The 1980 ITV franchise auction

Sorry but your off the mark here TVS early days was all about " Local interest theme or upmarket and focused towards niche or specific audiences" You have also remember TVS and LWT/thames weren't happy about the offerings from the other ITV stations and would opt out or move stuff around to better suit their needs. It was around 1985/86 when TVS started to move away from that market ( to be fair did still do some shows in that remit) and increase its mass-market popular entertainment show taylor more for the southern english viewers which helped LWT aswell.

EDIT
Grampian TOOK much more network content than STV but still made local made programmes, but half the time took STV stuff.

I'm well aware of what TVS was offering in it's early days but remember this is referring to 1983 when TVS had been broadcasting for only a year. Viewers were still getting used to the change in the franchise and change in the output so there is inertia to overcome.

The Economist articles mentioned that the IBA were considering a weekday/weekend split for the Midlands. Would that have been a backwards step?

I would've thought, if anything, that splitting the Midlands East/West would've been better than reintroducing weekday/weekend.

Yes, literally ! It was how the region was 1956 to 68 ! (ATV Weekdays, ABC Weekends !)

Perhaps they were trying to find a way for ATV to remain in some capacity?

Hmm, I dunno. They seemed pretty upset that ATV seemingly weren't that bothered about the East Midlands in particular and that they made stuff at Elstree as opposed to within the region. Things could have been so different but realistically where could one draw the line to split the region? and would such a small region actually have been plausible? Technically possible I suppose yes, but practical?

There could have given The Belmont Transmitter to that new company so Derbyshire, Notts, Lincolnshire, leicestershire and maybe
a reply for Northamptonshire. Of course there would sheffield to YTV, Its all if and bits.

Adding Belmont to Waltham to make a free standing E Mids region might have worked. The problem is in and around South Yorkshire and Sheffield where Belmont is used ( for technical reasons) They could have added the Sheffield (Crosspool) relay in too, but that would have split the city, as Emley is used there by many ( mind you so is Bilsdale !)

Depends whether or not South Yorkshire folk think of themselves as north Midlanders or south northerners !

It would have been a mess whichever way. South Yorkshire might have felt aggrieved of being bolted on to East Midlands.

As regards ATV. The IBA might have given the West Midlands to ATV and the East to a new franchise. Don't know about the South though

We South Yorkshire folk are Yorkshire

They could have given London Weekend to ATV considering the mess made of things during the 70s.

Only their first few years of LWT were a mess (and two of them were in the 60s of course), by the end of the 70s they were highly successful