This is a timeline of the British breakfast television stationTV-am which provided theITV nationwide breakfast-time service from 1983 to 1992.

• 1980
  • 24 January – TheIndependent Broadcasting Authority announces that in the next ITV franchising round it will offer a national licence for breakfast television.
  • 28 December – TheIBA announces thatTV-am has been awarded the contract to provide ITV with a breakfast television service. It beat off seven other bids for the franchise, to begin transmission in June 1983^[1] so as to avoid clashing with the launch ofChannel 4 which went on air in November 1982.

• 1981
  • March – TV-am chooses as its studios a former car showroom which is renovated to create theBreakfast Television Centre.^[2]

• 1982
  • No events.

• 1983
  • 1 February – TV-am launches on ITV withDaybreak andGood Morning Britain. It is beaten to air by two weeks by the BBC's breakfast serviceBreakfast Time. The service operates seven days a week between 6am to 9:15am.
  • 28 February – TV-am cuts itsDaybreak programme to thirty minutes, allowingGood Morning Britain to begin half an hour earlier at 6:30am. OriginalDaybreak presentersRobert Kee andAngela Rippon are both replaced with Gavin Scott (weekdays) and Lynda Barry (weekends).^[3][4]
  • 18 March – Amid falling ratings and mounting pressure from investors,Peter Jay steps down as TV-am's Chief Executive allowingJonathan Aitken to take on the role.^[5][6][7]
  • 1 April –Roland Rat makes his first appearance on TV-am.^[8] Created by David Claridge and launched by TV-am Children's editorAnne Wood to entertain younger viewers during the Easter holidays.^[9][10] Roland is generally regarded as TV-am's saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship".^[11]
  • 12 April – Timothy Aitken succeeds his cousin Jonathan as Chief Executive of TV-am due to theIBA rules regarding MPs operating a television station.^[12]
  • 19 April –Angela Rippon andAnna Ford are axed from TV-am.^[13]
  • 29 April –Michael Parkinson is appointed to TV-am's board of directors.^[14]
  • April –Greg Dyke joins as Editor-in-Chief.
  • May – The 10-minute interval between the end of TV-am and the start of the regional ITV franchises at 9:25am ends because the switch of the broadcast signals from TV-am to each regional ITV franchise becomes an automatic process and the IBA extended TV-am's hours to 9:25am to allow for continuous programming.
  • 23 May – TV-am's new look starts.^[15]Daybreak is axed, withGood Morning Britain now the sole weekday programme, beginning at 6:25am. Commander David Philpott is moved to present the weather at the weekends only withWincey Willis becoming the new weekday weather presenter.^[16]
  • June –Nick Owen andAnne Diamond start joint-presentingGood Morning Britain.
  • August – TV-am has a ratings success when they employChris Tarrant to host a series of outside broadcasts from seaside resorts across the UK.

• 1984
  • Australian business tycoonKerry Packer takes a substantial minority interest in the company and in early May he appoints his own Chief Executive,Bruce Gyngell, to help make the company financially viable.Greg Dyke leaves with a few weeks of the appointment to take a new position withTVS.^[17] Ten days later, general manager Michael Moor also left the station.^[18]
  • 12 October – The cost-cutting at TV-am is brought sharply into focus in its coverage of theBrighton hotel bombing. The night before the terrorist attack, TV-am sent the production team home as it could not afford to pay for hotel rooms. When the blast occurred in the early hours, the BBC andITN provided immediate coverage. TV-am's response was limited to a caption of reporterJohn Stapleton reporting over the phone.^[19]Trade union agreements at the time meant that technical staff at the local ITV stationTVS could not provide cover for another commercial television company and TV-am's previous conflicts with ITN meant that the latter would not share its footage. The whole affair earned the company a severe rebuke from the IBA who told the company to invest and improve its news coverage or it would lose its licence.
  • 13 October – The first edition of children's programmeWide Awake Club is broadcast. It replacesData Run andRub-a-Dub-Tub. Also cancelled is Summertime fillerSPLAT. The change is part of the cost-cutting programme.

• 1985
  • 3 January – TV-am expands its broadcasting hours. Weekday programmes begin ten minutes earlier during the week at 6:15am^[20] and weekend programmes begin at 6:55am. Programming on bank holidays starts at 7am.
  • 14 September –Wide Awake Club is extended and now runs for two hours, from 7:30am until 9:25am.
  • 3 October –Roland Rat transfers to theBBC. Commenting on the move, he says, "I saved TV-am and now I'm here to save the BBC."^[21]
  • October – Following Roland Rat's move to the BBC, TV-am launches a new children's programme, a spin-off fromWide Awake Club calledWacaday.

