ITV wants to axe some regional news services

Some people on the the Isle of Man can also pick up BBC NI and UTV if they point their aerials in the right direction, giving the potential for three regional news shows there of interest - BBC NW and ITV Border for the local news and BBC NI for in-depth TT coverage!

Short mention just then on Look North Leeds about job losses at YTV.

The intended merger of Westcountry & ITV West's regional programme was mentioned on BBC Spotlight tonight. I imagine they are revelling in the prospect of a boosted audience if we were to end up with a service from Bristol.

I think these new programmes should be an hour long and incorperate National News Stories.

Thought it would make more sense for Granada to merge with Border, since Cumbria is in north-west England? Although I suppose it's a copy of the BBC to do it the "proposed" way ^

The new opts will only exist till digital switchover.

BBC NE&C covered the Border story. Having spent quite a while working for Radio Cumbria and Border she seemed genuinely saddened by the probable loss of the company.

Border, understandably, were visibly incensed by the news. Can't say I blame them either.

I see. I wonder how much ITV will be able to get away with after digital s'over?

I think that region would be far too large to be effective. It would cover:

Greater Manchester
Merseyside
Lancashire
Cheshire
Cumbria
Isle of Man
North Wales (parts)
Derbyshire (north-western parts)

I think that is geographically too large. Granada is arguably already over-sized as it is.

Is it likely that North Wales will become part of ITV Wales?

Well, techincally I think it already is. At least the transmitters in Wales all carry Wales Tonight. The nearest one to me in Merseyside is Moel-y-Parc in North Wales (we can receive a pretty decent signal from it) so they are intended to watch Wales Tonight. However, the terrain prevents some people from receiving a good signal from it, and others just choose to watch Granada Reports, as they feel closer to us than Cardiff. Granada Reports does feature news from N. Wales as they recognise this.

Not strictly true, on the BBC channels, most relays on the Isle of Man normally re-broadcast the BBC signals from Caldbeck , but just before the opt-out times, they are switched over to those from Winter Hill. The reason for the switch is that the signal from Winter Hill goes over a much longer path over the sea, and is therefore less reliable (look at a map and you'll see the difference). There are some relays on the north of the island that can't see Winter Hill though and they therefore aren't switched.

There's a lot of confusion as to what will happen post switchover as officially its in the Border region and therefore gets switched next year, but the as higher power BBC DTT signals from Winter Hill won't happen until 2009, the newly-converted-to-DTT relays will struggle to get something and as they will be part of a multiplex and can't therefore be switched at opt-out time, will either have to be from Winter Hill and get the BBC's North West Tonight, or from Caldbeck and get BBC Look North from Newcastle.