You nailed it in so few words-TVS was quality. This got me thinking about Central's £2,000 bid. Why didn't anyone challenge them? They could have easily lost the franchise. When ATV was forced to rebrand as Central, it felt like the IBA was throwing its weight around too much. In my opinion, while it’s fair to require broadcasters to meet regulatory standards, forcing them to become a completely new company was excessive. No regulator should have that much power. They should be able to revoke a license only in extreme cases, but the IBA seemed to wield this authority at will-they were too strict. Just my opinion, of course. Nowadays in Australia Network 10 has handed licences back in regions that aren't profitable. So sad. Traditional television is so important when it comes to journalism.
Think about it, that’s only about £4200 in modern money. I make the equivalent of that (in USD) in six weeks… and that’s my net income. That’s what actually goes in my bank account every payday. Just imagine someone sitting there and saying “Let’s see… I can buy my teenager a halfway decent used car for their 18th birthday, or I can bid on a TV broadcasting franchise that covers a large chunk of England…”
TVS bowed out with much more dignity than Southern, but their final few moments were just as moving as those of their predecessors - thanking the viewers with their last breath.
As someone who lives in Newport on the Isle of Wight, it was nice to hear us mentioned in your excellent video. Nice trip down memory lane. Remember TVS well and it's Meridian successor.
A great series Adam. I grew up through all of these times. I can't express how much of a big nerd I am for British TV history in total. This content is right up my street.
And I can confirm the Cathedral that Meridian was broadcasting from was Winchester as that's the City I live in. TVS was def apart of my childhood, so many classic TV shows shown, including Knight Rider and during the week there was programmes on Children's ITV to look forward to
How very interesting, a sequel video to the Southern one, have to say it Adam if this becomes a series on how every ITV broadcaster that lost it's licence died it might become a very enjoyable series! Well done!
Exactly just as the Johnson government's (failed) attempt to privatise Channel 4 ~30 years later was revenge for them empty chairing him during their debate.
It's often thought that but the Peacock report was published before death on the rock. However I do think that if Thames had outbid Carlton the ITC might have said they overbid.
This a commonly held belief but actually Thames simply didn't bid enough. Mainly because their owners weren't really that interested in the TV industry anymore and therefore they were badly placed to find out what the rival bids were, unlike say, Central or Granada who had a better grasp of the wider industry.
@@MatgoStyles One of the guys at Thames said many years later that Carlton could afford to bid big and it was virtually impossible to match it. But did also say that they did underbid.
With that, another ITV Southern company went south. (Sorry 'bout that) Also, I can't help but chuckle at the TVS announcer at the end. He's so obviously un-sure about whatever C4 were showing despite saying he highly recommends it.
As a teen in the 80s I absolutely loved TVS, especially Late Night Late with Graham Rogers & its strange but lovely mix of Soap (1977), Tour of Duty, Prisoner: Cell Block H & Horror B movies.
I like Neil Buchanan! Art Attack was great... Except we're talking about TVS not CITV. lol Very fascinating video, and so was the "How Southern Television Died" video. Are you working on "How Meridian Died" too? I used to live in the Thames Television / LWT area (well, the surrounding area), but I never got to see Thames handover to Carlton because just before the handover we moved to Germany. We later lived in the Yorkshire Television area.
"The [then Conservative] government says that the plans will mean more chouce for the viewer. The critics say quality will suffer" And the critics were right.
It's mad how TVS did this extravagant and very dignified goodbye, then you get the first few moments of Meridian and think to yourself, what the hell is this crap. Those were the days. Top stuff Adam, as always ❤🎉❤
"You've been a wonderful audience, and Meridian are very lucky to have you." What a classy way to go out. ...and sadly, even if TVS won the round, its identity would have still been consumed by the ITV plc blob...
Same day as Central Independent Television launched which became successful especially in the 1990s as they were unopposed in the 1991 bid. Which had three studios Birmingham, Oxford and Lenton Lane in Nottingham.
I remember the end of Southern very well, but I think I missed this handover as I was at a new year party which didn't have the telly on. What is interesting is that Meridian started right after midnight, but 10 years earlier after watching the Southern ident disappear into the starry background, I waited agog for the start of TVS, but after a few minutes all that appeared was the coloured bars and a tone. Why didn't they broadcast as soon as they were able to? Apparently Southern wouldn't let them into the building until their very end, but TVS could have done something outside somewhere, even if was outside one of their portacabins. Nothing wrong with portacabins, I live in one!
The fact of the matter was that all television used to close down at night, sometime just before or after midnight. ITV were first to start late-night viewing, in 1986, into the early hours and would, 'closedown', about 5am before breakfast TV started at 6.30. So, to answer the question as to why TVS didn't start up at the stroke of midnight on the 1st January 1982, is due to them not being scheduled to start until the following morning, like all television did, in those days.
TVS produced a lot of hits of my early childhood. They had a very classy, glossy feel. Nostalgia bias makes me view them more favourably than Southern in the 'posh leafy green English' image stakes, and especially with the nature of its goodbye. They messed up with their financial dealings, but they didn't spit out the dummy, shrugged and left in a more dignified manner. Southern squealed "Your loss!" and stomped off, TVS said "cheers for having us" and walked away.
There are no real franchises left. It's all part of one monolithic blob called ITV plc. They just use regional names to try and give the illusion of being, 'independent', when they're not. If they did stop for some reason, I doubt anyone would notice. They'd just have some other subsidiary take over with little to no fanfare at all.
Buying MTM was the beginning of the end. I think TVS were maybe damned whatever they bid in the 1991 franchise round. All of the losing companies (especially in 1991) had a right to be bitter but while Southern bowed out with no dignity in 1981, TVS bowed out with grace in 1992.
