ITV West Country

ITV West Country

Based in	Bristol
Broadcast area	Bristol Cornwall Devon Dorset Gloucestershire Somerset Wiltshire
First airdate	16 February 2009
Replaced	ITV West ITV Westcountry
Owned by	ITV plc
Website	ITV West Country (East) at itv.com ITV West Country (West) at itv.com

ITV West Country, formerly known as ITV Westcountry and ITV West was (until 31 December 2013) a non-franchise ITV regional station covering South West England and incorporating the ITV West ('East') and ITV Westcountry regions. With the formal split of the Wales and West Channel 3 licence in January 2014, a separate licence was created for Wales with the West licence merged with that of West Country. ITV West Country thus became a franchise region. Each company that makes up the new region still legally exists. ITV Wales & West Ltd, ITV Wales & West Group Ltd and Westcountry Television Ltd are each, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed on www.companieshouse.gov.uk as a "Dormant company".

History

ITV West Country launched on 16 February 2009 (as ITV West & Westcountry), and merged the two regions of ITV West and ITV Westcountry into one amalgamated region. The idea was first proposed following a speech by Michael Grade about regional broadcasting post-switchover at the 2007 Nations and Regions conference in Cardiff. There was speculation that ITV West and ITV Westcountry could merge operations,^[1] as part of further streamlining of regional operations, and rumours suggested that, while a newsroom (and separate regional identity) would be retained in the south west, the main Westcountry Live programme would move to a studio alongside The West Tonight at ITV West in Bristol.

On 12 September 2007, ITV issued a statement to the City of London, saying that it wished to reduce the number of news studios from 17 to just 9. Shortly after the broadcasting regulator Ofcom gave ITV plc the go-ahead to merge the two regions.^[2]

Studios

ITV Westcountry's studio operations were all moved to ITV West's headquarters in Bristol, with the studio facilities at Plympton near Plymouth closed and newsgathering operations moved to a smaller news bureau elsewhere in the city.

Productions

ITV West Country produces a local news service ITV News West Country. The main evening programme at 6pm on weekdays includes separate opt-out bulletins for the first 20 minutes from each of the two regions, some of which are pre-recorded depending on the day's news and due to the use of only one presenting team.

The main 6pm evening programme is supplemented by shorter daytime bulletins, with the weekday Good Morning West Country, lunchtime and late night bulletins after the ITV News at Ten consisting of opt-out news for either the 'East' or 'West' of the region. Separate daytime bulletins for the regions were reintroduced in September 2011.

On 23 July 2013, proposals to further expand the sub-regional services were approved. ITV News West Country extended the East and West opt-out services to 20 minutes during the 6pm programme, in addition to separate weekend bulletins for the two sub-regions.^[3]

ITV West Country are also required to produce 13 hours of non-news programming a year - currently, the only non-news programme in production is The West Country at Westminster, a monthly political programme. Other non-news content is included within ITV News West Country.

References

External links

ITV

Channels

Current

Domestic	SD: ITV, STV, UTV ITV2 ITV3 ITV4 ITVBe ITV Encore CITV The Store HD: ITV HD, STV HD, UTV HD ITV2 HD ITV3 HD ITV4 HD ITV Encore HD

International	ITV Choice

Defunct

Companies

Current	ITV plc STV Group plc UTV Media plc

Former	Alpha Television Carlton Communications plc Granada plc ITV Digital Ltd Trident Television Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television

Divisions, brands
and services

Current	Children's: CITV News: ITV News (ITN) Sport: ITV Sport Production: ITV Studios, 12 Yard, Big Talk, The Garden, Potato, Shiver, So Television, Twofour, Mammoth Screen, Weather: ITV Weather Online: itv.com, stv.tv, u.tv Catch up: ITV Hub, STV Player, UTV Player

Defunct	ITV Day ITV Digital ITV Local ITV Play ITV Schools

Franchises and
regions

National
franchises

Breakfast: TV-am (1983-1992), GMTV (1993-2010), ITV Breakfast (2010-)
Teletext: ORACLE (1974-1992), Teletext Ltd. (1993-)

Regional
franchises

Northern Scotland: Grampian Television
Central Scotland: Scottish Television
Scottish and English Border: Border Television
Northern Ireland: UTV
North East England: Tyne Tees Television
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: Yorkshire Television
North of England (weekdays), later North West England and Isle of Man (all week): Granada Television
North of England and Midlands (weekends): ABC Network
Wales and the West of England: TWW, WWN/Teledu Cymru, ITSWW, HTV
Midlands (weekdays), later Midlands (all week): ATV
Midlands (all week): Central Independent Television
East Anglia: Anglia Television
London (weekdays): Associated-Rediffusion, Thames Television, Carlton Television
London (weekends): ATV, LWT
South and South East England: Southern Television, TVS, Meridian Broadcasting
South West England: Westward Television, TSW, Westcountry Television
Channel Islands: Channel Television

Unsuccessful
franchise bids

London Weekday, East Anglia and South and South East England: CPV-TV
North West England: North West Television

Non-franchise
regions

Current	ITV Central ITV London ITV Meridian ITV West Country ITV Tyne Tees & Border STV

Defunct	ITV Thames Valley

Regulators

ITA (1954-72)
IBA (1972-91)
ITC (1991-2003)
Ofcom (2003-present)

Other

ITV Emergency National Service (1968)

ITV Telethon

Category
Commons

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