Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 09:25 Monday morning to 17:15 Friday afternoon (19:00 Friday night until 1982) at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT).
This article is about the former ITV franchise holder and production company. For the production company since 2012, see Thames (production company).Type
Region of television network
Thames
30 July 1968
- 31 January 1968 (ITV franchisee)
- 1 January 1993 (production company)
A Talent For Television
Teddington Studios, London, United Kingdom
London
- Thorn EMI (51%) and BET plc (49%) (until 1993)
- Pearson Television (1993–2000)
- FremantleMedia (2000–2003)
- Thorn EMI (1968–1993)
- Pearson Television (1993–2000)
- FremantleMedia (2000–2003)
- 31 December 1992 (ITV franchisee)
- 2003 (production company)[a]
English
- As ITV franchisee:
- Rediffusion London
- As company:
- ABC Weekend TV
- Rediffusion London
- As ITV franchisee:
- Carlton Television
- As production company:
- Talkback Thames
- Thames Video
- Euston Films
- Cosgrove Hall Productions (until 1992)
Formed as a joint company, it merged the television interests of British Electric Traction (trading as Associated-Rediffusion) owning 49%, and Associated British Picture Corporation—soon taken over by EMI—owning 51%. Like all ITV franchisees at that time, it was a broadcaster, a producer and a commissioner of television programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and, as one of the "Big Five" ITV companies, for networking nationally across the ITV regions. After its loss of franchise in 1992, it continued as an independent production company until 2003.
The British Film Institute describes Thames as having "served the capital and the network with a long-running, broad-based and extensive series of programmes, several of which either continue or are well-remembered today."[2] Thames covered a broad spectrum of commercial public-service television, with a strong mix of drama, current affairs and comedy.
After Thames was acquired by FremantleMedia it was merged with another Fremantle company, Talkback, to form a new independent production company, Talkback Thames; consequently, Thames ceased to exist as a separate entity. However, on 1 January 2012, the Thames brand was revived and Talkback Thames has now been split into four different labels: Boundless, Retort, Talkback and Thames, within the newly created FremantleMedia UK production arm.
From 1992[edit]
Thames Television was involved in an attempt to win the new Channel 5 licence[55][56][57] when it was first advertised in early 1992. Thames was the main shareholder in a consortium (alongside Warner Bros. Television and others) called Channel Five Holdings. The consortium became the only bidder for the licence in December 1992 after two other groups dropped out.[58] However the ITC rejected the bid as a result of concerns about its business plan and investor backing.[59] The deadline was therefore extended twice before the licence was handed to Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited.[60]
On 1 November 1992 a new satellite station UK Gold was launched as a joint venture between Thames and BBC Enterprises, to show repeats of shows from both broadcasters. Thames's share was bought out by Flextech in 1996.[61][62]
After its loss of ITV franchise on 31 December 1992, Thames continued as an independent production company for another ten years. This Is Your Life ran on ITV for 26 years until around 1995 when ITV cancelled it and the series was recommissioned by the BBC, with Thames continuing to produce it. The corporation ended the series in 2003.[63] The Bill continued on ITV until 2010.
Following the loss of Thames's franchise, the Euston Road base of Thames was sold off and demolished. The site of the studios is currently occupied by Triton Square and the registered headquarters of the British operation of Spanish bank Santander. The studios at Teddington were sold to a management buy-out team and were part of the Pinewood Group, owners of both Pinewood and Shepperton Studios.
Thames Television was acquired by Pearson Television in mid-1993.[64] Pearson Television was itself sold by Pearson plc to CLT-UFA in 2000, thus merging to become the RTL Group, and rebranded as FremantleMedia in 2001. In 2003, Thames Television was merged with another FremantleMedia subsidiary, Talkback (founded by comedians Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones in 1981) to form Talkback Thames. That subsidiary was split into four new production companies at the start of 2012, with the new Thames producing light entertainment programming.