57-736: ITV News Meridian is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian . The news service is produced and broadcast from ITV Meridian's studios in Whiteley , near Fareham with reporters also based at bureaux in Didcot , Brighton and Maidstone . The service transmits to a coverage area across three sub-regions in the South and South East of England. Freesat and Sky viewers in Brighton can receive either Meridian South or Meridian South East region on channel 103 as default via
114-504: A " Dormant company ". The company broadcasts to the region from transmitters at Hannington , Midhurst , Rowridge , Whitehawk Hill , Hastings, Heathfield , Tunbridge Wells, Bluebell Hill , Dover and, since 2015, Oxford (previously part of the ITV Central region), as well as associated relays. Today, ITV Meridian operates from studios in Whiteley , Hampshire , producing regional news services for three sub-regions, covering
171-476: A Mystery , The Vanishing Man , Jane Austen 's Emma , William and Mary and Eye of the Storm for older children. Drama became a successful genre for the station, with Peter Kosminsky 's No Child of Mine , tackling the emotionally difficult subject of child abuse, winning Meridian a BAFTA award. Meridian presents Mary Wesley's two novels: Harnessing Peacocks and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew . Later,
228-464: A form-up of their logo. From their launch this featured an exploding mix of orange, yellow and blue, which came together to form the distinctive sun/moon face logo. The unusual logo design was reportedly inspired by maritime images (the sun/moon face is a recurring feature on compasses, sextants and other nautical artefacts used in the navigation of ships), appropriately reflecting the south's long seafaring history. The name "Meridian", which derives from
285-464: A map of the UK made out of squares. On 16 January 2006, this was altered following the change of ITV logo to a sequence showing footage of the region and ending with the name over a light blue and turquoise cylinder , and further altered on 15 December 2009 to match the new ITV News style. This latest style featured a yellow and translucent black colour scheme and again focusing on footage of locations within
342-423: A merger between UNM and rival Carlton Television ; however, these talks failed when it appeared that Meridian Broadcasting would have to be sold off as a condition of the deal. As a result, the television assets of UNM were sold to Granada ; however, due to regulations stating that the company could not control that large an audience share, the broadcasting arm of HTV was sold to Carlton Television in exchange for
399-475: A more localised Channel 3 news service were approved. ITV News Meridian extended the South and South East opt-out services by an extra five minutes during the half-hour 6pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two regions. A Thames Valley service was also reintroduced, consisting of a ten-minute opt out within the 6pm programme for the South and a late bulletin after News at Ten . The two late night bulletins are retained for
456-568: A number of regional and networked programmes itself. As its parent company MAI became a significant shareholder in Channel 5 , Meridian supplied a number of the new channel's programmes for the network such as sports programme Turnstyle , youth programme The Mag and children's show Havakazoo . Meridian also geared a large amount of its network output towards younger viewers, with independent commissions including Wizadora for pre-school children, plus ZZZap! , The Ruth Rendell Mysteries , It's
513-734: A programme producer. Mark Southgate recruited journalist Marc Percy. The three new-look programmes were hosted from an original set design was by Eye-Catching Design. All three editions of Meridian Tonight went onto win the Royal Television Society's Nations and Regions Programme of the Year award – the only time three programmes have tied for the top prize. Presentation for all three services moved to new smaller digital studios at Whiteley, near Fareham on Saturday 4 December 2004. The Northam studios in Southampton were sold for
570-626: A reported £5 million for domestic housing and the studios near Maidstone were closed. The Meridian team in the South East moved back to the Maidstone Studios originally built by TVS and rejected by Meridian when they took over. Newsgathering operations in all areas were retained. In December 2006, the updates during GMTV became pan-regional. Weekend bulletins had become pan-regional across the South Coast and South East only, whilst
627-534: A studio within the sub region. These regions were: The services remained without major modification until 2001 when the Newbury complex was closed and the Meridian West studio operation was moved to the Southampton headquarters; Newsgathering remained the same as previously. When the company moved to Whiteley in 2004, presentation of all three editions of Meridian Tonight moved with the company, resulting in
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#1732786727026684-515: Is used for ITV News Meridian . The other is used for weather forecasts for the three sub-regions. The move was due to the cancellation of the lease at its former Whiteley premises. In addition to Meridian's Southampton headquarters, the company operated other studios and news bureaux. Upon launch, the South East output came from The Maidstone Studios before moving to a purpose-built studio centre at New Hythe near Maidstone in Kent in 1994. Following
