Border Television

I agree that all Scots should be able to watch Hogmanay and other scottish national events which is one very good reason why Border should be split between existing regions.
However I doubt that Southern Scotland would be a viable region to have its own news programme, but theres no reason why Scotland today couldnt use the existing Border Scotland transmitters to have a 10 minute opt out for the south.

I personally think that Border should be split up. Where my family are in Cumbria, they can get both Granada and Border, and dispite the fact Border is generally their official region, they always watch Granda, along with most people in the area. Sky even changed the Sky boxes in the post code from Border to Granada last year.

I think Granada like claiming Cumbria as part as their patch, on the same lines of North Wales too, but South Cumbria rarely gets a mention, the Lake District gets a mention from time to time, but this is Border territory. When I stayed at the Lakes last year, at the Travelodge the ITV station was Border, which doesn't surprise me.

If it ain't broke, why fix it? Comes to mind for me, but considering they've merged the smaller sub-regions (ie Central South and Meridian West etc) I'm surprised Border hasn't fallen victim, it is one of the smallest ITV stations in the country. Although as their neighbour is STV I guess this cannot be done easily, now if ITV owned STV I'd have thought things would be rather different by now.

Indeed. If it wasn't for the issue of different ownership, I'm also sure that the Border region may well have been dispanded by now. But, clearly, ITVplc are not likely to be willing to hand over their only presence in one particular country (i.e. Scotland) on-a-plate, to essentially a "rival" media group (SMG/STV), unless perhaps they can get a really good price for it.

what do you mean For a Price? there own 17.5% of SMG don;t that

and that probably the % of viewer there would have in there area Borders Scotland so why not let them Have this area, ITV still get money form it!

Scotland today could do that 10 min opt out,there have it for
Edinburgh/east
Glasgow/west

Why not the South

By default, the Newcastle opt switch by virtue of it taking Caldbeck as its main programme feed. But there's something added to the Winter Hill feed - I've heard two theories, a cue dot in the overscan area and something added to the blanking line data - whilst Manchester's switch is set to opt and Douglas picks up on that and takes the Winter Hill feed.

We know that, but who owns the other 82.5% of SMG? I'm sure they would be a bit more relisiliant if they wanted to do such a thing, I can see SMG going down the UTV route by gaining more non-core Television services, there's no one else to buy up.

Realistically SMG are thinking more about increasing their value and then for it to be sold off at a later date, making ITV fully ran by one group. ITV Plc would only want to buy STV, they wouldn't want Virgin Radio etc as it isn't part of their core plan.

I cant see it making much difference to ITVplc if SMG take the Border Scotland area into thier patch, the only real difference in programming is news.
At the end of the day they should do what is best for thier viewers, and i reckon Scots would rather watch news from there own nation rather than from England.
Just the same as people in Cumbria and IOM, we have no affinity with places like Stranraer or Kelso, so why do we have to hear news from there?
Makes no sense at all...

Well I'm happy with the current set-up, and I live in Dumfries / Stirling. Border has been around since 1961, and Lookaround is a household name in the region. It remains one of the most popular regional news programmes in the country. I, for one, do not want my 'local' news coming from Glasgow nearly 100 miles away! Leave things as they are.

One thing that i would say in Borders defense is that they have always made a huge effort to have Scottish Newsreaders and Announcers. I don't think they will ever please everyone .

Maybe it's best if the English operation is merged with Tyne Tees and Granada, but the Scottish operation says as it is.

There isnt enough news from D&G and the Borders for them to have their own half hour news programme.