A contract round of sorts had taken place in 1964.  In effect the contracts rolled over, though other companies did apply and were considered.  But the ITA under chairman Lord Hill were distracted by other matters.  The Conservative government, in power since 1951, was coming to its obvious end. But the Conservatives had promised ITV2 would begin on UHF if they were re-elected.  Meanwhile, Labour promised that they would introduce BBC3 and cancel ITV2.

So the contracts were awarded with an interesting set of provisos as to when they would end.  Each contract would be for just 3 years, but if ITV2 started within that time, each contract would lapse when the new service started.  If the start date of ITV2 was to be after those 3 years, each contract would be extended by a further 3 years.  If the ITA decided that the new ITV2 would not cover the entire country, any contractor in an uncovered area would continue until 1971, but those with an ITV2 service would end when it began in their area.  Finally, if ITV2 was not to start before 1970, the contracts would end in 1968 and all contractors would have to reapply for contracts with new boundaries and new conditions.

As we know, it was the latter option that was taken, but the instability this brought into the system was to have a detrimental effect on programming, especially after the 3 year contracts expired and the new boundaries were introduced.

This was ITV's golden age.  What the contractors didn't realise was it would be a long time before they got back to where they had been.