Headed for Change: 1980–82

Abstract

The phrase that was to echo down the decade for the IBA — ‘There must be a better way’ — spelt out the frustration of the man who had inherited responsibility for the turmoil in commercial television following the contract renewal process that had started in 1980, leading to the selection of companies to receive contracts for their regional franchise areas from 1982. The words were, surprisingly, not reliably attributed in writing until four and a half years after they were uttered. Then it was left to the man whose words they were to attribute them to himself.