The top three questions I have, after watching this... 1 - Why was a near identical Mallet produced specifically for that sketch involving Timmy Mallett? Most casual viewers wouldn't have noticed the difference, but it was larger than the real one and had 'Timmy's Mallet' written on it instead of 'Mallett's Mallet'. Why didn't they just have him use the one he already used on Wacaday? I can't imagine there being a copyright issue, he used the Mallet on various guest appearances on TV. 2 - If you watch the TVS to Meridian switchover online, it's noticeable that there was no obvious moment where TVS ended transmission and Meridian began. Despite a momentary sound problem during the final few seconds of TVS, the same footage of Big Ben just flowed in one continuous feed whilst the baton was passed from TVS to Meridian. 3 - Why did the ITV name carry forward into 1993 and beyond, when it was announced that the network would be rebranded as Channel 3? Much later in the decade, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees briefly used the Channel 3 name alongside their regional identities and the ITV name in a calamitously confusing branding disaster. But why wasn't the Channel 3 brand adopted nationwide in 1993? Anyway, aside from the questions, my thoughts on the TVS franchise loss are that they were victims to an unfair bidding system. They passed the quality threshold, they bid the highest sum, and lost. How does that work? They had no choice but to bid in the ballpark of £60million, against competition capable of successfully bidding £36million. They were robbed.
They paid the price for Thames TV broadcasting a documentary called Death On The Rock where three unarmed IRA members were shot dead by the SAS. Thatcher decided to remove the franchises!
Not going to happen. Which is a shame, as ITV regions was a big selling point of ITV. Could ITV plc have separate programming in X regions for local interest? Probably, but I bet someone crunched the numbers and figured it's more profitable to have a national output, with only some opt outs for regional news and advertising.
I really missed Southern. It had some excellent local programmes and some odd things like Jack Hargreaves's Out of Town and Farm Progress, and a more local feel.
The Broadcasting Bill of 1990 was the death knell of what was ITV regional television. Once the big money came in and bought out the well-established companies that put quality over quantity, they did the complete opposite, providing more, 'choice', by diluting their output to the cheapest denomination imaginable. Effectively spreading a single dollop of jam over an entire loaf of bread. TVS didn't stand a chance. At least their farewell had more of a party atmosphere, rather than the funeral-esque sentiment of their predecessor, Southern Television.
Now Meridian has swallowed up the former Central South area for good I think the Oxford transmitter area(which is where I lurk) needs to be returned to Central's stewardship
Southern should never have lost its franchise in 1981. Its service was second to none and produced quality programming for the network. The franchise auctions of 1993 signalled the end of the almost perfect competition we had between the BBC and ITV. It was the most destructive event of television in the UK.
Adam; do a video on the demise of TCC The Children’s Channel, particularly the connections it had with TVS as it mostly came out of an room in Maidstone with the family channel, the TVS not very successful limping on strategy 😮 TCC was the first uk channel to show Barney the Dinosaur 🦖 before it took off as a popular kids tv franchise in the UK. TCC almost crashed off air overnight and the Nordic version had to knock together a rolling tape in order to keep contracts with TV cable companies in good standing, with an really crap experience for a good few weeks.
Neil of Art Attack made millions out of the franchise as he had ownership of some of the rights of the program. I understand Disney paid him off significantly over the years in order for them to get full control of Art Attack.
The thing is that even the new kids on the block like Meridian and Sunrise (TV-AM's successor, later renamed To GMTV to avoid legal issues with Sky) couldn't afford the annual fees they've submited which were reduced later down the line. The 'quality' criteria which many candidates have failed to pass was designed by Granada with one thing in mind - to stop Phil Redmond from taking over the equally lucrative Northwest, which they did succeed (Granada won the franchise for less than 10M).
You're right, when you say that a lot of the franchise holders subsequently received a reduction in their premium payments; I've read, somewhere, that GMTV had theirs reduced to the same yearly figure that TV-am had bid for the license with. I have to admit being rather confused as to why an ITV contractor (which is what Granada were) would be involved in setting any aspect of the legislation of the industry they were part of. It is said that Granada retained their franchise, simply because they threatened to pull their programmes from the ITV network, if they didn't.
@@electragaming4140 True, the ITC didn't want to lose Granada's (and by extension ITV's) golden goose - Coronation Street, to the competition. And that was double if it was to the pesky Rupert Murdoch and his upstart satellite network - Sky
@@electragaming4140 Well, it is true that Granada planned to move its IP's, including their golden goose (by extension also ITV's) - Coronation Street, to the competition. Imagine the prospect of having Corrie being aired elsewhere at the time, especially on Rupert Murdoch's new upstart satellite channel - Sky.
Absolutely true. It was a huge issue for contentment but even though TVS and Thames could have appealed (don't know about TSW) it was said they didn't - not because of cost - but because by the time it would have been heard (after instigation actions) whatever the outcome it would have been too late. The new companies would have already have been transmitting for some time and for them to return to transmitting and broadcasting would have caused such a disruption to ITV (and those particular regions) that this is why they didn't. (It was not until the last possible moment that they were officially told they had lost; and both bowed out with merits, their heads held high; the viewers not affected by any of these (what would have been) long and protracted appeals. Had this not been the case and the announcements were made earlier then they could have probably won their appeals. Which is such an irony I've always thought. (Sorry for overlong comment).
Can't quite work out if that was the best or worst ad placement by UA-cam I encountered at 15:31. "-and in its first few minutes, like any newcomer, it made its pitch to viewers about what they could expect from their new independent television franchise holder" "What the £@$% is Rainbow Dust?!!"
