+Raj Nirvan just as well with the regional news you have a choice with itv or BBC (one i watch)

They pissed off Maggie Thatcher and this was her revenge….

dacrlit may he RIP!

Until it became second to the last independent franchisee since the failed UTV Ireland channel in the neighboring Republic caused UTV sold to ITV plc (the combined Carlton and Granada) leaving STV with two franchises the last ones not being part of ITV plc

They were in the same third of England as Carlton after all!

How right she was...

Liam Mustapha GMTV and Carlton made those bids and should have been forced to pay those amounts or go bankrupt. What was the point in taking Thames & TV-am off the air especially Thames.

Along with Granada

Hi MrWEWE5, Great question! I'm British, and I'll try my best to answer your questions. Since the start of ITV in 1955, separate regional TV franchises were granted by a publicly-owned company that was created by Parliament, called the 'Independent Television Authority' (ITA), to 15 regional commercial companies - forming a federation which together was known as ITV. Unlike the situation in the US, ITV was not allowed by the ITA to form a unitary network, and there were no 'affiliates'. As hardly any countries outside the US had commercial TV, the ITA was keen to be one of the first to learn from the America experience of commercial TV by bringing its best features to Britain (a non-BBC network that would be popular, well-funded and bring some much-needed competition to British broadcasting), whilst trying to avoid what it saw as a few avoidable mistakes. Over the decades, the ensuing competition and generous funding helped to make British TV some of the most varied and innovative in the world. The ITA's plan was to copy some of the most successful elements of US commercial television, such as ensuring that each area had its own commercial TV company (through regional rather than local stations), and encouraging commercial funding of TV programmes (through spot advertising, but not with programme sponsorship, which was banned) - but in a planned system, overseen by a publicly-owned authority that was accountable to Parliament, which intended to prevent the formation of all-powerful or dominant commercial networks (in the way that ABC, NBC and CBS were - perhaps wrongly - regarded by ITA at the time), with accompanying affiliates. The reason for such a system was that it was feared that a large, unitary commercial network might overwhelm the popular, publicly-owned but more poorly-funded (and much older) BBC - which was, and continues to be, funded by a special BBC levy on all UK households with a TV set - a public funding system which is now common throughout Europe, Japan, India and some other places. Ironically, the BBC today is much better funded than it was in 1955, and now runs a wide range of TV and radio networks & both regional & local stations and the international BBC World Service (radio) in many languages, ALL financed by its TV Licence Fee). Back in 1955, Parliament wanted the BBC to face competition for audiences, but not competition for revenue. That situation continues today. ITV has now changed beyond recognition, and is now in effect a single company (with owned-and-operated stations throughout the UK, but still no affiliates). In Britain today, there are now hundreds of commercially-funded TV and radio channels, but ITV and the BBC's most popular TV channel, BBC One, remaining Britain's most popular channels, with BBC One often coming out on top (and BBC One dominates the ratings for most sports coverage and throughout the Christmas period, with clever scheduling, a galaxy of stars and - mostly American - blockbuster movies! The BBC (TV & radio) still has absolutely no commercial breaks or commercial advertising of any sort on its UK channels (though its many international channels, which can't be received in the UK, are commercially funded). I've digressed quite a bit - and I hope my answer isn't too rambling - but I hope that at least it's gone some way to answering your question! :)

Early 1989 when the ITV National Weather was launched.

The original 5:45 was sent back 5 minutes at the start of the Gulf War.

If you mean the new-look Early Evening News when John Suchet took over as presenter then that was in March 1992

John Suchet

Not all the Ts. Tyne Tees survived.

Aidan Lunn hi

Aidan Lunn and lwt

Doesn't begin with a "T".

oops

Central didn't lose. It was TV-am.

@@AutieTeleDexBaBrBo Indeed. Central went through by default with a £2000 bid. They had no competition. Sadly they were taken over in 1994 by Carlton.

You're correct.

So where did all the good shows go then?