This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

and its predecessor

Associated-Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

. Between them, they provided 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 ...

weekday service for London from 1955 to 1992, after which Thames continued as an independent production company until 2003.

Associated-Rediffusion

* 1955 ** 22 September – At 7:15pm, ITV goes on air for the first time when

starts broadcasting on weekdays to the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

area. * 1956 ** 6 January – The first edition of current affairs programme '' This Week'' is broadcast. * 1957 to 1963 ** No events. * 1964 ** 6 April – The name Associated-Rediffusion is dropped in favour of Rediffusion London, to reflect the cultural changes of the time, and output altered accordingly. ** Associated-Rediffusion is given a three-year extension to its licence. This is later extended by a further year. * 1965 ** No events. * 1966 ** No events. * 1967 ** October – 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 ...

announces that there was no place for Rediffusion in the redrawn franchise pattern. Also,

ABC Weekend TV ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one ...

loses all its franchises along with the rights to take over the Midlands, held by ATV, or the London Weekend franchise, awarded to the London Television Consortium. ABPC, the parent company of ABC and BET, the parent company of Rediffusion, created Thames as a separate entity. Rediffusion's parent company,

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

, takes a 49% stake in Thames, and was under-represented in the management of the new company – a state of affairs to which Rediffusion strongly objected. The

ITA Ita or ITA may refer to : Places and jurisdictions * ITA, ISO 3166-1 country code for Italy * Ita (Africa), an ancient city and former bishopric in Roman Mauretania, presently a Latin Catholic titular see * Itá, Paraguay People * Ita (prin ...

replied that either Thames or ABC take over. Rediffusion chose Thames. *1968 ** 29 July – Rediffusion London's last night on air.

Thames

1960s

* 1968 ** 30 July –

starts broadcasting and its first week on air is disrupted by sporadic strike action. ** 2 August – A technicians strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary

ITV Emergency National Service The ITV Emergency National Service was the management response to the near-complete Independent Television technicians' strike immediately after the 1968 franchise changes took effect.Bowden-Smith, Kif Strike Service'' Vision On, 1 January 2002, ...

with no regional variations. * 1969 ** 17 November – Thames begins broadcasting in colour. ** 19 November – Thames revives '' This Is Your Life'', five years after it disappeared from BBC screens.

1970s

* 1970 ** Following the launch of colour broadcasts, Thames’ famous ident is given a makeover and the drawings are replaced by photographs. It was to be used for the next 19 years. ** Thames sells off

Television House Television House is the former name of a building on Kingsway in London. From 1918, it was the base of the Air Ministry, and later from 1955, was the headquarters of Associated-Rediffusion/Rediffusion London, Independent Television News (ITN), ' ...

, Rediffusion's former London headquarters, and moves to its newly constructed studios and offices to new premises on

Euston Road Euston Road is a road in Central London that runs from Marylebone Road to King's Cross. The route is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary. It is named after Euston Hall, the family ...

. * 1971 ** No events. * 1972 ** 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service. * 1973 ** 31 October – The first of 26 episodes of ''

The World at War ''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. It was produced in 1973, at a cost of £900,000 (), the most expensive factual series ever produced. It was produ ...

'' is broadcast. It took four years to produce. * 1974 ** The 1974 franchise round sees no changes in ITV's contractors as it is felt that the huge cost in switching to colour television would have made the companies unable to compete against rivals in a franchise battle. * 1975 ** No events. * 1976 ** 1 December –

Bill Grundy William Grundy (18 May 1923 – 9 February 1993) was an English journalist and broadcaster, best known for his work as anchor of ''Today'', a regional magazine programme on Thames Television in London. In the latter role, Grundy gained ...

