[Bluecortina]

It was floated in July 1986, Thorn EMI and BET retained significant shareholdings (more than they had intended) after then until Pearson took over. If you look at late 1980s programmes you will see it had become “Thames Television plc” at that point (though re-registration as a plc does not definitively indicate a stock market listing, it is a prequiste to doing so).

Yes, I see that now on Wiki etc - thank you for the clarification.