ITV wants to axe some regional news services

The contents aren't the same. They've got their own different versions of The Westcountry Tonight, and the other sections have got different contents as well (for example, the "more from itv local" in the "local news" section)

Is the local weather still in line with the old regions, or is it now one forecast for each new region?

I see what you mean, but it would be better in my view if they merged the two into South West. And when you click on News you have the option of choosing the West or Westcountry opt-out.

Fitting inline with what Meridian & Thames Valley does. Though their options are called South and South East, inline with the opt-outs.

In Anglia West the weather report was for the west of the region only. So I assume there was an East version.

Becky Jago is presenting separate news programmes in Anglia for East & West. I wonder which one is live?

Do any of the late bulletins need to be? I thought it was agreed they could pre record bulletins from now on.

From what I've seen from both versions it's just one weather forecast that incorporates Westcountry and West.

During the evening news the forecast covered the whole of the South West (but with the map moving to show each region), but after News at Ten it just covered the old HTV region.


http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/both.jpg

http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/west.jpg

http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/westcountry.jpg

I'm surprised they went for The West Country Tonight, which doesn't really apply to Bath and Bristol surely.

A good article on Media Guardian explaining what has changed and when - strange quite a few regions have opted for a Thursday. I also didn't know Calendar South had been around just two years, so even shorter than Thames Valley I guess.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/feb/16/seventeen-regions-into-nine-itv-news


I know the question of whether they're news or magazine programmes has cropped up frequently here, and IMO with these new super regions it would probably best for some regions to drop the generic news branding and relaunch the programmes as regional news magazines again, just with a news insert from the relevant sub-region. I think it's far easier to get away with passing off a feature as local than it is a news story.

Why not? They've always traditionally been considered to be part of the West Country.

If this Wikipedia article is to be believed, it's a fairly accurate description of the new transmission area.

I don't know if it's been mentioned in the thread, but I've just found out from reading that article that Calendar North presenters Duncan Wood and Christine Talbot will present the merged North/South programme. With Calendar South pesenters John Shires and Gaynor Barnes redundant.

My mistake then - I've always thought of it as further south, mainly the Devon/Cornwall area.