ITV wants to axe some regional news services

Indeed they can, but I was responding to tvmercia's suggestion that only Welsh taxpayers contribute, which clearly isn't possible. Not that it really matters in view of the amount of money required in the grand scheme of things.

Well STV said there hoping to get the BBC Cash that the has been earmarked for Digital switchover so in 2012/2013 when it finished in Scotland there could get that fund?

maybe welsh can do the same?

I think they're going for the snappy 'Tyne, Tees and Border' amalgamation with ITV West and Westcountry becoming 'South West', although don't hold me to that. Personally I'd have stuck with the river theme and named it Tyne Tees Tweed (TTTTV ).

Yes, its very sad that the Tyne Tees name is likely to be scrapped mere weeks before its 50th birthday but let's face it, the region isn't even a pale shadow of its former self any more.

If they're going for things like 'ITV South West' for the combined Westcountry/West regions (as shown on NAT last night) then they should go the 'whole hog' and rename them all simply after geographical areas. It seems quite unreasonable to have certain areas with geographical names and others with traditional company names such as Granada, Anglia (although Anglia could just become 'East Anglia') and to a lesser extent Meridian (as it was never independent for very long).

However, I can't see the ITV executives willing to give up the Granada name easily, so it's going to look like a map of regions with very odd names unless Manchester and Liverpool have declared themselves to be part of Spain.

Don't forget there will be sub regions so its perfectly possible that there will be names like "ITV South West" but in the sub-regions they could easily go back to the old name just for that section. Granada is remaining unchanged but because Granada is ITV itself and its the name ITV use when making programming for other channels, I don't think they'll drop it and it will be the odd one out. But we'll just have to wait and see I suppose.

Or they could make Gaelic programmes and " sell " them to BBC Alba.. They could earn cash that way.

So what does this mean for YTV Viewers, as I know that the subregions will merge together and become one News service but does this mean the end of the Calendar name to something like "ITV Yorkshire News" or is YTV keeping the name Calendar which these changes being made.

A map from Media Guardian which shows the changing structure of the regions:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/interactive/2008/sep/26/itv.tvnews

As discussed, the obvious major issue is Border - the only way I can see around it is Granada taking up the English area and STV the Scottish part, with Tyne Tees just a merger of North and South.

Further down and Yorkshire becomes a bit of an awkward shapes region, while I didn't realise how big Anglia was.

Thames Valley seems to have been a pointless incarnation, but I think a tenth region merges Thames and ITV West, with then Meridian just handling the South East Coast and Westcountry the South West would be better than the ITV plans.

I can't imagine viewers in Lincolnshire being happy about "Yorkshire News" so it's entirely plausible that the somewhat neutral Calendar name would be kept.

going by itv's decsions recently i think regional sensitivities have well and truly gone out of the window.

i'd imagine as staff, especially management disappear in the regions, the voices tempering and feeding back local sensitivities will be well and truly drowned out by the decision makers in itv towers in london.

It means nothing, it's only one poster's idea that they would change names of regions that are not merging. A suggestion that has been suggested every year since this forum was created, let's not end up spending all the time discussing something which 'knowing them will probably happen' rather than something that actually is happening.

The shape of the YTV region will be the same as it always has been, just no sub-opts

That's not quite right, Andrew. The size and shape of the Yorkshire region has changed many times over the years, so to say it will be "the same as it's always been" doesn't really define anything.

From the rather crude map on MediaGuardian it looks as though an area around Scunthorpe* with swap from Central East back to Yorkshire next year.

*Ridiculous swear filter, I'm sure everyone knows which town south of the Humber I mean!