Wales Live (UTV, the current Channel 3 licence holder in Northern Ireland together with NWN Media Ltd – a regional newspaper print and publishing company)
Are they all being announced today because there's this little bit at the top of MediaGuardian which has more companies:
11.10am: Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror, Newsquest, UTV and PA among winners of contracts for ITV regional news pilots; ITN misses out. More details soon ...
Ooops, doesn't matter, just looked at the link above.
Not according to ITV's old CEO. He insisted that staff no longer to requirements would be got rid of. TUPE wouldn't apply as ITV itself was not transferring the contract. It was being done by a third party DCMS, so the service would be discontinued as far as ITV were concerned.
Not according to ITV's old CEO. He insisted that staff no longer to requirements would be got rid of. TUPE wouldn't apply as ITV itself was not transferring the contract. It was being done by a third party DCMS, so the service would be discontinued as far as ITV were concerned.
Wales Live, a partnership between UTV and Welsh company NWN Media, promises to have a studio in north Wales, at the local newspaper group's HQ at Mold in Swansea, with its radio partner, and is now talking with ITV Wales about using its main Cardiff studios.
[Michael} Wilson would not disclose how many of the ITV Wales news staff would transfer across to Wales Live under Tupe employee rights protection. But he said: "We intend to work with everyone, we know ITV Wales staff are well trained and skilled."
So TUPE is a factor.
Even without, 6 months is no time to set up a new news programme and they have a team of experienced and skilled staff ready in the studios they're hoping to take over. They won't be able to fill it with staff from Belfast, nor will a news team consisting of newspaper journalists be much good either.... they'll almost certainly take on the majority of ITV Wales news staff TUPE or not
JJ
jjne
I would imagine that a percentage of the staff will be ringfenced and the remainder made redundant in the usual way.
Of course the Conservatives have said that they will scrap the proposal. However if, as seems increasingly likely there is a hung parliament it's possible that they won't get round to stopping it in time, as whoever wins will be far too busy brokering deals with smaller parties to be bothered with repealing minor pieces of legislation.
Could possibly be good for North Wales coverage, but the whole way this thing has been done doesn't seem to be in the interest of anybody really.
Although though I have long favoured some kind of affiliate system with ITV (not licence fee funded though) in providing regional news and a set amount of local programming, I don't think this system is one that is suitable for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
If ITV aren't making the local news for Wales, they're not going to continue making local programmes either. I imagine they'll be requesting their commitment in Wales is scaled back to the same as in England ASAP.
They can ask, but whether they will get is a different matter. Is it really acceptable for Wales to have only one provider of English language non-news national programming?
They can ask, but whether they will get is a different matter. Is it really acceptable for Wales to have only one provider of English language non-news national programming?
That situation has applied in the South of Scotland since Border TV started in 1961, although during the "Border Scotland" years, there was a proportion of Scottish-interest programming shown, almost exclusively sport. Even that is no longer an option so the South of Scotland is, by default, in England in ITV terms. Again that's something that the ITA/IBA/OFCOM over the years have never really been concerned about. During the same decades they agonised long and hard over whether certain relay transmitters should be in the East or West Midlands.