Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

I still wonder, if some of those idea did come in to being, We have the STV 25 years later It seems there trying to say the changes are to make people happy,

If ATV was split in two? East midlands could have been given Belmont and have Lincolnshire and also maybe a new transmitter for northampton?

The problem is the sheer coverage that Belmont gives - from Bridlington to Hunstanton, areas of Sheffield to Skegness. Too much of it is not East Midlands. And thank goodness as it turns out. Being in Lincoln, I feel I have more in common with Hull than I do with say Gloucester!

Actually that article is incorrect regarding the transfer of the Coniston, Grasmere, Kendal, Sedbergh and Windermere relays from Granada to Border. The transmitters were switched at Border's request in order to make its area more financially viable, as they had hinted that they may not reapply for the post-1982 franchise unless their coverage area was enlarged. There was a lot of local protest about the switch, but (as usual) the viewers' pleas were ignored. The fact that Border tended to close down around 11.15pm at the time, when Granada kept going until after midnight, only served to rub salt in the wound.

It seems odd they didn't believe a Wales only region would be viable when it has a bigger population than many of the other regions, plus of course around that time S4C was launching too. Perhaps the issue was more with the HTV West region surviving, but surely that could have become a duel region with Westcountry as of course it ultimately did (though in ITV's eyes, not OFCOMs).

I dare say the IBA just give out that positive spin to explain the changes. If any paper got wind of public disguise etc I bet the red tabloids would have rubbing there hands. "IBA ignores public demands" " IBA cares more for greedy company and the public" etc

Well the IBA could hardly have said "Border is taking over the relays in the South Lakes because the station is skint and needs to make extra money by increasing its coverage area."

Border's financial problems were well-known to the IBA and the station was unhappy that up until then it only served the northern half of Cumbria, so asked if they could extended their coverage to the South Lakes as they felt it would benefit them financially by being able to cover most of Cumbria instead of just a part of it. The extreme south of Cumbria including Barrow and the Furness peninsula is still served by Granada, although Barrow was formerly in Lancashire.

Not odd at all, the reason Wales was tied to the West is technical. Viewers in SE Wales have
always been easily able to receive transmissions from, or beamed towards, the West of England.

Visit Cardiff or Newport and many (most ?) aerials there are directed at Mendip, rather than Wenvoe.

As most of SE Wales's population chose to avoid the Welsh language programming, by using English transmitters, separating the franchise would have been commercially disastrous.

S4C would have eased that situation, and increased HTV Wales viewing, but conversely only served to reinforce the use of English transmitters because they carried the 'proper' version of C4 !

As for the South Cumbria relays, it was always my understanding that it was a Border/IBA initiative, public opinion never came into it. Another change not mentioned in that article was the move of the Buxton relay from ATV to Granada ? (and in fact BBC 1 Midlands to NW)

I always found it fascinating that the ITA/IBA/OFCOM have, over the years, agonised over the allocation of relay and main transmitters to various companies whilst ignoring the fact that viewers across the South of Scotland were treated as a minority in their own country for decades, until the Border Scotland split was introduced, and,alas, are back to square one on that issue now. Few viewers served by Belmont in the 70s wanted Yorkshire TV but they got it foisted on them to make Yorkshire TV more viable. Then the IBA had to remedy the situation by building extra relays to provide an Anglia service in northern parts of Norfolk. Similarly, there was great debate on whether certain transmitters were to be East or West Midlands when that region was split. Starngely, though, the Isle of Man "voted" to switch to Granada and got it. Yet all the surveys carried out by OFCOM suggested that, if the Border Scotland service were to disappear, a huge majority wanted STV (with regional content), rather than the Tyne Tees/Border set up which sees a token amount of Scottish content and viewers living within a few miles of Scotland's capital getting news about Whitby, MIddlesborough and York.

Of course, the ITV regions weren't created to relflect cultural regions. The IBA etc may well have used that argument when an excuse was needed to transfer relays etc but it seemed almost about, firstly, coverage; hence, the large, high power transmitters such as Winter Hill for the older, larger regions and then ensuring that the later, smaller regions were large enough to be viable.

Also, we were one country back then. Having an ITV franchise covering both Carlisle & Dumfries was seen as no different than one covering Norfolk & Cambridge. Totally different now with all this 'nations & regions' malarkey.

Border TV was very well liked, but surely if there is to be any expansion of STV to cover the Border scotland area, it'll have to be agreed with ITV plc, and possibly for a few £s?

To be fair, Scotland still had it's own legal system / education system / separate NHS om-cetera om-cetera before 1997.

yes - and of course the Welsh language made Wales a distinct nation (in telly terms) well before the Welsh Assembly.