Talk:Thames Television

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This article is part of WikiProject British TV channels, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to British TV channels on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project British TV channels, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

There was a tv show of a kid and a glass piramid with powers, the kid goes to holland... Someone remembers the name of this show?

Could be Chocky. Transmitted around 1984-85 time. Ran to two series as I recall.

[edit] Thames Television

A very informative article. I never knew before about documentary Death On The Rock, Margaret Thatcher's government ordered that the new ITV franchises be determined by silent auction. The amount Thames offered for its franchise was significantly less than the money offered by other companies, leading many commentators to speculate that Thames had fallen victim to a government vendetta. All I knew as a kid was Thames (best ITV company) was replaced by Carlton (worst ITV company)

Shouldn't you add a link to TV Ark's Thames pages with the real clips of shows continuity etc. Alextimmins 20:22, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Response: There is no direct link between Death On The Rock and the subsequent Broadcasting Act which launched the tendering system. Whilst the Thatcher government was not pleased with the documentary the more likely chain of events is as follows:

In the late 1980's Mrs Thatcher attended an interview held at 10 Downing Street for Thames' This Week current affairs programme. She is amazed at the number of technicians who attend (around 40) to record a 30 minute interview. She remarks that similar interviews in the same location for US TV networks involve no more than 4 technicians.

Micheal Green, the founder and chairman of Carlton Communications who failed in their bid for Thames in 1985, complains that whilst his company makes many shows for ITV companies it cannot gain access to the network in its own right. The ITV network with its franchise system is a closed shop and leaves his company 'working in the backroom, unable to get into the shop window'.

In a meeting with ITV executives Margaret Thacher lambasts ITV (and the BBC) as the 'last bastion of restrictive practices'. She is right: ITV historically had been crippled by trade unions who had brought the network to a standstill on many occasions (most notably for eight weeks in 1979). Excessive overmanning was still a main factor in the television industry as was the effective closed shop, where private production companies found it very hard to enter the ITV schedules. On the rare occasions they did do they had to have the sponsorhsip of a ITV franchise holder (as opposed to the set-up on Channel Four for example which was much more liberal).

As a consequence of this the Broadcasting Act 1990 was established. The original draft intended to give contracts to the highest bidder alone but subsequent redrafts allowed for the 'quality threshold' which gave lower bidders the opportunity to succeed if their plans allowed for better quality.

Truth was that ITV had become cosy. Way back in the 1960's it was noted that holding an ITV franchise was a 'license to print money'. The creative talent of private production companies was being strangled by a system that effectlively only allowed network companies to make and broadcast programmes. This had to end.

Respond: Whilst the closed-shop of ITV had to end the outcome of the Broadcasting Act has led to a homogenous network, where the majority of 'regional' companies are owned centrally and the internal competition between such companies has ended. Although ITV has far more input from small production houses the centralisation of commissioning has led to a very bland output.

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The post-1990 destruction of regionalism and the consolidation of ITV into one mega group (pretty much) i'd hardly call a good thing.

[edit] Thats horrible

How they shut down in 1992, they had such good and popular programs airing at that time so I don't really understand how it could have happened, the article didn't explain it clearly so could someone explain it? --Elven6 13:01, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I'd advise reading History of ITV#The Broadcasting Act of 1990 and the section after it, History of ITV#The fifth franchise round: 1993. Other good resources are Talk of Thames about what happened to Thames and why, The Authority about what happened to ITV and why, and Inside TV about why it was all a disaster in the end. ➨ ЯEDVERS 13:11, 27 July 2006 (UTC)