The ITV franchise bid was a big mistake. (In my opinion) GMTV was a ratings and financial disaster; they couldn't afford the amount they had bid, leading to renegotiations with the Independent Television Commission (ITC). Despite some attempts to stabilize, GMTV never became significantly profitable, as their high franchise fees, low advertising revenue, and growing competition from satellite and cable TV made their business model unsustainable. Before GMTV, TV-AM had a rocky start but ultimately succeeded in delivering what viewers wanted. They achieved strong ratings later in their tenure, with popular segments like Roland Rat. Margaret Thatcher's letter of regret over TV-AM's closer. ITV’s ratings declined with the content the new broadcasters aired during those early years.... It truly was disaster in my opinion caused by Margaret Thatcher attempt to generate more money for the country.
Hi to you and great idea. If its possible that you'll be developing these Death of's to a series, I think the Rediffusion’s franchise death and its fractious hand over to Thames would make a great installment. I have read from the Transdiffusion online source that ITV applicants would attend ITA interviews for Rediffusion renewal...only for the same faces to attend a later interview for the new London Weekend bid! Regards Rediffusion's influence of Thames...Rediffusion was the minority interest and they had to give way to ABC mostly. Except on Rediffusion’s last week...they clung on their last day the Monday, whereas in North, YTV agreed a deal with Granada for the similar.
@@lestat1uk Only as a name, its parent company that had started to expand (buying Anglia etc.) tried to merge with Carlton but the regulator said the merged company would have to sell off Meridian, so they sold shop up to Granada. Of course Carlton and Granada would eventually merge to become ITV plc.
Well Atari didn't go bust they had a leadership problem with Sam Tramiel having heart problems (I think) and with Jack getting on in years decided to sell up. A Japanese company got the software division (can't remember which right now) and Infrogram now Atari got the rights to the hardware. So unlike what happened with rival Commodore where the UK arm were poised to buy the whole company only for the deal to fall through.
In my opinion: Thatcher should NEVER have been re-elected! Had she lost re-election either in 1982 or 1986, we may not have gotten this stupid Broadcasting Act! Not only did we lose TVS, TSW, Thames, TV-am and Oracle, over time we lost regional ITV almost entirely! It's part of why TV today is bland as hell! I miss the days when the main broadcasters gave us an exciting variety of shows, now they're reliant on reruns of a select few shows and reboots of other shows! I was born in late 1987, meaning I only remember GMTV and Meridian broadcasting in my area and didn't know Anglia, Central and Yorkshire Television were ITV franchises rather than just being production companies until years later, but when I look at what TV was like shortly before I was born... WOW, I am JEALOUS! I don't like the idea of TV not being on 24/7 but I do like how broadcasters back in the day were more creative when giving us new programming! Closedowns I have little memory of outside cable/satellite channels: I remember seeing the words "Closedown" in the Channel 4 listings in a magazine and I did tune into the BBC very early a few mornings in my single digit years resulting in me catching the last 10 minutes or so of Pages From Ceefax, but that's about all I remember of the basic 4 channels NOT broadcasting 24/7. I especially feel sorry for the South Westerners when they were shown TSW sending Gus Honeybun back home as part of TSW's farewell broadcast! (I only know about this because of ITV in The Face) and I'm sure it must've been painful for those outside the TSW/TVS regions to watch Thames' farewell broadcast!
You raise some good points... IMO The Broadcasting Act probably sped up the inevitable, as there was always pressure in ITV for consolidation - see Trident TV as an example . Satellite TV would have still come, streaming TV would have still come. While it was the Tories that passed the Broadcasting Act, it was Labour in 2003 that passed the Communications Act that lifted all caps of ITV franchise ownership.
The broadcasting bill was later looked at as a bad idea, by the very people who instigated it. It should never have happened in the way that it did. It should have been made possible for appeals to take place BEFORE the new companies began broadcasting. However, it was made at so there wasn't time for any appeals. Hence why TVS, Thames and TSW didn't appeal the verdicts. TVS and Thames would have ultimately won their bids based on what we now know. As I've read - and is mentioned elsewhere in the comments - the ITV companies were able to change their payments and Thames - being the broadcaster at the time - more than adequately passed the quality threshold. As ITV's biggest producer of programmes for the company (at the time) it was impossible for them to lose; had they not offended a certain 'Iron Lady' and co. then they would have been able to continue. What amazes me, however, is the fact that the programme which brought about the whole issue in the first place had been cleared by the ITA (and legally was fine too) to be broadcast as it was. The fact that neither TVS, Thames or TSW tried for an appeal is simply because they (and TV-AM) realised they couldn't get the appeals heard before the new companies took over broadcasting. All four companies chose not to let the viewers - and ITV as a whole - suffer due to this. And that, alone, meant that there was no disruption and they can all hold their heads high and say they cared about the viewers, right until the last seconds of broadcasting. (Sorry for overlong comment).
