TV-am

Did You Know?

• Diana Dors served as a diet and later agony aunt on the station from 1983 to 1984.
• Kay Burley worked at TV-am as a reporter, newsreader and presenter from 1985 to 1988.

Foundation

The Independent Broadcasting Authority announced on 24 January 1980 that a national breakfast television licence would be offered in the next ITV franchising round. Eight applications were submitted, and on 28 December 1980 the IBA awarded the franchise to TV-am. The initial launch date was set for June 1983 to avoid clashing with the 1982 launch of Channel 4, but the IBA permitted the station to move its start forward to 1 February 1983 after the BBC launched its breakfast service Breakfast Time two weeks earlier. This accelerated start created two problems. First, ITV had not reached an agreement with the actors' union Equity over advertising royalties and rates for Channel 4 and the breakfast service; Equity instructed its members to boycott TV-am, resulting in little or no advertising revenue in the early period. Second, TV-am had planned a highbrow, news-focused service because the BBC's breakfast offering was expected to be similarly serious, but the BBC instead launched a lightweight, magazine-style programme modelled on US breakfast television. The short notice left TV-am little time to revise its approach. The station was led by the so-called Famous Five—Michael Parkinson, David Frost, Angela Rippon, Anna Ford and Robert Kee—who were both presenters and shareholders. Esther Rantzen had originally been part of this line-up but withdrew in 1981 after the birth of her third child, citing the difficulty of early morning starts and her desire to continue presenting That's Life! for the BBC.

Difficult beginnings

TV-am's early ratings were poor compared to the BBC's successful Breakfast Time. The station's high-minded, formal style, encapsulated in chief executive Peter Jay's phrase "mission to explain," contrasted unfavourably with Breakfast Time's accessible mix of serious news and light features. The first day of broadcasting included an hour of news in Daybreak, a short film, an interview with Norman Tebbit on unemployment, a live comic strip called The World of Melanie Parker, and Through the Keyhole. Within two weeks ratings dropped sharply; within a month they fell to under 300,000. The weekend slot, presented by Michael Parkinson, was the only early success, drawing 1.5 million viewers because the BBC did not broadcast on weekend mornings. On 28 February several changes were made: Daybreak was shortened by 30 minutes and presented by Gavin Scott, while Good Morning Britain moved 30 minutes earlier to 6:30 am, with Angela Rippon joining Anna Ford as presenter. David Frost voluntarily stepped down from the show, which had been intended to run for 12 weeks, to allow the female duo to lead. After one edition, Ford fell ill with flu and returned on 7 March; during her absence, Frost and Parkinson covered. In the first week of the revised format, viewer figures rose by 200,000, and during the second week they peaked at 500,000. However, figures published on 26 March showed a loss of 100,000 from the previous week, though ratings remained higher overall than at the end of February.

Bruce Gyngell

In early 1984, Australian businessman Kerry Packer acquired a substantial minority interest in TV-am and in early May appointed Bruce Gyngell as chief executive to make the company financially viable. Greg Dyke left within weeks to join TVS, and general manager Michael Moor departed ten days later. In July 1984, Michael Hollingsworth, formerly of the BBC's Breakfast Time, became programme controller. Gyngell continued the lightweight, populist approach that Dyke had established, a model later parodied in a Guardian headline as "Snap, Crackle and Pap." The station overhauled its Saturday morning children's programme, replacing Data Run and SPLAT with Wide Awake Club as part of cost-cutting measures. The impact of these cuts became evident during the Brighton hotel bombing in October 1984. The night before the attack, TV-am had only one camera crew covering the Conservative conference, and that crew was recalled to London for the Wembley Central rail crash. When the bomb exploded in the early hours, the BBC and ITN provided immediate coverage, while TV-am could only show a caption of reporter John Stapleton reporting by phone. Trade union rules prevented the local ITV station TVS from providing assistance, and TV-am's previous conflicts with ITN meant ITN would not share its footage. The IBA severely rebuked the company, instructing it to invest in and improve its news coverage or risk losing its licence.

Law change and demise

In 1990, changes in broadcasting law replaced the previous merit-based allocation of commercial television franchises with a blind auction. The Independent Broadcasting Authority was succeeded by the lighter-touch Independent Television Commission. TV-am was required to reapply for its licence in May 1991. The ITV franchise results were announced on 16 October, and TV-am's bid of £14.3m was beaten by Sunrise Television (later renamed GMTV), which offered £36.4m. In the years after its launch, GMTV later approached the ITC to seek a retrospective reduction in that fee. By February 1992, the effects of the licence loss became visible: TV-am closed its in-house news service and contracted it out to Sky News for a one-off payment. Children's programming was reduced, with fewer appearances by Timmy Mallett, though Wacaday continued during major school holidays until the station closed. The Saturday morning strand TV-Mayhem, hosted by Chris Evans, was abruptly cancelled after six weeks despite having been commissioned for 40 weeks, and was replaced by Cartoon World, a strand of back-to-back cartoons presented out of vision. Margaret Thatcher, whose government had introduced the franchise auction and who had been replaced as prime minister by John Major, wrote to Bruce Gyngell apologising for being partly responsible for TV-am losing its licence, stating she was "heartbroken" and "painfully aware" of her role. Gyngell made the private letter public, drawing criticism from Thatcher's friends. TV-am's final broadcast ended on 31 December 1992 at 9:21 am, with credits over a black-and-white still of the studio crew and the caption: "TV-am: 1 February 1983 – 31 December 1992." The last commercial break followed, and the famous eggcups had appeared for the final time the previous day; the final promotion was for GMTV, which began broadcasting at 6 am the next day.