ITV Thames Valley
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| Based in | Whiteley, Hampshire Meridian's studios Abingdon, Oxfordshire |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Thames Valley |
| Launched | 4 December 2006 |
| Replaced | Meridian North, Central South |
| Website | itvlocal.com/thamesvalley |
| Owned by | ITV plc |
ITV Thames Valley is an ITV news region covering the Thames Valley area of the United Kingdom. It serves the southern area of the legal Central franchise and the north west area of the Meridian franchise.
The service began broadcasting 4 December 2006 merging the news assets of the two former sub-regions, and its newsrooms were officially opened on 26 January 2007 by ITV executive chairman, Michael Grade [1]. The launch of ITV Thames Valley brought the total number of regional ITV programmes from 16 to 17.
It is operated by ITV plc, and the main news programme in the area is Thames Valley Tonight.
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[edit] Launch
Initially, ITV Thames Valley was to be launched on 4 November 2006. However, due to transmitter realignment, the date was finally set to 4 December; four weeks later than planned. It was expected the merging of the two sub-regions was originally expected to make over 40 workers redundant in editorial and production positions in Central South due to the favouring of Meridian's Whiteley base for production. However this number was reduced to around 10 by re-organisation of staffing roles[2]. Central South's old newsroom at Abingdon was retained as the main newsgathering base for ITV Thames Valley.
The launch was successfull in ratings terms. Although initially, ITV Thames Valley's flagship news programme, Thames Valley Tonight, received some minor criticism by viewers due to its lack of locality of news items in some areas due to the much larger geographical coverage area compared to its sub-regional predecessors.[3] [4]
Central and Meridian are both owned by ITV plc, which holds all the ITV franchise licenses in England and Wales, so this change amounts simply to an internal organisation. Meridian class the ITV Thames Valley service as "a third semi-independent sub-region for the Thames Valley", and state its headquarters are in Abingdon [5]. The service is known to be branded as both "ITV Thames Valley" [6] and also "Meridian Thames Valley" [7].
[edit] Future
ITV Thames Valley's long term future is much disputed. In June 2007, ITV plc executive chairman Michael Grade hinted at a possible re-structure of the ITV regional layout, stating the existence of smaller regional services "no longer makes sense" relative to the regional audience they serve.[8] The move is expected to give ITV plc "greater value for money", however will be subject to Ofcom approval.[9]
The plan was confirmed in September 2007, and would reduce the number of regional news programmes from 17 to just 9, saving around £35 to £40 million each year. Under these proposals, all sub-regions, including Thames Valley, would be axed for larger regions only. No clear indications on such changes have been released by ITV plc, however it is suggested that ITV Thames Valley's service would merge with either Meridian and/or Central. Such a move would enable a single live regional news programme to cover the whole of a franchise area, with short recorded opt-outs for sub-regional headlines. Future job losses are currently unknown.[10]
[edit] Sub-regions
The ITV Thames Valley newsgathering area itself is divided into two distinct north/south sub-regions for advertising and non-news regional programming only, on the ITV1 service:
- Ex-Central South: Carries Central's non-news regional programmes with the Thames Valley Tonight news programme
- Ex-Meridian North: Carries Meridian's non-news regional programmes with the Thames Valley Tonight news programme
[edit] Regional area changes
No legal franchise area boundaries have been altered between Central and Meridian; only the visual appearance of the service has changed. ITV Thames Valley is not perceived as a legal Channel 3 entity with regulator Ofcom. However, as a consequence of the changes, the ITV contractor for the West of England, ITV West, was unofficially extended to cover the Gloucester and Cheltenham areas, previously served by Central South. This was achieved by an additional set of aerials fitted on the Ridge Hill transmitter broadcasting ITV West on analogue UHF 30 alongside Central West on UHF 25[11]. However, the DTT coverage of Multiplex 2 from the transmitter (which contains the regional ITV service), will not be altered to accommodate these changes, and will solely broadcast the West subregion of Central. This complication will be resolved with digital switchover; and until then, both regions available from the Ridge Hill transmitter will provide regional news for Gloucester and Cheltenham[12]. However, as the Ridge Hill transmitter will continue to broadcast Central, the digital switchover date for that transmitter will be unaffected, switching with the rest of the Central region in 2011, despite the fact it also carries ITV West which should be switching a year earlier. However, the Oxford transmitter legally moved from the Central schedule for digital switchover, to that of Meridian and therefore the overall switchover date for ITV Thames Valley will be 2012[13]
The BBC made no changes to its regional service supplied by the Ridge Hill, Oxford or Hannington transmitters.
[edit] Programming
All programming for the region is produced from Meridian's Whiteley studios, with Central South's Abingdon base retained as a newsgathering centre for the new service only. ITV Thames Valley does not produce any non-news programming at present, currently the north of the region continues to receive Central's regional programmes (as that is the ITV franchisee) and the south continues to receive Meridian's.
Following a fair selection process involving Central South and Meridian West staff, Robin Britton was appointed Head of News for ITV Thames Valley. The News Executive team include:
Producer: Kim Hewitt
News Editor: Jim Stevens
Features Producer: Reshma Rumsey
Forward Planning: Kate Taylor
Assistant Producer: Janet Hayman
Technical Co-ordinator: Steve Atkey
Graphic Designer: Blue Hall
Output Producers: Caroline Asker and Caroline Ferguson
Programme Presenters: Mary Green, Hannah Shellswell and Wesley Smith
Sports Presenters Chris Maugahan, Victoria Bennett and David Reilly
Studio Director: Keith Peries
The service does not extend to breakfast bulletins (i.e. during GMTV), however, viewers now receive "GMTV News" at this time, which is a service covering the Thames Valley and the rest of the Meridian franchise area. ITV Thames Valley does have its own weekend bulletins.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Grade takes the helm at ITV - free subscription required. Media Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
- ^ MediaGuardian - Launch of ITV region delayed (free subscription required)
- ^ Oxford Mail - "Bring Them Back"
- ^ Oxford Mail - Why TV news is all at sea
- ^ About ITV Meridian Retrieved on 2007-06-23
- ^ ITV Meridian & Thames Valley - About Thames Valley (formal address only viewable in Internet Explorer). Retrieved on 2007-06-27
- ^ Meridian Regional Map and Subregions Retrieved on 2007-06-27
- ^ "Grade hints at ITV region restructure", Digital Spy, 12 September 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ "ITV close to new regional plan", Digital Spy, 12 September 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ "ITV to merge regional newsrooms", BBC News, 12 September 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ Official press release from ITV. ITV plc. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
- ^ ITV West - Important news for ITV1 viewers in Gloucester
- ^ Official response from ITV. ITV plc. Retrieved on 2006-11-13.
[edit] External links
- ITV Thames Valley at itvlocal.com
- UKfree.TV ITV Thames Valley map
- MediaGuardian Article (free subscription required)
- Digital Spy Discussion Thread
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