The ITV contractor for London on Monday to Friday, between 1968 and 1992, and providing about a third of programmes for the ITV network during that time. Originally owned jointly by Rediffusion Television and ABC Television, which became a division of EMI, Thames was floated on the stock exchange, becoming Thames Television plc, in c.1986. When it lost the ITV franchise, the company was bought by Pearson, then by Fremantle, a branch of RTL. Note that Thames is not connected to ITV plc.