Southern Television

Southern Television
Founded	August 30, 1958
Closed	December 31, 1981 (replaced by Television South)
Company	Associated Newspapers, Rank Organization, D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
Notable Series	Worzel Gummidge The Famous Five

Southern Television (also known as Southern Independent Television on-air from 1964 until 1981) was a television station in the United Kingdom.

History

Southern was the original ITV contractor for the South and Southeast England region, signing on for the first time on August 30, 1958. A consortium of Associated Newspapers, the Amalgamated Press and the Rank Organization (each holding a one-third share) were the original owners of the station for the record, but the Amalgamated Press dropped out prior to Southern going on the air, giving the remaining two consortium partners 37.5% each while D.C. Thomson & Company Ltd. joined the ownership group and took the remaining 25%.

Over its years of operation, Southern became noted for its production of children's programming for ITV, particularly such shows as Worzel Gummidge (starring a post-Doctor Who Jon Pertwee as the title character) and an adaptation of novelist Enid Blyton's The Famous Five.

Southern's original studios were located in a former cinema in Northam, Southampton, but with the arrival of color television in the United Kingdom in 1969, the station relocated to a new customized studio next to the existing location. Production offices and a second studio were also located in Dover, to cover the eastern part of Southern's franchise area. Local opt-outs for the Dover part of the region were created for the production of region-specific programs and news bulletins.

Southern lost its ITV contract during the 1981 franchise round. Among the official reasons for this, noted by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (the commercial TV regulator in the United Kingdom at the time), were Southern's complacency with its programming and its conservative nature, as well as the station's non-local ownership. Southern, whose board of directors were not pleased with the IBA decision, ended its 23-plus years on the air with its final program, And It's Goodbye From Us, a look back at the history of Southern Television. After the program ended at 00:43 GMT on January 1, 1982, the Southern production title card at the end of the show faded to a shot of the station's famed south-pointing compass logo against a starry sky background, with the logo then beginning to spin rapidly and move away from the screen into the night sky as the Southern acoustic guitar jingle (used to identify the station since 1969) played one last time before fading to black, with no closedown announcements or playing of the British national anthem, God Save the Queen, afterward. About nine hours later, Television South, the winning bidder for the South and Southeast England ITV contract, went on the air for the first time, using Southern's facilities and much of the old station's staff.

All Southern trademarks and logos are now owned by Nic Ayling, who now operates a revived Southern Television as a production company, [1] while ownership of Southern's program archive is split between Ayling, Renown Pictures, EndemolShine Australia (formerly Southern Star Group) [2] and ITV Meridian.

Notable programs

• Worzel Gummidge
• The Famous Five
• Day by Day
• How
• Out of Town
• Freewheelers
• Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
• The Saturday Banana
• Runaround

External links

• Southern Television history site
• 1964 animated Southern logo from 625.uk.com (requires Adobe Flash Player version 6 or later)
• Second 1964 animated Southern logo from 625.uk.com
• 1969 animated Southern logo from 625.uk.com