Lime Pictures - ITV Franchise Bid Against Granada (North West Television)

ITV Franchise Bid Against Granada (North West Television)

In the 1991 ITV network franchise auction, Mersey Television under the name of North West Television made an audacious bid against holders Granada Television for the North West England franchise. Granada had held the North West franchise ever since the inception of independent television in the 1950s, and Granada was one of the biggest and the most established of the ITV companies. Granada was also a popular production company and it came second only to the BBC to find the most respected British television company amongst the British public.

The bid was supported financially by Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television and the bid had aimed to provide a more balanced television service for the North West, in particular featuring more content from Liverpool as opposed to Manchester. However, although North West Television bid more money for the franchise totallng £35 million as opposed to Granada's £9 million, the licence stayed with Granada as the Independent Television Commission declared that the Mersey Television bid did not meet the required quality threshold.

Furthermore, Granada were aware of Mersey Television's attempts to gain the North West franchise and built defences to avoid the lost of the license they had owned for many years. New franchises which had no experience of owning an ITV franchise (Mersey Television was one such example) would have to a pass a "quality hurdle" that Granada executives actually helped the ITC adopt. Granada also had a well known catalogue of productions including Prime Suspect, Cracker, World in Action and Coronation Street and if Mersey Television had gained the franchise, then Granada would have sold these to satellite television.