Something else has occurred to me. Carlton/United merger would only happen if the duo say bye bye to Meridian. Total: 5 franchises.
Granada/Carlton combination: can't own both London stations so either LWT or Carlton London get ditched. Total: 6 franchises.
United/Granada merger, fine. total: a whopping 7 franchises
Whatever happens, Granada is set to own at least five franchises. Six if Border gets sold off...
Yes, those are the four leading franchises by advertising revenue.
>Something else has occurred to me. Carlton/United merger would only happen if the duo say bye bye to Meridian. Total: 5 franchises.
>
>Granada/Carlton combination: can't own both London stations so either LWT or Carlton London get ditched. Total: 6 franchises.
>
>United/Granada merger, fine. total: a whopping 7 franchises
>
>Whatever happens, Granada is set to own at least five franchises. Six if Border gets sold off...
Well you seem to be contradicting yourself here....if United and Granada merge it means that they would have Granada,LWT AND Meridian hence one of these would have to go making a total of 6 franchises!!!!!
reply if i am speaking complete bollocks!?!?
Ps are HTV West and Wales considered separate franchises????
West and Wales are seperate just as anglia is from central!!
Anyway, Granada WONT merge with UNM cos of thier newspaper interests, it would mean only a Carlton UNM or Carlton Granada merger, lets just say Granada will come out the winners any way!! If C and UNM merge then they get Meridian, that means they have the most franchises, if UNM and Granada merge they still have the most and if Carlton and Granada merge they still have the most, however can Granada Carlton go ahead, i read that no one company can hold BOTH london licenses, hence LWT: Granada and Carlton : Carlton
MMMM
#Thoughts please
>Looks like the sacrificial pawn is set to be Meridian if Carlton and United want to merge. This however is an interesting quote from BBC NEWS ONLINE:
>
>"The Competition Commission concluded that there would be cause for concern if any merger were to result in one dominant ITV company emerging which was significantly bigger than the next largest and owned more than two of the four leading licences (Carlton TV, Central TV, Meridian TV and LWT)."
>
>Ah. So these are the four leading franchises eh? So *that's* why Granada have got away with owning so much up to now :)
Yeah that makes it granada owning one of the leading four.
It will be Carlton and UNM, with UN not using the carlton name in their title. Granada would get meridian and border and they may not make much but it looks good on paper owing all of scotland!
Granada and UN would be a disaster because that would leave carlton on their own to bugger up their franchises.
> they may not make much but it looks good on paper owing all of scotland!
No-one has ever owned all the Scottish franchises, SMG own 2 and Granada are about to acquire the third (Border - also partly English and IOM)
Re HTV West/Wales being separate, so why is it then that the media still refer to Yorkshire and Tyne Tees as if they are some sort of joint-franchise? If HTV Wales and HTV West can get separate mentions, then YTV and TT sure as hell should.
Let's say it again to all those southern media luvvies: The North East is a separate and distinct area from Yorkshire, and we are proud of the fact. So let's show us a bit of respect up here, eh?
>> they may not make much but it looks good on paper owing all of scotland!
>
>No-one has ever owned all the Scottish franchises, SMG own 2 and Granada are about to acquire the third (Border - also partly English and IOM)
Your point being, I was asying IF granada bought Scottish and Grampian. I know no one owns them all at the moment, but id UN and Carlton merge, Granada will buy anything they can including meridian and scottish and grampian.
You are completely correct. Add UTV to that list as well. This is going to be some battle, and it's going to be ugly. The audience share issue will have to be looked at quite urgently, because otherwise Granada will be hampered by the fact it's regions tend to be worth less advertising-wise because they're in the north.
>I posted this on the *Who do you think are going to lose their franchises in 2002/3* thread, but it covers pretty much the same area of who owns what.>>>>
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....
Sorry, but I couldn't resist this one from THE GRAUNIAD today, a great tipping mistake on a graphic showing the ITV regions and companies:
*LWT owned by Granada, Thames owned by Carlton
Granada are the company who started ITV to be honest, along with ATV (although most programmes were made by Granada)
Will they be the ones to finish it?
>You are completely correct. Add UTV to that list as well.
Scottish Media tried to buy UTV a few years ago, but UTV didn't fancy that and got CanWest to come and buy up their shares so Scottish couldn't touch them. It also gave CanWest a foothold in the UK and Irish TV Markets.
Granada will buy Carlton, giving it three of the four premium franchises (LWT, Carlton and Central).
It's only allowed two so it will then sell the broadcasting part of LWT (probably to United) and keep the productions side of it and just stick different logos at the end of shows. Nothing in the Byers report to stop that.
London weekday is more valuable, so they'd be daft to sacrifice that to keep LWT.
Then it will buy the name Thames from Pearson and resurrect the name for London weekday.
Granada will then jettison the smallest franchises if they have to.
