Westcountry TV to close

it really is a disgrace what has happened, bit by bit ITV have dismantled the regional structure, no kids programming, regional programming now affected with more regions closing and losing their bases, it wont be long before regional news is totally dead on ITV.

What is happening with ITV. It's comparable quite closely with the situation with the Royal Mail/Post Offices don't you think?

Lots more choice for the most profitable parts but the most public service bit is crumbling away in front of us

It's a sad thing to hear this. What ITV used to take pride in and what made ITV is being slowly chucked out the window. First regions losing their idents, then countinuation coming from London and now this. Since I've moved to Lincoln I've taken a strong interest in Yorkshire Television and now I hear that Westcountry is losing it's coverage to Bristol. I see Plymouth as an important city in the West and rightfully should have it's own regional news. As I saw on a report people in Bodmin (Cornwall) hearing news about people in Tewkesbury (Gloucstershire) is like people in London hearing news about people in Sunderland. ITV is losing its image to save money, I'm asking myself what went wrong? In Germany, they have regional TV channels all under the ARD name why can't Britain anymore? OK Germany has a higher population than Britian but surely something could have come about.

I'm sure people in Peebles will be delighted to hear about what's going on in York, 191 miles away and in a different country, when they live just over 20 miles from Scotland's capital city. It is also interesting that, at an OFCOM consultation meeting in Galashiels, when offered a choice between a merger with Tyne Tees for news, or STV, the unanimous "vote" was for STV. Yet OFCOM say that isn't possible "because ITV have not put that on the table". Are OFCOM there to protect the interests of the viewer or television companies? I think we already know the answer!

Whatever happened to that business consortium who had apparently approached ITV about a possible takeover of Border?

ITV is never going to hand over the South of Scotland to STV without a pay-off. They're not a charity, and they'd want to keep the few pennies of ad revenue. And STV don't have the cash to buy the South of Scotland off them....

I'm sure ITV declined their offer, weren't they offering several million pounds for Border?

I agree that franchise area boundaries are normally redrawn at the end of a set period. But, in the 70s, Belmont was snatched from Anglia and given to Yorkshire mid-franchise to make Yorkshire more viable. If ITV don't wish to provide more than a token 6 minutes of news on weekdays, none at weekends or in daytime for the South of Scotland, then they are, in my view, failing to provide the level of service set out in the original agreement. The bottom line is that OFCOM is a watchdog with no teeth, and a whimper instead of a bark. And another thing. In Wales and the rest of Scotland OFCOM are insisting on 1.5 hours of non-news local programming, in recognition of the needs of countries with their own parliaments/assemblies and, in Scotland, separate legal, education and church systems. Why should viewers in Stranraer or Selkirk be denied access to that, as well as being informed of job losses in Middlesbrough or hit-and-run incidents on Tyneside instead of more relevant Scottish news. As long as ITV claims to be a public service broadcaster, with the priviliges that brings, they must also meet obligations. And OFCOM has a duty to ensure that they are properly met and a real service provided, meeting the needs of viewers, rather than lying on its back having its tummy tickled by ITV bosses.

I don't see why they couldn't come to some kind of arrangement whereby the Border Scotland area remains a fully owned and branded part of ITV1, but takes Scotland Today from STV in the regional news slot... rather like what happens with Scotsport.

Money I guess. Presumably STV would want money both for showing Scotland Today and for covering the wider area (possibly getting the ad revenue for the breaks either side and during the show?)

Is Scotsport coverage of sports that STV only have Scotish rights to? If so it may have been a stipulation in their rights contract that they are broadcast across the whole of Scotland (including the Border area) - so STV may have had to negotiate carriage with Border to get the rights in the first place?

The suggestion is that if regional TV continues post DSO, that Border Scotland may be subsumed into a new STV region?

Now that ITV are playing fast and loose with regional news, I wonder whether Ofcom/the DCMS are considering re-drawing the ITV map and ditching the franchise areas when the legislation comes round again? It does seem archaic now that some franchises will only differ in ad break terms and for 15-30 mins per day of teatime and late news.

Scotsport, alas, no longer exists. Border TV did indeed screen the programme on its "Border Scotland" service in recent years. Prior to the introduction of the split transmissions Scotsport had been screened only rarely with Border telling Scottish viewers who complained that they were "a minority". In franchise area terms, yes. But not, of course, when living in your own country. If OFCOM had any guts at all they would insist on a better arrangement for viewers in the South of Scotland. Franchise areas have, indeed, been redrawn over the years. Granada, at one time, covered both Yorkshire and Lancashire, Anglia "lost" the area covered by Belmont in the mid 70s to Yorkshire, a number of transmitters in South Lakeland were transferred to Border in the early 80s and, ironically, Border "lost" the Berwick-upon-Tweed transmitter to Tyne-Tees a couple of years ago.

It's easy enough now in engineering terms. Caldbeck analogue has carried the additional 'north' beam for a while, so that 'Border-Scotland' can be seen north of the Solway, and all of Caldbeck's Scottish relays carry the service. Post DSO (June next year) Caldbeck will carry a full set of PSB muxes for both England and Scotland.
Sky and Freesat postcode mapping is of course elegantly simple.