Associated British Corporation (ABC Television, 1956-1968)
ABC Weekend TV (otherwise known as ABC Television and named as Associated British Corporation on the endcaps of later series of The Avengers) was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies, in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television, which was taking away their cinema audiences. In this case, the parent company was the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), which initially did not wish to become involved with the new broadcasting system, but was persuaded to do so by the Independent Television Authority (ITA) and the manager of its Pathé News subsidiary Howard Thomas, who became the new company's managing director. The Corporation agreed to assume the franchises to broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays to the Midlands and the North of England.
ABC began broadcasting in the Midlands on February 18, 1956. Soon afterwards, it was also up and running in the North; beginning broadcasting there for the first time on May 5, 1956.
In 1968, structural changes in the regional contract areas meant that ABC no longer had a contract to re-apply for. The Northern area (renamed Lancashire) became a seven-day operation, as did the Midlands. Existing weekday contractors (Granada and ATV respectively) were correctly considered the favourites. ABC consequently submitted two applications: one for the service for London at the weekend, the other for the Midlands seven-day operation, although it favoured the first contract.
It was expected that ABC would be awarded the weekend London licence, but the strength of another application (from the London Weekend Television consortium) ruled this out. This led to a situation where a successful company could be closed down through no fault of its own. To prevent this, the governing body of ITV, the Independent Television Authority, ordered a merger with the existing London weekday company Rediffusion, ABC having majority control of the new operation.
Despite protests from Rediffusion, the two companies eventually became Thames Television. ABC ceased weekend broadcasting in the North and Midlands regions on July 28, 1968, and resumed on July 30 in the London region as weekday company Thames.
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