Timeline of London Weekend Television

Last updated December 11, 2024

This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster London Weekend Television (now known as ITV London at weekend ). It has provided the ITV weekend service for London since 1968.

1960s

1967
- LWT is awarded the London weekend franchise. The new franchise includes Friday evenings so LWT broadcasts from 7pm on Fridays as well as Saturday and Sunday.

1968
- 2 August – LWT goes on the air, for fifteen seconds because that day was the start of the technicians strike which forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management managed to launch a temporary ITV Emergency National Service with no regional variations.

1969
- 15 November – LWT begins broadcasting in colour.

1970s

1970
- 18 September – LWT launches its famous river ident.^[1]

1971
- February – Rupert Murdoch becomes Managing Director.^[2]

1972
- 1 October – LWT launches the UK's first Sunday politics programme, Weekend World . It continues until 1988.
- LWT opened its purpose-built studios called The London Studios although they were not fully operational until 1974. These new studios replace its studio base in Wembley which was the former home of Associated-Rediffusion.^[3]

1973
- No events.

1974
- The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) automatically extends all ITV franchise contracts from 1974 to 1981, owing to the enormous costs of introducing colour television.

1975
- No events.

1976
- May – LWT is reorganised, to form a new company, LWT (Holdings) Limited.^[4] which allowed the company to expand into a number of new ventures, including Hutchinson Publishing.

1977
- February – Michael Grade was appointed as Director of Programmes.

1978
- 14 January – The first edition of arts magazine The South Bank Show is broadcast, replacing Aquarius . It continues to be broadcast until the end of 2009 before Sky Arts revives the programme in 2012.
- November – News International sells 16% of its LWT holding, reducing its shares from 39.7% to 25%.^[5]

1979
- 10 August – The ten week ITV strike forces London Weekend Television off the air. The strike ends on 24 October and LWT's acquisition of specialist travel and tour operator Page & Moy and its Hutchinson publishing operations helped offset the losses made during the strike.^[6]

1980s

1980
- 11 February – London Weekend Television's Minorities Unit launches the UK's first television series specifically aimed at a gay audience. The programme, called Gay Life , airs late on Sundays and runs for two series.^[7]
- News International sells its remaining 25% stake, bringing an end to LWT's connection with the Australian tycoon.^[8]

1981
- No events.

1982
- 1 January
  - LWT (and Thames) are no longer able to broadcast to north west Kent due to the Bluebell Hill transmitter near Maidstone being transferred to the new TVS, as part of the creation of the south and south east franchise.^[9]
  - LWT gains 105 minutes more transmission time on Fridays when the handover from Thames was moved back from 7pm to 5:15pm.
- 8 January – Due to the earlier Friday start, LWT becomes contractually responsible for providing a Friday London news service. Rather than launch its own news service, LWT pays Thames to provide a 15-minute insert into The Six O'Clock Show , LWT's Friday teatime magazine. The bulletin is called Thames Weekend News . Over the weekend, LWT's news coverage consists of LWT News Headlines which are aired mid-afternoon and late evening. These bulletins usually consisted solely of the duty continuity announcer in-vision reading copy sourced from the Independent Local Radio station LBC and later from local wire agencies.
- January – John Birt replaces Michael Grade as Director of Programmes and makes major changes to output aimed at maximising audiences with some niche programming, such as arts and science, moving out of primetime to the schedule margins to make way for more entertainment shows at peak time.

1983
- January – LWT drops in-vision continuity.
- 5 February – Following the launch of ITV's breakfast television service TV-am four days earlier, LWT's broadcast day now begins at 9:25am.
- 9 September – LWT launches a computerised version of its ident with the tagline "Your Weekend ITV".^[1]
- LWT launches an into-the-night Nightlife strand, resulting in LWT staying on air until around 2am on Friday and Saturday nights.^[10]

1984
- No events.

1985
- LWT comes to an agreement with TVS to help to fill its schedules with domestically-produced programming while not having to increase its budget. This helps TVS to get more of its programmes onto the ITV network.^[11]
- May–June – LWT's flagship Friday evening news magazine The Six O'Clock Show is briefly extended to Saturdays. However, only six episodes are broadcast.

1986
- 29 August – After 16 years, LWT drops its river-based logo and launches a new ident.^[1]

1987
- April – Greg Dyke returns to LWT after three years at TVS to replace John Birt as Director of Programmes.
- 28 August – LWT begins 24-hour transmissions and launches the UK's first overnight show Night Network .^[12] However, it is short lived and ends on 31 March 1989.^[13]
- December – Thames Weekend News which had produced LWT's Friday teatime news bulletin, is broadcast for the final time.

1988
- 8 January – Following concern from the IBA over LWT's regional news output, LWT launches its own news service called LWT News . The service is outsourced and is provided by Screen News.^[14]
- 15 July – The Six O'Clock Show is broadcast for the final time.
- 7 October – The Six O'Clock Show's replacement programme, Friday Now!, launches.^[15]

1989
- 28 July – Friday Now is broadcast for the final time. It is axed due to poor ratings.
- 1 September
  - LWT adopts the new corporate ITV logo.^[1]
  - Friday Now is replaced by Six O'Clock Live.^[16]

1990s

1990
- January – Chrysalis Television takes over the contract to produce LWT News .

1991
- April – LWT, in conjunction with Thames, launches a new overnight strand called ITV Night Time.^[12]
- 16 October – LWT retains its licence. There had been one other applicant, London Independent Broadcasting. However, it was ruled out because it failed to make the quality threshold. It had bid five times more than LWT which retains the licence with a bid of £7.59 million.

