[JMT1985]

I sometimes wonder if they picked January 1 1993 because it fell on a Friday.  If both companies for London lost their licence that would have seen the new companies go both on air on the same day, one at midnight and the other at 5:15.

Although of course its more likely it just happened to start on a Friday, after all the ones from 1982 started on a Friday too (the 1968 franchises started on a Monday)

They didn't have much of a choice, as the date Jan 1st 1993 was set down a decade before with the Jan 1st 1982 new franchise launch, and they decided to have a full decade inclusive, meaning using all of 1992 before the new franchise period started.