TV-am MD Bruce Gyngell as soon as he knew TV-am had lost, he put his contingency plans in place. The budget for TV-am until Jan 1992 was set, so no major on screen changes for the rest of 1991. Come 1992, cost cutting measures would start, including Sky News providing TV-am news output from 1st Feb 1992.

@robertcomer2767

2 жыл бұрын

I was really surprised how the other ITV companies didn't do something about him outsourcing the news to Sky. I don't know how TV-am ever passed the quality threshold + nearly 10 years of amateur embarrassment

@johnking5174

2 жыл бұрын

@@robertcomer2767 Remember that TV-am had been told they were losing their franchise by December 31st 1992, so they simply didn't care. As long as they provided the bare basic quota of news coverage per day which was laid down by the ITC, then that was perfectly within the law. Sky News offered them a contract for around £500,000 to provide all national and world news provision and presentation including resources needed for the upcoming 1992 general election and the 1992 US Presidential Election which TV-am had to cover.

@chillz535

9 ай бұрын

Yes, but losing out in the franchise round wasn’t even the first time TV-am suffered badly in its near-10-year history. When breakfast television began 40 years ago, TV-am had also suffered, namely in the ratings battle with the BBC’s Breakfast Time that started out a couple of weeks before commercial early morning TV existed. As far as Thames Television was concerned, the reason they were just as unlucky was primarily down to the BAFTA-winning Death on the Rock episode of their current affairs program This Week, one that was condemned by the late former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and prompted her Government to establish the controversial Broadcasting Act the year before the announcements were made public.

Dinah Lawley was a consummate professional announcer and newsreader. A pity she disappeared without trace after the demise of TSW. It must have been a very difficult day for the in-vision presenters to remain composed knowing their station had been sentenced to death!

1:37 - that's an expert switch from camera to camera by John Suchet!

It was the This Week special Death On The Rock that spearheaded Thames losing their licence.

@stevenoneill7166

Жыл бұрын

Even though Death On The Rock was acknowledged as a very high quality documentary, it pissed off the Tory Government & as you rightly say was the main reason why Thames lost their licence

Carlton Television, from 1st January 1993 became the haemorrhoid of ITV

@rtc9063

Жыл бұрын

That was the day the rot set in. But 30 years on, how much worse can ITV get?

@johnking5174

Жыл бұрын

@@rtc9063 At least we know Channel 4 is safe after today's news that this current scum of a government will not sell off that channel

@chillz535

Жыл бұрын

Spot on. When Carlton replaced Thames Television on January 1st 1993, they began with quite possibly the worst batch of idents ever seen on television. Thames’ final ident as one of the existing subsidiaries on ITV was something for people living in London at the time will never forget.

@jamesmitchell8922

6 ай бұрын

Catchphrase went to CARLTON from TVS in 1994.

@nigelfreeman6192

4 ай бұрын

Carlton not so much television for London, but crap television for London. Thames supplied a lot of great quality shows for the itv network, should never have lost its licence to broadcast. Shame on the itc.

Interesting News Flash with John Suchet presenting and Nicholas Owen is the man on spot.

Nobody should have been awarded a franchise without making any programmes. The independents were poor back in 1993 and it showed back then. Now they make the best programmes. God only knows what s**t Carlton would have put on if Thames had stopped making programmes after losing the franchise. All history now though.

The only thing George Russell DID get right was "that it would never happen again". About the only thing he did get right that day!

@stevenoneill7166

Жыл бұрын

George Russell knew it was a corrupt farce because, like his cronies at the ITC & the Tory Government, they were all in on it. Thames had to lose their franchise because of the Death On The Rock documentary & this was the perfect solution to the problem. LWT, whose programme quality had gone right down the toilet compared to the outstanding output they produced in the 70's, won their franchise because most of management & some of the personalities (especially Cilla Black) were very pro-Tory. Add to that LWT's chairman, Sir Christopher Bland, being the former Deputy Chairman of the IBA & it stands out a bloody mile how bent & corrupt the whole thing was

1:50 - the moment that ITN announced the ITV equivalent of the shit hitting the fan.

They said TVS bid of £60 million would not leave enough money to make decent programmes. Meridian who bid £36 million have not made one single decent programme. A Big set up i say.

If GMTV (good morning television) broadcasted in 1983 then it would be beaten by TV-AM

@johnking5174

3 жыл бұрын

And how do you come to that logic??

@solojinglesradio1

2 жыл бұрын

@@johnking5174 kids...

Auf Wiedersehen Pet was made by Central Independent Television, NOT TVS!!

@alexmacleod3728

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly

@antster1983

2 жыл бұрын

John Suchet said "Meridian, the makers of _Auf Wiedersehen, Pet."_ There's a small kernel of truth to it as Allan McKeown's company SelecTV (formed following his Witzend Productions' acquisition of both SelecTV and Alomo Productions) had a 15% stake in Meridian, and Central Independent Television had a 20% stake in Meridian too. (The rest was held by Mills & Allen.)

@seanart1508

2 жыл бұрын

@@antster1983 John Suchet said TVS, but to the viewer like us it says on the end clip of the programme a Central Independent Television plc production!

I would have thought that London would be where the richest people live.

Sad day at ITV.

Not sure who the announcer is at the start but she sounds uncannily like Kathy Secker at Tyne Tees!

The bidding process and quality threshold requirements were barmy

@stevenoneill7166

Жыл бұрын

Especially the latter. Carlton had as much quality as an empty bag of crisps & couldn't get within touching distance of Thames. Some of LWT's programming, although popular, was poor in quality. Their Light Entertainment shows were ridden with distortion on the audience reactions & they were very reckless in the way they butchered films that they screened on the ITV network. It was an utter farce

@brucedanton3669

Жыл бұрын

@@stevenoneill7166 Yes I am sure you are right there then so too of course if alas somehow?!

@nigelfreeman6192

4 ай бұрын

Can someone tell what quality Carlton had. And how could the ITC judge on quality when Carlton hadn’t made any programs as far as I know. It was just Maggie throwing her whole toy box out of her pram over the Thames documentary Death on The Rock. Well they say the truth hurts.

2:52 TSW/Westcountry

Thames television TVS TSW and TVAM has lost the licence but LWT Granada television Yorkshire television and central television have been saved

@peterwilliamskelhorn6675

Жыл бұрын

+Brian Marshall I'm glad i don't remember this auction i was a baby in 1991. But happy that our region Granada stayed

@glenncooney3959

Жыл бұрын

YTV almost lost theirs because the ITC initially considered their bid of £37.7 million was too high. However, they survived. If only Thames bid £44 million. 😢

Beginning of the end of ITV as we knew it......

@alexmacleod3728

3 жыл бұрын

and since then it got worse. Much worse

@robertcomer2767

2 жыл бұрын

And now 31 years later, it's going to be a complete repeat with Channel 4!

GMTV - also known as "Grinning Morons TV".

@matthall3077

2 жыл бұрын

It Means Good Morning Television

@johnking5174

2 жыл бұрын

@@matthall3077 Yes Matt, I am not an idiot - Grinning Morons TV was the nickname GMTV had when it launched in 1993.

@matthall3077

2 жыл бұрын

@@johnking5174 That’s Good But I Miss GMTV

the bbc were not happy

@johnking5174

5 жыл бұрын

Why?

@alexv2926

4 жыл бұрын

@@johnking5174 they lost russ a

@johnking5174

4 жыл бұрын

@@alexv2926 ??

@stickytapenrust6869

3 жыл бұрын

@@alexv2926 That was nothing to do with the ITV franchise results, his first series for ITV after this was September Song, made by Granada, who retained their franchise.