ITV Westcountry

ITV Westcountry (2002-)
Westcountry Television (1993-2002)

Based in	Plymouth
Broadcast area	Devon Cornwall South and West Somerset West Dorset
Launched	1 January 1993
Westcountry TV logo 1993
Closed	Lost on-air identity on 27 October 2002 (known as ITV1 at all times)
Replaced	TSW
Website	itvlocal.com/westcountry
Owned by	ITV plc

ITV Westcountry, formerly known as Westcountry Television, is the ITV franchise holder in the South West of England. The company replaced its predecessor, TSW (Television South West), from the 1 January 1993. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited (formerly Westcountry Television Limited).

Covering Devon, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and areas of Somerset and Dorset, Westcountry forms part of the non-franchise ITV West & Westcountry region, alongside ITV West (previously HTV West). Although Westcountry is intended for the South West of England, the station is received in areas of South Wales, via a strong signal at the Huntshaw Cross transmitter.

On 16 February 2009, the newly merged station launched a new regional news programme called The West Country Tonight.

In February 2009, the Westcountry region, along with areas covered by ITV Wales and Granada ceased its analogue broadcasts as part of the switch to digital TV.

History

Franchise award

Westcountry Television was one of two rival consortia bidding against the incumbent TSW when the ITV franchises were put to tender early in 1991. Westcountry's original shareholders were Brittany Ferries and South West Water; the latter investor attracted criticism as only three years earlier it was responsible for one of the worst water pollution incidents in the United Kingdom and which occurred within the contract area at Camelford. On 16 October 1991, Westcountry was announced as the winner, bidding £7 million a year against TSW's 16 million. Several local MPs were concerned that South West Water's involvement would lead to partiality in news items concerning the local water firm.

TSW launched a legal challenge to the franchise award, and after initially being refused permission to do so in the High Court, a legal action began which would last almost three months and went all the way to the House of Lords. In February 1992 the legal process found in favour of Westcountry and while they could now finally sign the franchise agreement, their original programme plans were hit by the delay. Following discussions with the Independent Television Commission Westcountry announced on 1 April 1992 it had abandoned the plans to build new studios on the Plymouth waterfront, opting instead to convert an industrial unit at Langage Science Park, Plymouth. They also reduced their planned staffing levels - already far fewer than those of TSW - leading to an expression of disappointment by TSW's managing director Harry Turner.

Franchise operation

Westcountry, originally an independent company, replaced Television South West at 00:00 GMT on 1 January 1993. The first programme aired on the channel was a short promo voiced by Bruce Hammal and Trish Bertram (two of Westcountry's first trail voiceovers) welcoming viewers to Westcountry and promising higher levels of regional output, beginning with the words, "Happy New Year, and welcome to Westcountry, your new ITV station for the South West." The promo was followed by the Eddie Murphy and Dudley Moore film Best Defense.

In 1996, Westcountry was purchased by Carlton Communications (now ITV plc), who by that time owned the London weekday (Carlton Television) and Midlands (Central) franchises. Subsequently, Westcountry was re-branded as Carlton Westcountry in September 1999, although only referred on screen as Carlton. On 27 October 2002, Carlton Westcountry lost its regional identity, and became known as ITV1 Carlton prior to regional programmes only, while being known as ITV1 at all other times. The franchise briefly became ITV1 for the Westcountry in 2003, before being renamed as ITV1 Westcountry upon the ITV plc merger of 2004. ITV1 Westcountry was used for a time after this, although the regional name was only verbally mentioned before any locally-produced programming.

ITV West & Westcountry

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 Westcountry and ITV West could merge operations, as part of further streamlining of regional operations. 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 (akin to the Meridian and Thames Valley news services at Whiteley). 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. This includes merging ITV West with ITV Westcountry to form a non-franchise region, ITV West & Westcountry, from Spring 2009.

Shortly after the broadcasting regulator OFCOM gave final approval to the changes, the regional news service was phased out with the final broadcast from Plymouth aired on Sunday 15 February 2009. A new programme entitled The West Country Tonight replaced the Westcountry Live on Monday 16 February 2009 but includes separate opt-out news bulletins (some of which are pre-recorded depending on the day's news) and weather forecasts for the Westcountry region during the main 6pm programme and in the weekday late bulletin after News at Ten. Separate daytime bulletins for the region were reintroduced in September 2011.

