Editing ITV Channel Television (section)

=== 1980s and 1990s ===
The new decade began with a new franchise round for the islands in which Channel was unopposed.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/> However, there was to be a change of franchise in the South West of England with Westward being replaced by [[Television South West]] (TSW), requiring a new agreement with TSW.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/> However, in 1986 Channel changed from whom it sourced its network feed, instead changing to [[Television South]] (TVS) which served the South and South East of England from [[Southampton]] and [[Maidstone]]. A side-effect of this change was a disruption to serials airing on the station in the afternoon due to the serial having begun on TVS at a different time to TSW so that they were at a different point through the serial's run. For instance, Channel had to miss over 100 episodes of ''[[The Young Doctors]]'', the first nine episodes of ''[[Prisoner (TV series)|Prisoner Cell Block H]]'' which had been screened on TVS in 1985, and it had to re-show 60 episodes of ''[[Sons and Daughters (Australian TV series)|Sons and Daughters]]'' as TVS was behind TSW. The new feed also meant that Channel simulcast TVS's [[Night Network|night time schedule]] following the launch of this programming area in 1988. Channel's night time schedule from that point onwards always simulcast the service seen on TVS and its successor [[ITV Meridian|Meridian]].

During this period, the station began to invest in technology. A local service for the [[ORACLE (teletext)|Oracle]] teletext service began in 1981, delivering local news and information.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/> Local news was also enhanced with the first underwater ENG camera, created for footage of a Roman shipwreck, and a year later with the introduction of a computerised newsroom, the first of the ITV regions to convert.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/>

In 1991, the station faced a new challenge: that of a new franchise round. Following the Broadcasting Act of the previous year, the allocation of regional franchises had changed to become a blind auction in which the franchise went to the highest bidder.<ref name="ITV 1991 Franchise">{{cite news|last=Wittstock|first=Melinda|title=Legal threats follow biggest ITV shake-up|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=hamlib&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=&docId=IF501890705&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|access-date=25 August 2013|newspaper=Times|date=17 October 1991|page=1}}</ref> This process was further complicated by a quality threshold, in which a higher bidder could be disqualified for having a poor business plan or if its high bid would result in a lack of funds for the programmes themselves.<ref name="ITV 1991 Franchise"/> In the franchise round, Channel bid £1,000 (the lowest bid accepted) and was out-bid by challenge consortium CI3.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/><ref name="ITV 1991 Franchise"/> CI3, formed in part of ex-Channel employees, bid £102,000, but was disqualified as it failed to pass the quality threshold.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Winners and Losers|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=hamlib&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=IF501890743&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|access-date=25 August 2013|newspaper=Times|date=17 October 1991|page=4}}</ref> Channel had won the right to continue broadcasting beyond 1993. As another consequence of the franchise round, Channel began local news broadcasts during breakfast time as part of [[GMTV]]'s new service.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/>

In 1996, Channel began a subtitling service for its local programmes.<ref name="ITV Channel TV History 50"/>