Central News South Closure

Eh ?

Whether the new Thames Valley "region" get's its non-news regional programming from Birmingham or $hitely will depend on whether it ends up getting played out from the South Bank or Leeds.

Currently, all the Centrals have playout from Leeds and all the Meridians have it from the South Bank.

Clearly, Thames Valley needs to totally come from one or the other for the news programme technicalities to work.

If they choose Leeds for playout, then all the non-news will be Central's; if they choose the South Bank, then non-news will be Meridian's.

I might know which they've chosen, but the latest change to the terms and conditions means that I'm not allowed to tell you till about 19:30 on Tuesday when it will, effectively, become public knowledge.

I don't understand your third paragraph. Oxford can still be line fed from Leeds, and Hannington from London, with the Thames Valley News studio at Whitely feeding both playout centres as a remote source ?

I'm told that Oxford and Hannington will retain their present sub regional advertising, so there's another clue (perhaps).

Yes, I totally agree with your word "can".

However, a feed to both centres would be an additional ONGOING cost, compared to the ONE-OFF cost of changing the playout centre for either Oxford or Hannington. We're talking about itv plc here, so draw your own conclusions from information already in the public domain.

I agree with the second of your paragraphs I've quoted above.

Fair enough.

I can reveal that the new HTV West service from Ridge Hill is nothing more than an off air re-broadcast feed from Mendip. So 'cheap and cheerful' is certainly the concept implemented.

I can't help feeling, 'so what'? Would viewers be any happier if they knew their programmes came via a direct feed to Ridge Hill?

Some might during tropospheric lifts

BBC1, 2, and C4 often fall to bits from Hannington because the RBL link from Rowridge suffers co-channel interference in a lift. Line fed ITV remains steady as a rock (for those of us who have a robust enough signal that doesn't itself get directly affected by co-channel).

IMHO all analogue main transmitters should be line fed, but at least all DTT ones are.

Fair point, but essentially this is a temporary transmitter to provide ITV West to North Gloucestershire until DSO in less than five years' time. Keeping costs down would seem a reasonable thing to do in the circumstances.

A bombardment of questions now follows. I'd be grateful to any/all people who can provide any of the answers.
Thanks in advance

What exactly has been physically done in the Ridge Hill transmitter coverage area, to allow Herefordshire to now recieve one service whilst north Gloucestershire now recieves another?

Has, for example, a second transmitter (e.g. "Ridge Hill B" or whatever) been constructed? If so, is it, say, in the exact same field as the existing Ridge Hill transmitter, or somewhere else? Is it much smaller than the existing Ridge Hill transmitter, or about the same size? Is it called, say, "Ridge Hill B" (or similar), or has it got a totally non "Ridge Hill"-mentioning name?

Or is there a way of relaying two different services off the one existing Ridge Hill transmitter?

Also, do the physical transmitter changes affect both Analogue Terrestrial and Digital Terrestrial services in the exact same way (in terms of which regional news is broadcast in which county), or differently?

Finally, what about all non-terrestrial services (i.e. satellite and cable)? Aren't their ITV regions (and BBC, for that matter) based on postcodes? Have they bothered to make sure that ITV West is now assigned to north Gloucestershire postcodes, and ITV Central ( West ) to Herefordshire postcodes, or not?

I can't imagine viewers in either county gladly recieving the irrelevent ITV Thames Valley on, say, Sky channel 103!

Ridge Hill now carries an additional service on UHF Ch30 of HTV West.
This is beamed from a separate transmitting antenna (on the same mast) only towards the Gloucester and Cheltenham areas.

The existing ITV Central South service on Ch 25 will become Central West on Dec 4th, and will remain available to all viewers in Ridge Hill's area (just as BBC, C4 and C5)

None of Ridge Hill's relay stations will be changed to HTV West for ITV, they will remain with Central, as will DTT transmissions. However early next year Sky viewers in the Glou/Chelt area will have 103 changed to HTV West. (To match the BBC I think ?)

I'd have thought the clue would have been a previous posting stating that we now have two analogue feeds from Ridge Hill, one for ITV Central and one for ITV West.

They've just shown a compilation of Central South clips including 2 showings of the Central Cake and a Central South Theme Megamix. Lots of memories.

EDIT: Make that 3 showings, Ending with a Central Productions Cake at the very end.