I think something definitely needs to be done. ITV Border and the Lookaround brand are definitely dying a death. ITV Border always had a large task of appeasing viewers from 4 separate regions - Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Cumbria and the Isle of Man.
The current editorial region for Lookaround is now smaller than that. Since 2009, the Isle of Man switched to the Granada region leaving a core area on the mainland which is basically the majority of Cumbria (South Cumbria is Granada), a tiny bit of North Northumberland, Dumfries & Galloway, a tiny bit of SW Ayrshire and the Scottish Borders.
When did south Cumbria go back to Granada? What transmitter we talking about?
None of the South Cumbria transmitters which were switched to Border in the early 80s (amidst a lot of local protest) have been reallocated back to Granada.
:-(
A former member
Cheers for that,
Just to check: what actully transmitter are we on about? I believe only Kendal was switched over in 1982?
The transmitters which were switched to Border from Granada in 1982 were Kendal, Windermere, Coniston, Hawkshead, Sedbergh and Grasmere. All had previously been relays of Winter Hill. At the same time the transmitters at Todmorden, Walsden, Walsden South and Cornholme were reallocated from Granada to Yorkshire TV.
At home, we get Tyne Tees and Look North NE&C on Freeview - Newcastle is 100 miles away. To be honest, nobody in my family would care that the news is about a place so far away, because the main stuff is just as interesting if it's here or in Newcastle, and the same is true with the fluff. That's how my parents can end up watching and getting interested in Granada Reports if they've left it on ITV HD at 6 o'clock.
If we want truly local news, we have a local newspaper.
I think that's kind of true. Here on the North Wales border over the years we've had Central, Granada and HTV as our main channel and generally speaking Central is based around Birmingham, Granada around Liverpool, Manchester and the surrounding towns/cities and HTV/ITV/BBC Wales all lean to Cardiff, Swansea and the South. I guess this is one reason Jeremy Hunt was pushing "local" TV but in reality the areas getting new local stations are the areas that already get prominence in the regional news programmes anyway.
I love the last part to that statement that 'Lookaround is more popular than the comparable services in Scotland' I wonder who they surveyed for that??
Presumably they're talking viewing figures.
So if two sheep watch the BBC and four sheep watch look around.. ( while ten sheep just dont watch either) that make it good?
In the mid-80s it was said that there were more sheep than viewers in Border TV's area - approximately 6.26 sheep to every viewer. Remember at that time the Border TV region took in most of Cumbria, the Isle of Man, Dumfries & Galloway, the Ballantrae and Pinwherry areas of Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders, Berwick-upon-Tweed and the area around Haltwhistle in Northumberland; the Berwick area transferred to Tyne Tees in December 2006 and the Isle of Man to Granada in July 2009.
I love the last part to that statement that 'Lookaround is more popular than the comparable services in Scotland'
I wonder who they surveyed for that??
It's a true statement though (certainly for southern Scotland). Although only 15 mins opt - There is still 5 mins minimum usually Borders/South Scotland News... Which is still more than Reporting Scotland ever do. A bit of bad weather couple times a year an extended report that's about it... Cameron Buttle, South Scotland Reporter on RS must have an easy life!
All of the ITV Regions News services really need looking at again, not just Southern Scotland! As for Southern Scotland, it should be Ofcom should be stating what happens, not ITV/STV or any other. I personally feel STV should broadcast to the whole of Scotland (with certain conditions for Southern Scotland), whether ITV Plc like it or not. ITV Wales should be run as a separate entity to the English ITV regions too with separate Announcers and Idents (at least stating ITV Wales). This would make sure the other Home Nations and The Channel Islands have their own separate 'National' TV services.
As for the English regions, I feel the News (and other Regional programming) services could (should) at least serve to the following...(LIVE News programming please too!)
ITV News London.
ITV News Meridian.
ITV News Westcountry. (Probably produced at ITV's Bristol Studios).
ITV News West.
ITV News Central West.
ITV News Central East. (Central is offically a 'Dual' Region, Probably produced at ITV's Central Studios in Birmingham).
ITV News Anglia.
ITV News Granada.
ITV News Yorkshire.
ITV News Tyne Tees & Border. (exc. Southern Scotland which would now be STV's, one 30 minute programme).
* Therefore there would be 12 Regional News programmes produced by ITV plc (including ITV Wales and ITV Channel Islands). I would propose that the old ITV Thames Valley region should be split between ITV Meridian, ITV Central West and ITV Central East regions. All the old 'Real' Regions (except the now split Border) would have their own News Service again...with just a bit more investment from ITV.
CF
CatsFast101
People forget as well the service in Tyne Tees isn't good either! 3 programmes merged to create 1 in Tyne Tees and Border. That's Tyne Tees North, Tyne Tees South & Border.
I think:-
>Give STV the Socttish Borders & Dumfries and Galloway.
>Then 'Tyne Tees' would cover the current Tyne Tees plus Non-Scottish parts of the Border
>I would then keep the 8-6 minute opts that Anglia, Calendar & Central have.
>North: Cumbria & Northumberland.
>South: North Yorkshire, Teesside, County Durham & Tyne & Wear.