Let me say this again TVS way over paid for MTM. I mean £190 million in 1988 when the US syndication market was already way over crowded. I mean you had 1st run syndicated sitcoms like ‘Punky Brewster’, ‘Mama’s Family’ and ‘Small Wonder’ (the less said the better), other shows like ‘Star Trek the Next Generation’, game shows like ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy’ and Talk shows like ‘Oprah’ and ‘The Phil Donahue Show’. This is without even taking the reruns of shows like ‘Star Trek: The Original Series, ‘I Love Lucy’, ‘The Honeymooners’, ‘The Brady Bunch’ and many others that are too numerous to mention. Then the American advertising industry would enter its first major rescission since the Second World War by the early 1990s. The purchase of MTM was the first major mistake that TVS made in hindsight. MTM was actually cofounded by Mary Tyler Moore’s ex husband Grant Tinker who sold his shears in the company after their divorce to become president of NBC in the early 1980s. And TVS’s second biggest mistake was of course it’s £59 million pounds per year bid at the 1991 ITV franchise auction. With how badly TVS was doing due to its purchase of MTM the itc probably felt that TVS couldn’t pay the 59 million pound annual bid, a percentage share of its advertising revenue which all winning bidders had to pay to the Treasury every year *, and the basic daily cost of running a television station meant that TVS would really struggle to make high quality programming for the ITV network, let alone the local programming and news that was required by law. There was no way that TVS could make programming and handle the other expenses it would have to face and still make a profit under any business plan with the bid they put in, that didn’t involve the sale of MTM and even then it might of still failed to keep the franchise because of its business plan. I have to make a correction on my comment on the video about Southern and that is TVS’ bid failed due to the quality threshold. That wasn’t the case it was actually due to its business plan. (this part of the franchise auction isn’t really talked about but it’s mentioned on programs from the time like the ‘Money Programme and ‘Newsnight’ and a small number of news reports from the time. This was done as an equalizer to reduce the advantage of franchises that bid very low like Central who only bid £2,000, Scottish who only bid £2,000 and Channel Television who only bid £1,000. However I don’t think that Channel Television had to pay a large shear of their advertising revenue to the Treasury due to its small size. The share of ad revenue that each individual franchise had to pay depended on the size of the franchise with channel paying the smallest and the big five paying the most. The big five were the two London franchises (LWT and Carlton Television), Yorkshire Television, Central, and Granada Television.) Let me note that ‘Art Attack’ and ‘How2’ were both originally produced and distributed to the ITV Network by TVS.
It was a bad decision for Thames and for TVS. Especially in light of what happened: all the companies were allowed to change their payments and the predictions TVS made when they made their bid came to pass. The fact they (and Thames) lost was so unfortunate. TVS were a company who existed (in one form or another) until just around 2 years ago. They may no longer have produced programmes, but their legacy lingered on. With some programmes still shown for years after their demise. Thames, lasted beyond their 'demise' also. Their programmes are still shown and respected and it is said they lost their bid for 'political' reasons. (Having upset a certain 'Iron Lady' and co with a programme which was disliked by the government at the time of broadcast that this meant no matter what they bid was never going to make any difference to their fate). The day of January, 1st, 1993 was a sad day for all; ITV would lose their way fairly quickly from this point on. (If history were different would what would have come would have been better - we will all never know).
Technically, it didn't. What happened amounted to a "Shotgun Wedding", with Lew Grade being told to go away in short, jerky movements and a rebrand, along with the production facilities being brought into the region.
Ah the broadcasting act 1990. The thing that ruined itv (it would have changed still, but without the arseholes at Carlton it would have been much better), gave David Cameron his first step to government, and indirectly therefore led to Brexit… Horrific is not the word.
Bring a northerner from Lancashire I thought TVS and TSW were absolutely crap. Second rate programming. What did they have? How and worzel gummage. Absolute crap.
@@BruceLaing-f7t Aye..I thought what TVS stood for and then I realised I was thinking about the former franchise TWS instead. 😆 In other words I was getting both these stations confused with one another. 😆 😆
Bob the fish said it best: “TVS’s strategy was bid high or die, but in the end it was bid high and die.”
You nailed it in so few words-TVS was quality.
This got me thinking about Central's £2,000 bid. Why didn't anyone challenge them? They could have easily lost the franchise. When ATV was forced to rebrand as Central, it felt like the IBA was throwing its weight around too much. In my opinion, while it’s fair to require broadcasters to meet regulatory standards, forcing them to become a completely new company was excessive.
No regulator should have that much power. They should be able to revoke a license only in extreme cases, but the IBA seemed to wield this authority at will-they were too strict. Just my opinion, of course.
Nowadays in Australia Network 10 has handed licences back in regions that aren't profitable. So sad. Traditional television is so important when it comes to journalism.
Think about it, that’s only about £4200 in modern money.
I make the equivalent of that (in USD) in six weeks… and that’s my net income. That’s what actually goes in my bank account every payday.
Just imagine someone sitting there and saying “Let’s see… I can buy my teenager a halfway decent used car for their 18th birthday, or I can bid on a TV broadcasting franchise that covers a large chunk of England…”
The critics were right. The 1990 Broadcasting Act did give more choice but quality suffered as they predicted.
Indeed
TVS bowed out with much more dignity than Southern, but their final few moments were just as moving as those of their predecessors - thanking the viewers with their last breath.
As someone who lives in Newport on the Isle of Wight, it was nice to hear us mentioned in your excellent video. Nice trip down memory lane. Remember TVS well and it's Meridian successor.
A great series Adam. I grew up through all of these times. I can't express how much of a big nerd I am for British TV history in total. This content is right up my street.
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
I second that.
Pre mobile days, everyone looked so happy. Damn I miss those days.
Thanks for another great trip down memory lane. Born and bred in the Dover area, I’m 53 now and this brings back so many memories
“Well now we’re done. Go check out what Channel 4 is playing”
What a wild final sign off. Can’t picture it today.
And I can confirm the Cathedral that Meridian was broadcasting from was Winchester as that's the City I live in. TVS was def apart of my childhood, so many classic TV shows shown, including Knight Rider and during the week there was programmes on Children's ITV to look forward to
I thought it might have been Winchester. By coincidence, this video comes just as I've booked a short break in the area.
How very interesting, a sequel video to the Southern one, have to say it Adam if this becomes a series on how every ITV broadcaster that lost it's licence died it might become a very enjoyable series! Well done!
The balls of Central’s bidding team by only bidding £2,000 and winning. That’s some serious confidence that you’re gonna win 😎
Thames losing their franchise was a political hit job because of the “Death on the Rock” documentary
Exactly just as the Johnson government's (failed) attempt to privatise Channel 4 ~30 years later was revenge for them empty chairing him during their debate.
That old canard never made a lot of sense, since the IBA basically decided everything that Thames and the other companies could produce and broadcast.
It's often thought that but the Peacock report was published before death on the rock. However I do think that if Thames had outbid Carlton the ITC might have said they overbid.
