The future of television once lived on my doorstep. In the
pre-internet, pre-digital days of the 1980s, Television South (TVS), the local
ITV company for the south and south east of England, based in Southampton, the
next city along from me, made programmes that were shown across the UK and the
world, owned two TV studios in the UK - with a third in Hollywood owned with
CBS - and owned MTM Enterprises, makers of “Hill Street Blues,” “St.
Elsewhere,” and “Newhart.” Note the past tense – TVS had the kind of ambition
that created its own obstacles to overcome, but before they tripped themselves
up, they were captivating to watch.
Franchises to run ITV companies in the UK were once run like
a beauty contest – with each review, your company could take over a licence if
you could prove you could provide a better service. In 1980, a group of TV
producers thought they had better ideas for programmes than the existing
Southern Television, which had a track record in children’s programmes, opera
and local news, but were otherwise safe and conservative, and owned by
companies based elsewhere, in London and Scotland. TVS expected a “shotgun
marriage” with Southern (as had happened with Thames Television in London), but
won an outright victory - Southern felt they did not need to provide enough
detail on their re-application, until they were asked to do it again.
What could have been an independent company became a
fully-fledged TV station, buying and building its own studios, selling ad
space, and making deals. When there was no space at the same decision-making
table as the major ITV companies – Thames, Yorkshire, Granada (north-west
England, Central, and London Weekend Television (LWT) – TVS signed a deal with
LWT to gain access to their space, putting game shows like “Catch Phrase” (from
1986, and still going) onto screens. Drama series like “C.A.T.S. Eyes” and “The
Ruth Rendell Mysteries” were also shown, but they also had form with children’s
programmes like “Number 73,” “Art Attack” and “How 2.”
TVS had some firsts – an episode of the 1982 science series
“The Real World” became the first TV programme to be shown in 3D, using glasses
given away with the “TV Times,” and Hayao Miyazaki’s “Laputa: Castle in the
Sky” became the first Japanese animated feature film to be shown on British
television, and in the south of England only. TVS also owned the UK’s first TV
news helicopter, and made the wraparound live-action scenes for The Jim Henson
Company’s “Fraggle Rock,” using a converted cinema in Gillingham, Kent.
However, with so much money coming in from advertising – the
south of England was more likely to watch the BBC, so TVS instead pioneered
selling UK TV ad space based on the types of people watching - and fewer
opportunities to make bigger programmes in the UK, TVS started to look around.
We nearly had a situation where a Southampton-based TV company owned either the
film division of Thorn EMI, or even the biggest TV station in France, TF1.
Instead, MTM Enterprises and other American companies were bought, in
anticipation of the revenue from selling programmes worldwide, and TVS became a
conglomerate named TVS Entertainment. On screen, they were TVS Television – “Television
South Television” – underlining that it was no longer just about the south.
This growth happened just after the “Black Monday” stock
market crash of 1987, and ahead of the global recession of the early 1990s. Not
making enough money from selling programmes as they had hoped, Job losses
followed, and the companies they bought were being sized up for sale again.
In 1991, it was the turn of TVS to defend its own ITV
franchise. This time, instead of only relying on your track record, or future
plans, the Government had introduced a blind bidding process. TVS won the
programming round, but they bid £59 million – an amount they would have to pay
each year. They won this round too, but they lost their franchise, their business
plan having been judged to be unsustainable - they bid more than they could
realistically pay. The company that won, Meridian, bid £36 million – now, with
the internet and digital TV turning the system upside down, each ITV region
pays a token £10,000 each per year.
What remains of TVS is hazy memories, and hazy video
recordings posted to YouTube. TVS was bought by IFE, a company owned by the
fundamentalist Christian preacher Pat Robertson, launching The Family Channel
using the TVS library – this later became the game show channel Challenge,
helped out by the repeat showings of “Catch Phrase.” As IFE was bought, TVS was
passed through 20th Century Fox, Saban International (the “Power
Rangers” people), and its library is now owned by The Walt Disney Company.
Reportedly, the paperwork for the programmes has been mislaid, meaning it is
impossible to show them, meaning a whole period of UK TV history is out of
reach, for now. The situation may change one day but, for now, I’ll keep with
what I have.
No comments:
Post a comment