Television Wales and the West

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Television Wales and the West

Based in	Cardiff, Bristol, London
Broadcast area	Wales West of England
Launched	14 January 1958
Closed	20 May 1968
Replaced	Wales West and North Television in west and north Wales in 1964
Replaced by	Independent Television Service for Wales and the West HTV
Owned by	Self-owned

Television Wales and the West^[1][2] (TWW) was the British "Independent Television" (commercial television) contractor for the franchise area serving 'South Wales and West of England' 1956–68 (franchise awarded October 26, 1956, started transmissions on January 14, 1958).

Geography required that the 'South Wales and West of England' franchise would be operated differently from any other franchise, as VHF transmissions from one side of the Bristol Channel' could easily be received on the other side. This resulted in TWW setting up a 'dual franchise', with a service for South Wales being originated from Cardiff, and a service for the 'West of England' from Bristol, together with a common 'General Service'.

In January 1964, TWW was required to take over the franchise of its neighbour, Teledu Cymru — Wales (West and North) (WWN) when that company became the only ITV company to ever fail financially.

Although TWW did not produce many programmes for the ITV network, its local programmes were well-regarded, so it came as a great shock when TWW lost its franchise in the 1967 franchise review, in favour of the Harlech Consortium, whose bid promised a glittering future of star-filled entertainment and quality documentaries. TWW's response was, in effect, to throw a temper tantrum — despite the ITA offering to order Harlech to buy TWW's studios and take on all the TWW staff, and a later offer to let TWW buy 40% of Harlech's stock to guarantee a profit and a connection with the television industry, TWW spurned all these peace offerings and instead quit its franchise early, selling the last five months to Harlech for £500,000, even though Harlech was not yet ready to start broadcasting at the time. Following the intervention of the ITA, a temporary service was set up — Independent Television Service for Wales and the West, broadcasting from the old TWW Pontcanna studios in Cardiff, and staffed by former TWW workers, until Harlech (soon renamed "HTV") was ready to take over its franchise early, on 20 May 1968.

[edit] Personalities

Among the famous faces who were early broadcasters on TWW are John Humphrys and Claire Rayner.

[edit] References

1. ^ Ident (Transdiffusion Broadcasting System / Electromusications), accessed 19 August 2006
2. ^ Royal Television Society, accessed 19 August 2006

[edit] External links

• Harlech House of Graphics (unofficial history site)
• Animated TWW Channel 10 logo, 1960s, from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 6 or later).
• Animated TWW/Teledu Cymru ident, 1964, from 625.uk.com