11 Facts About Southern Television

Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981.

Southern Television ceased broadcasting on the morning of 1 January 1982 at 12:43am, after a review during the 1980 franchise round gave the contract to Television South.

Southern Television was the ninth ITA franchise to launch, beginning transmissions on 30 August 1958 at 5:30 pm with the first playing of Southern Rhapsody, the station theme which was used to begin each day's transmission until 31 December 1981, written by composer Richard Addinsell and performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with Addinsell himself conducting.

Southern Television produced a programme aimed at the farming community, presented by Mark Jenner, Farm Progress was broadcast at around 10:30 on Sunday mornings.

Southern Television produced the children's game show Runaround which was hosted by Mike Reid.

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Southern Television archive passed to Australian company Southern Star, which later sold it to Renown Pictures, which shows some of the content on its own channel Talking Pictures TV, including Southern soap opera Together, amongst other old film libraries that Renown owns.

Southern Television's logo is sometimes said to be a compass ; however, the general consensus is that it is a star, named after the Southern Star and because Southern Television's final transmission showed the logo zooming off into the night sky.

Applications from rival companies were competitive and Southern Television lost its franchise to Television South, a new consortium with fresh ideas and bold plans that were quite different from Southern Television's proposals.

Southern Television's failure was met with anger and disbelief by its board of directors.

Southern Television reluctantly agreed to lease its studios to TVS for the production of TVS programmes and then sell them back to TVS outright at the end of 1981.

Exactly 8 hours and 40 minutes later, Television South began broadcasting in Southern's former region.