Winners and Losers: The Licence Process and Bids

Abstract

Applications for the fifteen regional Channel 3 licences were due at the ITC by noon, 15 May 1991. There were thirty-seven applications. The awards were announced by the ITC on 16 October 1991:

• Border, Central and Scottish TV were uncontested winners.

• Incumbent contractors, Thames TV, TSW and TVS lost respectively to Carlton, Westcountry and Meridian.

• Tyne Tees, Yorkshire and HTV retained their licences, although their business plans had been initially judged ‘marginal’ by the ITC.

• Other existing contractors who won despite making the lowest bid included Channel, Grampian, Granada, LWT and Ulster while Anglia won with the highest bid.

• Newcomer losers were CPV-TV who had bid for London weekday, East of England and South/South East England, LIB (London weekend), Three-East (East of England), CI3 (Channel Islands) and TeleWest (South West England). Losers for Wales and the West of England were C3W, C3WW and Merlin; for the North of Scotland were C3 Caledonia and North of Scotland, and for Northern Ireland were TVNi and Lagan.