Independent Television Service for Wales and the West or ITSWW was a temporary emergency service provided by the ITA in light of the early termination of service of the previous franchise holder, TWW after they lost their ITV franchise in 1967.

Circumstances

In June 1967 the

Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" (ITV (TV network), ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA exi ...

(ITA) had announced changes to the structure and contracts of the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

network in the United Kingdom, to take effect in July 1968. Several changes were announced that would have far-reaching effects for British television. The UK press decided that the most dramatic news was the loss of the Wales and West contract, held by TWW since 1958, to a consortium headed by and named after

Lord Harlech Baron Harlech, of Harlech in the County of Merioneth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1876 for the Conservative politician John Ormsby-Gore, with remainder to his younger brother William. He had previously re ...

. TWW fought the ITA's decision, both formally and through the press.''The Daily Telegraph'', "'Capricious injustice' to TWW", 21 June 1967, quoted i
Death of TWW: Telegraph 21/06/67
accessed 16 March 2008 However, the ITA remained resolute that it was legally entitled to remove any contract at any time for any reason,''The Daily Telegraph'', "Hill replies to Derby on TWW", 20 June 1967, quoted i

accessed 16 March 2008 and the

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ty ...

of TWW eventually accepted this and announced it would carry on providing a programme service to the area until the end of the contract period.

Problems with TWW

Standard regulatory practice at the time stated that the new incumbent of a licence should take on all available staff of the outgoing company. However, the new licence holder,

Harlech Television ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV (TV network), ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, ...

, intended to dismiss all the on-screen personnel of TWW, and launch with a fresh team. The board of TWW were advised not to take a stake in Harlech that was offered to them by the ITA, but this had the effect of depressing the company's

share price A share price is the price of a single share of a number of saleable equity shares of a company. In layman's terms, the stock price is the highest amount someone is willing to pay for the stock, or the lowest amount that it can be bought for. B ...

.Wagner, R and Carrington J, ''The Times'', "TWW worst hit as £11.3m is wiped off television shares", 13 June 1967, quoted i
From the City: The Times 13/06/67
Photomusications (Transdiffusion), accessed 16 March 2008 It eventually became clear to the board that to raise the maximum amount of money for shareholders, they should "sell" the last part of the broadcast contract to Harlech. The ITA accepted this and the sale went through for £500,000. However, Harlech were not yet in a position to begin production and would therefore have to launch their promised new service using "in the can" TWW productions.

ITA solution

The ITA suggested Harlech would receive all the advertising revenue from the handover date, and pay TWW a fee to continue local production, while Harlech continued to prepare its own programmes for the original 31 July launch. The interim contract would use neither company's name, and the literal ''Independent Television Service for Wales and the West'' was chosen. This created a ''cordon sanitaire'' between the end of TWW and the start of Harlech. Nevertheless, the "in the can" TWW productions, of which there were many, still carried "TWW presents" and "TWW production" captions. The presentation retained TWW in-vision announcers, giving the impression that little had changed. A temporary ident was designed, with four white horizontal bars shooting towards the viewer, electronic music and the name revealing itself a line at a time. The former TWW clock was retained. This was referred to in the local press as "TWW's revenge" on Harlech. The situation lasted just under three months. The ''ITSWW'' service was never referred to as such on air, but it continued both of the former TWW dual services under the names 'South Wales and West' and ' Teledu Cymru' – the latter having been the existing on-air name in that area. Both names were prefixed with the new phrase "Independent Television Service". Extensive

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

press advertising was taken out to explain the arrangements to those viewers deemed to be interested. Nothing was placed in the tabloids.

References

{{Television in Wales ITV franchisees Television channels in Wales Television in England Television in Wales Television channels and stations established in 1968 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1968 cy:TWW

Circumstances

Problems with TWW

ITA solution

See also

References