This a commonly held belief but actually Thames simply didn't bid enough. Mainly because their owners weren't really that interested in the TV industry anymore and therefore they were badly placed to find out what the rival bids were, unlike say, Central or Granada who had a better grasp of the wider industry.
@@MatgoStyles One of the guys at Thames said many years later that Carlton could afford to bid big and it was virtually impossible to match it. But did also say that they did underbid.
I remember the shock when Thames lost its franchise due to the 1990 franchise shake-up. So many classic shows vanished overnight.
Even though I live in London I remember TVS more than Southern TV. Programmes I grew up with No73, Do It, Catchphrase, Motormouth, How 2
Let's Not forget TUGS (the short lived sister show to Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends) as well!
@SophieCrane-o7v I vaguely remember that
With that, another ITV Southern company went south. (Sorry 'bout that)
Also, I can't help but chuckle at the TVS announcer at the end. He's so obviously un-sure about whatever C4 were showing despite saying he highly recommends it.
Pointless factoid: Debbie Thrower (daughter of gardening legend Percy) bought my grandparents old 3-piece suite.
Ah, the nation's head gardener
As a teen in the 80s I absolutely loved TVS, especially Late Night Late with Graham Rogers & its strange but lovely mix of Soap (1977), Tour of Duty, Prisoner: Cell Block H & Horror B movies.
I like Neil Buchanan! Art Attack was great... Except we're talking about TVS not CITV. lol
Very fascinating video, and so was the "How Southern Television Died" video. Are you working on "How Meridian Died" too?
I used to live in the Thames Television / LWT area (well, the surrounding area), but I never got to see Thames handover to Carlton because just before the handover we moved to Germany. We later lived in the Yorkshire Television area.
"The [then Conservative] government says that the plans will mean more chouce for the viewer. The critics say quality will suffer"
And the critics were right.
I remember Southern and TVS very well... To me as long as we still had Fred Dinenage everything was fine.. Local legend is Fred
It's mad how TVS did this extravagant and very dignified goodbye, then you get the first few moments of Meridian and think to yourself, what the hell is this crap. Those were the days. Top stuff Adam, as always ❤🎉❤
"You've been a wonderful audience, and Meridian are very lucky to have you." What a classy way to go out.
...and sadly, even if TVS won the round, its identity would have still been consumed by the ITV plc blob...
Same day as Central Independent Television launched which became successful especially in the 1990s as they were unopposed in the 1991 bid. Which had three studios Birmingham, Oxford and Lenton Lane in Nottingham.
£2000 for Central to win their tenure but £60,000,000 didn’t cut it for TVS 😂. What a mess it was.
Central won their bid unopposed - presumably rival competitors didn't think they had a chance of outbidding them in one of the biggest regions.
I remember the end of Southern very well, but I think I missed this handover as I was at a new year party which didn't have the telly on. What is interesting is that Meridian started right after midnight, but 10 years earlier after watching the Southern ident disappear into the starry background, I waited agog for the start of TVS, but after a few minutes all that appeared was the coloured bars and a tone. Why didn't they broadcast as soon as they were able to? Apparently Southern wouldn't let them into the building until their very end, but TVS could have done something outside somewhere, even if was outside one of their portacabins. Nothing wrong with portacabins, I live in one!
The fact of the matter was that all television used to close down at night, sometime just before or after midnight. ITV were first to start late-night viewing, in 1986, into the early hours and would, 'closedown', about 5am before breakfast TV started at 6.30. So, to answer the question as to why TVS didn't start up at the stroke of midnight on the 1st January 1982, is due to them not being scheduled to start until the following morning, like all television did, in those days.
it's always great to learn about what was happening in the television world before I started watching 🌈 excellent documentary!!
Thank you!!
Thanks Mr Martyn, i like the itv lore
TVS produced a lot of hits of my early childhood. They had a very classy, glossy feel. Nostalgia bias makes me view them more favourably than Southern in the 'posh leafy green English' image stakes, and especially with the nature of its goodbye. They messed up with their financial dealings, but they didn't spit out the dummy, shrugged and left in a more dignified manner. Southern squealed "Your loss!" and stomped off, TVS said "cheers for having us" and walked away.
0:47 Awesome Behind The Scenes Look About TVS Television. From The Makers Of TUGS The Original Series. Thanks Mate. XXxxx 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 🇺🇸
The 90s were a strange decade... I wonder how a modern ITV franchise would bow out
It wouldn't bow out. It'd just stop.
There are no real franchises left. It's all part of one monolithic blob called ITV plc. They just use regional names to try and give the illusion of being, 'independent', when they're not. If they did stop for some reason, I doubt anyone would notice. They'd just have some other subsidiary take over with little to no fanfare at all.
Buying MTM was the beginning of the end. I think TVS were maybe damned whatever they bid in the 1991 franchise round. All of the losing companies (especially in 1991) had a right to be bitter but while Southern bowed out with no dignity in 1981, TVS bowed out with grace in 1992.
The fact is Meridian have always seen themselves as more as a news service
The top three questions I have, after watching this...
1 - Why was a near identical Mallet produced specifically for that sketch involving Timmy Mallett? Most casual viewers wouldn't have noticed the difference, but it was larger than the real one and had 'Timmy's Mallet' written on it instead of 'Mallett's Mallet'. Why didn't they just have him use the one he already used on Wacaday? I can't imagine there being a copyright issue, he used the Mallet on various guest appearances on TV.
2 - If you watch the TVS to Meridian switchover online, it's noticeable that there was no obvious moment where TVS ended transmission and Meridian began. Despite a momentary sound problem during the final few seconds of TVS, the same footage of Big Ben just flowed in one continuous feed whilst the baton was passed from TVS to Meridian.
