ITV Carlton - Westcountry

Anyone care to try the South West region of ITV1 at the moment on
D-SAT? On my set, I'm getting sound interference.

I called Carlton Duty Office, as I'm pretty sure it's a broadcast or uplink problem. The lady didn't have a clue what I was on about - not her fault maybe. But when I said it was on satellite only, she said, "we don't really get involved with satellite sir, have you spoken to Sky?" She took my number anyway, so we'll see how it goes.

I've telephoned the BBC Spotlight office a couple of times, and they're a pleasure to talk to, and the problems I've reported have been sorted within minutes.

Well unless you rang one of the local offices in the phone book you probably would've got through to the Carlton Duty office in Gas Street (Birmingham) - the number that appears on Carlton Plus teletext - and they probably wouldn't know a thing about Westcountry!

Yes it was Birmingham James, but they don't need to know about Westcountry, they just need to know that ITV 1 is also broadcast on satellite.

Ok, getting annoying now. As we still have the problem, I sent the following quick e-mail to duty office.


Just received a reply back



Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't ITV / NTL responsible for the broadcast of ITV on satellite?

And as if by magic... the sound has been sorted. Was just about to send a snotty e-mail back.

Duty office is crap. Ive sent several messages to them in the past and the reply I get has never had anything to do with what i asked!

They don't! The one (and only) time I used them I hadn't heard about the move so I assumed I was speaking to someone in Plymouth. Only when the telephonist didn't have a clue what I was on about (a local matter) did I find out I'd been put through to Brum. So they had to call Plymouth to get the info I wanted.

I then called Plymouth again, and spoke to Westcountry's PR controller, Mark Clare, expressing my dismay about the outsourcing of viewer enquiries. He told me there had only ever been one person in the local duty office - but at least she knew what she was talking about!

While we're on the subject of Westcountry - Did anyone ever notice how much they don't like being referred to as "Carlton Westcountry" Whenever they give out addresses they always call themselves "ITV1 Westcountry" So the people at Plymouth were obviously against the Carlton takeover - and I bet they were even more pissed off when they lost their identity and pretty much the control of the region last year!

That's fairly recent. It was always Carlton up until mid-2002 (although the CA's did occasionally slip in a 'Carlton Westcountry' when they could get away with it), then for the summer it became largely referred to as 'ITV1 for the South West'. Then after October 28th I think their official title changed to 'ITV1 Westcountry' - that is what they now say when you ring them and what always appears in the paper.

I do have sympathy for the staff of Westcountry over their treatment, but none at all for the management. They were a thriving limited company, there was no need to sell out to Carlton in 1997 (unlike Central who were a sitting duck). And since Westcountry got into ITV with the specific aim of being bought up, and Carlton got into it with the specific aim of buying stations up, the management have no one to blame but themselves at the way things have turned out. If anything, Carlton were kind to them, with well over 2 years of Carlton ownership before their presence was felt to any great extent.

Amazing isn't it, and somewhat ironic I think given the history, that when I spoke to TTTV's duty office the other day I was still greeted by a friendly geordie voice, who knew what she was talking about?

I must admit when I spoke to Westcountry in 1998 they sounded distinctly unimpressed with the rebranding, and that attitude seems not to have changed at all -- when I had a word in 2000 they mentioned Carlton only in the initial greeting -- throughout the conversation it was Westcountry all the way, and when Carlton was mentioned it was in the third person...

Mark Clare was quite the opposite - but he's management so what do you expect? He spun me the usual corporate spiel about local viewers being more aware that Carlton was their local ITV company as opposed to when it was Westcountry. The staff, on the other hand, seemed dedicated to their jobs and cared about local TV.

Well Mark, your job could be next. Then will you toe the line?

Anyways people, not much longer, we'll all be in one boat soon with the merger.