[Steve in Pudsey]

They won't have aired them just because they "had" them, they'd still have had to pay for them to air. Even if they were schools programmes.

Remember prior to 1993 those programmes were all made for ITV Schools, with more regional input to boot as well, as to what was made. The companies had more input into the output as it were up until the end of the 1980s but they still owned those programmes.

Before 1993 the waters are muddied - Channel 4 was acting as effectively ITV2, that's why the Schools slot was branded as ITV Schools.