1992
- 21 August – Six O’Clock Live is axed to make way for the forthcoming London Tonight .
- 4 September – LWT launches a new ident, sometimes dubbed the flying blocks ident.^[1]

1993
- 3 January – LWT News is broadcast for the final time.
- 8 January – London Tonight is broadcast on LWT for the first time. It is the name of the new regional news bulletins produced by London News Network, the new seven days a week news service jointly owned by LWT and new contractor Carlton Television.

1994
- 25 February – LWT is bought by Granada Television for £770 million. This resulted in Greg Dyke and Sir Christopher Bland leaving LWT.^[17]

1995
- No events.

1996
- 30 August – LWT modifies its logo and new idents launch.^[1]
- 1 October – LWT’s owner Granada launches Granada Sky Broadcasting as a joint venture between Granada and BSkyB. Content from LWT's archives is shown on one of the channels created, Granada Plus.

1997
- No events.

1998
- 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place.

1999
- 12 November – LWT unveils what will be its last ever logo and launches new idents.^[1]

2000s

2000
- 24 March – LWT becomes the only ITV region to drop the 1999 generic look, replacing it with the theme of a video wall.

2001
- 11 August – ITV's main channel is rebranded as ITV1.

2002
- 27 October – LWT marks its final day on air with a series of tributes to their past, with long-serving continuity announcers Glen Thompsett and Trish Bertram appearing in-vision live in LWT's playout centre in the London Television Centre. When GMTV handed over to the weekday franchise the following morning, 28 October, the national ITV1 brand was on-air.^[1] ITV1 (ITV1 London prior to regional programmes) is formed as a unified on-screen brand for the Carlton and LWT franchises. Consequently, the new "region" operates as a seven-day service. ITV London is formally created.

2003
- No events.

2004
- 2 February – Granada merges with Carlton Communications to form a single England and Wales ITV company called ITV plc.^[18]
- 31 March – The LWT logo is seen for the final time. It had continued to appear as an endcap.

Related Research Articles

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Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Television as a single entity, but the two companies are still separately licensed. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of "ITV Broadcasting Limited". Carlton has been branded on air as "ITV1" since 28 October 2002. Carlton Television Ltd, the original holder of the licence, has since been dissolved. Carlton UK Television Limited however is now known as ITV Consumer Limited and legally operates ITV plc's websites. As Carlton's name has no relation to its region, its on-screen identity has been completely removed. Other regions have kept their original company name as a region name and in their local news name.

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 at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT).

London Weekend Television (LWT) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights. From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities.

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 TV Live: London Weekend Television
↑ Chris Dunkley "Mr Murdoch takes the reins after LWT managing director resigns", The Times, 19 February 1971, p.1
↑ "history of TV studios in London". Tvstudiohistory.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
↑ "LWT forms new company to acquire its equity.", The Times, 20 May 1976; p.26
↑ Peter Wainwright "News International to sell 16% of its shares in London Weekend Television", The Times, 27 November 1978; p.15
↑ "Summer dispute will hit HTV and LWT hard", The Times, 17 November 1979, p.24
↑ Glyn Davis; Gary Needham (3 December 2008). Queer TV: Theories, Histories, Politics. Routledge. pp. 109–. ISBN 978-1-134-05856-3.
↑ Peter Wilson-Smith "Murdoch group sells 25pc stake in LWT", The Times, 13 March 1980
↑ "Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) Full Freeview transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
↑ ITV Nighttime
↑ "The History of London Weekend Television, LWT". Ultimate LWT. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
1 2 "TV Live – ITV Night Time" . Retrieved 31 March 2020.
↑ "Night Network (TV series)". BFI. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012.
↑ London Weekend Television item, Channel 4 News, 21 March 1988
↑ BFI entry - Friday Now
↑ BFI entry – Six O'Clock Live
↑ Martin Waller "LWT succumbs to £770 million Granada takeover bid", The Times 26 February 1994, p.21
↑ Litterick, David (8 October 2003). "ITV cleared for a united kingdom". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 June 2011.

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[TV_Live:_London_Weekend_Television-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 TV Live: London Weekend Television

[2] Chris Dunkley "Mr Murdoch takes the reins after LWT managing director resigns", The Times, 19 February 1971, p.1

[3] "history of TV studios in London". Tvstudiohistory.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2013.

[4] "LWT forms new company to acquire its equity.", The Times, 20 May 1976; p.26

[5] Peter Wainwright "News International to sell 16% of its shares in London Weekend Television", The Times, 27 November 1978; p.15

[6] "Summer dispute will hit HTV and LWT hard", The Times, 17 November 1979, p.24

[DavisNeedham2008-7] Glyn Davis; Gary Needham (3 December 2008). Queer TV: Theories, Histories, Politics. Routledge. pp. 109–. ISBN 978-1-134-05856-3.

[8] Peter Wilson-Smith "Murdoch group sells 25pc stake in LWT", The Times, 13 March 1980

[9] "Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) Full Freeview transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 25 June 2013.

[10] ITV Nighttime

[11] "The History of London Weekend Television, LWT". Ultimate LWT. Retrieved 25 June 2013.

[TV-Live.co.uk-12] 1 2 "TV Live – ITV Night Time" . Retrieved 31 March 2020.

[13] "Night Network (TV series)". BFI. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012.

[14] London Weekend Television item, Channel 4 News, 21 March 1988

[15] BFI entry - Friday Now

[16] BFI entry – Six O'Clock Live

[17] Martin Waller "LWT succumbs to £770 million Granada takeover bid", The Times 26 February 1994, p.21

[18] Litterick, David (8 October 2003). "ITV cleared for a united kingdom". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 June 2011.

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