For many years it was fashionable for media ventures to be small outfits that are effectively run by one or two people, and they inevitably concentrated on one thing, namely television production. The demise of various ITV franchises in 1982 and 1993, along with Channel 4 and the satellite boom caused many ex-ITV producers to try their hand at going freelance.
External commissioning became "the big thing", and led by broadcasters such as Channel 4, this mantra spread through the UK television industry like wildfire, inevitably leading to ITV and even the BBC adopting a similar policy of supporting 'independent' producers.
But as discovered through those inevitable market forces, small independent producers are most likely to survive intact when they concentrate on niche areas such as children's TV and wildlife productions. A fair number of the remainder have since been snapped up by larger conglomerates such as Endemol, or alternatively went bankrupt or were closed down.
With the rise of the internet, it seems that "one media company does it all" ventures are back on the menu again, even if (as seems to be the case this time) they seem to have all the staying power of most of the so-called startup companies during the "dotcom" era about five years ago. At least for their first attempt.
However this kind of thing has been done before. To quote Media Guardian, "There are precedents for what Iostar was trying to do elsewhere in the media industry. For instance, Peter Bennett-Jones ran his talent agency PBJ alongside production company Tiger Aspect, developing TV projects for his clients".
But we can go back a lot further than that example, since there was once a company that was involved with a wide range of ventures ranging from television production to commissioning, film production, distribution, theatre work, and a talent agency.
Its name? ATV.
