''ITV News West Country'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by

ITV West Country ITV West Country is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the South West England franchise area on the ITV network. Previously, between 2009 and 2013, the area was a non-franchise region, branded with the sa ...

Overview

''ITV News West Country'' is broadcast from studios in

Brislington Brislington is an area in the south east of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and from Bath. Brislington Brook runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley and St Anne's Wood. Brislington formerly hou ...

, Bristol, with district reporters and camera crews based in newsrooms at Plymouth, Exeter, Truro, Taunton, Swindon and Gloucester.

History

The nightly regional news programme was launched on 16 February 2009 as ''The West Country Tonight'', following the merger of two regional news services – ''

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 ...

'' ( ITV West) and ''

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 ...

'' ( ITV Westcountry). From 24 November 2016, ''ITV News West Country'' began broadcasting in HD to the ITV West and ITV Westcountry regions on Sky and

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

only. At present,

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

and

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

carry the

ITV News Central ''ITV News Central'' is a British television news service for The Midlands, broadcast and produced by ITV Central. History Launched on Friday 1 January 1982, replacing ''ATV Today'', ''Central News'' was initially a pan-regional service based ...

region on ITV HD in the West and Westcountry, requiring these viewers to use the standard definition ITV channel for their regional ''ITV News West Country'' service.

On air staff

When the programme launched, it was presented by ITV West presenters Lisa Aziz and Steve Scott (formerly of ''The West Tonight''). ITV West weather presenters

Alex Beresford Alexander Isaac Beresford (born 17 October 1980) is an English weather presenter employed by ITV.

and

Bob Crampton Bob Crampton is a British former journalist and TV presenter. Early life and career Crampton was born in South Africa. His father was the country's first radio DJ to introduce piano music. At the age of 11, Crampton wanted to become a rugby pla ...

were both retained. Beresford left the programme in a full time capacity to present the weather for ''Good Morning Britain'' in 2017; Crampton remained in his role until his retirement in 2018. However, Aziz was suspended in June 2009 from her position and left ITV in February 2010, with former ''

'' freelancer Vanessa Cuddeford taking over. Scott left his position to become sports editor for

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since con ...

in May 2010, and was replaced by former ''

Meridian Tonight ''ITV News Meridian'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian. Overview The news service is produced and broadcast from ITV Meridian's studios in Whiteley, near Fareham with reporters also based at bureaux i ...

'' presenter Ian Axton. Bristol-based district correspondent Cordelia Lynch became a stand-in main presenter for Cuddeford from May 2012 when she went on maternity leave. Both Cuddeford and Lynch announced their departures from ITV West Country a year later. Kylie Pentelow of ''

BBC East Midlands Today ''East Midlands Today'' is the BBC's regional television news programme for the East Midlands. The programme is broadcast on BBC One from studios at the BBC's East Midlands broadcasting centre in Nottingham, also home to Radio Nottingham. Th ...

'' replaced Cuddeford from July 2013. On 3 March 2017, it was announced that former

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the he ...

presenter

Mark Longhurst Mark Longhurst is a British news presenter. Longhurst presented on ITV's regional news, ITV News West Country until October 2017. Before this, he was a presenter at Sky News, where he presented the channel's evening news programmes from Friday to ...

would be taking over from Ian Axton, following his promotion to Head of News for

in January 2017. Longhurst left the programme seven months later. On 22 January 2018, it was announced that interim presenter Jonty Messer had become Longhurst's replacement. Kylie Pentelow moved to ''Wales at Six'' on 4 February 2019, for a one-year secondment. Eli-Louise Wringe is maternity leave cover for Pentelow from April 2022.Ex-BBC presenter Sabet Choudhury joins ''ITV News West Country''
itv.com, 3 October 2022 Messer left ITV on 27 July. Sabet Choudhury succeeds Messer from 17 October 2022. Notable on air staff include

Ben McGrail Ben McGrail (born 4 November) is a British broadcast journalist, best known for his work at ITV News West Country as their Somerset Correspondent. Career McGrail studied broadcast journalism at the University of Leeds from 2004 to 2007 where ...

(Somerset correspondent). Notable former on air staff include Lisa Aziz,

Alex Beresford Alexander Isaac Beresford (born 17 October 1980) is an English weather presenter employed by ITV.

, Jonty Messer, Peter Rowell and Steve Scott.

Sub-regional service

As part of the pan-regional launch of what was initially called ''The Westcountry Tonight'' in February 2009, two opt-out services were retained, incorporating the first half of the main evening programme on weeknights at 6pm, the full late bulletins after ''News at Ten'' on weeknights, and sports news on Mondays and Fridays. The opt-outs were known as East and West at first, then changed to more geographically accurate names. ITV News West Country (South West) covers Cornwall, Devon, parts of Dorset and parts of Somerset, while ITV News West Country (West) covers Bristol, parts of Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. On 5 September 2011, separate weekday daytime bulletins for the two sub-regions (at breakfast and lunchtime) were reintroduced. In July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved. ''ITV News West Country'' extended the East (now West) and West (now South West) opt-out services to at least 20 minutes of the 6pm programme, in addition to separate weekend bulletins for the two sub-regions, effectively restoring full services for the two areas.OFCOM sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5
, OFCOM, 23 July 2013 The changes came into effect from 16 September 2013. Both sub-regional services utilise the same presenter(s) and studio/set in Bristol, therefore one of the two opt-outs – depending on the day's news – is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before transmission.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:ITV News West Country 2009 British television series debuts 2010s British television series 2020s British television series ITV regional news shows Mass media in Bristol Television news in England