…continues abroad.

Last year, we praised Britain’s ITV network for its heritage of decentralized and impermanent authority. Historically, ITV was “owned” by a regulatory commission, which licensed local network-affiliate stations for multi-year contracts that weren’t always renewed. The local stations produced the shows and sold the ads, under the regulator’s heavy guidelines. The bigger-market stations (including the two that split the London franchise by days of the week) had more opportunities to put shows into the network schedule. But no one company controlled the network or its schedule.

The result was a diffuse system with different “voices” and different ideas on what would make a good and/or popular show. It brought forth countless small-screen classics; including Coronation Street, The Avengers, Ready Steady Go!, The Saint, Thunderbirds, The Prisoner, The Muppet Show, This Is Tom Jones, Upstairs Downstairs, Benny Hill, Danger Mouse, Brideshead Revisited, Inspector Morse, and the original versions of Three’s Company and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

That all began to change in the Thatcher years. The 11 ITV stations in England and Wales got bought up by two companies. Now those two are merging, forming a behemoth that will control half the UK’s TV ad revenues–at least until “synergy”-obsessed mismanagement drives more viewers to other broadcast, cable, and satellite outlets.

By the way, if you click on the above link and you live in the US or Canada, you’re commiting some kind of intellectual-property crime. To which I naturally say go for it. (Another item about the story is at this link.)