[Neil Jones]

I don't disagree with any of this. I was simply making the point that the BBC's comment was a gross misrepresentation of the reason for the rejection of the TSW bid. As you say, they didn't need to do anything "special", they - just like every other bidder - only had to pass the quality threshold and bid the highest. That was the end of it - especially where smaller franchises were concerned, where any idea of "special circumstances" was almost meaningless.

Thats why I never understood Granada's attitude either, bidding low and assuming the competition would be ruled out because Granada - pure arrogance. If NWTV had been half-way decent - bye bye Granada.

Well as I say its pure conjecture as to what would have happened had TSW bid lower, it still doesn't guarantee they'd have won. The language of the BBC would probably have been the same for the losing company regardless of who won that region.

The whole process was flawed from the outset anyway so...