BE
Did Meridian ever have any announcers during late 90s/early 00s (the hearts era)? From what I've seen is always idents into programme with no announcer. Was it always like this?
BE
Well from the start in 1993 Meridian had a tendency to just play idents before programmes with no announcements. Although by the time the hearts came in they usually had announcements, but it was still not uncommon to just play an ident and make no announcement at all.
Ben
Founding member
Did Meridian ever have any announcers during late 90s/early 00s (the hearts era)? From what I've seen is always idents into programme with no announcer. Was it always like this?
Well from the start in 1993 Meridian had a tendency to just play idents before programmes with no announcements. Although by the time the hearts came in they usually had announcements, but it was still not uncommon to just play an ident and make no announcement at all.
IS
Because the point of the exercise was to save money, not save jobs!
Now come to think of it, I don't see why they didn't save jobs by retaining the northern continuity team and Central's continuity team, with Central providing continuity to, say, HTV West and Anglia, and London providing continuity to themselves, Meridian and Westcountry (whilst retaining ITV1 branding at the same time).
Because the point of the exercise was to save money, not save jobs!
SW
This is based entirely on a week I spent on holiday in Bournemouth in 1995 but what used to happen is that they'd do an announcement as to what was coming up before the break, then after the break if there was an announcement it would be for what was coming up later. I do remember someone on the internet complaining that this meant if you tuned in during the ad break you wouldn't know what was coming on. Seemed quite cool, though, for a pleb from the North like me.
Well from the start in 1993 Meridian had a tendency to just play idents before programmes with no announcements. Although by the time the hearts came in they usually had announcements, but it was still not uncommon to just play an ident and make no announcement at all.
This is based entirely on a week I spent on holiday in Bournemouth in 1995 but what used to happen is that they'd do an announcement as to what was coming up before the break, then after the break if there was an announcement it would be for what was coming up later. I do remember someone on the internet complaining that this meant if you tuned in during the ad break you wouldn't know what was coming on. Seemed quite cool, though, for a pleb from the North like me.
MW
April 2005 is a date that sticks in my mind!
Didn't Central's transmission suite close around August/September 2004?
April 2005 is a date that sticks in my mind!
MK
What was the deal with HTV West? Having never had the privilage to have seen thier presentation in the hearts era (and with hardly any of it on the internet), I don't understand how it worked in conjunction with Meridian & Anglia. I mean, Carlton bought HTV in 2000 and HTV ended up with their sequences (as I remember seeing on HTV Wales). As Meridian & Anglia shared a lot of continutiy and naturally would've used the same ident variants Iin any one junction, how did they square the circle that was the HTV West presentation anomoly? Did they just give HTV West separate, dedicated and probably pre-recorded continuity during this period? What about next slides. HTV Wales gained a modified version of Carlton's star-swipe next slide but with a heart replacing the star. Did these appear on HTV West too or did they remain with Meridian/Anglia-style ones?
Also, why was HTV West's continuity moved out to Southampton anyway? Surely, Cardiff would've been more obvious. For a start, they were used to looking after more than one TV region since having Westcountry since 1993 (though the announers were based in Plymouth). Surely, with both being HTV, it'd would've been possible for them both to have had joint continuity for most of the day, by just calling it 'HTV'.
Also, why was HTV West's continuity moved out to Southampton anyway? Surely, Cardiff would've been more obvious. For a start, they were used to looking after more than one TV region since having Westcountry since 1993 (though the announers were based in Plymouth). Surely, with both being HTV, it'd would've been possible for them both to have had joint continuity for most of the day, by just calling it 'HTV'.