Who were Thames Television?

Thames was actually a joint company formed by British Electric Traction (owners of Rediffusion Television) and Associated British Picture Corporation (owners of ABC Television).

ABPC had the chairmanship and a majority of one on the board.  The company was officially split 51% to ABPC, 49% to BET, with profits split in the same proportion.  In reality, that 51%, coupled with a massive influx of ABC staff from Teddington and a huge drain of staff into LWT and YTV from Rediffusion, meant that Thames was almost completely ABC dominated, with only the current affairs and schools departments remaining from Rediffusion.

The probable outcome of the changes, if all had gone to plan, may have been to have left Rediffusion at London weekdays, given London weekends to Capital Television - formerly ABC Weekend TV, left TWW in place, gained a new contractor for Yorkshire, and replaced Scottish Television, the weakest of the companies.

Outside applications ruined this.  The Harlech Consortium promised so much, and had the talent behind it, causing the ITA to sacrifice TWW, and thus spare STV.

In London, a similar problem occurred with the London Television Consortium, another group filled with talent and well-known media names.  This group's appearance displaced ABC from the plan.  ABC had given Yorkshire as a potential new home, but the ITA's policy of regionalisation was just beginning, and ABC had no roots in Leeds.

So the next weakest member of the pack had to be picked off.  That was Rediffusion.  Could ABC run London weekdays?  Probably not - despite their huge presence already in Teddington, the massive investment of time and money required for London weekdays - current affairs programming and schools programming being major contributions from Rediffusion - ABC could not be expected to take this on.  The heavyweight requirement for the capital on weekdays was not there.

So, what if ABC were given the contract and told to pick the bones of Rediffusion for any programming they themselves could not provide?  Rediffusion could be compensated with 49% of the profits of the new company, and many Rediffusion staff would be kept in employment (the remainder being offered work in Leeds and at LWT - the ITA did not allow redundancies of technical staff at contract changeover time).

ABC readily accepted, seeing that they were essentially in control of the new company and that 51% of profits of Rediffusion would be more than their current two contracts combined earnings.

Rediffusion grumbled, but faced with an ultimatum from the ITA - do it with ABC or ABC will do it alone - finally agreed to the creation of a joint company (a merger being thought unworkable).

Several names were considered, and Capital Television looked like being the name of the new company, whilst the London Television Consortium settled on Thames Weekend Television.

However, the hip and with-it management of LTC wanted an entirely new style of station.  They felt it should have no symbol, no jingles, just stand or fall on the quality of the highbrow programming it would be producing.  As part of this, the company should call itself what it was - London Weekend Television.

With the name Thames Television now available, the board, narrowly, decided that they would take this on as their new name.  It was a name that would dominate British television for the next quarter century.