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We've been here before. The administrator of ITV Digital may still be trying to restructure the business, but its success remains in doubt and Carlton and Granada are refusing to fund it any further. Deloitte & Touche has told the High Court it is still preparing the business for sale. So it's worth reminding ourselves what happened when earlier commercial TV companies went out of business. Did screens go blank? And what did the regulators and government do to try to put matters right?
ITV companies have regularly got into financial trouble over the years. From the disasters of the Fifties, before a TV franchise became a licence to print money, through the troubled launches of LWT (taken over by Rupert Murdoch, till he got booted out by the Independent Television Authority) and TV-am (rescued by Roland Rat, Greg Dyke and Bruce Gyngell), the fear of those in authority has always been blank screens.
The prospect of a disgruntled proletariat, deprived of their TV opium and taking to the streets, was to be avoided at all costs. When regional ITV companies got into difficulties, arrangements were made for a neighbouring contractor to fill the gap. Ironically, the only time ITV screens really went blank - apart from the 11-week strike of...