TIE Ltd

blank line

TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISES LTD (TIE Ltd)

London-based Television International Enterprises Limited (T.I.E. Ltd) (incorporated in June 1959), its sales subsidiary, T.I.E. (Programmes) Ltd, and other associated companies was an international television programme distribution organisation that was responsible for marketing programmes on behalf of the BBC and other programme makers, and distributing film prints to those countries for which it was an agent. Doctor Who was just one of many programmes for which it had a contract to promote and sell.

Print ad for TIE Ltd; from WRTH 1966

Print ad for TIE Ltd; from WRTH 1969

Print ad for TIE Ltd; from WRTH 1972

TIE Ltd had exclusive rights to distribute to the countries and regions that it served, which meant that when they discontinued selling BBC programmes to those markets in the mid-1970s the BBC could not step in and market to them directly. This in part explains why sales and distribution of the later William Hartnell serials and complete run of Patrick Troughton stories dropped significantly during the late 1960s and into the 1970s - did TIE Ltd find it difficult to sell the science fiction series, and removed it from its catalogue? If so, this would explain why the markets that picked up the first and second Hartnell seasons did not take up any of the later seasons, because the BBC was unable to "go behind TIE's back" and sell the series themselves.

DISTRIBUTION CENTRES

TIE Ltd had a number of subsidiary companies with sales offices around the world – such as TIE States Ltd, operating out of New York City; TIE (Europe) Ltd, which had offices in Geneva, Paris and Amsterdam; and TIE (Sales) Ltd's Middle East office was in Beirut, Lebanon.

In a BBC memo dated 7 July 1965, TIE is recorded as purchasing "prints for showing in Gibraltar, Aden, Trinidad, and Bermuda". The stories sold were the first five, up to and including The Keys of Marinus. What's not clear is whether there were four sets of the 26 episodes (ie 104 prints in total), or one single set of the 26 that was to be shared. (Of note, Bermuda is not named as having TIE (Programmes) Ltd as a "purchasing agent" in any of the print ads for TIE featured here; did TIE cease acting as the purchasing agent for Bermuda TV after 1965?)

The price recorded for this "sale" to TIE was £75 per print – but the total paid was only £1,587/2/11 (in pre-decimal currency); whether you calculate using 26 or 104 it does not compute! (£75 x 26 = £1,950; £75 x 104 = £7,800. Was £1,587/2/11 perhaps a 'deposit' payment, with the balance to be paid later?)

The very fact that there is not any overlap in the airdates for these four countries, does suggest that there were not four prints in use; in our Bicycling Chains table, we've assumed there would be more than one set in circulation, as later sales to other TIE countries would have to be taken into consideration when planning future bicycling of the film prints.

On the assumption that TIE (Programmes) Ltd circulated one or two sets of prints within each region or continent, some of the following countries might have shared the same prints of Doctor Who:

Merger announcement, Variety 29 May 1974

Africa

• Gibraltar *
• Kenya
• Mauritius
• Sierra Leone
• Ethiopia

(*Although strictly speaking part of Europe, Gibraltar may have fallen under the category of "Africa")

Caribbean

• Trinidad & Tobago
• Jamaica
• Barbados (until 1970 only)
• Bermuda (until 1965 only?)

Middle East

• Federation of South Arabia (Aden)
• Saudi Arabia
• Abu Dhabi (after 1972)

Our attempts at tabulating some of these regional circulation paths can be seen on the Bicycling Chains page

Of course, there's no certainty that films were always circulated in this manner. Given that there isn't any cross-over of the airdates within each territory, and in most cases the gap between screenings is usually only a matter of a few weeks apart - which is plenty of time for the films to be shipped between countries to meet the known airdates – there is good reason to assume there was indeed movement of the same sets of prints between some of these countries in the mid-to-late 1960s.

In May 1974, TIE Ltd merged with another London-based international TV distributor, Lane Blackwell Limited; the joint-venture becoming TIE-Blackwell Ltd. But less than one year later, in February 1975, this co-venture ended. Lane Blackwell went back to distributing programmes on a solo basis, while TIE Ltd called it quits and began closing its offices and global distribution centres, or restructuring some of its concerns: for instance, TIE (Europe) Ltd was renamed TIE (Fiji) Ltd in December 1976.

Any film prints these regional offices may have had would have been disposed of in the usual manner.

Links

• Main Page
• Broadcasts around the World
• Articles & Analysis
• BBC Records
• Doctors