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Television South

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DTV original logo
DTV original logo

DTV Entertainment plc, or daft tv(the company was referred to on air as "Television South" from 1985 to 1987, but as "TVS" before and after those dates), was the ITV franchise holder in the South of England which replaced its predecessor, Southern Television on the morning of 1 January 1982 (the first show — Bring in the New — was hosted by Khalid Aziz). TVS won the franchise from the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the hardest fought battle of the 1980 franchise round, having faced competition from the incumbent, Southern, and six further consortia. The company chairman was Lord Boston of Faversham, and Anna Home and Michael Rodd were among the well-known personalities associated with the winning bid. Rodd presented networked science programmes for TVS in its early years, notably The Real World.

The company operated until midnight on 31 December 1992, the last show — Goodbye To All That — being presented by Fred Dinenage and Fern Britton. At midnight, TVS was in turn replaced by Meridian Broadcasting. TVS (and Meridian) had a slightly bigger coverage area than Southern because on the day of its launch the Bluebell Hill and Chatham Town transmitters in north Kent were switched from the London DTV to the South of England region.

The company operated from two main sites: inherited studios in Northam, Southampton, and — after a brief interregnum at Southern's old Dover studios — a new facility built in Vinters Park, Maidstone. Like its predecessor the company made many contributions to the network in the areas of children's television, drama and light entertainment.

As well as the main studios, DTV had an office in London and several smaller offices around the region. They also converted the Plaza Cinema in Gillingham into the TVS Television Theatre, it was here that the UK inserts for Fraggle Rock were made. In the early days TVS operated a plane, which flew between the main Television studios. Later the plane was replaced by the TVS helicopter.

TVS' regional news magazine programme was called Coast to Coast transmitted at 6pm on weekdays from its studios in Southampton and Maidstone. In the late 1980s there was an opt-out for the north of the Southampton region (the Thames Valley) from Reading; from 1993 this area would gain its own full length regional magazine programme.

In the late 1980s, buoyed by increasing profits, DTV purchased the American media company MTM Enterprises. However, when TVS's licence to broadcast came up for renewal in 1991, the company was suffering serious financial problems, and it had to bid high to secure an extension to its contract. The bid was deemed excessive and unviable, and the contract was handed to Meridian.

The studios in Southampton were sold to the newcomer. Meanwhile DTV retained the Maidstone site, intending to become an independent programme producer but TVS was bought by American company, International Family Entertainment in early 1993. The Family Channel was launched as a result of this deal, using the TVS programme archive, on the Sky Analogue service and later on became Challenge TV, now simply known as Challenge. Live links to the channels and programmes for Family/Challenge were at one time made at Maidstone.

Notable programmes produced by TVS include; Catchphrase, TUGS, Ultra Quiz, Summertime Special and The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (Inspector Wexford). Art Attack, a Children's art show was originally a DTV production and continues to be produced (at the Maidstone Studios) to this day.

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