10 Facts About TV-am

TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992.

TV-am was spearheaded by the "Famous Five" who were not only lined up as presenters on the station, but were shareholders: Michael Parkinson, David Frost, Angela Rippon, Anna Ford and Robert Kee.

TV-am's weekend show presented by Michael Parkinson initially became the only success for the station, largely because the BBC did not broadcast on weekend mornings.

TV-am was close to having it's power supply disconnected – a London Electricity official arrived during a press conference with a warrant to cut off power for non-payment.

In September 1983, TV-am finally joined the Television contractors associations, which gave the addition benefit of providing cross-promotional content between the 15 regional ITV companies and TV-am.

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The night before the terrorist attack, TV-am only had one crew covering the conference and that had been called back to London the previous night to cover a train crash in Wembley.

TV-am's response was limited to a caption of reporter John Stapleton reporting over the phone, while the BBC were showing graphic coverage of the attack.

TV-am believed that the ease of use of modern broadcasting equipment meant that staffing levels could be reduced: ENG crews would no longer require a separate lighting technician, and technical personnel could be virtually eliminated.

The TV-am lettering built into the fascia of the building was obscured – by being covered with discs – but were still partially visible until they were completely removed during further renovations in spring 2012.

Archive of TV-am programmes made between 1983 and 1992 was taken over by Moving Image Communications Ltd, which recruited AP Archive as exclusive licensor of the TV-am footage library.