741-734: The Yorkshire Post ) in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television , the owners of Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television . The stake in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television was sold to Granada Television , allowing them to take control of the two franchises in 1997. United News & Media later agreed to buy Scottish Television 's 20% stake in HTV and on 28 June 1997, HTV was taken over fully by UNM for £370 million. In 1999, plans emerged of
798-611: The 20% stake that Central Independent Television held in Meridian Broadcasting. In 2002, Granada Television and Carlton Television decided to consolidate the separate brandings for the ITV franchises that they controlled, changing the name of the region to ITV Meridian, with the on screen name of ITV1 used before all non-regional programming. The consolidation became further pronounced when Carlton Television and Granada Television merged to form ITV plc in 2004. 2004 also saw
855-481: The ITV franchise for the east of England, in 1994. The following year, MAI became a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for Channel 5 . In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers (via an agreed takeover by United) to form United News & Media (UNM). The resulting company owned the Daily Express newspaper, Meridian Broadcasting, Anglia Television, and a large shareholding (through
912-573: The Latin meridionālis meaning "of the south", may also be linked to the Prime Meridian (the boundary between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres of the globe, and a key landmark in the measurement of time), which passes through the middle of the region, although this has not been confirmed. On 2 September 1996, this ident was replaced by one with a deep purple/blue background and an emphasis on
969-540: The Meridian Tonight name. Following the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004 to form ITV plc , Meridian has used generic title sequences adopted across the ITV plc network of ITV stations. On 2 February 2004, this featured a blue and yellow look concentrating on vertical columns of translucent squares displaying images of the Meridian region, before ending with four square ITV logo over
1026-589: The Meridian West and Central South sub regions were merged to form the non-broadcast region ITV Thames Valley . This new service was broadcast from Whiteley, using Central 's Abingdon base as the main newsgathering centre. Under cost-cutting plans announced by ITV in September 2007 and agreed to by the UK's broadcasting regulator Ofcom in October 2008, the region's three sub-regions would be replaced with one programme. This new programme would be split between
1083-469: The South Coast of England, the South East of England and the Thames Valley . ITV Meridian was formed as Meridian Broadcasting in 1991. The company consisted of a consortium between Mills & Allen International (MAI), Selectv (15%) and Central Independent Television (20%), the latter of whom advised the consortium. Central Independent Television, along with Selectv, were instrumental in winning
1140-643: The South East (for coverage of the 70th anniversary of D-Day) and the Royal Television Society's Southern Centre Programme of the Year (for coverage of the Eastbourne Pier fire) Meridian's flagship regional news programme was launched as Meridian Tonight on 4 January 1993 – three days after Meridian replaced Television South . Three sub-regional editions of the programme were broadcast simultaneously, from studios in Southampton, Maidstone, and Newbury. The three original sub-regional services for Meridian News/Tonight were: Meridian's first Controller of News
1197-448: The South East and a combined South/Thames Valley region for the first half of the programme, and joined as one for the remainder of the programme. One of the opt out segments would be pre-recorded depending on the regions news. The new programme began on 9 February 2009, presented by Sangeeta Bhabra and Fred Dinenage. Pan-regional bulletins including morning ones during Daybreak , which are branded Daybreak Meridian News , are also used in
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#17327867270261254-402: The South and South East with opt-outs within the main 6pm programme extended slightly to 20 minutes. In the former Thames Valley region, plans were also approved for a ten-minute opt out within the 6pm programme for the south of England and a full late night bulletin on weekdays after News at Ten . During Meridian's years as an independent broadcaster their on-screen idents typically featured
1311-555: The South and the South East, in addition to the new Thames Valley bulletin. The expanded sub-regional service launched on Monday 16 September 2013. The Head of News was Robin Britton. He previously launched Thames Valley Tonight and the West edition of Meridian Tonight . In September 2017 he was replaced by Alison Nice, a former content editor for ITV Meridian. Upon launch in 1993, Meridian decided that all three programmes would share
