ITV West Country is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

franchise area on the

ITV network ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passin ...

. Previously, between 2009 and 2013, the area was a non-franchise region, branded with the same name, incorporating the former

ITV Westcountry ITV Westcountry, formerly known as Westcountry Television and Carlton Westcountry, was the ITV franchise holder for the south west of England, covering Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, southern and western Somerset and western Dorset. The com ...

franchise area and the ITV West sub-region of the

ITV Wales & West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

franchise. 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 A dormant company is a company that carries out no business activities in the given period of time. Dormant companies do not engage in buying/selling for profit, not carrying on business or profession, providing services, earning interest, mana ...

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 Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, (born 8 March 1943) is an English television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 ( ...

about regional broadcasting post-switchover at the 2007 Nations and Regions conference in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. There was speculation that ITV West and ITV Westcountry could merge operations, 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 ''Westcountry Live'' was the flagship regional news programme of ITV Westcountry, serving South West England. History The programme was first broadcast on Monday 4 January 1993 - four days after Westcountry Television took over the ITV regional ...

'' programme would move to a studio alongside ''

The West Tonight ''The West Tonight'' was a regional news programme for the West of England, produced by ITV West. History The launch of Harlech Television in May 1968 led to the launch of a full half-hour evening news programme, ''Report'', broadcast to South ...

'' at ITV West in Bristol. On 12 September 2007, ITV issued a statement to the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, saying that it wished to reduce the number of news studios from 17 to just 9. Shortly after the broadcasting regulator

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

gave

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...

the go-ahead to merge the two regions. Until 31 December 2013, the ITV West Country region was still legally covered by two franchises, the ITV Westcountry franchise for the South West and the ITV Wales & West franchise for the West of England (which also covered Wales). On 1 January 2014, the two franchises were updated to match the merger that had occurred in 2009; the ITV Wales & West franchise area lost ITV West and was renamed ITV Cymru Wales, while the ITV Westcountry franchise area gained ITV West and was renamed ITV West Country.

Studios

ITV Westcountry's studio operations were all moved to

ITV West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wale ...

's headquarters in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, 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 the local news service ''

ITV News West Country ''ITV News West Country'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV West Country. Overview ''ITV News West Country'' is broadcast from studios in Brislington, Bristol, with district reporters and camera crews based in ...

''. 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.Ofcom sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5
, Ofcom, 23 July 2013 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 Debate'', a monthly political programme. Other non-news content is included in ''ITV News West Country''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:ITV West Country

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

Mass media in Bristol Mass media in Cornwall Mass media in Dorset Television channels and stations established in 2009

History

Studios

Productions

See also

References

External links