Meridian Broadcasting

The story of Meridian Broadcasting starts back with the establishment of the Broadcasting Act 1990 set up by the then-Conservative Government (under Margaret Thatcher) to mainly privatise British television. As a direct result the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was replaced by the Independent Broadcasting Committee (ITC) and the Radio Authority.

The ITC were instructed in October 1991 by the government, under the new system, to accept new ITV franchise bids with the highest-paid winner broadcasting in their allocated ITV region from January 1993 onwards. This also included quality control and sufficient business plans.

All the ITV regions were up for grabs, the most prestigious being the London area being run by Thames Television and LWT. Many companies competed against each other and bid for more than one ITV franchise.

For the South East of England, there were four strong contenders: The existing TVS, who were adamant to keep broadcasting post 1992, CPV-TV (set up by Sir David Frost and Richard Branson – who also bidded for the East of England and London but got nothing!), Carlton Television (who won the London franchise and succeeded Thames Television, the company also had a stake in Central) and Meridian Broadcasting (a consortium initially set up between Mills & Allen International, SelecTV and Central).

TVS were very close to winning as they had placed a staggering £59 million on their future. However the ITC were not happy with their business plan and harshly rejected their bid. CPV-TV failed on quality ground. As a result Meridian Broadcasting became the ITV franchise for the South East of England with effect from January 1993 – although shows were in production from October 1991 onwards.

The Media Merchants

In order to explain why and how The Media Merchants were founded, we have to turn our attention again to the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher‘s 1990 Broadcasting Act set rules that 25% of television programming had to be produced by independent production companies (as opposed to international imports).

‘It was like the Klondike! Suddenly anyone who’d worked in telly – in whatever capacity – got a few rich chums and well-connected buddies together. They’d hire an office somewhere near Tottenham Court Road tube station, get a logo and a two-second screen ident made, and – lo! – they were a production company. Some of these had been going a while (as Channel 4 had run this way since 1982) and some were set up with the impending ITV franchise auction. Some others were made up of people who unexpectedly lost out when the results of this were announced, notably Thames. All of them had their eye on getting a slice on mainstream credibility via the BBC.’

This is extremely accurate (albeit slightly generic and derogatory).

Independent production companies were left, right and centre during the ’80s and ’90s!

Select notable examples include Talkback (1981; founded by Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith), Hat Trick Productions (1986), Ragdoll Productions (1984), Tiger Aspect Productions (1993), Avalon (1989), Hartswood Films (c. 1991), Workhouse Productions, North Pole Productions, Cinema Verity (1985) and Felgate Productions.

In fact, there were over 900 independent companies in the UK alone by 1997 – some of which had programmes commissioned and broadcast, and many of which never even made a television programme and swiftly folded.

The Media Merchants was definitely the former and initially owned by Neil Buchanan and Tim Edmunds. The financial and management side of the Media Merchants was handled by Peter Urie’s Television Support Services (TSS), which was established as a trading company a few weeks after The Media Merchants.

Peter Urie previously worked at TVS between 1988 – 1992 as Head of Factual Entertainment, overseeing many productions by Buchanan and Edmunds. He additionally worked as a Producer and Director for several BBC programmes between 1976 – 1988. (Top of the Pops, Top Gear, The Clothes Show, The Two Ronnies, Nationwide and Pebble Mill at One).

Urie had a formal agreement with the Media Merchants, and much later joined the company as a board Director in 2000 – mainly due to the fact The Media Merchants was bought by The Britt Allcroft Group and ultimately the commercial success of Art Attack and then-continuing production of Zzzap!

A lengthy press release, announcing the £12 million acquisition of the Media Merchants by Britt Allcroft (also extent of content and information about Media Merchants programmes) in April 2000 states: ‘Peter Urie is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of The Media Merchants Group, negotiating contracts with broadcasters, suppliers and artists and managing production budgets. His role includes managing studio and post-production resources as well as negotiating and commissioning programmes.’

Television Support Services were credited for the first three series of Zzzap! (1993-1995) before Urie himself was credited as Production Manager for Series 4 (1996) and 5 (1997).

The Media Merchants were officially established as a ‘‘limited trading company’’ on August 6^th 1992 – although the name itself was used prior as devisers on Art Attack in 1991 – 1992.