Wales West and North Television

Teledu Cymru -- Wales (West and North) Television - WWN was the British 'Independent Television' (commercial television) contractor awarded the "North and West Wales" franchise area for 1962-1968 (franchise awarded June 6, 1961, started transmissions on September 14, 1962, ceased transmissions through financial failure January 26, 1964 when the franchise area was combined with the "South Wales and West of England" area operated by TWW).

The geography of Wales presented a daunting problem to the ITA. The populous area of Wales was served by TWW which had started broadcasting in 1958, while the northeast of the country and much of the north coast was served by the North of England franchise operated since 1956 by Granada Television and ABC Television, but the interior of north Wales could not receive ITV transmissions at all. The ITA was pressured by a consortium of Welsh-speaking businessmen into setting up a new North and West Wales region; the ITA asked the Postmaster General to allow this, which he did with strict provisos: the new service must not offer viewers in Wales a choice other viewers did not have, and at the last minute, the Postmaster General insisted that the new station should on its own produce 10 hours a week of programmes in Welsh without relying on Welsh language programmes produced by Granada and TWW.

These punitive regulations were accepted, and the contract was awarded in 1961 to Wales Television Limited, which was later changed to Wales (West and North) Television Limited following objections from TWW which felt that the original name was intruding on their area, although WWN dropped the parenthesis at every possible opportunity. WWN was to use three VHF transmitters, at Preseli (covering the south west), Arfon (north west) and Moel-y-Parc in the north east. When the Preseli transmitter came online on September 14, 1962, so did WWN. Things couldn't last -- the delay in introducing the Arfon and Moel-y-Parc transmitters until later in 1963 destroyed the morale and the finances of WWN. Free programming from the ITV network, plus other support from its neighbours ABC, ATV and TWW just about kept the ship afloat, but Granada decided to dispense with its productions in the Welsh language, and the loss of this valuable programming stream proved fatal to WWN.

TWW offered a generous package to WWN's shareholders in order to gain control of the territory, and kept the Teledu Cymru name on the air for four years after the demise of its parent company on January 26, 1964.