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.jpg){kind=logo} Thames "London Skyline" ident, featuring London landmarks | |
 The Thames Television region when it lost its franchise in 1992 | |
| Type | Region of television network |
|---|---|
| Branding | Thames |
| Country | England |
First air date | 30 July 1968 |
| Founded |
|
| Motto | A Talent For Television |
| TV transmitters | Crystal Palace, Bluebell Hill, Croydon |
| Headquarters | Teddington Studios, London, United Kingdom |
Broadcast area | London |
| Owner |
|
| Parent |
|
Key people | Jeremy Isaacs, Bryan Cowgill, Brian Tesler, David Elstein, Richard Dunn |
| Dissolved |
|
Picture format | PAL |
| Affiliation(s) | ITV |
| Language | English |
| Replaced |
|
| Replaced by |
|
| Subsidiary |
|
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 09:25 Monday morning to 17:15 Friday afternoon (19:00 Friday night until 1982) at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT).
Formed as a joint company, it merged the television interests of British Electric Traction (trading as Associated-Rediffusion) owning 49%, and Associated British Picture Corporation—soon taken over by EMI—owning 51%. Like all ITV franchisees at that time, it was a broadcaster, a producer and a commissioner of television programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and, as one of the "Big Five" ITV companies, for networking nationally across the ITV regions. After its loss of franchise in 1992, it continued as an independent production company until 2006.
The British Film Institute describes Thames as having "served the capital and the network with a long-running, broad-based and extensive series of programmes, several of which either continue or are well-remembered today."[2] Thames covered a broad spectrum of commercial public-service television, with a strong mix of drama, current affairs and comedy.
After Thames was acquired by FremantleMedia it was merged with another Fremantle company, Talkback, to form a new independent production company, Talkback Thames; consequently, Thames ceased to exist as a separate entity, but it, along with Talkback's own logo continued to be used separately until 2006, when a new logo for Talkback Thames was introduced. However, on 1 January 2012, the Thames brand was revived and Talkback Thames has now been split into four different labels: Boundless, Retort, Talkback and Thames, within the newly created FremantleMedia UK production arm.
- ^ "Overview for Thames Television Limited". Companies House.
- ^ Elen, Richard G. "Thames Television". Screenonline. Retrieved 20 May 2007.
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