3 - Why did the ITV name carry forward into 1993 and beyond, when it was announced that the network would be rebranded as Channel 3? Much later in the decade, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees briefly used the Channel 3 name alongside their regional identities and the ITV name in a calamitously confusing branding disaster. But why wasn't the Channel 3 brand adopted nationwide in 1993?
Anyway, aside from the questions, my thoughts on the TVS franchise loss are that they were victims to an unfair bidding system. They passed the quality threshold, they bid the highest sum, and lost. How does that work? They had no choice but to bid in the ballpark of £60million, against competition capable of successfully bidding £36million. They were robbed.
TVS’ Goodbye To All That was a bit of a Jools Holland Hooanany job.
Filmed in Southampton in mid December and not live.
They paid the price for Thames TV broadcasting a documentary called Death On The Rock where three unarmed IRA members were shot dead by the SAS. Thatcher decided to remove the franchises!
I still find the whole ITV regions bewildering and confusing...
From what I’ve been able to find, a large chunk of the company is now owned by Disney.
Yep.
Absolute madness, how to start the self implosion of once successful independent television!
TVS’s predecessor Southern Television ran from 1958-82 if I’m not mistaken.
i wish local itv networks would come back, even if we have less regions than before
Not going to happen. Which is a shame, as ITV regions was a big selling point of ITV. Could ITV plc have separate programming in X regions for local interest? Probably, but I bet someone crunched the numbers and figured it's more profitable to have a national output, with only some opt outs for regional news and advertising.
I really missed Southern. It had some excellent local programmes and some odd things like Jack Hargreaves's Out of Town and Farm Progress, and a more local feel.
The Broadcasting Bill of 1990 was the death knell of what was ITV regional television. Once the big money came in and bought out the well-established companies that put quality over quantity, they did the complete opposite, providing more, 'choice', by diluting their output to the cheapest denomination imaginable. Effectively spreading a single dollop of jam over an entire loaf of bread. TVS didn't stand a chance. At least their farewell had more of a party atmosphere, rather than the funeral-esque sentiment of their predecessor, Southern Television.
Now Meridian has swallowed up the former Central South area for good
I think the Oxford transmitter area(which is where I lurk) needs to be returned to Central's stewardship
11:11 It's the doddery old grandma from _They Think It's All Over!_
Southern should never have lost its franchise in 1981. Its service was second to none and produced quality programming for the network. The franchise auctions of 1993 signalled the end of the almost perfect competition we had between the BBC and ITV. It was the most destructive event of television in the UK.
Adam; do a video on the demise of TCC The Children’s Channel, particularly the connections it had with TVS as it mostly came out of an room in Maidstone with the family channel, the TVS not very successful limping on strategy 😮
TCC was the first uk channel to show Barney the Dinosaur 🦖 before it took off as a popular kids tv franchise in the UK.
TCC almost crashed off air overnight and the Nordic version had to knock together a rolling tape in order to keep contracts with TV cable companies in good standing, with an really crap experience for a good few weeks.
Neil of Art Attack made millions out of the franchise as he had ownership of some of the rights of the program. I understand Disney paid him off significantly over the years in order for them to get full control of Art Attack.
ITV was significantly diminished by the death of South.
The old Sky Satellite TV changed everything.
I watched so much uncensored German TV.
Some of the German channels, even had an English Language option.
The thing is that even the new kids on the block like Meridian and Sunrise (TV-AM's successor, later renamed To GMTV to avoid legal issues with Sky) couldn't afford the annual fees they've submited which were reduced later down the line. The 'quality' criteria which many candidates have failed to pass was designed by Granada with one thing in mind - to stop Phil Redmond from taking over the equally lucrative Northwest, which they did succeed (Granada won the franchise for less than 10M).
You're right, when you say that a lot of the franchise holders subsequently received a reduction in their premium payments; I've read, somewhere, that GMTV had theirs reduced to the same yearly figure that TV-am had bid for the license with.
I have to admit being rather confused as to why an ITV contractor (which is what Granada were) would be involved in setting any aspect of the legislation of the industry they were part of.
It is said that Granada retained their franchise, simply because they threatened to pull their programmes from the ITV network, if they didn't.
@@electragaming4140 True, the ITC didn't want to lose Granada's (and by extension ITV's) golden goose - Coronation Street, to the competition. And that was double if it was to the pesky Rupert Murdoch and his upstart satellite network - Sky
@@electragaming4140 Well, it is true that Granada planned to move its IP's, including their golden goose (by extension also ITV's) - Coronation Street, to the competition. Imagine the prospect of having Corrie being aired elsewhere at the time, especially on Rupert Murdoch's new upstart satellite channel - Sky.
TVS Did what Southern couldnt, look dated, but once Meridan took over, it was a fresh start, sadly we all know what happen some 9 years later.
As was proven, TVS would have easily survived had they won. The payments were re-evaluated and all franchises had payments reduced.
Absolutely true. It was a huge issue for contentment but even though TVS and Thames could have appealed (don't know about TSW) it was said they didn't - not because of cost - but because by the time it would have been heard (after instigation actions) whatever the outcome it would have been too late. The new companies would have already have been transmitting for some time and for them to return to transmitting and broadcasting would have caused such a disruption to ITV (and those particular regions) that this is why they didn't. (It was not until the last possible moment that they were officially told they had lost; and both bowed out with merits, their heads held high; the viewers not affected by any of these (what would have been) long and protracted appeals. Had this not been the case and the announcements were made earlier then they could have probably won their appeals. Which is such an irony I've always thought. (Sorry for overlong comment).
15:33 Debbie Thrower - The thinking Man's crumpet.
At 14:12 is that Shaw Taylor in the audience (second row in the middle of the screen)?
Yes it is. He was interviewed on the programme about his Police 5 series 🙂
"keep 'em peeled 👀"
Can't quite work out if that was the best or worst ad placement by UA-cam I encountered at 15:31.
