I try and avoid the news when Andrew is on tbh - I dont like him much.
Whats happened to all of our local programmes next week? Apart from Soccer Sunday, Waterfront and which are both regulars on a Sunday and of course the HTV News, there are only a handful of programmes.
Nothing at all Mon-Wed and then Mr HTV's antiques programme at 2.30pm on Thurs, The Ferret at 7.30pm on Thurs and Shap Endat 10.30pm on Thurs and Witches Brew on Friday. Barely enough to make the 10 hours of local programmes for Wales.
No details on the site yet, still to be scheduled -- but it's bound to be on a Sunday, and I'll be watching as I love the place.
This 10 hours a week fluctuates though. I think it's based on 3650 hours a year or summat. So some weeks they'll be under-quota and some weeks over. Remember some weeks it's been mentioned, "Oh there's a lot of regional HTV programmes this week.." All swings and roundabouts I think.
Been away for a couple of days so just read through the last few pages of the thread and I see that the old North v South ( or should it be Gog v Hwntw ) debate has been raised again. As a Welsh speaking south Walien valleys boy, with family roots in Pembrokeshire, Lleyn Peninsula and Anglesey, and now living and working in north east Wales (which seems to be north west England dominated, especially in press, tv and radio), I feel I must add my thoughts to this.
Why do we have to bicker amongst ourselves, Wales is a small beautiful country with just under a 3 million population ( and in some places a lot of the population are from outside Wales). We should be proud of all 4 corners of Wales and each area can offer something different ( it would be a boring place otherwise). I know most of the stuff said is only banter ( and I'm guilty of that myself) however one of Wales' and the Welsh's biggest downfalls through history is the constant "mistrust" and bicker between areas. Its not just north v south, it can be valley v valley or town v town or even chapel v chapel!! The latest rugby issues are just a futher example of area v area. Remember the old saying UNITED WE STAND DEVIDED WE FALL, so lets be proud of good old Cymru Fach before we start to loose certain areas.
Anyway back to the main topic:- WELSH TV and its presentation, and here's one to get the ball rolling. Do you agree or dissagree with me on this one.
With the advent of anologue tv closing down ( therefore enabling CH4 and S4C to be viewed by all), ITV becoming less of a regional channel, would it not be better to make S4C Digidol a truely Welsh Channel i.e. a channel broadcasting programmes in Welsh and also broadcasting programmes in English ( made by independents, BBC Wales, HTV and any other company which wishes to do so) that have a Welsh interest., rather than struggle to fill its schedule with just Welsh language programmes. I believe this "new" channel would have a very strong programme schedule as you would be showing the best of BBC 1 Wales, 2W and HTV. It would also please the viewers who currently complain when a regional programme is shown in place of a network proramme. It would also attract Welsh ex-pats living in other countries as you would have a channel from Wales for Wales and programmes that would be of interest.
Discuss
I think that S4C should stay a Welsh-language only channel, well its main channel should do so anyway as that's what it was set up for. Insead, they should focus more on quality rather than quantity and cut down on the number of repeats, some childrens' programmes seem to be repeated up to three times a day which is ridiculous.
Carole Green did a report from the Colwyn Bay newsroom tonight - it looked like a broom cupboard!
Do people know how big the Newtown studio is?
And another thing - had anyone noticed that Jonathan hardly ever does his turn on the late HTV bulletin. e.g this week Juliet has done Tues, Wed and is now doing tonights which is at 11.40pm. Ruth Wignell did Mondays though. And Ruth is also on the weather today. And Juliet has also done most, if not all of the 3pm bulletins this week. Its the same when its Lucy on the 6pm bulletin with Jonathan - she does most of the late night bulletins when someone extra like Ruth isnt brought in.
I don't get their choice of Colwyn Bay -- it's just a little seaside town. Surely Llandudno would be better? It's a bit bigger. Or isn't Mold enough? Colwyn Bay can't be more than 50 miles from Mold. They need somewhere over on the NW, like Pwllheli or something -- or Bangor. Just cos the BBC are there, doesn't mean HTV can't be.
Justina Simpson is never in vision when she does reports for HTV, she just seems to voice them all.
And a small observation on the BBC -- Wales Today have started using their own clock during the morning bulletins with Breakfast -- don't think anywhere else does this. It's similar to the main Breakfast clock, but opaque and longer, a different red, and I think a slightly different font. And it's up a bit, I noticed it jump back down to the Breakfast one after Jayne said bye.
Don't see the point personally -- though if they take a clock, it should match the national one, so it looks better.
I guess some of the reporters have to move around a lot - Carole Green was up in Colwyn Bay reporting tonight yet she was in Cardiff reading the news at the weekend.
IIRC, HTV did have a centre in Bangor which was used throughout the 70's/80's and early 90's ( I think it was near to the former Glan Pub), but I believe they closed the Bangor office down when they opened the Colwyn Bay office ( a building they share with 96.3 Coast FM).
Ive just checked and Carole Green *is* the reporter based in Colwyn Bay - so why on the weekends do they sometimes bring her all the way to Cardiff to read the HTV News?
[Ho ho ho.. etc]