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Grade calls for simplified ITV regional structure

(June 2007)

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BS
brotherton sands
Gee, I didn't think the whole Plymouth + Bristol thing would get such a scathing reaction.

The reason why I thought it might be "not unfeasible" is because the current Westcountry and current ITV West regions are physically rather smaller than many other regions.

Yes, Lands End to Gloucester is a long way. But so is, say, Ross-on-Wye to The Potteries, yet nobody here's p*ssing and moaning about the size of the West Midlands telly region.

Funny how nobody jumped down my throat about the scrapping of Central, Anglia (etc) sub-regions, despite that fact that such a move would make those regions alarmingly big (like Bristol + Plymouth would be) too. Confused People on this forum seem to have "selective" standards.

My point was that, if (and, let's face it, it's purely a hypothesis) ITVplc did want to scrap sub-regions - and therefore would be implying that things like, say, the East Midlands or Mid-Anglia are deemed not significant enough to be stand-alone regions in their view - then I bet the seemingly not-particularly-news-rich "West of England" may well be similarly regarded by ITVplc. Hence they might want to merge it with another region.

I only said it seemed "less unfeasible" than other mergers, I never said anything like it was "very likely" etc. And it is only an opinion. Could people round here please learn how to beg-to-differ without "getting their backs up" in the process? Rolling Eyes
BS
brotherton sands
HTV Best posted:
Imagine If we got local news from Essex and Suffolk in Bristol/Somerset - oh i forgot those in South Somerset do if they pick up Meridian!


Er, Essex/Suffolk is Anglia, not Meridian! Meridian SE might well stretch into tiny bits of Essex, but the only Meridian that South Somerset viewers are likely to pick up is Merdian S, not SE! Rolling Eyes
TV
tvarksouthwest
brotherton sands posted:
Gee, I didn't think the whole Plymouth + Bristol thing would get such a scathing reaction.

The reason why I thought it might be "not unfeasible" is because the current Westcountry and current ITV West regions are physically rather smaller than many other regions.

Strangely enough, an absorption of the Bristol area into the Westward franchise was exactly what Peter Cadbury wanted. Peter was from Bristol and wanted to increase his franchise area to include his home town. Before 1981, it was not uncommon for Westward Diary to mention what was happening in the Shepton Mallet area and events happening in the same area were also advertised.

All that seemed to stop in 1982, whereas for the viewers, TSW was Westward in all but name.
BR
Brekkie
So how many regions are there now then, including the sub-regions, and how many of these sub-regions have their own local news programme?
:-(
A former member
Brekkie Boy posted:
So how many regions are there now then, including the sub-regions, and how many of these sub-regions have their own local news programme?


FINLNLAY!

I have heard that the area there 5 sub regions so there about
Centrel East
Thames vally
Yorkshire north
What the other two?
21 News rooms
:-(
A former member
We've been through this one before I think....

TTTV North / South
YTV East/South/Leeds
Central East/West
Anglia East/West
Border/Border Scotland (taped opt only)
Meridian South/South East (+Thames Valley)
Westcountry short opts (4 of)
HTV West, Wales, Granada, London, CTV, UTV are all single region.
Not sure about STV/Grampian...
RS
Reg Shaw
brotherton sands posted:
Yes, Lands End to Gloucester is a long way. But so is, say, Ross-on-Wye to The Potteries, yet nobody here's p*ssing and moaning about the size of the West Midlands telly region.


Ross-on-Wye -> Burslem: 104 miles, 1h 52m

Gloucester -> Land's End: 232 miles, 4h 11m

Hardly a good comparison there, Mr Sands.
:-(
A former member
STV areas:
both have there own news but there a 5mins slot in both to 2 different area
TE
tesandco Founding member
Most likely if they're simplifying regions, it'll just mean creating more Thames Valley setups in the short term where they can get away with it (ie merging two adjacent region's subregions into one). That way they're getting rid of one of the operations overall, whilst at the same time being able to cover it under a big shiny blitz of glory about how they're ultra regional as they're creating new regions. The latter will of course have Ofcom ticking all the boxes too. Razz

I can't imagine they'll be getting permission to do things any more radical at least until 2012, not because Ofcom are overly bothered, but more because the government's whole switchoff plan would be hopeless if no-one actually knew what region they were in any more. At present this is nothing more than Grade chucking out a few statements to convince shareholders he's going to make them even more money!
:-(
A former member
Having said that, Bristol to Plymouth is not all that much further than Plymouth to Penzance.....

The Westcountry region is very long and sparse. To suggest merging it in with Bristol is a bit like merging Cumbria with Manchester -- fine in principle, but the viewers in the "sticks" would lose out greatly as all the murders and other nasties that inevitably swamp a big city push out the generally gentler stories from the rural area.

I am just not in favour of reducing the number of regions period. I'd be more in favour in fact of smaller regions, with a 15-minute bulletin instead of 30, broadcast twice a night instead of just once.
JE
Jez Founding member
cwathen posted:
Quote:
The only two regions that I think ITVplc would even remotely consider possibly merging would be Bristol + Plymouth. Anything like, say, Tyne Tees + Calendar, or London + Anglia sounds very unfeasible to me.

How exactly is merging HTV West and Westcountry more feasible than any of the other mergers you mention?

As I've said, the existing Westcountry region allready serves a culturally gigantic area - I personally feel that it's too big as it is. Allready there are two major cities fighting for coverage which usually comes at the expense of everything else (when I was little I knew more about what was going on in Plymouth than I did in the town in which I lived - or even the county in which I lived - because TSW could be so Devon-centric). You *seriously* want to throw Bristol into the ring as well and make them fight against the comparitive minows of Plymouth and Exeter? Where on earth are the smaller towns (and where is Cornwall in general) going to fit in under this regime?

The 4-way sub-regional news is Westcountry's USP - it's the only thing that they have done better than their predecessor, and now that the station is all but dead it's fitting that it's the only thing which still survives so that people remember what they achieved in their short time. I like to think that if Westcountry managed to exist independently for a few more years that they would eventually have moved to at least two, and possibly three, full split programmes (anchored from Plymouth, Exeter, and Truro respectively).

Moving back to a pan-regional Westcountry region would be a huge retrograde step. Merging it in with another region, creating a new super-region in which viewers in Penzance get the same regional news as viewers in Minehead and Littlesea (not that anything happening in any of those towns would ever get reported, as Plymouth, Exeter and Bristol would all have to fight for coverage in the same bulletin) is unthinkable.

The country DOES NOT stop at Bristol - the pointy bit is no less deserving of a proper regional news service than is any of the other unfeasible mergers you mention.


Westcountry might be a huge region geographically but it isnt that big in population is it?

I dont agree with merging West and Westcountry however. Bristol and surrounding area is big enough to justify its own region. I associated West and Westcountry as sister regions like YTV/Tyne Tees are for example, much more than Wales/West which were always put together because of HTV.

I also like Westcountry live having 4 sub regional bulletins within the 6pm bulletin. I always used to get Westcountry signal on my tv in South Wales and I remember at one point all 4 sub regional bulletins were shown in all 4 of the regions (when they had a 1 hour news programme). However they all other bulletins are pan regional arent they?
RM
Roger Mellie
jason posted:
We've been through this one before I think....
YTV East/South/Leeds


YTV (Calendar) just has two now:
Calendar South : Sheffield/Belmont (Gaynor Barnes/John Shires)
Calendar North : Emley Moor (Duncan Wood/Christine Talbot)

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