’s infamous interview with

The Sex Pistols ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

takes place on Thames’ teatime magazine show ''Today''. * 1977 ** May – A strike occurs when production assistants at Thames refuse to operate new video equipment. Thames proceeded to sack all the technicians for breach of contract. The following month, both sides backed down over the issues, with all technicians returning to work. ** 12 September – ''Today'' is replaced by a more conventional news magazine '' Thames at Six''. * 1978 ** 5 September – Thames launches a lunchtime regional news bulletin. * 1979 ** 6 August – A strike, initiated at Thames, spreads to the entire ITV network, apart from Channel, forcing ITV off air for ten weeks. ** ''Thames News at Six'' is renamed ''

Thames News ''Thames News'' was the flagship regional news programme of Thames Television, serving the Thames ITV region and broadcast on weekdays from 12 September 1977 to 31 December 1992. The news service was produced and broadcast from Thames TV's headq ...

''.

1980s

* 1980 ** 28 April – A late night ''Thames News'' bulletin is launched. It had originally been planned to launch at the same time as the lunchtime bulletin but was delayed due to union problems. ** 2 October –

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

broadcasts a 10-hour

Telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...

to raise money for good causes in the London area. * 1981 ** No events. * 1982 ** 1 January – *** Thames (and

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

) are no longer able to broadcast to north west Kent due to the Bluebell Hill transmitter near Maidstone being transferred to the new

Television South Television South (TVS) was the ITV (TV network), ITV franchise holder in the South East England, South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, ini ...

, as part of the creation of the south and south east franchise. *** Thames loses 105 minutes of transmission time on Fridays when the handover to LWT is moved back from 7pm to 5:15pm. ** 8 January – Due to the earlier Friday start, LWT becomes contractually responsible for providing a Friday London news service. Rather than launch its own news service, LWT pays Thames to provide a 15-minute insert into ''

The Six O'Clock Show ''The Six O'Clock Show'' was a regional television magazine show broadcast in the Greater London area and produced by London Weekend Television between 1982 and 1988. The Friday evening programme was launched on Friday 8 January 1982 and prese ...

'', LWT’s Friday teatime magazine. The bulletin is called '' Thames Weekend News''. * 1983 ** 1 February – Following the launch of ITV’s breakfast television service,

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

, Thames’ broadcast day now begins at 9:25am. * 1984 ** 27 August – The first of two strikes over new shift patterns takes place. It is resolved on 3 September. ** 16 October – ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused on ...

'' launches as a regular programme, just over a year after a one-off episode – '' Woodentop'' – was shown. ** 17 October – Another strike begins over the same issue, and also over new technologies. ** 19 October – A management-operated schedule is introduced. It broadcasts programming between around 1:30pm and around midnight as well as the ITV breakfast service TV-am. For the intervening four hours, instead of schools programmes, Thames viewers were left with a blue screen showing their upcoming emergency schedule. And with no access to ITN News, Thames viewers had to make do with short Thames News bulletins. Weekend ITV schedules for the London region are not affected by the strike, with London Weekend Television coming on air on Fridays at 5:15pm as usual. ** 3 November – The strike finally ends, after 62 film editors agreed to the new conditions, while the ACTT agreed as well to start negotiations about the introductions of new technology. Additional episodes of network productions were screened to help clear the backlog. **The Thames ident is computerised. * 1985 ** 3 January – The last day of transmission using the 405-lines system. ** January – Thames does a deal with the international distributors for US production company

Lorimar Lorimar Productions, Inc., later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Televisio ...

to purchase the UK broadcasting rights for US drama ''

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

'', at that time transmitted on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

. This broke a

gentlemen's agreement A gentlemen's agreement, or gentleman's agreement, is an informal and legally non-binding agreement between two or more parties. It is typically oral, but it may be written or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or th ...

between the two sides not to poach each other's imported shows. ** After Thorn EMI and British Electric Traction (BET) decide to reduce their share of Thames,

Carlton Communications Carlton was a British media company. It was led by Michael P. Green and listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1983 until 2 February 2004, when it was bought by Granada plc in a corporate takeover to form ITV plc. Carlton shareholders gained ap ...

