LONDON — Several American entertainment giants, including NBC, Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner's Home Box Office, emerged Wednesday as competitors in the multibillion-dollar bidding war for lucrative commercial television franchises in Britain.
The U.S. companies, all participating as part of consortia formed specifically to seek the 10-year Independent Television licenses, were among the dozens of entrants plunging into the murky waters of the British ITV franchising system.
Contestants angling for one of the 15 coveted regional franchises, or for the license to produce the national breakfast news program, were required to submit secret bids by Wednesday noon. Forty sealed offers were filed by the deadline.
Franchises will be award to the highest bidders--provided they first pass a somewhat vague "quality threshold" test. The quality assurance aspect was added to the rules after critics complained that selling the airwaves to the highest bidder was likely to result in heaps of low-budget programming.
Those submitting entries Wednesday had to file thick documents containing business and programming plans along with their secret bids.
Copies of the programming plans will be made public later this month. Then, around late July, the Independent Television Commission, the commercial TV regulating body, will decide who has passed the quality threshold. Finally, in October, the licenses will be awarded.
Although bidders have been obsessively secretive about financial information, industry analysts believe that the most prized ITV regions will command bids of about $700 million over the life of the licenses, which go into effect in 1993.
ITV, which is divided into regions that broadcast much of the same programming, is one of two commercial channels in Britain. The other, Channel 4, is not divided into franchises. The country's other two terrestrial channels, BBC1 and BBC2, are funded by the government.
While current franchise holders in three ITV regions found themselves filing uncontested bids, the grappling in other regions appears to be intense.
Both NBC Europe Inc. and a unit of Walt Disney Co. joined separate consortia in an attempt to capture the daily morning show slot. Breakfast TV in Britain, now produced by a company called TV-am, is not unlike NBC's "Today" show or its network rivals.
