Westcountry TV to close

Nothing wrong with that, it helps keep cuts down, also there nice view over the tay. at least Dundee has an opt opt studios

I don;t think Galashiels would be the best place all of southern scotland, more chance of dumfries

Nothing wrong with having the studio in Glasgow, if that were feasible.

Under the current climate, the location of the studio is of secondary importance.

I'm sure that if ITV had committed to retaining most of Border's reporters, but moved the broadcast of the (full) Lookaround programme to Gateshead in studio B there would have been fewer complaints than there have been.

I don't know why they couldn't have done just that in all honesty. All they really had to do was have YTV's staff cover the whole of North Yorks rather than the continuing overlap, and cross-broadcast more of the overlap area on the TTTV programme, do the same with Granada/Border's coverage of Lancs/Cumbria, come to an arrangement with STV over southern Scotland and treat Northumberland and Cumbria as an overlap area, and they could have continued with a similar service to now with a reduced cost.

There is no room for new opt out, at Glasgow, STV can hire one for 3 studios off BBC for any use and I dare say that STV would open a new studies in southern scotland with an opt out, there done it for inverness when the times comes

I know that. I think you missed the point here.

They (STV) could put the studio anywhere they liked. Dumfries, Carlisle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, whatever.

Location isn't as important as making sure that the service is kept up.

Feature in the Carlisle News & Star about the demise of Border TV:

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/1.249190

The whole border thing is a joke, ofcom even wrote on the PSB blog they have that they had been flooded by postcards from angry locals demanding it stays.
I also recall a local businessgroup offering to buy the station from ITV plc (which of course was refused). This shows that people DO still care about it and ofcom giving in shows yet again they don't care about the viewers.

I think ITV should be forced to lose(if they already aren't) the regionalised advertising for the border area as well. If they can't be bothered to provide PSB for the region then they shouldn't have the advantage of keeping the previous area for advertising.

I wish ofcom would just call ITV's bluff and pull the licenses full stop and force them to survive on some high up EPG position with less coverage on freeview from being on a COM mux. They would also lose the ability to bid for the HD spectrum both of which long term would completely ruin ITV's viewing figures.

Alas, we have a pathetic regulator in this country who ignores the fact that local news is a profitable business in the US and there is no reason why it couldn't be here.

Indeed, the basic argument in favour of OFCOM's stance is that were they to try and get tough with ITV plc, then they would just hand the licences back, OFCOM would never find a replacement, and ITV plc's channels would just carry on free of their PSB requirements.

However, ITV only wield this power *because* they hold the PSB licences for the ITV Network. As a PSB, they have a position which Sky, UKTV, Virgin et el would die for. ITV1 is guaranteed to be received on every TV set in the country, they have gifted DTT capacity, ITV1 has an automatic right to be the 3rd channel on every EPG, and no platform could refuse to carry ITV1 if they wanted to.

Were ITV plc to hand back it's licences, then they would loose access to the analogue TV system (although in decline, it is still the primary means by which a lot of TV sets in the country get their picture), they would loose their gifted capacity to half of the D3&4 multiplex on DTT and need to bid for capacity elsewhere (with no guarantees that they could get it) - meaning that ITV might not be on Freeview.

Meanwhile, Sky, Virgin Media, and every other platform provider would no longer need to preserve ITV's '3rd channel' position and could pack them off to wherever they want on the EPG. Also, ITV would have no guaranteed right to be broadcast at all - were they to enter into disagreement over carriage fees - or if Sky/Virgin simply saw them as a threat to developing their own channel base - then they could simply be disposed of.

ITV plc threaten to hand the licences back every time they want to cut their PSB requirements further simply because they know this a tried and testing technique which works on OFCOM. They know that they need those PSB licences to maintain their position as the top commercial broadcaster. They would never actually carry out this threat as doing so would be commercial suicide.

Sadly, OFCOM (and the ITC before them), is too weak to call their bluff.


Indeed, US television is the most commercialised in the world. Yet regional broadcasting is still a huge component of it. Even though presentation has been eroded to the point of non existance, stations still have some sort of local ident (even if only a DOG displayed at the beginning of a programme) which is aired frequently, and local news/sport enjoys a central role in the schedule, occupying many hours of scheduled airtime each day, and stations still enjoy the ability to drop scheduled/network programming if something big is happening on their patch.

