[Neil Jones]

Odd. I'd have thought the bids were already public knowledge (or at least out-in-the-open) - they were reported as such on the day of the 1991 results (i.e. TVS outbidding Meridian but losing, Grampian being outbid but winning etc.)

Not everything is public knowledge about them.
The winners and the losers and who went for what and where were published, sure, but the actual bids? Never published AFAIK and they're exempt under FOI. I know, because I put a request in a few years ago. Some other bits and pieces were dragged out over the years and FOI pulled other information out but I think there's a lot of undisclosed information.

The 'quality threshold' was a subjective evaluation by the ITC of the application submitted with the bid. The 'threshold' worked in one direction – high bidders could be disqualified for not reaching it, but low bidders could not be 'promoted' for having passed it. The ITC did not announce if the lower bidders had passed the threshold or not, and AFAIK that is still the case over 30 years later.

Anyway that entire franchise auction had had other issues and knock-on effects, so promising the earth and delivering nothing of the sort probably would be par for the course as it turned out...