ITV wants to axe some regional news services

Sad to see Richard Bath leave. He's always been a very strong presenter - very competent and with a very warm and friendly on-screen manner. I remember him well from his London Plus days (when he presented the BBC London and South East news from Lime Grove - before Newsroom South East launched from Elstree) He also used to pop up on This Morning ISTR as well as present at ITN.

Does feel like an HTV West take-over doesn't it?

He is a nice chap, our company used him in 1995 to make presentations for us at the Montreux broadcast exhibition. A real pro, and a bloody nice guy to-boot.

Yeah he's a good presenter, but I suppose given the choice of Steve Scott or Richard, most people would prefer Steve. If Richard Lyddon was still the male presenter of The West Tonight, I reckon Richard Bath would have got the job.

It'll be interesting to see who presents on a Friday, as normally Steve is in London for ITV News.

Yes, it does seem like a HTV West take-over as the weather presenters will be HTV's Bob and Alex. Some Westcountry reporters have been kept on - Mark Tyler will be the sports guy which is well-deserved as hes been at Westcountry since the start. Seth Conway, Duncan Sleighthome and Jonathan Gibson are others.

I suppose some reporters didnt want to move out of the Plymouth area.

With the Westcountry studios closing, ITV is going to rent space in independant Two Four's rather nice building in Estover.

Im surprised that Steve has the main presenter job when he is often in London presenting the national news - especially at weekends.

Also ive seen Bob appear on Westcountry weather a few times now so I guess Peter and Kate will be leaving the weather team or possibly go freelance as ive seen them on HTV Wales a few times.

In view of the recent talks of collaboration between BBC and ITV for local news, I wonder whether ITV's Plymouth 'office' will ultimately end up renting some space in the Sutton Quay complex. No doubt that would make sense, and I suspect that in the current climate BBC South West may be rather lonely with their two floors in that building.

Yep - though it is interesting that although the BBC and ITV seem quite keen to pursue their "working together" approach to local news, the government are ultimately proposing that non-BBC regional news is outsourced (and broadcast on ITV - or C4 if ITV hand back their PSB licenses?)

The Western Morning News is claiming an untrained news assistant read the news on westcountry opt as so many staff are off sick or have left.

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/news/Westcountry-news-come-Bristol-new-faces/article-645397-detail/article.html

Tyne Tees feeling the pinch with sports reporter Simon O'Rourke appearing live on the North edition of North East Tonight and pre-recorded on the South edition last night - and tonight too by the looks of it. Another sports presenter must have left then..

When does this all happen February?

I saw the girls appearance on the opt out and she did quite well at her one attempt at being a news reader. I did record her but alas did not catch her name.

The local opt outs appear to have finished on Westcountry news now.

I think it's sad that the sub-opts on Westcountry Live are going to end, that was what made the show good, bringing news from closer to home rather than having stories dominated by Plymouth or Exeter.

With this and half the radio stations in the country rebranding to Heart and cutting local hours it just goes to show how **** up the broadcasting world is - we're always being told to buy local food, but when it comes to local media it's a whole different story.