ITV what might have been.
Anthony_Ryan
Posts: 445 Forum Member
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20 years have passed since the January 1993 day that the result of the November 1991 franchise round took effect.
What if that franchise round had have had a different outcome ?
For example what if Phil Redmonds North West TV had ousted Granada TV would Coronation Street still be on ITV 1 or might it have gone to the BBC.
Would Emmerdale Farm still be on ITV 1 if White Rose TV had won in the Yorkshire region.
Would Saturday nights be dominated by the likes of X Factor, Britain's Got Talent.
Would ITV 1 be better today if it was dominated by Thames TV instead of Carlton Granada as is the case right now.
In my view ITV 1 is a total shambles so it would have been better if the events of November 1991 had taken a different turn.
What if that franchise round had have had a different outcome ?
For example what if Phil Redmonds North West TV had ousted Granada TV would Coronation Street still be on ITV 1 or might it have gone to the BBC.
Would Emmerdale Farm still be on ITV 1 if White Rose TV had won in the Yorkshire region.
Would Saturday nights be dominated by the likes of X Factor, Britain's Got Talent.
Would ITV 1 be better today if it was dominated by Thames TV instead of Carlton Granada as is the case right now.
In my view ITV 1 is a total shambles so it would have been better if the events of November 1991 had taken a different turn.
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Comments
Personally I have a feeling Carlton would have still got involved by buying out Central (as indeed they did) and still teaming up with Granada. Of course Thames having the dominant London weekday franchise may have been a thorn in their side but I still believe eventually they would have all go together to create a united ITV.
Would we still have The X Factor, and Britains Got Talent? Yes we would. Remember the regional ITV companies gave us tat like that even back in the 70's and 80's. New Faces, Op Knocks, Blind Date and Gladiators - hardly high brow TV!
Emmerdale, if YTV had lost, would most likely be gone.
X Factor and Talent would still exist if Thames beat Carlton, as those are Thames productions. The TalkbackTHAMES brand would've never existed though. The kids show Rainbow ended due to Thames's franchise loss, so that would've lasted longer. The Bill would've still been axed a few years ago, but in 1993 wouldn't have needed the Yorkshire Television Presentation endcap.
Completely disagree with that statement.
If you'd written that 10 years ago i would have agreed but ITV have mostly turned themselves around. They're making good profits, their share price is high and at the same time they're content has improved hugely.
Don't forget Tony Warren wrote to the BBC first with his idea for a soap - and never got a reply.ITV might indeed have been different if the BBC had accepted the idea, there might also be no EastEnders:eek:
They are making good profits, but still making utterly crap programmes. ITV has in my opinion gone now as a channel, there's nothing on there that appeals to me.
Their latest tacky rebrand shows ITV stands for lowest common denominator programming. No thanks!
Nothing? Absolutely nothing? What is it you watch on tv? Is it only one-legged Albanian Morris dancing?
lowest common denominator programming?
such a bizarre criticism to level at a national broadcaster. surely it's harder to make a TV show that 5 million people like than to make something that 10,000 love?
if it wasn't for ITV, BBC and Channel Four you'd be watching Charlie bit my finger on loop!
What's so 'bizarre' about saying that? I'm not interested in reality shows, soap operas, zzzz-lebs, zzzz-lebs on game shows, anything with Ant & Dec/Schofield/Vernon Kay and more soap operas, and that's pretty much all ITV churns out week in week out.
The BBC does much better thanks
I would have liked to have seen what shape itv would have been in now had Thames and Central been running the network. Would they have gone down the same path of slashing all sign of regional identity.
Would they have gone down the same path of soaps and reality tv making up the schedule
I would have thought so
There's actually very little reality TV on ITV.
And you've forgotten to mention the news and current affairs, sport, drama, documentaries, arts, wildlife and childrens programmes which also make up large chunks of ITV's output every week.
But how much of ITV's childrens programming is actually made by them and not bought in from abroad??
If Granada, Thames & YTV had lost who would have made the programmes and which company would have become the dominant one? Central LWT or Carlton?
If TVS had kept there's what would have happened?
Suppose they had all kept their franchises what would itv look like now? Some itv companies were fiercely independent at one point.
Much the same as Thames and TVS did, the progamme format would have been sold to another broadcaster or franchise, or they would have become and independent producer. Most of TVS's childrens output went to SMG or independent like The Media Merchants. Thames as we know became an independent producer.
TVS would have survived. Like all other ITV contractors, their payments would have been reviewed as Sky started to take a bigger share of the advertiseing market. I dont think there would be an ITV PLC, but i do think the regions, much like they have become now, would have been consolidated.
Personally, i think its time the franchise's came up for tender again. ITV needs a kick in the pants. Yes they are starting to produce good drama and about time to, but comedy and light entertainment is poor. Soaps and reality, while it may bring in the bucks, has seen a slide in recent years. Its not all about Sky. We all know that Sky has a small handful of channels, most repeat after repeat. The rest are padding that no one really watches. Most of you wont agree, but we all have our opinions. It will never happen, but it might one day.
They have just been renewed for another 10 years.
It was an automatic renew. It wasnt put out to tender.
Well if Central was running the network, Carlton already had 20% stake in Central before they even had a franchise so who knows what might have happened!
The Thames of the X Factor era is a different Thames of pre 1992. Its just merely a brand name. Nothing more. I wonder how many staff pre 1992 are still with current day Talkback Thames (under Fremantle)
As for Rainbow. It did have a comeback in 1994 (and again I think in 1996) through a company called Tetra Films, on behalf of HTV where they a new series where Geoffrey was dropped, a new puppet called Cleo. Zippy and George suddenly had new voices as the mighty voice of Roy Skelton was dropped and both puppets suddenly grew an extra arm. Another revamp in 1996 saw it come back as Rainbow Days where Cleo was dropped but a new male presenter called Dale was introduced.
Could the format of Rainbow be around today? I doubt it. It was an all male house for a start, Yep George was a boy but was easily mistaken for a girl. I loved Rainbow as a child and have fond memories of it now but watching recently on CITV's Old Skool weekend, it was a product of its time sadly.
Central was just not a big enough company to compete to buy up the network. It was always going to be waiting to be taken over.
If Carlton hadn't got the weekday London franchise, it had also bid for the South. Had it missed out on the south franchise, it would have mounted another takeover attempt on Thames, or Increased its stake in Central.
Thames had become too bloated, and was widely seen as a takeover target had it had kept his franchise. Even if it had been successful in keeping its franchise, they had already started a big cost cutting programme to fund the new franchise cost. The Thames pre 92 was a very different one to a Thames you would have seen post 92.
Had Granda lost its franchise, Cory would have still been on ITV, the only over option was sky, and entertainment just isnt the attraction for sky subscribers at the time that footy was. Granada would have just tried to take over Yorkshire TT.
Yorkshire TT just wasnt really in any position to compete against the London franchises and Granada.
The only franchise i dont really know about is LWT, the rest of the franchises would have just fallen.
Imho the only way you would have had a stronger ITV today is if they had let the ITV franchises merge, or be taken over by one company in 1982, or previously to this. An ITV that was run by either ATV or ABC et al, would have been in a position to take on the american networks in the 80s - I know the franchises were popular, but realistically you had a too fragmented ITV that fell behind the american networks in the 80s on the international stage, and have never recovered.
What would have happened if Mr Gyngell had got his way and rebranded the whole world as Channel 3?
I suspect no itv would exist today.