Editing Television Wales and the West (section)

===Franchise loss===
Partly because its regional programming was so well regarded it came as a great shock when TWW lost its franchise in the 1967 franchise review, in favour of the [[ITV Wales & West|Harlech Consortium]], whose bid promised a glittering future of star-filled entertainment and quality documentaries.

No reason was given for the dismissal (as is common practice for franchise changes) but it was believed that TWW's decision to keep its corporate headquarters in London and not move them to within the region was a significant factor. A darker explanation proffered at the time was that it was "government revenge" against the broadcaster's major shareholder the ''[[News of the World]]'' newspaper, which had printed a series of critical articles about the then [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Harold Wilson]]. This does appear unlikely as although the ITA was answerable to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] it was a wholly independent body.

Despite there being many months left on the contract, TWW quit its franchise early in protest, selling the last five months to Harlech for £500,000 even though the new company was not yet ready to start broadcasting at the time. Following the intervention of the [[Independent Television Authority|ITA]], a temporary service was set up — [[Independent Television Service for Wales and the West]], broadcasting from the old TWW Pontcanna studios in Cardiff, and staffed by former TWW workers, until Harlech (soon renamed "[[ITV Wales & West|HTV]]") was ready to take over its franchise early, on 20 May 1968.