>Sorry, but I couldn't resist this one from THE GRAUNIAD today, a great tipping mistake on a graphic showing the ITV regions and companies:
>
>*LWT owned by Granada, Thames owned by Carlton
The day Carlton own Thames is the day ITV goes bankrupt meaning it will never happen
>Granada will buy Carlton, giving it three of the four premium franchises (LWT, Carlton and Central).
>It's only allowed two so it will then sell the broadcasting part of LWT (probably to United) and keep the productions side of it and just stick different logos at the end of shows. Nothing in the Byers report to stop that.
>London weekday is more valuable, so they'd be daft to sacrifice that to keep LWT.
>Then it will buy the name Thames from Pearson and resurrect the name for London weekday.
>Granada will then jettison the smallest franchises if they have to.
I think that would be the best thing to happen to the network because UNM do a alright job and carlton on their own or with UNM would bugger everything up. Granada wouldb't take any crap from carlton and use them just for the franchises then dump the carlton name. Unfortunatly i think UNM and Carlton will go though, see my ramblings further up for what will happen when this happens.
I'll put a fiver on none of the franchisees losing at the next franchise round. Why? Because the ITV companies are too powerful and the ITC doesn't have the balls to take them on. In 1992, ITC was the master. Now the ITV companies are in charge.
Any, I thought all licences had been agreed till 2009?
If Carlton and United merge....the new company can be called CunT.....Carlton United Television....how appropriate!
Blimey! Wishful thinking I guess but wouldn't bringing back the Thames name make Granada heroes in London!!!! One thing's for certain though, Carlton were being very silly even thinking about rebranding their stations, and it gets more and more stupid the more I think about it. The likelihood is now that the Carlton name will disappear from the map altogether. Granada will more than likely bust up the party between United and Carlton, and if that happens there's no way in the world the Carlton name will remain. Small chance that it will in London but nowhere else.
The following has just appeared on the Border TV Area Guestbook. I don't know whether it is genuine.
-----------------
I work at Granada Media, and I came across this site. I can't reveal my identity, but I can reveal the timetable for the take-over of Border-TV.
12th August 2000, 9.25 AM , Granada Media takes control of Border Television, including www.border-tv.com. No-one will release this information to the public (excluding me!) as it could have an adverse effect on any future plans for Granada Media concerning Carlton / United News and Media. This timetable could change if an offer is made for Carlton / UNM.
Enjoy the news!!
Yours Sincerley,
Granada Media Employee,
Manchester M60 9EA.
The person who wrote this is talking total **** for two reasons:
1. If Granada wanted to take over any ITV company why would they choose the smallest + weakest, considering they only are allowed to hold 5 licenses at any one time.
2. Why would a real Granada Media employee release this info, risking his job and the possibility of his company losing money which would OBVIOUSLY have an effect on him - ?
>The person who wrote this is talking total **** for two reasons:
>
>1. If Granada wanted to take over any ITV company why would they choose the smallest + weakest, considering they only are allowed to hold 5 licenses at any one time.
Why then, would Granada have a 3 year option to buy Border from Capital Radio. This fact is a matter of public record.
Granada already control Border's advertising. Granada owning the company would be much more logical than Capital doing so (though admittedly the latter only bought it for its Radio Stations)
>1. If Granada wanted to take over any ITV company why would they choose the smallest + weakest, considering they only are allowed to hold 5 licenses at any one time.
IF true, then there is logic to it - I refer you to my earlier posting on this subject, and suggest that some people check their coverage maps and geography, please! :-)
It looks as if the Carlton/United merger will NOT go ahead now. This is due to the fact that Carlton only ever wanted the more profitable Meridian and the rest of the package was just 'padding'.
But now Carlton have to drop Meridian they are seriously reconsidering what to do. Oh well only two more weeks to wait before their decision HAS to be made.......
>But now Carlton have to drop Meridian they are seriously reconsidering what to do. Oh well only two more weeks to wait before their decision HAS to be made.......
Why Meridian, anyway? If they want Meridian so badly, why couldn't they buy UNM and sell Anglia? Or HTV? Or Both? If they would want to seel one, I'd put my money on HTV.
>
>>But now Carlton have to drop Meridian they are seriously reconsidering what to do. Oh well only two more weeks to wait before their decision HAS to be made.......
>
>Why Meridian, anyway? If they want Meridian so badly, why couldn't they buy UNM and sell Anglia? Or HTV? Or Both
>
Because the Byers report says that one company can own only two of the four "premium franchises" (those with the highest advertising revenue). They are Carlton, Carlton/Central, LWT and Meridian.
Granada is only a slither below Meridian, but it somehow is not considered a premium franchise.
The government obviously loves Granada, otherwise it would have had five premiums and made Granada's takeover plan much more difficult.
In response to a previous point, I don't think there's anything against Granada having more than five franchises, as long as it doesn't break the share of advertising threshold or the more than two premium franchises rule.
>>
>Granada is only a slither below Meridian, but it somehow is not considered a premium franchise.
Probably because it is nowhere near London.