Happy 50th Birthday, ITV!

[Joseph_Gallant]

Tomorrow (September 22nd) is the 50th anniversary of ITV, the UK's first commercial television network.

Under ITV's original structure, Britain was divided-up into a number of regions, and the authorities (originally the Independent Television Authority, then the Independent Broadcasting Authority, then the Independent Television Commission and now Ofcom) granted licenses for companies to serve as the ITV franchisee in a particular region.

The first region to sign-on was the largest, Metropolitan London. London was split into two franchises, with one of them (Associated-Rediffusion) running the ITV service in London on weekdays; the other (Associated Broadcasting Company, which was forced by a British court to change it's name; it adopted Associated Television, better known as ATV) had Saturdays and Sundays.

At first, the three largest regions (London, plus the Midlands and Northern England, where ITV service was launched in 1956) each had two franchisees--one for weekdays, the other for weekends. The other regions were awarded a single franchise for seven-days-a-week broadcasting.

After 1968, the Midlands and Northern England each got a single ITV franchisee for the full seven-day week. Only in London did two franchises (beginning in 1968, the week was split as follows: one franchisee had Mondays through early Friday evening; the other had Friday evenings--including primetime--through sign-off Sunday) continue to exist.

Click here for ITV's official 50th anniversary website, which contains details of special events the network has been holding to celebrate this milestone.

Click here for Transdfiffusion's website, which has numerous articles and features about the history of British television, including a lot of material on the history of ITV and it's franchisees.

[Mark Wooldridge]

Well... the original ITV franchise system I still miss.

Three class names in TV that should really be still around today:

ABC - (No, not American Broadcasting Company - Associated British Cinemas/Corporation).  The Avengers are still being repeated today.  They didn't totall go away; they ended up in a forced merger with Rediffusion to become another class act:

Thames - Mr. Bean.  Benny Hill.  The Bill.  The Sweeney.  Morecambe and Wise.  This is Your Life.   Kenny Everett.  Love Thy Neighbour.  The World At War.  Rainbow.   These are shows that are synomynous with Thames.  These were class TV shows that even today you can spend all day watching again and again and again.  They only had to lose their bidding war (Thanks Maggie Thatcher!) to Carlton - who instead of

ATV.  Started out as ABC but because Associated British wanted to get in on the TV act (they owned cinemas) they changed from ABC to ATV.  Lew Grade.  They live on through ITC but those days can't be relived.  Shows you will know include: The Prisoner.  The Muppet Show (Yes, ATV from the UK gave us the Muppets after ABC, CBS and NBC all turned Jim Henson down).  The Persuaders.  The Saint.  Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased).  Thunderbirds.  Space 1999.  

If only these three (or two if you count that ABC and Rediffusion merged to become Thames) TV outfits still remained to this day and were over here then we might have some class TV.  

Mark.

[Joseph_Gallant]

Mark wrote:
> Three class names in TV that should really be still around
> today:
>
> ABC - (No, not American Broadcasting Company - Associated
> British Cinemas/Corporation).  

The name probably would have had to been changed at some point to avoid confusion not just with ABC here in the 'States, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which also goes by the initials ABC.
 
> Thames -...They only had to lose their bidding
> war (Thanks Maggie Thatcher!) to Carlton

Several contributors to the Transdiffusion website believe that Carlton's outbidding Thames for the London weekday ITV franchise was the beginning of the decline of ITV.

> ATV....Lew Grade.  They live on through
> ITC but those days can't be relived.

While many ATV/ITC (Most people think ITC stands for "Independent Television Corporation". It doesn't. It really stands for "Incorporated Television Company") shows were successfully exported, some in Britain (among them senior management of other ITV franchisees) thought ATV produced too many programs for export. The usual complaint lodged against Lew Grade went something like this: "You're producing programmes for WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama when you should be producing programmes for ATV in Birmingham, England!".

ATV was also unique in that until 1968, it was the only original ITV franchisee to be on the air weekdays in one region (Midlands) and weekends in another (Metropolitan London). I suspect that most of ATV's filmed programs ran in the Midlands on weekdays and in London on weekends (Associated-British's ABC also broadcast to two regions, but broadcast to both on weekends).
 
I personally think the consolidation of ITV would have happened anyway, but had Thames held onto the London weekday franchise, I think Thames would have ended up merging with Granada to form ITV, Plc. as we now know it. Plus, I also think ITV probably would have had much better quality programs the last decade (and Thames would still be a major exporter of programs), and regional branding would not have been eliminated, although we might have seen "ITV/Thames" for weekdays in London, "ITV/Central" for the Midlands, etc.

[desertv]

> Mark wrote:
> > Three class names in TV that should really be still around
>
> > today:
> >
> > ABC - (No, not American Broadcasting Company - Associated
> > British Cinemas/Corporation).  
>
> The name probably would have had to been changed at some
> point to avoid confusion not just with ABC here in the
> 'States, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which
> also goes by the initials ABC.
>  
> > Thames -...They only had to lose their bidding
> > war (Thanks Maggie Thatcher!) to Carlton
>
> Several contributors to the Transdiffusion website believe
> that Carlton's outbidding Thames for the London weekday ITV
> franchise was the beginning of the decline of ITV.
>
> > ATV....Lew Grade.  They live on through
> > ITC but those days can't be relived.
>
> While many ATV/ITC (Most people think ITC stands for
> "Independent Television Corporation". It doesn't. It really
> stands for "Incorporated Television Company") shows were
> successfully exported, some in Britain (among them senior
> management of other ITV franchisees) thought ATV produced
> too many programs for export. The usual complaint lodged
> against Lew Grade went something like this: "You're
> producing programmes for WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama when
> you should be producing programmes for ATV in Birmingham,
> England!".
>
> ATV was also unique in that until 1968, it was the only
> original ITV franchisee to be on the air weekdays in one
> region (Midlands) and weekends in another (Metropolitan
> London). I suspect that most of ATV's filmed programs ran in
> the Midlands on weekdays and in London on weekends
> (Associated-British's ABC also broadcast to two regions, but
> broadcast to both on weekends).
>  
> I personally think the consolidation of ITV would have
> happened anyway, but had Thames held onto the London weekday
> franchise, I think Thames would have ended up merging with
> Granada to form ITV, Plc. as we now know it. Plus, I also
> think ITV probably would have had much better quality
> programs the last decade (and Thames would still be a major
> exporter of programs), and regional branding would not have
> been eliminated, although we might have seen "ITV/Thames"
> for weekdays in London, "ITV/Central" for the Midlands, etc.
>
The remnants of Thames are now a part of Dismantle...er...Fremantle Media (distributors of American Idol and The Price Is Right)

And ITV's US distribution arm is called Granada America (Nanny 911/Hell's Kitchen)