Mercia Weekend Television
From Network Six Wiki
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Mercia Weekend Television was the Network Six franchise operator for the Midlands weekends between November 2005 and May 2006, and subject to certain circumstances, split into various companies and primarily exists as an independent production company. It was the last non-London weekend franchise before they were abolished by the Network in May 2006.
History
Between November 2005 and April 2006, Mercia was operated by CoastPark, along with its second franchise, Clydern Television. In April 2006, CoastPark reached a deal with Emoa Television to purchase the Borders franchise, however due to Network restrictions at the time, were forced to sell Mercia in exchange for the Borders franchise, later TVB. After successfully aquiring the North East England franchise, Emoa purchased Mercia's broadcast facilities from CoastPark, however did not recieve Mercia's production department as part of the deal. The two companies co-existed as Emoa Mercia Broadcasting Ltd and Mercia Television Ltd, with the former managing the playout, regional news production and general operations of the channel, and the CoastPark-owned Mercia continuing to produce content for the channel. As a response, Emoa branding was rolled out onto the channel alongside the Mercia name.
Network regulations were later changed in May 2006, and as a concequence Mercia ceased broadcasting at 6am, on Monday 22 May 2006. Neighbouring weekday broadcaster, Spectrum Television, was later expanded to cover Mercia's timeshare from May 26. Mercia, the CoastPark Plc-owned production company, continued to exist after the demise of the franchise. Emoa Mercia Broadcasting Ltd was later merged with the holding company of Emoa's original company, Emoa Borders Ltd, creating EMB Ltd, owning all regional news archives for the two former franchises.
Revival
In the 2009 franchise round, Emoa Mercia made a bid for the 7-day licence, and successfully won the franchise in February. The new station, now to undergo the name Mercia Television, will not feature "emoa" branding as per its predecessor and will solely be branded as "Mercia".
