Television South

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TVS Entertainment plc, or Television South, was the ITV franchise holder in the south and south-east of England which replaced its predecessor, Southern Television on the morning of 1 January 1982. (The company was referred to on air as "Television South" from 1985 to 1987, but as "TVS" before and after those dates.) The first show — Bring In The New — was hosted by Khalid Aziz. TVS won the franchise from the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the hardest fought battle of the 1980 franchise round, having faced competition from the previous incumbent, Southern Television, and six further consortia. The company chairman was Lord Boston of Faversham, and Anna Home was among the board members. She was better known as the creator of the BBC2 childrens programme Play School as the channels first show in April 1964.

Michael Rodd was among the well-known personalities associated with the winning bid. Rodd presented networked science programmes for TVS in its early years, notably The Real World, a science-based programme designed to be ITV's answer to Tomorrow's World (and not to be confused with the show made by MTV).

Both TVS and its successor, Meridian, had a slightly bigger coverage area than Southern, because on the day TVS was launched, the transmitters at Bluebell Hill and Chatham Town (in north Kent) were switched from the London ITV region to that of the South of England.

TVS operated from two main sites: inherited studios in Northam, Southampton and — after a brief interregnum at Southern's old Dover studios — a new facility built in Vinters Park, Maidstone. Like its predecessor, the company made many contributions to the network in the areas of children's television, drama and light entertainment.

As well as the main studios, TVS had an office in London and several smaller offices around the region. They also converted the Plaza Cinema in Gillingham into the TVS Television Theatre, and it was here that the UK inserts for Fraggle Rock were made, as well as the Saturday morning children's programme No.73. In the early days, TVS operated a plane which flew between the main television studios. This was later replaced by the TVS helicopter.

TVS's regional news magazine programme throughout it's franchise period was Coast to Coast, transmitted at 6pm on weekdays from its studios in Southampton and Maidstone. In the late 1980s there was an opt-out for the north of the Southampton region (the Thames Valley) from Reading; from 1993 this area would gain its own full-length regional magazine programme.

In the late 1980s, buoyed by increasing profits, TVS purchased the American media company MTM Enterprises founded by Mary Tyler Moore. However, when TVS's licence to broadcast came up for renewal in 1991, the company was suffering serious financial problems, and it had to bid high to secure an extension to its contract. The bid was deemed excessive and unviable, and the contract was handed to Meridian Broadcasting.

TVS operated until midnight on 31 December 1992, its last programme being the celebratory show Goodbye To All That, presented by Fred Dinenage and Fern Britton. At midnight, TVS was in turn replaced by Meridian.

The studios in Southampton were sold to the newcomer. Meanwhile, TVS retained the Maidstone site, intending to become an independent programme producer, but it was bought by American company International Family Entertainment in late 1992. Using the TVS programme archive, The Family Channel was launched as a result of this deal, on the Sky Analogue service; it later became Challenge TV (now simply known as "Challenge"). Live links to the channels and programmes for Family/Challenge were, at one time, made at Maidstone.

Notable programmes produced by TVS included; Catchphrase, That's Love, TUGS, Ultra Quiz, How 2, Summertime Special C.A.T.S. Eyes (The spin-off to the LWT programme The Gentle Touch), and The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (Inspector Wexford). And helped contribute to editions of Morning Worship and "Highway". Art Attack, a children's art show, was originally a TVS production and continues to be produced (at the Maidstone Studios) to this day.

External links

[Animated weekend TVS ident] from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
[Animated weekday TVS ident] from 625.uk.com (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
[TVS at TV Ark]

ITV
British television | Channels

Regions North Scotland: Grampian Television | Central Scotland: Scottish Television | Scottish/English Border: Border
North and North West England: ABC, Granada | North East England: Tyne Tees | Yorkshire: Yorkshire | Northern Ireland: UTV
Wales and the West of England: TWW, WWN, ITSWW, HTV | Midlands: ATV, ABC, Central | East Anglia: Anglia
London: Rediffusion, ATV, Thames, LWT, Carlton | Southern England: Southern, TVS, Meridian
South West England: Westward, TSW, Westcountry | Channel Islands: Channel Television

Breakfast: TV-am, GMTV | Teletext: ORACLE, Teletext Ltd.
News: ITN, ITV News Sport: ITV Sport

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