It looks like itv local is being rolled out across the itv plc regions. Central and London have now been added, with the rest saying "coming soon".
It looks like west is going to be merged with westcountry. They've got separate sites at the moment, but on the westcountry site, it says "Westcountry and West of England" at the top.
Interestingly, STV is included on the map, but it doesn't link to anything.
Good to see itv invest in local television, however i'm slightly sceptical that this may be used as a way of losing all regional programming, bar news from itv1.
It looks like itv local is being rolled out across the itv plc regions. Central and London have now been added, with the rest saying "coming soon".
It looks like west is going to be merged with westcountry. They've got separate sites at the moment, but on the westcountry site, it says "Westcountry and West of England" at the top.
Interestingly, STV is included on the map, but it doesn't link to anything.
Just in case anyone isn't aware, stv has nothing whatsoever to do with ITV! (And as I write, references to stv have been removed from the map).
But in the wake of the recent upheaval of the board after the breakdown of talks with UTV (Northern Ireland doesn't even feature on the ITV Local map!), I'd be shocked if the new management didn't have plans to develop a similar sort of service to viewers in Scotland.
Allow me to digress for a wee bit...it is topic related!
Worth noting that the new board consists almost entirely of Scots put in by major shareholder Hanover Investments who have "done a Fidelity" with SMG and this group have specialised in turning around businesses that have over time lost their way. This, to put it mildly, is the position SMG finds itself in.
Once the sale of Primesight and Pearl and Dean is completed, they will only be left with Virgin Radio and stv. The new incumbents have already stated that part of their turnaround strategy involves appealing to their local advertisers by offering more in the way of regional programming - the exact opposite of what ITVplc appear to be doing!
What effect this will have in the long term I don't know, but it just has to be worth a try. Everything they've touched in recent years has turned to dust and offering more programming with appeal to the viewers within its patch just has to be a worthwhile experiment.
This brings us back fully on topic...
An stv Local type service would be the logical place to start. If it is well received by the natives of Central and Northern Scotland, then this could well be the road to revival for one of Scotland's most iconic companies.
It looks like west is going to be merged with westcountry. They've got separate sites at the moment, but on the westcountry site, it says "Westcountry and West of England" at the top.
It's just a feindish plot by Westcountry to increase their viewing figures by one.
It looks like itv local is being rolled out across the itv plc regions. Central and London have now been added, with the rest saying "coming soon".
It looks like west is going to be merged with westcountry. They've got separate sites at the moment, but on the westcountry site, it says "Westcountry and West of England" at the top.
Interestingly, STV is included on the map, but it doesn't link to anything.
Just in case anyone isn't aware, stv has nothing whatsoever to do with ITV! (And as I write, references to stv have been removed from the map).
But in the wake of the recent upheaval of the board after the breakdown of talks with UTV (Northern Ireland doesn't even feature on the ITV Local map!), I'd be shocked if the new management didn't have plans to develop a similar sort of service to viewers in Scotland.
Allow me to digress for a wee bit...it is topic related!
Worth noting that the new board consists almost entirely of Scots put in by major shareholder Hanover Investments who have "done a Fidelity" with SMG and this group have specialised in turning around businesses that have over time lost their way. This, to put it mildly, is the position SMG finds itself in.
Once the sale of Primesight and Pearl and Dean is completed, they will only be left with Virgin Radio and stv. The new incumbents have already stated that part of their turnaround strategy involves appealing to their local advertisers by offering more in the way of regional programming - the exact opposite of what ITVplc appear to be doing!
What effect this will have in the long term I don't know, but it just has to be worth a try. Everything they've touched in recent years has turned to dust and offering more programming with appeal to the viewers within its patch just has to be a worthwhile experiment.
This brings us back fully on topic...
An stv Local type service would be the logical place to start. If it is well received by the natives of Central and Northern Scotland, then this could well be the road to revival for one of Scotland's most iconic companies.
I am fully aware that STV has got nothing to do with ITV plc, although to say that it has got "nothing whatsoever to do with ITV" is not true. It is part of the ITV network.
I have also noticed that the Meridian region has been expanded to include the Central South region. It would have made more sense to have set up a Thames Valley website, given that the former Central South part of this news region receives still regional non-news programmes from Central.
Fantastic! ITV re-invent the wheel! It's still a piss-poor version of what they had FIVE years ago. Such a pitty there's BUGGER all local programming anymore. Colour me dis-interested.
Michael Grade has actually been making some very positive noises internally about the regional side of things lately. Of course whether it translates into anything is another matter but after three years of Charles Allen telling the regions they were doomed after switch off and would only be on ITV Local it's a big change.
(waits for thread to be started saying Grade is bringing back regional idents!)
Everything in this news item on Digital Spy looks positive for Mr Grade to re-introduce some sort of regionality to the network
[QUOTE]ITV has pledged to "sustain and even enhance" its regional presence.
Michael Grade, the broadcaster's new executive chairman, said that ITV's "strong regional presence is a greater asset than is recognised" and "is part of what binds ITV to its audiences thorought the UK and distinguishes us from our competitors."
Grade also pointed to growth in regional advertising compared to a "depressed national TV advertising market."
"We... believe that ITV's regional presence, an intrinsic part of the Company's history and identity, will increasingly be a point of difference and a competitive advantage as other commercial players will be unable to match our 'local' connection with viewers or our regional advertising opportunities."
Heritage regional broadcasting names such as LWT and HTV were dumped in October 2002 as part of a plan to unify ITV1 in preparation for multichannel competition.
