Thames Television

Thames Television Limited

Thames "London Skyline" ident, featuring London landmarks
The Thames Television region when it lost its franchise in 1992
Type	Region of television network
Branding	Thames
Country	England
First air date	30 July 1968; 55 years ago (1968-07-30)
Founded	31 January 1968; 56 years ago (1968-01-31) (ITV franchisee) 1 January 1993; 31 years ago (1993-01-01) (production company)
Motto	A Talent For Television
TV transmitters	Crystal Palace, Bluebell Hill, Croydon
Headquarters	Teddington Studios, London, United Kingdom
Broadcast area	London
Owner	Thorn EMI (51%) and BET plc (49%) (until 1993) Pearson Television (1993–2000) FremantleMedia (2000–2003)
Parent	Thorn EMI (1968–1993) Pearson Television (1993–2000) FremantleMedia (2000–2003)
Key people	Jeremy Isaacs, Bryan Cowgill, Brian Tesler, David Elstein, Richard Dunn
Dissolved	31 December 1992; 31 years ago (1992-12-31) (ITV franchisee) 2003; 21 years ago (2003) (production company)[a]
Picture format	PAL
Affiliation(s)	ITV
Language	English
Replaced	As ITV franchisee: Rediffusion London As company: ABC Weekend TV Rediffusion London
Replaced by	As ITV franchisee: Carlton Television As production company: Talkback Thames
Subsidiary	Thames Video Euston Films Cosgrove Hall Productions (until 1992)

Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 09:25 Monday morning to 17:15 Friday afternoon (19:00 Friday night until 1982) at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT).

Formed as a joint company, it merged the television interests of British Electric Traction (trading as Associated-Rediffusion) owning 49%, and Associated British Picture Corporation—soon taken over by EMI—owning 51%. Like all ITV franchisees at that time, it was a broadcaster, a producer and a commissioner of television programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and, as one of the "Big Five" ITV companies, for networking nationally across the ITV regions. After its loss of franchise in 1992, it continued as an independent production company until 2003.

The British Film Institute describes Thames as having "served the capital and the network with a long-running, broad-based and extensive series of programmes, several of which either continue or are well-remembered today."^[2] Thames covered a broad spectrum of commercial public-service television, with a strong mix of drama, current affairs and comedy.

After Thames was acquired by FremantleMedia it was merged with another Fremantle company, Talkback, to form a new independent production company, Talkback Thames; consequently, Thames ceased to exist as a separate entity. However, on 1 January 2012, the Thames brand was revived and Talkback Thames has now been split into four different labels: Boundless, Retort, Talkback and Thames, within the newly created FremantleMedia UK production arm.

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