What was your ITV region?

[Victoria O'Keefe]

Margaret Thatcher has not just the destruction of a "sane" ITV and ILR, but, personally for me, Section 28 as her legacy and the blood on her hands of my friend who was hounded and mocked with homophobic slurs about needing ladies bedroom wear until it was just too much.

[Arran]

A friend lived in Bath back in the late 1990s. He was talking to a local resident who mentioned that he would have welcomed a change in ITV company in the 1991 franchise round, and was disappointed that both TVS and TSW lost but HTV had gone on to win a 3rd franchise period. He thought that HTV was the Southern Television of 1991. A company that punched below its weight compared to similar size ITV companies of STV and Anglia, and it had dull and dated styling and presentation barely changed from the 1970s including regular in-vision continuity that most other ITV companies (Ulster being a notable exception) had done away with. HTV didn't produce many networked programmes, and for some unexplainable reason they had never repeated Children of the Stones although the friend hadn't heard of this programme at the time. The resident commented on how the styling and presentation of HTV was no match for the slick and snazzy presentation TVS adopted in 1987, and even that of TSW was more modern and attractive than HTV despite the small size and limited resources of this company.

The resident had a cynical view that ITV companies won in the past by being the best after careful scrutiny, but in 1991 they won simply by submitting the highest bid as long as they met the bare minimum with regards to quality and business plan - providing they didn't overbid.

The applicants for Wales and West of England were:

HTV £20.5m
Merlin £19.4m
C3 Wales & West £18.3m - Failed on quality
C3W £17.8m

Notice how closely spaced the bids are. Just £2.7m difference between the highest and lowest bids.

C3W was backed by TSW. If they won but TSW lost then the company would have effectively moved regions.

[culnara]

[Victoria O'Keefe]

Philip Elsmore wants to be remembered but i doubt that he wants to be worshipped as he is by many tv presentation fans.

[Arran]

If I selected the ITV companies for the 1991 franchise round.

North of Scotland: Grampian
Central & South of Scotland: STV (Unopposed)
Borders: Abolish this region!
North East & Cumbria: Tyne Tees and Border in merger
North West & Isle of Man: Granada (Reluctantly!)
Yorkshire: YTV
Wales: Merlin
Midlands: Central (Unopposed)
East of England: Anglia
London Weekday: Thames
London Weekend: LWT
South & South East England: TVS in partnership with Meridian (TVS was in a bad financial position)
South West & West of England: TSW
Channel Islands: Channel TV
Northern Ireland: TV NI
Breakfast Time: TV AM
National & International News: ITN
Teletext: Oracle

New players: Meridian, Merlin, TV NI
Losers: HTV, Ulster

[Victoria O'Keefe]

[George 1978]

Do you think that in today's ITV climate, Border Television's Scottish transmitters should be transferred to STV? Wales has a single ITV region, after all.

And Cumbria could officially be part of the Tyne Tees region? I don't think that the Isle of Man would have Channel TV-alike status... North and West Northumberland should have been Tyne Tees anyway.

It's interesting how the ITV regions map would have looked if the regions were the same as the UK government region map - for example, the old TSW region and the HTV West area would have been all served by one company (and no doubt that £16 million probably wouldn't have been an overbid in the 1991 franchise auction, and TSW would have won as a result) - there would have still be split for regional news, advertising and some other programmes. HTV Wales would have bid too high for Wales on its own with £20 million no doubt. And on the other hand, the West Midlands and the East Midlands would have been split into two separate franchise areas - ATV and Central together methinks?

And now "Emmerdale Farm" from "Yorkshire and the Humber Television"...

[Arran]

It would be interesting to know the percentage of people in the Border Television region in Scotland who watch ITV vs STV.

STV is available on satellite and the internet in the Border Television region.

[Victoria O'Keefe]

Do you think that in today's ITV climate, Border Television's Scottish transmitters should be transferred to STV? Wales has a single ITV region, after all.

[Arran]

Trident Television was a conglomerate which also owned Windsor Safari Park (now Legoland) and a number of casinos amongst other things.

[George 1978]

I believe that Trident was also in the TV rental business in the 1970s as well, just like Rediffusion and Granada - saw some Daily Mirror adverts next to the TV pages when I was researching the BNA.

I always think of repeats of Rising Damp when I think of the name "Trident Television", as in: (c) Trident Television Ltd. 1975.

[Arran]

YTV and Tyne Tees were both owned by Trident Television during the 1970s and early 1980s. Trident Television was originally established in order to allocate advertising for the Bilsdale transmitter that serves Teesside and a large part of North Yorkshire.

In 1982 both YTV and Tyne Tees became separate companies, but Trident Television held a minority of shares in both. Ten years later in 1992 Tyne Tees was taken over by YTV.

[Victoria O'Keefe]

Tyne Tees has been going since 1959, only Scottish Television/STV Central and Granada are older and are still in the ITV Network, but has spent most of the post-1990 Broadcast Act period as ITV's chew toy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_519h95XFs

[Arran]

There are several of these 'sweet spots' including areas that aren't sparsely populated. There must have been some towns where it was more common for people to watch the wrong ITV region for the town. A few areas - such as south Essex - received the strongest signal from a transmitter for the wrong ITV region.

[beccabear67]

I've heard of some real 'sweet spots' where one could pick up fairly strongly three ITV regions, say YTV-Granada-Tyne Tees, or YTV-Central-Anglia. Sparsely populated overlaps within line of sight of three transmitters so you just swung the aerial to catch which you wanted.