There is money to be made in regional television and we do still have a need for the ITV Network to exist as it was despite the proliferation of new channels. The only reason ITV has been decimated is because greedy board members of ITV plc (and its various consituents before that) saw a one-time opportunity to asset strip the infrastructure to create funding for one-time bonuses before they f*cked off somewhere else leaving a shell in their place. It wasn't necessary to destroy the ITV system in order for it to continue to be profitable in today's market, and it would only have taken a strong regulator, not swayed by various companies threatening to throw their toys out of the pram and hand their licences back if they don't get what they want, to stop it from happening.

How I laugh now just under 5 years ago Tessa Jowell made a speech at the merger of Granada and Carlton (and IMO it was totally inappropriate for a member of the cabinet to attend such an affair), wishing 'the union' success and when speaking of its implications for regional broadcasting, 'looked to OFCOM to defend it with vigour'. OFCOM have made more concessions in the last 5 years than the ITC did in the previous 10 - none of which they had to make.

The US system is VERY different to the UK.

AIUI the FCC require that a station ID is aired a minimum number of times - it is a statutory requirement I believe.

The relationship that the networks have with the stations that broadcast their programmes is also VERY different.

There are at least two distinct sets of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox stations in the US - O&Os and Affiliates. O&Os are "Owned and Operated" by the network, whilst Affiliates are affiliated to the network, but neither owned by them or operated by them. AIUI Affiliates are PAID by the network to carry their shows at certain times of the day, but the networks are then able to sell on the commercials within their network shows? Outside the airtime that the network buys from affiliates, local affiliate stations can show their own programming, syndicated shows (i.e. stuff made by non-network studios, or re-runs of network shows now available on the syndicated market) etc. There are groups of affiliates owned by various US companies - Sinclair is one quite large group.

There are also non-affiliated stations - which don't show network programming but carry other content - like predominantly religious or non-English content.

PBS stations are different again...

Unlike ITV - which shows network shows in all regions with the exception of the odd local news or regional show - most US affiliate stations only show network shows in primetime - outside prime time they can do what they like AIUI? It is a bit more like ITV used to be - but not quite the same.

The other thing about US local news programmes is that whilst they are locally MADE they aren't just local news - they often carry national and occasionally international news. They are predominantly local - but not in the same way as ITV regional news is.

My understanding is that there are certain times of the day that Locally inserted programming has to be shown, such as 7-8pm (ET), so thats where you get shows like Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and syndicated re-runs of sitcoms, the first two being made by companies and being sold to stations rather than Networks.

The Big 3: NBC, ABC and CBS are usually Networked at Breakfast and then again from 8pm-11pm daily, and usually at 11.30pm for the late night talk shows, other than that it's all locally done, is my understanding of it.

If there are any American posters on here who'd like put the record straight feel free.

This is a problem for the UK of course -- geographically it is small, and therefore it is questionable whether such a system would work here.

Are there any examples of European countries using this method?

Yes but let's not forgot the slight issue of the difference in size between the UK and the US. I'm not exactly an expert in Geography but I'd guess that a "region" in the US is a hell of a lot bigger than one here, no?

EDIT: Tsk at my point being pretty much identical to the one posted whilst I typed.

It's been a while since I was last in the US, but from what I saw in two cities (Kansas 1989 and Houston 1992) I was very impressed by the local output on all three major 'affilites' in both cites. Comparing Houston in 1992 against my own region TVS and BBC South, there was no comparison with the quality of output. The 'market' areas here and there are about the same, about 3-4 million. All three Houston programmes were well resourced, ISTR two 30 minute shows of 100% local news. One at 17:00hrs, the other at 22:30. The 22:30 shows had quite a low proportion of repeat material from 17:00hrs.
Breaking news was handled superbly (a Tornado hit the outskirts of city on the last day of my stay). I don't think I've ever seen BBC or ITV regions handle breaking news beyond a caption inserted between programmes, although in the UK most events that would require that treatment would be of national importance anyway.

I'd be interested to know what the current situation is in Houston ?
Certainly (and I'm no fan of 'zappy' presentation) I found my own regional TV dull as ditch water on my return.