"-and in its first few minutes, like any newcomer, it made its pitch to viewers about what they could expect from their new independent television franchise holder"
"What the £@$% is Rainbow Dust?!!"
i wasn't expecting la bamba
Another great documentary. Are you going for the trifecta and do Meridian as well?
Technically on paper ITV Meridian still exists. The only thing people see on screen of Meridian these days is the evening news - "ITV News Meridian".
The ITV franchise bid was a big mistake. (In my opinion) GMTV was a ratings and financial disaster; they couldn't afford the amount they had bid, leading to renegotiations with the Independent Television Commission (ITC). Despite some attempts to stabilize, GMTV never became significantly profitable, as their high franchise fees, low advertising revenue, and growing competition from satellite and cable TV made their business model unsustainable.
Before GMTV, TV-AM had a rocky start but ultimately succeeded in delivering what viewers wanted. They achieved strong ratings later in their tenure, with popular segments like Roland Rat.
Margaret Thatcher's letter of regret over TV-AM's closer.
ITV’s ratings declined with the content the new broadcasters aired during those early years.... It truly was disaster in my opinion caused by Margaret Thatcher attempt to generate more money for the country.
Broadcasting Bill? I knew him!
You keep referring to TVS being on air for ten years. 1 January 1982 to 31 December 1992 is ELEVEN years!
New video? WOOOOHOOOOOO!!
Much more dignified than Southern.
I'm guessing Central were unopposed to win with such a low bid.
Apparently only £2000 a year, that's only £5 a day, no wonder Central was rich,rich,rich
I think the critics where right, quality dropped.
Totally especially in London.
@@evonne_o Hence Carlton's nickname, at the time!
Tv_am should never have been taken off air
My dad saw TVS 🌈
1hr club
👇
Hi to you and great idea. If its possible that you'll be developing these Death of's to a series, I think the Rediffusion’s franchise death and its fractious hand over to Thames would make a great installment. I have read from the Transdiffusion online source that ITV applicants would attend ITA interviews for Rediffusion renewal...only for the same faces to attend a later interview for the new London Weekend bid! Regards Rediffusion's influence of Thames...Rediffusion was the minority interest and they had to give way to ABC mostly. Except on Rediffusion’s last week...they clung on their last day the Monday, whereas in North, YTV agreed a deal with Granada for the similar.
Adam's posted another video? Capital!
Thank you dear chap!
@AdamMartyn will you be doing a video on the transition from TWW to HTV, and the issues that happened at TWW?
Hey adam martyn can you do a video on how meridian died please???
I think meridian is still going.
@Osvaldinhogaucholovesthesims5 not where I am, it is still meridian. It is owned by ITV plc but it is still meridian here in kent
@@lestat1ukhave you ever been to the midlands its brilliant you get away from stinky regions such as norf souf and wescunchree!!!
@Osvaldinhogaucholovesthesims5 not entirely sure what you are implying
@@lestat1uk Only as a name, its parent company that had started to expand (buying Anglia etc.) tried to merge with Carlton but the regulator said the merged company would have to sell off Meridian, so they sold shop up to Granada. Of course Carlton and Granada would eventually merge to become ITV plc.
likely the start of these days of "All these channels and still nothing to watch"
Were you a kid through to the mid-80s? That was Saturday afternoons, if you couldn't go out anywhere; nothing but sport on all channels 😂
TVS logo looks like Atari upside down and we all know what happened to them😂
Well Atari didn't go bust they had a leadership problem with Sam Tramiel having heart problems (I think) and with Jack getting on in years decided to sell up. A Japanese company got the software division (can't remember which right now) and Infrogram now Atari got the rights to the hardware. So unlike what happened with rival Commodore where the UK arm were poised to buy the whole company only for the deal to fall through.
In my opinion: Thatcher should NEVER have been re-elected! Had she lost re-election either in 1982 or 1986, we may not have gotten this stupid Broadcasting Act! Not only did we lose TVS, TSW, Thames, TV-am and Oracle, over time we lost regional ITV almost entirely! It's part of why TV today is bland as hell! I miss the days when the main broadcasters gave us an exciting variety of shows, now they're reliant on reruns of a select few shows and reboots of other shows! I was born in late 1987, meaning I only remember GMTV and Meridian broadcasting in my area and didn't know Anglia, Central and Yorkshire Television were ITV franchises rather than just being production companies until years later, but when I look at what TV was like shortly before I was born... WOW, I am JEALOUS! I don't like the idea of TV not being on 24/7 but I do like how broadcasters back in the day were more creative when giving us new programming! Closedowns I have little memory of outside cable/satellite channels: I remember seeing the words "Closedown" in the Channel 4 listings in a magazine and I did tune into the BBC very early a few mornings in my single digit years resulting in me catching the last 10 minutes or so of Pages From Ceefax, but that's about all I remember of the basic 4 channels NOT broadcasting 24/7. I especially feel sorry for the South Westerners when they were shown TSW sending Gus Honeybun back home as part of TSW's farewell broadcast! (I only know about this because of ITV in The Face) and I'm sure it must've been painful for those outside the TSW/TVS regions to watch Thames' farewell broadcast!
Facts
You raise some good points... IMO The Broadcasting Act probably sped up the inevitable, as there was always pressure in ITV for consolidation - see Trident TV as an example . Satellite TV would have still come, streaming TV would have still come. While it was the Tories that passed the Broadcasting Act, it was Labour in 2003 that passed the Communications Act that lifted all caps of ITV franchise ownership.
