A history of Thames Television
For a child born of a 'shotgun marriage' -- the Independent Television Authority (ITA) had basically forced ABC Television and Rediffusion Television to merge to form the post-1968 London weekday contractor -- Thames Television was a shining prodigy.
Thames soon established itself as the lynchpin of ITV's network programme output, and also revitalised the local television service for its London constituency, introducing for the first time a nightly news magazine programme, Today, and, later Thames at Six and Thames News.
In the fields of drama, comedy, light entertainment, and current affairs, Thames quickly won an enviable reputation for quality and popularity, and stayed on this high ground for its entire 24 year reign.
Like ATV in the midlands, Thames also exported many programmes abroad, including to the difficult American market, where The Benny Hill Show is still shown on cable networks and public broadcasting channels to this day.
The ITA knew that forcing the merger was a gamble, but it did rig the odds of a success by ensuring that one of the two merged companies was given a larger number of controlling shares (although by only a small margin), and more directors on the board of the new enterprise. ABC Television was rewarded for its sterling service as weekend ITV provider for the midlands and the north, and producer of innovative and high quality national network programming. ABC's parent company was given the 51 per cent upper hand.
Rediffusion Television, the reliable and solid former London weekday contractor, was slapped in the face, because its parent company was given a 49 per cent share in the brand new company that was to become Thames Television.
To all intents and purposes, and certainly in terms of the day-to-day business of running an ITV company, this was really a take-over by ABC Television, and that station's successful approach to independent television, combing popularism with innovation and quality, became the driving force behind Thames Television.
It is telling that many more of ABC's top management and staff moved to Thames than did those of Rediffusion, who mostly got jobs with the new London Weekend Television. This is just how the ITA wanted it.
Battle for control
It is unclear why Rediffusion was penalised by the ITA in this way, because the company had a stout reputation as a programme-maker and ITV contractor. Contemporary ITA sources reveal that Rediffusion was cocksure of its success in the franchise rounds, and was possibly too complacent, believing that its London licence was 'in the bag'. However, it would surely have been too eccentric -- even for the bizarre franchise system of the day -- for the ITA to severely penalise a basically sound, successful television company because of a perceived slight attitude problem.
The truth is probably more about the ITA's desire to inject new life into the system. The authority was bowled over by London Weekend's idealistic plans, and wanted them in the system, by hook or by crook. As a result, one big incumbent ITV company had to go to make room for LWT.
ABC and Rediffusion were the obvious choices for the London weekend and London weekday contracts respectively, but with the promising LWT now part of the plan, there was just one suitable franchise available.
A merger was the pragmatic way forward, but to make it work one of the companies would have to call the shots. On balance, the ITA felt that ABC was the better bet, and so Thames Television was born. Although a fierce battle raged over the control of Thames when ABC's parent company was acquired by EMI later in 1968 (and this was not resolved until 1971 when ABC's parent company actually lost its majority share), the ITA's gamble paid off for the viewer, because ABC had the strongest influence on the new company in the crucial early years. Thames soon became the dominant force in independent television.
Thames TV weathered the industrial disputes of the 1970s and arrived in the 1980s with a display cabinet full of awards, a bulging balance sheet, and immense viewing figures (by today's standards) for its flagship, nationally networked programmes.
Presentation
Presentationally, like most ITV companies, Thames favoured the age-old formula of in-vision continuity but with a firm, authoritative yet friendly approach. The station always seemed 'majestic' somehow, with its powerful 'skyline' ident, memorable fanfare, and the clarion call: 'This is Thames, From London'.
Thames kept its skyline until 1989 when a new logo to celebrate its 21st anniversary was introduced. This was a truly horrible affair, and, thankfully, lasted but a short time when it was replaced by the 1989 ITV corporate effort. All the while, in-vision continuity was retained in one way or another, although it became scarcer as the 1980s came to a close and, from the early 1980s, in-vision continuity was rarely seen between 6pm and 10pm.
In the early 1990s, in-vision announcing was dropped altogether, but the compensation was the replacement of the ITV generic ident with an impressive new computer-generated ident that harked back to the majesty of the skyline logo and its distinctive fanfare.
Endgame
The game was up for Thames in 1991 when it learnt that it had lost its London franchise to newcomers Carlton Television from 1 January 1993. Carlton was desperate to get its snout in the ITV trough, and in the mid-1980s had tried to stage a take-over of Thames from its by then complacent parent companies, but its bid was thwarted by the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which, in those days had real regulatory clout.
Thames lost out because it realised its plum area would be a fiercely competitive arena, and it had bid too much. The regulator felt its bid was unsustainable, and so consigned Thames as a broadcaster to the history books.
Some conspiracy theorists believe that the true reason that Thames was ditched was because of its 1980s Death on the Rock documentary about two IRA suspects who were shot by the British Army on Gibraltar, which incensed the Conservative government of the day and enraged Margaret Thatcher in particular.
It's very unlikely that this is the case, but it is true to say that this row between Thames, the IBA and the government, could well have steeled the government's determination to change ITV (of which they were highly suspicious) and therefore brought forward the legislation which allowed the franchise auction and led to Thames' downfall.
Thames Television's final day on-air
A selection of video clips from Thames Television's final day on-air, 31 December 1992.
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| The final lunchtime edition of Thames News, from 31 December 1992, including a report from Christopher Rainbow on the demise of two London-based ITV franchisees, Thames Television and TV-am. (Click on the image for a video clip). |
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| Richard Dunn, Managing Director of Thames Television, appears in-vision to thank viewers for their support over the previous decades, and to bid them a Happy New Year. |
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| A compilation of clips from Thames Television's broadcasting years, pays tributes to the station's staff, to the tune of The Tourists' 'I Only Want To Be With You' and ending with the legend 'Thames - A Talent For Television.' |
