was new - ironically it was Bruce Gyngell that gave Margaret Thatcher the idea.
Quite good picture for a VHS video, quite interesting. ITV has all merged together now, I wonder what they pay for it now?
Oracle text service on ITV was replaced by Daily Mail's Teletext text service on 1 January 1993.
I forgot that changed too. A pointless change.
@@vhs_videohomesystem TV Whirl has images and information on both Oracle and Teletext pages.
@@vhs_videohomesystemBBC ITV.
Sunrise never even escalated. Would eventually become GMTV
To tell the truth GMTV was actually going to be called Sunrise but as Sky News's morning programme was also called sunrise that's why the name was changed
@@jamesdelboy that I heard
@@rajnirvan3336 Ok that's fine
I believe I have on VHS an edition of This Week, from Thames, with Ray Snoddy looking at this prior to the awards. I'd love to post it here.
That would be interesting to see. Do you have the ability to upload it to your UA-cam channel?
@@vhs_videohomesystem sadly I don't. I'd have to dig the tape out of the loft and I do still have a VHS device to play it on, but no way of converting it
@@vhs_videohomesystem would you like me to find the tape and send it to you? Before long I won't have a TV with a SCART port to connect the VCR. At least if you can convert it and upload it won't be lost. If so, can you message me somehow off group?
That’s an interesting idea! I’m not sure how you’d get it to me - I hope you understand I wouldn’t want to give out my home address. I’ll have a think.
@@vhs_videohomesystem please do. As I say it'd be a pity to lose it.
Scottish TV old logo is seen at its time.
I notice that the losers all begin with the letter ‘T’. TV-AM, Thames, TSW and TVS.
Yep, Tyne Tees was the only 'T' to survive
It was a canon event
George Russell, I initially thought a name sounded familiar
Anna was relishing this moment when TvAM went under after firing her years earlier.
Yes, the irony!
Central and STV should've faced further competition at the time
Carlton ended up buying and taking over Central anyway. ATV/Central was probably the best ITV franchise and it was killed off at the hands of Carlton. ITV was never the same from around 1989 when the ITV network gave up in-vision continuity and was effectively merged and called Channel 3 and ITV.
@@Candolad Okay
@@Candolad that didn't happen in all regions. TVS for example refused to fall under the 89 ITV look. In vision was already on the way out by then.
If smug Leslie Hill was so clever with his £2,000 bid, why wasn’t he ready to buy out LWT or Granada? No doubt he earned millions when Carlton bought out his shares
Itvshow1991
Gus (later Lord) MacDonald's finest hour- Scottish Television's bid was laughable - but now it would be inconceivable that ITV would be allowed to take over STV- owing to the backlash that would arise !
Never say never - everyone thought UTV in Northern Ireland would never taken over, and boy it was and now is minced into ITV
So what would've happened if everyone in the 20th century commonly said "Margaret Thatcher"?