executes a failed take-over bid for Thames. The IBA, blocked the takeover, after concluding that 'the proposal would lead to a major change in the nature and characteristic of a viable ITV programme company'. * 1986 ** 3 July – Thames is partially floated on the stock market. The shares on offer were the 71.2 stake of Thames that were being sold by BET and Thorn EMI. ** 11 September – After a seven year hiatus, '' This Week'' returns. * 1987 ** 1 June – Thames launches ''Thames Into the Night'', broadcasting until around 4am. Consequently, Thames no longer broadcasts its end of day epilogue ''Night Thoughts''. ** 17 August – Thames begins 24-hour transmissions. ** 7 September – Following the transfer of

ITV Schools ITV Schools (full name: Independent Television for Schools and Colleges) was the educational television service set up in 1957 by the Independent Television Authority, broadcasting learning programmes for children ages 5 to 18 across ITV-affili ...

to Channel 4, ITV provides a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins. * 1988 ** At the start of 1988, weekend contractor LWT launches its own regional news service, ending the agreement whereby Thames produced the Friday evening regional news insert into LWT’s Friday night magazine programme ''

''. ** 8 April – Thames transmits the controversial documentary

Death on the Rock "Death on the Rock" was a British television documentary, part of Thames Television's current affairs series '' This Week''. It was broadcast in 1988. The programme examined the deaths of three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members in ...

as part of its '' This Week'' series. * 1989 ** July – To mark its 21st anniversary, the famous skyline ident is replaced with a new logo. ** 1 September – Thames adopts the new corporate ITV logo.

1990s

* 1990 ** 3 September – Thames launches what will be its final ident although it is only used to introduce local programmes. A modified ITV generic ident featuring this new logo is used for networked shows. * 1991 ** April – Thames, in conjunction with LWT, launches a new overnight strand ''ITV Night Time''. ** 16 October – Thames loses its ITV licence to

Carlton Television Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Televi ...

due to it not being the highest bidder. ** 4 November – Following the announcement of the loss of its franchise, Thames drops the ITV-branded ident in favour of the local ident which is now to introduce all programmes. * 1992 ** Spring – To try to continue as a television broadcaster, Thames gets involved with a bid for the new Channel 5 licence. The bid is unsuccessful when the

Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...

rejected it on concerns about its business plan and investor backing. ** 1 November – Thames joins with the BBC to launch

UK Gold Gold is a British pay television channel from the UKTV network that was launched in late 1992 as UK Gold before it was rebranded UKTV Gold in 2004. In 2008, it was split into current flagship channel Gold and miscellaneous channel, W, with clas ...

. The channel shows programmes from the Thames and BBC archives. ** 17 December – Ahead of the loss of its franchise, the final edition of the

-produced current affairs series '' This Week'' is broadcast. ** 31 December – At 11:59pm Thames stops broadcasting as after the chimes of Big Ben, the new licensee,

takes over as franchise holder for London weekdays. * 1993 ** After losing its franchise, Thames continues to operate as a programme maker meaning that many of its popular shows continue to be seen. These include ''

'' and '' This Is Your Life''. ''This Is Your Life'' continued to run on ITV 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. ''The Bill'' continued on ITV until 2010. **23 April –

Pearson Television Pearson Television was the British-based television production and distribution arm of a British company Pearson PLC. History In 1994 after a bidding war, Pearson PLC bought the former British ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee Thames Televisio ...

launches a friendly takeover bid for

, valuing the company at £99 million. The acquisition is completed during the summer.

2000s

* 2003 ** 10 February – Thames is merged with

Talkback Talkback or talk back may refer to: *Talkback (album), ''Talkback'' (album), a 1983 album by the Canadian band the Spoons *Talk Back (Kembe X album), ''Talk Back'' (Kembe X album), 2016 *Talkback, an alternate name for Marvel Comics superhero C ...

to form a new production company

Talkback Thames Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames Tel ...

. The

name would be resurrected as a new company in 2012.

References

{{ITV

ThamesTelevision