The broadcasting bill was later looked at as a bad idea, by the very people who instigated it. It should never have happened in the way that it did. It should have been made possible for appeals to take place BEFORE the new companies began broadcasting. However, it was made at so there wasn't time for any appeals. Hence why TVS, Thames and TSW didn't appeal the verdicts. TVS and Thames would have ultimately won their bids based on what we now know. As I've read - and is mentioned elsewhere in the comments - the ITV companies were able to change their payments and Thames - being the broadcaster at the time - more than adequately passed the quality threshold. As ITV's biggest producer of programmes for the company (at the time) it was impossible for them to lose; had they not offended a certain 'Iron Lady' and co. then they would have been able to continue. What amazes me, however, is the fact that the programme which brought about the whole issue in the first place had been cleared by the ITA (and legally was fine too) to be broadcast as it was. The fact that neither TVS, Thames or TSW tried for an appeal is simply because they (and TV-AM) realised they couldn't get the appeals heard before the new companies took over broadcasting. All four companies chose not to let the viewers - and ITV as a whole - suffer due to this. And that, alone, meant that there was no disruption and they can all hold their heads high and say they cared about the viewers, right until the last seconds of broadcasting. (Sorry for overlong comment).
Let me say this again TVS way over paid for MTM. I mean £190 million in 1988 when the US syndication market was already way over crowded. I mean you had 1st run syndicated sitcoms like ‘Punky Brewster’, ‘Mama’s Family’ and ‘Small Wonder’ (the less said the better), other shows like ‘Star Trek the Next Generation’, game shows like ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy’ and Talk shows like ‘Oprah’ and ‘The Phil Donahue Show’. This is without even taking the reruns of shows like ‘Star Trek: The Original Series, ‘I Love Lucy’, ‘The Honeymooners’, ‘The Brady Bunch’ and many others that are too numerous to mention. Then the American advertising industry would enter its first major rescission since the Second World War by the early 1990s. The purchase of MTM was the first major mistake that TVS made in hindsight. MTM was actually cofounded by Mary Tyler Moore’s ex husband Grant Tinker who sold his shears in the company after their divorce to become president of NBC in the early 1980s.
And TVS’s second biggest mistake was of course it’s £59 million pounds per year bid at the 1991 ITV franchise auction. With how badly TVS was doing due to its purchase of MTM the itc probably felt that TVS couldn’t pay the 59 million pound annual bid, a percentage share of its advertising revenue which all winning bidders had to pay to the Treasury every year *, and the basic daily cost of running a television station meant that TVS would really struggle to make high quality programming for the ITV network, let alone the local programming and news that was required by law. There was no way that TVS could make programming and handle the other expenses it would have to face and still make a profit under any business plan with the bid they put in, that didn’t involve the sale of MTM and even then it might of still failed to keep the franchise because of its business plan. I have to make a correction on my comment on the video about Southern and that is TVS’ bid failed due to the quality threshold. That wasn’t the case it was actually due to its business plan.
(this part of the franchise auction isn’t really talked about but it’s mentioned on programs from the time like the ‘Money Programme and ‘Newsnight’ and a small number of news reports from the time. This was done as an equalizer to reduce the advantage of franchises that bid very low like Central who only bid £2,000, Scottish who only bid £2,000 and Channel Television who only bid £1,000. However I don’t think that Channel Television had to pay a large shear of their advertising revenue to the Treasury due to its small size. The share of ad revenue that each individual franchise had to pay depended on the size of the franchise with channel paying the smallest and the big five paying the most. The big five were the two London franchises (LWT and Carlton Television), Yorkshire Television, Central, and Granada Television.)
Let me note that ‘Art Attack’ and ‘How2’ were both originally produced and distributed to the ITV Network by TVS.
It was a bad decision for Thames and for TVS. Especially in light of what happened: all the companies were allowed to change their payments and the predictions TVS made when they made their bid came to pass. The fact they (and Thames) lost was so unfortunate. TVS were a company who existed (in one form or another) until just around 2 years ago. They may no longer have produced programmes, but their legacy lingered on. With some programmes still shown for years after their demise. Thames, lasted beyond their 'demise' also. Their programmes are still shown and respected and it is said they lost their bid for 'political' reasons. (Having upset a certain 'Iron Lady' and co with a programme which was disliked by the government at the time of broadcast that this meant no matter what they bid was never going to make any difference to their fate). The day of January, 1st, 1993 was a sad day for all; ITV would lose their way fairly quickly from this point on. (If history were different would what would have come would have been better - we will all never know).
4:15 I always hated that bombastic BBC News title design - it looks like something that would be used by a totalitarian regime 😨
Logo Kids will be enraged.
Well, L***kid Is A Offensive Slur.
Can You Do How ATV Died?
Technically, it didn't.
What happened amounted to a "Shotgun Wedding", with Lew Grade being told to go away in short, jerky movements and a rebrand, along with the production facilities being brought into the region.
I remember when Tyne Tees rebranded to Channel 3 North East. It was awful and thankfully short lived.
I Was Born With Meridian Television On August 15, 2008
Quality did indeed suffer... ITV is crap now.
TVS was better.
Ah the broadcasting act 1990. The thing that ruined itv (it would have changed still, but without the arseholes at Carlton it would have been much better), gave David Cameron his first step to government, and indirectly therefore led to Brexit…
Horrific is not the word.
Bring a northerner from Lancashire I thought TVS and TSW were absolutely crap. Second rate programming. What did they have? How and worzel gummage. Absolute crap.
Shame as those chimes of big ben signalled the rnd of itv.
Itc should have left the regions to run the TV network. Look what happened with TV today 😮 disappointing
Hello rat fans!
TVS in Rainbow 🌈 colours before the days when the rainbow 🌈 turned woke! 😆
Trying to think what TVS stood for! 🤔
TeleVision South
@@BruceLaing-f7t Aye..I thought what TVS stood for and then I realised I was thinking about the former franchise TWS instead. 😆
In other words I was getting both these stations confused with one another. 😆 😆
Even Apple had the rainbow in the 1980s
Bye bye and good riddance to Tory Vision South.