Regular programmes produced by Southern Television included the regional news magazine Day by Day, presented by Cliff Michelmore, Christopher Peacock, Barry Westwood, Peter Clark, and long-serving weather forecaster Trevor Baker; Out of Town, a countryside programme introduced by Jack Hargreaves, who would later join Southern Television's board of directors; How, a children's science programme also featuring Hargreaves along with Fred Dinenage, Bunty James (later replaced by Marian Davies) and Jon Miller; Freewheelers, a children's spy series; Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years and Worzel Gummidge, starring Jon Pertwee as the eponymous walking scarecrow.

Houseparty was a magazine show made in the style of a fly on the wall observation of participants' daily get-togethers, with regular guests including Cherry Marshall.

[4] Generally, the company produced more networked children's programmes than shows for adults, scoring a particularly strong seller internationally with an adaptation of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five.

With the advent of colour in 1969, the company moved to purpose-built new studios next door to the existing site, built on land reclaimed from the River Itchen.

During Southern's tenure as the ITV franchise broadcaster, the company strived to produce dedicated opt outs for the east of the region – the first British television service of its kind.

Dover-based presenters and reporters included Mike Field, Jeff Thomas, Malcolm Mitchell, Tim Brinton, Simon Theobalds, Arnie Wilson, Jill Cochrane, Derek Williamson, Pat Sloman, David Haigh (editor of Scene South East), Donald Dougall and Mike Fuller.

Unique in ITV and reflecting the area's maritime history the company converted a Second World War motor torpedo boat into a floating outside broadcasting unit named Southerner.

Southern Television's first identity featured an art deco style star which zoomed into screen before the bottom point extended downwards with varying tones.

This ident, occasionally supplemented by a subsequent caption stating, 'The Station that serves the South', lasted until the company ceased transmission in 1982.

In addition to these idents, a clock was used featuring a blue background and Southern legend, and for introducing links between programmes, in-vision continuity was utilised often.

[10] Although the IBA gave its standard reason for its decision that the competitor offered greater investment and a better mix of programmes, it was suggested the station's non-local ownership may have swayed the balance against it.

TVS was forced to use portable office buildings (popularly known as Portakabins, a brand name) in Southern's car park as a temporary measure until its day of broadcast on 1st January 1982.

The handover was tinged with acrimony on behalf of Southern's management, which appeared to take its anger at the decision out on TVS rather than the IBA, who made the actual choice.

In Southern Television's final productions, Day by Yesterday, And It's Goodbye From Us,[12] a song was featured, composed and performed by Richard Stilgoe, deriding the incoming TVS as "Portakabin TV" and mocking TVS for choosing Maidstone as a production base in the newly enlarged dual region—despite the fact that Southern Television itself had already purchased a site at Vinters Park in Maidstone for a planned studio complex, which it would have built had it retained its franchise.

The programme closed with a medley of songs sung by Lillian Watson and performed by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta under conductor Owain Arwel Hughes.

So, with a final farewell smile from those Southern people who've become to many of you, true friends, it's goodbye from us.Afterwards, the camera panned to show many of the on-air talent and company executives standing solemnly as their names were displayed on-screen and the "Southern Fantasia" (composed especially for the show by Jonathan Burton, and performed earlier on in the programme) was played in the final two minutes.

When the piece came to a climactic end, the lights on the set were gradually turned off, for the last time, fading to the Southern Television Colour Production slide which dissolved into the station's logo, spinning away into an animated starry sky.

The acoustic guitar jingle played for what would be the final time with a deep extended echo, and the screen slowly and silently faded to black, remaining that way for close to a minute.