Wales West and North Television
Wales Television, known on screen as Teledu Cymru and often abbreviated to WWN, was the Welsh "Independent Television" contractor awarded the franchise area serving North and West Wales, from 1962. It began transmitting on 14 September 1962, and ceased on 26 January 1964 through financial failure; the franchise area was soon combined with the South Wales and West of England area, operated by TWW. TWW retained the Teledu Cymru name in the former WWN franchise area, as did successor Harlech during their emergency transitional franchise, only retiring the name when they were able to officially take over.
History
The geography of Wales presented a daunting problem to the Independent Television Authority. The populous area of Wales in the South were already being served by TWW, which had begun broadcasting in 1958, while the north-east of the country and much of the north coast was served by the North of England weekday and weekend franchise holders, Granada and ABC, operating since 1956; 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 programming choice other viewers did not have, and at the last minute, the Postmaster General insisted that the new station should, on its own, produce ten-hours-a-week of programmes in Welsh, without relying on Welsh-language programmes produced by Granada, ABC and TWW.
These restrictions were accepted, and the contract was awarded in 1961 to Wales Television Limited, which was later changed to Wales Television Limited, following objections from TWW who felt that the original name was intruding on their area. The ITA used three VHF transmitters to broadcast Teledu Cymru; located at Preseli, Arfon and Moel-y-Parc in the north east. Teledu Cymru launched with the Preseli transmitter on 14 September 1962; making it the 17th and final ITA franchise to launch. However, the delay in introducing the transmitters at Arfon and Moel-y-Parc, 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 Manchester's Granada Television decided to stop making programmes in Welsh, and the loss of this valuable programming stream proved fatal to WWN. Local productions ceased in May 1963 and the station's studios were reduced to a small master control until WWN could find a successor.
TWW offered a generous package to WWN's shareholders to acquire their service, and WWN closed on 26 January 1964 and its studio was shuttered. With the guidance of WWN employees retained by TWW, the Teledu Cymru name was retained, and the new Teledu Cymru was granted a transmitter in the South of Wales. WWN would be the last television service in Wales to broadcast in Welsh during primetime, until the launch of S4C in 1982.
TWW successor Harlech also retained the Teledu Cymru name when TWW's early termination of service forced them to run an emergency transitional franchise, only retiring the name when their own franchise officially started.