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Latest proposals for ITV

OFCOM seeking views on more regions, less regional news (February 2013)

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BR
Brekkie
Was going to add a poll but doesn't look like we can do them now, but essentially in their latest consultation (i.e. trying to rubber stamp what ITV suggested) it looks like OFCOM are pushing the idea of more regions, but with less news. Wales would become a separate franchise, while the number of English regions increases to 14 - but with cuts in obligations such as just three minutes of news at lunchtime and five minutes at the weekend.

So do we think less news is an acceptable trade off for more regions (i.e. rewinding the clock 4-5 years), or is keeping things as they are now with fewer regions but longer bulletins the best way forward for local news?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a460609/itv-network-to-boost-regional-news-create-wales-licence.html
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/c3-c5-obligations/annexes/itvs-proposals.pdf

The Border issue is covered in depth in the other thread but with a new Wales franchise finally being created I don't see why OFCOM are afraid to put it on the market, especially considering the local TV franchise rounds have attracted quite a bit of interest. I don't see how it harms viewers at all seeing what other companies might have to offer should they become the ITV broadcaster in Wales, and it would also force ITV to up their game and commit to more than the basics in order to hold on to the licence. It is effectively a new licence after all, and IMO whenever ITV ask for change to their licence conditions which benefit them more than the viewers OFCOM should be looking at what other companies would do if they held the licence.


And I still don't understand how all these thousands of people complain to OFCOM all the time - I'm struggling to find the relevent consultation at all on the OFCOM website.
CR
Critique
If the new Wales franchise actually happens, could ITV not win the bid, and we see an STV/UTV style region there?
BR
Brekkie
If OFCOM put them to auction as they should yes, but they won't.

Also worth noting that though ITV are saying they'll increase the number of regions they're not really - all these shows will still come from the existing set up with one pre-recorded beforehand. They're basically offering a 20 minute local opt instead of 6-15 minutes.

Minutage wise I'd meet ITV half way - three minute is too short for lunchtime, but 4m30s is probably enough, though two minutes shorter than now. For the 6pm shows and other regional content in primetime I think OFCOM would be wise to offer an incentive - any ads within regional programmes wouldn't count towards their primetime quota, so rather than airing 20 minutes of regional news each region offers the 30 minutes, but these can include ads. I guess though they need to consider how C4 and C5 would feel about that - perhaps moving the start of the primetime quota to 6.30pm would get around that.
LL
London Lite Founding member
If it means ITV News London has a more fast paced news agenda (like the old LNN era) instead of the constant padding using interviews, then it's a thumbs up from me.

In most main urban areas, the ITV News regional bulletins will receive added competition from local tv. Some won't work clearly, but others such as in London and Birmingham may give the stale ITV regional news format a much needed desire for change, in particular in coverage to areas outside the main urban areas who receive a city centric bulletin currently.
MK
Mr Kite
I don't get the Welsh franchise, unless the idea is that ITVplc will no longer run it. If anything, there may as well be one England, Wales, Channel Islands and Southern Scotland franchise, as there seems to be no intention of ever retendering them.

As for the news, is sounds good for the regions that saw their subregions (or even entire regions for Border & Westcountry) cut a few years back. Now, they're going to get their subregions back but with a shortened amount of time. Granada and London will see a cut to what they have already. Of course, this is all creep, creep, creep which will eventually lead to no regional news. After this, the next stage will be remove the subregions once again. Then they will propose reinstating them again but with get shorter airtime. The cycle will continue until they disappear altogether.
DV
DVB Cornwall
Jusrt wondering IF there were to be a credible alternative for each of the three changed regions, South West, Wales and Border whether the decision to award the CHANGED regions to ITV Broadcasting could be challenged in court?
AN
Andrew Founding member
I wonder how this 'out of region' content will work. Will it just be content from the other half of the sub-region, or from another region, will both sub regions necessarilly feature the same out of region content?

How much content will there be available without it being tenuous, particularly for the likes of Granada who only have one sub-region.

In the case of Calendar, I think there is no need to change what we've got now. A completely separate programme with many of the same stories to avoid people feeling cut off (as mentioned in ITV's report and obviously refering to the complaints people air about Look North Hull) seems a waste of time. There is no history of there being a full split programme here, unlike Central and Westcountry/West which are obviously more of a priority to reinstate.
RI
Richard
I don't get the Welsh franchise, unless the idea is that ITVplc will no longer run it. .


I think it is primarily a tidying up exercise, essentially moving the west of England part of the franchise in with the south-west franchise.

It may also make sense to move the Thames Valley part of the Central franchise formally into the Meridian franchise, as its news comes from there anyway.
RD
RDJ
It may also make sense to move the Thames Valley part of the Central franchise formally into the Meridian franchise, as its news comes from there anyway.


Technically that aspect is a little more difficult. Because The Thames Valley part of Meridian and the Central South part of Central have the same whole advertising region, regardless of what News service they receive.

So it makes sense for it to be Central as, if I'm not mistaken, do Meridian Thames Valley viewers still receive the Central political programme 'The Lobby' or are they with Meridian now?
MA
Markymark
RDJ posted:
It may also make sense to move the Thames Valley part of the Central franchise formally into the Meridian franchise, as its news comes from there anyway.


Technically that aspect is a little more difficult. Because The Thames Valley part of Meridian and the Central South part of Central have the same whole advertising region, regardless of what News service they receive.

So it makes sense for it to be Central as, if I'm not mistaken, do Meridian Thames Valley viewers still receive the Central political programme 'The Lobby' or are they with Meridian now?


The Hannington half of 'Meridian Thames Valley' (in other words the original 'Meridian North [1]' sub region
that ran from Jan 1st 1993, until the middle of the 00s) has never received Central regional programming,
only the Oxford TX half. Although for a while Freesat mappings for the whole region used the Oxford/Cen
version, because the Hann/Mer stream was encrypted.

To answer your question though, I don't know, I've got a feeling Oxford is tied to Central for all non news progs still ?

[1] Internally called Meridian West, I don't know why ?
BU
buster
Oxford gets Meridian's programming - during the Thames Valley years they retained having Central output, but at the end of 2008 when all non-news ceased apart from that monthly debate programme it was switched to take Meridian's The Last Word to match the fact they'd be receiving Meridian from that February.

They are however still counted as part of the Central region for advertising...meaning there can be some quite huge jumps in terms of local references when going from ads breaks to local news!

14 days later

RI
Rijowhi
I'm really not a fan of the idea of 10 minutes 'Out Of Area' coverage (that's what the National News is for). Maybe Ofcom could state that each Evening programme should be 15 minutes Sub-Regional and 15 minutes Pan-Regional (this applies to the Meridian*, Central, Anglia, Yorkshire areas where there are sub-regions). As for the other original ITV franchise areas of London, Granada, West, Westcountry, Border and Tyne Tees programmes, I feel these programmes should be for the full 30 minutes as they have no opt-outs (London and Granada would continue to be as at present). As for the other Regional News bulletins, they seem realistic enough and better focused than present.

I think the Current Affairs/Political programme that is being proposed for the Border area is a good idea, though would like to see Ofcom state this should happen for all the Pan-Regions (London, Meridian, West/Westcountry, Central, Anglia, Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees, Border).

* Surely the former Thames Valley sub-region should get it's own programme back too, not be a 10 minute opt-out of Meridian South?

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