Companies that could take over

Mersey TV for Granada
Pearson TV for LWT
Zenith for anything in the north

Although I hope That both LWT & Granada don't dissapear otherwise everything will be Carlton made. Also I don't want Central to go if they are brought back but the others I don't give a fuck

I don't think any of the Granada group will be losing theirs, carlton london will to pearson(would they call it thames?. Ulster will. UNM and Carlton will merge, all names will come back, the name carlton will disappear and everything will be owned by UNM. Also i think Granada will buy scottish TV and border, and use a variation on either LWT's ident or Scottish TV's ident. OK so scottish media and border may not be big, but with UN and Carlton, granada will be taking them with meridian of course. Who UNM will sell.

I don't think any of the Granada group will be losing theirs, carlton london will to pearson(would they call it thames?. Ulster will. UNM and Carlton will merge, all names will come back, the name carlton will disappear and everything will be owned by UNM. Also i think Granada will buy scottish TV and border, and use a variation on either LWT's ident or Scottish TV's ident. OK so scottish media and border may not be big, but with UN and Carlton, granada will be taking them with meridian of course. Who UNM will sell.

ERR WHAT?
Mersey TV dont have a hope against Granada!!!
Te ITC wouldnt be stupid enough, they have tried before!!

I can see Carlton Central disappearing, it does very little truly local programming, local news is a joke, and it only got through the last round (as Central TV) because it was the only bidder.

I can see Grampian going too, as most of their regional programming is "national" stuff that they share with STV, and the ITC have said they're not impressed.

The question is, though, whether any credible opposition can be found aginst these crap companies. If the only alternative is <Low Budget Sex-Scandal TV Ltd>, even Grampian or Central will glide through.

Has the ITC ever rejected all applicants and asked for more, like happened with Channel 5?

Cenral as far as I can see do as much local programming as the others. There's quite a bit and of course Central - i'm pretty certain virtually do all the Carlton SitComs you see other than Up Rising. The only place that might lose is Carlton London if Pearson make a decent bid.

If you look at the maps showing the regions and who owns what, then you'll see that Anglia will probaly survive if United & Carlton merge because of geographical reasons (coverage overlaps both London & Midland Regions). If not, then it will be a pawn in the power struggle.

Scottish will take Grampian, and both Scottish & Granada will carve up the Border region, with the money on an eventual merger between Scottish and Granada.

Then we will basically have a North-South split of two super-regional broadcasters, leading to one ITV when the franchises come up again for renewal around 2010(?).

This will then open up a new row over responsibilty for local broadcasting, as a single company could be compared to the BBC, with network shows and occasional opt-outs for news. All local tags and company names would also be an irrevelence, as they would be all part of the same company! This in effect would undo the 1955 Act which lead to the forming of ITV, and the several alterations to franchises and regions which allowed comapnies like Yorkshire to come into being on the basis that people wanted local broadcasting for their area! Still, that's another issue altogether....

>If you look at the maps showing the regions and who owns what, then you'll see that Anglia will probaly survive if United & Carlton merge because of geographical reasons (coverage overlaps both London & Midland Regions). If not, then it will be a pawn in the power struggle.
>
>Scottish will take Grampian, and both Scottish & Granada will carve up the Border region, with the money on an eventual merger between Scottish and Granada.
>
Finnaly some one who one who see's it the way i do, But Meridian is likey to be sold to granada isn't so that give north and a bit vs south

>Ulster part of the itv network

I think itv is a swear word in Havelock House - UTV don't like mentioning the network in case it confuses people.

>but always changing its fucking schedules.

Not always a bad thing - regional diversity etc.

But I think they should lose their franchise because they couldn't engineer their way out of a paper back - their ancilliary text is not Intelfax and so is crap - they have only just managed to get Now/Next working on DTT (and no programme details on the now/next, unless you access them from another MUX) and they don't have w/s switching on DTT either.

They do move some good programmes about, and they cancelled a "Murray and Martin's F1 special a few years ago" - Thank heavens for Border.

>Any way the answer to making a seven day service in London you can with LWT you can change Weekend to Weekday so shove that up your arse Carlton.

I think the split should stay. I used to get very annoyed whenever I saw a Carlton programme at the weekend or an LWT one during the week - they didn't used to be able to do this, did they?

>I think the split should stay. I used to get very annoyed whenever I saw a Carlton programme at the weekend or an LWT one during the week - they didn't used to be able to do this, did they?

Can't say for sure but the old system of a show having to have been 'introduced' to the network has been scrapped (hence why you don't see things like 'Central Presentation' etall). This probably meant that LWT could only have its programmes and programmes labelled 'LWT Presentation' at weekends.

ITV Network can now just commission programmes from anyone (Celador does WWTBAM) directly, bypassing the ITV companies, hence it would be a farce for LWT to have its programmes restricted to weekends

The side effect of this is extremely annoying as often independents work with regional ITV companies and now the ITV firms get no recognition in many cases.

>The side effect of this is extremely annoying as often independents work with regional ITV companies and now the ITV firms get no recognition in many cases.

Perhaps we need something slightly like the BBC system. Red Dwarf is made by Grant Naylor.

It had the end caption 'A Grant Naylor Production for BBC North', showing the regional interest.

It's not quite the same situation though

>The side effect of this is extremely annoying as often independents work with regional ITV companies and now the ITV firms get no recognition in many cases.

Well i though i saw 'AN OPTIMUM Production in Association with CARLTON' slide at the end of Police camera action.....unless i was dreaming?

On ITV there is still usually the commissioning ITV company's logo regardless who actually made the prog!!

>I think the split should stay. I used to get very annoyed whenever I saw a Carlton programme at the weekend or an LWT one during the week - they didn't used to be able to do this, did they?


I remember seeing Minder on LWT when Thames were around & Tarrant on TV is made by LWT & that is always on in the day. Anyway wondering where all the Anglai programmes have gone to ? Channel 5 I have seen 3 this week on there alone.

If you could bid for an ITV franchise, which one would you go for? What would you call your company?

An idea to get the ball rolling:

For Northern Ireland - Dalriada TV. Dalriada is the name of an ancient Kingdom which was in part of the current Northern Ireland plus parts of Western Scotland.

Incidentally, Dalriada is the name of a school in Antrim somewhere that Martin Lewis, the former BBC Journalist went to.

Ah yes, one of our arch-enemies in local school's quizzes...

>
>>I think the split should stay. I used to get very annoyed whenever I saw a Carlton programme at the weekend or an LWT one during the week - they didn't used to be able to do this, did they?
>
No they didn't in London - I think it was an 'unwritten' rule. Although in the regions you sometimes got repeats, or rescheduling of Thames shows at the weekend, or LWT's in the week in the wee small hours.

The answer is: Nobody!

Most the franchises have already been renewed, the rest will be rubberstamped next year.

Sorry for spoiling everyones fun!