• 1986
  • August – After more than three years, the presenting partnership ofNick Owen andAnne Diamond ends when Nick leaves TV-am forITV Sport.^[22]

• 1987
  • For a short period in 1987, prior to the start of 24-hour broadcasting onITV, a selection of teletext pages were broadcast in-vision prior to the start ofTV-am. These pages mostly consisted of news and information about TV-am.
  • July – TV-am reintroduces a weekday news programme,GMB Newshour, airing initially from the start of programmes until 7am.Good Morning Britain now airs between 7am and 9am.
  • 7 September – TV-am recommences broadcasting each day from 6am. This is the first time since its launch in 1983 that TV-am has transmitted throughout its allocated broadcast hours.
  • 23 November – The TV-am strike begins after members of the technicians union theACTT walk out in a dispute over the station's ‘Caring Christmas Campaign’. What is meant to be a 24-hour stoppage continues for several months when staff are locked out by Managing DirectorBruce Gyngell. TV-am is unable to broadcastGood Morning Britain, the regular format is replaced with shows such asFlipper,Batman andHappy Days.
  • 7 December – A skeleton service that sees non-technical staff operating cameras and Gyngell himself directing proceedings, begin to allowGood Morning Britain to start broadcasting again. To begin with TV-am is able to switch from airing 100% pre-recorded material with the introduction of a 30-minute live segment each morning presented byAnne Diamond.^[23]
  • 14 December – TV-am extends its live broadcasting to an hour a day.^[23]

• 1988
  • 14 January – Talks between TV-am's management and the ACTT begin aimed at resolving the ongoing strike.^[23]
  • 25–29 January –TV-am airs a week of live broadcasts fromSydney to celebrateAustralia's bicentenary and featuredAnne Diamond andMike Morris.^[23]
  • 1 February
    • TV-am celebrates its fifth birthday, with Anne Diamond joined byRichard Keys,Gyles Brandreth,Su Pollard andJimmy Greaves. It is the first time TV-am has been able to get its daily output down to an hour of pre-recorded material since the beginning of the strike. However, the station continues to air imports of old US shows for several months.^[23]
    • The deadline on which the ACTT must accept TV-am's "Ten Point Plan" aimed at resolving the strike. However, the plan is rejected by a ballot and the union refuses to resume negotiations.^[23]
  • 16 February – TV-am Managing Director Bruce Gyngell sacks the station's locked out staff and calls a meeting of its remaining employees the following morning to announce that the ACTT will never again organise itself at TV-am's studios. His decision fails to resolve the crisis, however, as picketing continues and the quality of its output remains unchanged.^[23]
  • 30 May – TV-am does not go on air, with its airtime instead taken up by coverage of ITV'sTelethon '88. The ACTT had asked its members to boycott the programme on this date and fearful of sparking a nationwide dispute, TV-am's acting Managing Director, Adrian Moore, allows ITV to use the early morning airtime.^[23]
  • July – Stephen Barden is appointed TV-am's new Managing Editor. With the station facing criticism from theIBA over the quality of its output, he acts quickly to improve matters. Repeats of imported US programmes finally come to an end, while new programming launches and programmes such asFrost on Sunday (off air since the strike began) are restored.^[23]
  • 19 August – Following concerns about the quality of TV-am's programming, an emergency meeting of theIBA considers whether to review the station's franchise in early 1989. However, it is ultimately decided not to proceed with the review since thenext franchise round is approaching and the IBA feels the success of both organisations is mutually exclusive.^[23]
  • 1 November – Having decided to step down from her presenting role on TV-am, Anne Diamond makes her final regular appearance on the station.^[23]
  • GMB Newshour is relaunched asThe Morning Programme.

• 1989
  • April –Wide Awake Club is relaunched as WAC 90.

• 1990
  • June –WAC 90 ends and is replaced byHey, Hey, it's Saturday!.

• 1991
  • September – Children's programmeHey, Hey, it's Saturday! is axed. It is replaced the following week byTV Mayhem.
  • October – TV-am looks to branch out into radio when it bids with Virgin Communications Ltd to operate the UK's secondIndependent National Radio station.
  • 16 October – The ITC announces the results of the franchise round. Following theBroadcasting Act 1990, the ITC had to conduct a franchise auction whereby contracts would be given to the highest bidder, subject to fulfilling a programming ‘quality threshold.’TV-am loses the national breakfast television franchise to Sunrise Television, later to be known as GMTV, owing to its not being the highest bidder.
  • November – Following the loss of its franchise, TV-am scraps all of its original children's programming, replacing it with cartoons aired under the brandingCartoon World.

• 1992
  • February – Ahead of the loss of its franchise, TV-am closes its in-house news service and contracts it out toSky News for a one-off payment. Other original programming, especially children's programming, is wound down ahead of the end of the company's franchise.
  • April – Independent Music Radio, the consortium which TV-am is a part, is awarded the secondIndependent National Radio licence.^[24]
  • June –David Frost leaves. His final interviewee isMargaret Thatcher whose legislation was responsible for TV-am losing its licence.
  • 18 December – Ahead of TV-am's closure, the final edition ofAfter Nine is aired.
  • 31 December – At 9:25am, TV-am ends its final broadcast after 9 years and 10 months on the air.

• 1993
  • 1 January – TV-am's successor GMTV begins broadcasting at 6am.
  • March – TV-am sells its stake in forthcoming national commercial radio stationVirgin 1215^[25] toApax Partners,JP Morgan Investment Corporation andSir David Frost.^[26][27]
  • August – TV-am plc becomes Crockfords plc, since 1995 known as Capital Corporation Ltd, a gambling company which is currently non-trading.

• Timeline of breakfast television in the United Kingdom
• History of ITV

• Television in the United Kingdom by year
• ITV timelines

• Articles with short description
• Short description with empty Wikidata description