ITV wants to axe some regional news services

Meridian's Bournemouth office used to be in Royal London House at the Lansdowne, opposite the college.

Should we expect a new set / titles when HTV West & Westcountry merge?

Probably not a new set but new titles for every region that is changing.

At least we'll get widescreen titles in westcountry! I think it's the only region still broadcasting the local news in 4:3.

I note that all the ''English' ITV Licenses were transferred to ITV Broadcasting Limited last month.

OFCOM - Television Broadcast Licensing Update November 2008

*as also noted 'next door'

Yes, well worth dumping all the staff, moving to a far poorer service, and creating the biggest geographic region just so you can an extra few pixels on your screen.

Well worth the wait to see mediocre pictures shot by the reporter instead of craft camera crew. I'm sure the framing, focus and field depth of quility craft pictures - even in 4:3 will be so well replaced by flat, uninteresting b roll (but in true 16:9 so thats alright then)

Looks like he left in late November 2008. I remember him being well-thought of, though obviously this doesn't matter now as various and rather woodern reporters are presenting the GMTV bulletins.

Apparently Kim Inglis, who has been at Tyne Tees since 1995, has taken voluntary redundency and will leave in December. After years of reporting and being a relief presenter.

Gary, you're so right.

It's very depressing to read some of the posts here.

It's as if some people who post here just don't get what the point of regional news actually is.

The point, for the benefit of the people who are only interested in the purely superficial aspects of broadcasting, is that the new structure for England and the Borders will mean far fewer stories that are directly relevant to the lives of the viewers - the very point of regional broadcasting.

And while some journalists can, with training, shoot acceptable enough pieces - and there's definitely a place for this in a mixed economy - without craft crews, quality inevitably suffers.

But, hey, what does that matter if there's a snazzy new titles sequence and we like the new astons.

Good presentation is nothing without good content. The best programmes, in all genres, are about both.

you got a link for this?

On the ITV jobs website, I've noticed that there's several vacancies in most of the regions for "Camera Services Tender (News)". For example, there's 9 vacancies in the Westcountry, 7 in Wales, and 6 at Tyne Tees.

eg:

"ITV South West is looking to appoint a high quality News camera service in order to provide camera services in support of its regional news programming. A number of one year contracts will be offered based in the following locations: • Bristol x 2 • Cornwall x 1 • Dorset x 1 • Exeter x 1 • Gloucester x 1 • Plymouth x 2 • Taunton x 1 These contracts will be offered at a daily rate of £270 and a maximum guarantee of 150 days work."

Source:

http://www.info.itvjobs.com/wd/plsql/wd_portal.list?p_web_site_id=204&p_function=map&p_title=Jobs%20in%20all%20regions

Given that they're advertising the vacancies, it looks like they're not planning to fill these vacancies with current staff.

It seems as though the new name for the merged West/Westcountry region will be "ITV South West", but the Tyne Tees/Border region is just referred to as "ITV Tyne Tees/Border".

She said it on Smooth Radio.

It could also be that current deals with agencies and other freelance/3rd party crews are being re-advertised - or the way newsgathering is covered is being made more uniform across the regions? (Way back in the early 90s Anglia and the BBC used a mix of staff and freelance/news agency crews certainly)

Not exactly stunning daily rates though (particularly if you are expected to provide and maintain kit as part of the £270/day) - and only an average of 3 days a week...

Wonder how T&D will be covered...