The Newsroom

ITV wants to axe some regional news services

From 17 to 9 (September 2007)

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SP
Spencer
Steven O posted:
tvarksouthwest posted:
And like those in the Border area, South West viewers have always been very supportive of their local ITV station. Sacking or even reprimanding Julie Fisher - a well-liked local broadcaster, would lose ITV plc a lot of public support (if indeed they could possibly have any for wanting to axe a local news service that's existed in some form since 1961) and they already have most of the local MPs on their case.


Viewers supportive of Border?? Shocked

Perhaps they are, in Cumbria, but those out in the far-flung reaches of the region will no doubt be thinking differently. Even allowing for the Scottish opt-out, a typical edition of Lookaround will feature numerous reports from Cumbria and the Isle of Man, a handful from Dumfries & Galloway, and very few, if any, from the Scottish Borders. The fact is that Border's Scottish audience are very poorly served by the company, and deserve better.


I somehow don't think a combined service covering an area as far south as Selby is going to mean more Scottish border stories.

If they think it's bad now...
RJ
RJG
Which is why we need a guaranteed South of Scotland news opt-out from a Scotland-wide channel three service. Either that or have a Lothians, Fife and Borders opt from Edinburgh, using Craigkelly and Selkirk transmitters. Dumfries and Galloway, on that basis, could be served by an expanded STV West service. As I've said before, we should be able to have a local news service without losing out on general programming screened everywhere else in Scotland.
SO
Steven O
Spencer For Hire posted:
Steven O posted:
tvarksouthwest posted:
And like those in the Border area, South West viewers have always been very supportive of their local ITV station. Sacking or even reprimanding Julie Fisher - a well-liked local broadcaster, would lose ITV plc a lot of public support (if indeed they could possibly have any for wanting to axe a local news service that's existed in some form since 1961) and they already have most of the local MPs on their case.


Viewers supportive of Border?? Shocked

Perhaps they are, in Cumbria, but those out in the far-flung reaches of the region will no doubt be thinking differently. Even allowing for the Scottish opt-out, a typical edition of Lookaround will feature numerous reports from Cumbria and the Isle of Man, a handful from Dumfries & Galloway, and very few, if any, from the Scottish Borders. The fact is that Border's Scottish audience are very poorly served by the company, and deserve better.


I somehow don't think a combined service covering an area as far south as Selby is going to mean more Scottish border stories.

If they think it's bad now...


That's my main fear. ITV, for some reason, regard South Scotland as being part of England.
SP
Spencer
Steven O posted:
That's my main fear. ITV, for some reason, regard South Scotland as being part of England.


Just a bit of wild, unfounded speculation here...

I guess the chances of ITV simply handing the Scottish part of Border's transmission area over to STV are very slim, so I wonder if they may come to some kind of arrangement where by the area would receive Scotland Today, but ITV retains control of transmission, presentation and advertising sales.

The arrangement with Scotsport shows it's technically possible. Clearly STV would probably want some kind of payment, but to offset this, ITV would save the costs of reporters covering the area.
SO
Steven O
Spencer For Hire posted:
Steven O posted:
That's my main fear. ITV, for some reason, regard South Scotland as being part of England.


Just a bit of wild, unfounded speculation here...

I guess the chances of ITV simply handing the Scottish part of Border's transmission area over to STV are very slim, so I wonder if they may come to some kind of arrangement where by the area would receive Scotland Today, but ITV retains control of transmission, presentation and advertising sales.

The arrangement with Scotsport shows it's technically possible. Clearly STV would probably want some kind of payment, but to offset this, ITV would save the costs of reporters covering the area.


SMG at one point was considering offering its local programmes to the Scottish part of Border's area at no cost to them. Nothing seems to have come of this, though.
:-(
A former member
Spencer For Hire posted:

Just a bit of wild, unfounded speculation here...

I guess the chances of ITV simply handing the Scottish part of Border's transmission area over to STV are very slim, so I wonder if they may come to some kind of arrangement where by the area would receive Scotland Today, but ITV retains control of transmission, presentation and advertising sales.


jason, back on page 3 posted:

What I can possibly see happening is ITV paying STV to take over the news facilities of southern Scotland.


Great minds....

Under the circumstances, it's probably the best outcome that could be expected -- STV take over the news from Border Scotland, with TTTV taking the rest (mostly Cumbria).

I'd hate to see it happen, but if their minds are made up, I fear that the best viewers in the affected regions can hope for is for sensible carve-up decisions to be made.
NE
nezza
At this rate there will soon be two newsrooms. Granada will cover the whole of the north of england while Carlton will cover the south. I can hear the continuity announcement now:

"Your'e watching ITV1. Now the news for the North Of England live from Manchester in Granada Reports"

This is ridiculous
NG
noggin Founding member
nezza posted:
At this rate there will soon be two newsrooms. Granada will cover the whole of the north of england while Carlton will cover the south. I can hear the continuity announcement now:

"Your'e watching ITV1. Now the news for the North Of England live from Manchester in Granada Reports"

This is ridiculous


That might be optimistic... It could easily be :

"You're watching ITV1. Now the news for the North Of England live from a studio, next to the other one, in the basement of Grays Inn Road, in Granada Reports"
KE
kernow
There's a petition against the proposed cuts to itv regional news on the government's website, which TV forum members may want to sign:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveITVnews/
SH
Showbizguru
You would think,in the interests of fair play,there would be a petition in favour of regional TV news cuts.
I,for one,cannot stand too many more " Not much has happened today but we're going to have a jolly good try at bringing you Armegeddon from the Sticks. "
SO
Steven O
noggin posted:
nezza posted:
At this rate there will soon be two newsrooms. Granada will cover the whole of the north of england while Carlton will cover the south. I can hear the continuity announcement now:

"Your'e watching ITV1. Now the news for the North Of England live from Manchester in Granada Reports"

This is ridiculous


That might be optimistic... It could easily be :

"You're watching ITV1. Now the news for the North Of England live from a studio, next to the other one, in the basement of Grays Inn Road, in Granada Reports"


Actually, you're not far off the mark... the South edition of North East Tonight currently comes from a studio right next door to the one used for the North edition at the Tyne Tees studios in Gateshead!
ST
STVNews
Steven O posted:
noggin posted:
nezza posted:
At this rate there will soon be two newsrooms. Granada will cover the whole of the north of england while Carlton will cover the south. I can hear the continuity announcement now:

"Your'e watching ITV1. Now the news for the North Of England live from Manchester in Granada Reports"

This is ridiculous


That might be optimistic... It could easily be :

"You're watching ITV1. Now the news for the North Of England live from a studio, next to the other one, in the basement of Grays Inn Road, in Granada Reports"


Actually, you're not far off the mark... the South edition of North East Tonight currently comes from a studio right next door to the one used for the North edition at the Tyne Tees studios in Gateshead!
Isn't that the same case for Meridian and TVT at Whitely?

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