Studios

To begin with, the firm was housed at Brittany Ferries' offices in Millbay Docks, Plymouth with a view to building a purpose-built studio centre on the Plymouth waterfront. However, following the delay caused by TSW's legal proceedings, these plans were scrapped. The company opted instead to convert an industrial unit at Langage Science Park, Plymouth to their headquarters. The station also operated a network of seven local newsrooms and studios in Torbay, Penzance, Truro, Exeter, Barnstaple, Weymouth and Taunton.

Although Westcountry would be based in Plymouth, transmission for the channel was to be handled by HTV Wales staff at HTV's presentation centre in Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff with continuity announcers based at the Plymouth studios. This arrangement lasted from the first day of broadcasting until shortly after regional continuity was abandoned in October 2002.

Following the merger to form ITV West & Westcountry, all of Westcountry's opertaions were transferred to HTV's West headquarters in Bristol, where the regional news programme would remain and where all transmission operations would be based. The only operation left in Plymouth is a small newsroom gathering news from that area, alongside two newsrooms in Truro and Exeter.

Sub-Regions

Up until 2009, Westcountry operated four opt-out news regions for their news programme Westcountry Live. These four regions were based at their newsrooms around the region and produced a small opt out segment of the main programme featuring local news. These four regions were the North region, operated from the Barnstaple bureaux, East from Exeter, West from Truro and the South being produced from Westcountry's Plymouth headquarters. They were the first ITV company to produce four opt outs for their region.

Identity

Between 1 January 1993 and 5 September 1999, Westcountry's presentation featured that of a large 'W' shape on a frosted screen over a background video of a nature scene. The idents were made so that the scene could only be seen clearly through the 'W' shape. Accompanying the video was a trill little jingle featuring string and flute instruments. This presentational package lasted throughout the whole period, with the only change that of a form-up added made out of diagonal lines.

From 5 September 1999 however, the look changed drastically, as the Carlton 'Star' ident package was launched on the network. The look, featuring a start up film involving hearts would flash out to reveal the Carlton name over a spinning star background. The Westcountry name was only used on the news programme Westcountry Live. This package lasted until the 28 October 2002, when regional continuity was lost.

In its place, a national ITV1 branding package, with local idents featuring the ITV1 logo on the left hand side of the screen with Carlton logo below. This remained until the beginning of 2004, when the Carlton name was remved from regional idents, which instead featured four colour cubes randomely located in a scene from the region. The ITV1 logo was located in the bottom right corner with the caption ITV1 for the Westcountry located beneath. Following the 2004 ITV rebranding, the new local ident featured the national ident of three cubes containg the letters 'ITV' above a large cube '1', with the addition of the regiona nem below. A few blunders occurred however. To begin with, Westcountry's local ident had the word West beneath which was later replaced as West Country. The ident was finally amended to show the right name at approximately the same time that regional idents were abandoned. The Westcountry brand has disappeared from screens and the news service.

Programmes

Westcountry has not made any notable contribution to the ITV network, but produced mainly regional programmes such as the main regional news programme Westcountry Live, current affairs (Special Report for example) and several regional factual series.

Westcountry Live's main presenters were Richard Bath and Alexis Bowater with Mark Tyler, Seth Conway, Jemma Woodman, Claire Manning, Kate Hignett and Shelley Roberts standing in.

Other regional programmes included:

• Westcountry Update - Weekly news review for the deaf and hard of hearing (1993–2004)
• Westcountry Focus - Westcountry's first regular current affairs series
• Westcountry Life - Short 30-second films reflecting aspects of life in the region (1993–96)
• West Wise - Short-lived inter-town quiz, one of Westcountry's first local programmes (1993)
• Brief Encounters - Feature series about unusual past times (1993–94)
• On the Road to the Islands - Jack Pizzey's tour of islands in the South West, later aired by Channel 4 (1993)
• Little River Journeys - A look at the Westcountry region's waterways, later aired by Channel 4 (1995)
• Richard Digance: For One Night Only - Local entertainment series (1997-8)
• Bendell at Bedtime - Topical debate (2004)
• Birthday People- Children's birthdays (1993–2005)
• Westcountry Soccer Night - Local football magazine show (2004-8)

External links

• ITV Westcountry at itv.com
• Westcountry Television at TV Ark
• Carlton Westcountry at TV Ark