Michael Grade, Executive Chairman of Britain’s largest terrestrial commercial broadcaster ITV, has told a conference organised by the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom that the 50-year-old regional structure in England may be axed in favour of a small number of so-called ”super regions”. He said the present arrangements no longer made sense in a digital age. But he added that in areas such as Wales and Scotland, “the map still makes sense”.
“Elsewhere, the boundaries bear little relationship to regional and community identities on the ground,” said Grade.
Later, an ITV official clarified the remarks and said ITV understands viewers want their own regional news and current affairs show, and ”the aim would be for any changes not to show on screen.”
Any change to ITV’s structure would need to be approved by Ofcom.
Andy Sennitt comments: It makes sense to introduce changes as ITV phases in DTT services to replace the analogue ones. The regional structure of ITV is based on the coverage areas of the original 405-line band III transmitters that carried ITV programmes in the early years. When services moved to UHF, transmitter sites and technical characteristics were chosen to approximate, as closely as possible, these same coverage areas. In the early years of ITV, each region was served by a separate company, and there was a wide variation in programming. Each company had its own Director of Programmes.
But times have changed, and the 11 regions that make up the single company ITV plc now have only a few hours a week of regional programming, mostly news. A larger number of local news services covering smaller areas would make it possible to provide a more relevant service to more people.
The interesting thing, if this plan is approved, would be how the BBC responds. Because BBC programmes are currently transmitted from the same transmitter sites, its own regional structure is very similar to that of ITV. It too provides regional news. Would it be able to compete with a more localised news service offered by ITV?
Related commentary:
on Jun 30th, 2007 at 16:40
Maybe interesting for some readers: ITV broadcasts on Astra-2D @ 28,2 Degrees Eeast’. The Beam is pointed at Britain but stille very well receivable in The Netherlands and viewable since there is NO Encryption at all on the ITV-1 Channels as well as CITV, ITV2, ITV3 & ITV4 !
on Jun 30th, 2007 at 16:49
I find this Sad, the old Regional companies are missed by many people,they came across as warm and friendly and very regional, with well known local personallities.
Those were the days
on Jul 1st, 2007 at 10:10
Most of ITV’s operations have been located into the old
YTV building in Leeds and LWT building in London.
There is very little left over of what was Anglia, Tyne
Tees, Meriden, except for local news coverage.
As for BBC, they became more regionalised after
spending many years with super-regions. For the BBC
it would be political suicide to loose the regions, as the
BBC are expected by the Government to deliver these
services. Today many of the BBC television operations
are located alongside BBC Local Radio.
on Jul 1st, 2007 at 19:51
In the old days there wasn’t even a generic ITV logo - there were *only* a bunch of regional stations selling programmes to each other. The fact that every station had its own ideas about what constituted good television was what gave ITV its strength and diversity. Nowadays the regional structure hardly makes sense at all given that it’s all one big company. But give me the old ITV any day - I just don’t recognise this stupid ITV1 thing.
on Jul 1st, 2007 at 20:04
What this demonstrates is the blatent greed and commercialism of ITV, money is their only interest, and what the viewer wants doesn’t concern them in the slightest.
The viewing public has already had to suffer the loss of quality regional companies, and the service they provided in terms of news and weather reporting, and quality programming with plenty of regional content, in favour of cheaper programming aiming at the lowest common denominator, and endless quiz programmes that wouldn’t even challenge the poorest of interlects.
So, what is next in ITV’s quest for minimum outlay, and maximum profit? Are they to drop all regional content and go strictly national, in all honesty they might as well, for what little regional content is left, and its sub standard quality.
on Jul 2nd, 2007 at 08:16
ITV1 has been reduced into a national mess with very little regional programming maybe a midweek optout contribution and regional news bulletins,while the rest comes from London. All itvplc are interested in is money and cheap tacky telly shows. Shame!
on Jul 2nd, 2007 at 09:16
“Would [the BBC] be able to compete with a more localised news service offered by ITV?”
I’m sure that it would. Remember that during the first half of 2006 the BBC did trial local (as opposed to regional) television in the Birmingham area on DTT and digital satellite.
on Jul 5th, 2007 at 16:16
So, it seems I’m not in the minority in agreeing ITV has lost the freshness and credibility it used to have from the days when the regional companies were truly independent , except for major events/drama/documentaries in evening peak time 8-10.30pm, with the rest of programming suited to the average timetables and tastes of the viewers served.
Viewing figures/share% declining slowly would also support the proposition that one big national ‘ITV’ company seems to have been surreptitiously de-regulated allowing for the 44min / hr + 16mins of promos and adverts, has made viewers less likely to view anything live, preferring to be more selective and recording just the occasional programme they do want to see, since a lot of valuable viewing time can be saved that way(ie ad-skipping). ITV are surely and not so slowly shooting themselves in the foot.
Bring back Independent TV with more power to the regional companies.
on Jul 8th, 2007 at 22:49
ITVin the50’s and 60’s was briliant, now apart from a few drama shows and local documenteries, is utter rubbish.
on Jul 10th, 2007 at 17:37
I agree with Biggles on 8.7.07. ITV has disintegrated and morals have disappeared - so has religious braodcasting with rare exceptional offerings.