1368-542: The West retained its own weekend bulletins until 3 December 2006, when ITV Thames Valley was launched. On 4 December 2006, a merger between West and the ITV Central South sub-region took place, forming the non-franchise ITV Thames Valley news service, broadcasting Thames Valley Today/Tonight from the same studio at Whiteley. The merger saw Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and the Swindon area being added to
1425-422: The centre of the line separating the programme name. The look was changed again on 4 January 1999 with the new titles featuring a vibrant purple background being changed into yellows and reds to form the Meridian logo. The music remained the same, but was enhanced to be more dramatic with a voiceover at the beginning declaring "This is Meridian Tonight". The programme name now featured the Meridian logo above, or to
1482-585: The closure of the New Hythe studio base, although newsgathering in the south-east was unaffected as journalists and reporters moved back to the Maidstone Studios. Despite this move not being uncommon in the broadcasting industry, some considered the move controversial, particularly as the Meridian South East programme would be presented 60 miles from the nearest part of the South East region and 160 miles from its furthest point. On 4 December 2006,
1539-595: The deep colours of the logo, as well as a smoother form-up. This ident was replaced on 5 October 1998 by one with a yellow background and featuring a small ITV logo underneath the Meridian name. On 8 November 1999, the emphasis was on the network's hearts logo, with a very small Meridian logo only featuring at the end of the form-up. This look was in use until October 2002 when ITV1 in England and Wales abandoned local continuity and idents. The only exceptions were ITV1 idents shown before regional programming, which featured
1596-409: The depending postcode. This means that the city's news, sport and weather is covered by both sub-regional programmes. Its main competitors are BBC South 's main evening programme BBC South Today in the South and Thames Valley regions; and BBC South East 's main evening programme BBC South East Today in the South East region. The programme is currently EDF Programme of the Year for London and
1653-541: The end of 2008, in light of a restructuring through the ITV regional news network, around 100 staff across the three sub-regional news services in South East England were made redundant. A single edition of Meridian Tonight for the entire region was launched on 9 February 2009. Within this, two sub-regions created – South/Thames Valley and South East . The then remaining sub-regional elements were: Sangeeta Bhabra and Fred Dinenage were lead presenters of
1710-539: The facilities were generally too big for Meridian. By 2004, ITV plc had decided that regional programming would be phased out in the years to come. In 2004, Meridian closed their Northam studios and moved to a unit in a business park in Whiteley . These new headquarters at Forum One, Solent Business Park, contained a newsroom plus the main technical production and transmission arms of the programmes including three small news studios. In summer 2008, Meridian's former studios at Southampton started to be dismantled, and it
1767-414: The former TVS South East division. Meridian took the opportunity to buy the Southampton studios from TVS. Meridian did put these studios to good use in the future; on some occasions, Meridian would hire its studios out to the independent companies to use for the programmes, and, under the ownership of United News & Media , some Channel 5 programmes were made there. However, as a publisher-broadcaster,
ITV News Meridian - Misplaced Pages Continue
1824-478: The franchise as a low bidder. Meridian Broadcasting intended to operate as a publisher broadcaster, meaning that the majority of programmes would be commissioned from independent producers rather than produced in-house. In the ITV franchise auction of 1991, Meridian Broadcasting faced three other opponents in gaining the franchise, including the incumbent Television South and bids from Carlton Communications and CPV-TV . Meridian Broadcasting bid £36.5 million for
1881-470: The franchise in 1991, its plans were to purchase buildings, not unlike its current arrangement today: with a small studio for continuity and local news. This was planned because, being a publisher-broadcaster, it did not plan to make any programmes itself, instead buying in programmes from independent production companies. However, when TVS lost its franchise, TVS' plans were to become an independent production company based at Vinters Park, Maidstone , site of
1938-461: The franchise, lower than TVS's bid of £59.8 million; however, the bid made by TVS was rejected following an unsatisfactory business plan. As the highest qualified bidder, Meridian Broadcasting therefore won the franchise. Meridian Broadcasting took over from Television South at stroke of midnight on New Year's Day (1 January) 1993. At the stroke of midnight, following Westminster clock tower chimes, technicians switched from Television South to
1995-515: The late-night weather forecast on 5 December 2004. On 1 February 2005, it was replaced with a generic "ITV Meridian" logo, the official name of the franchise. Since 2006, all idents have been generic to the entire network with no difference between regions and only the ITV1 name being used. On 14 January 2013, the station's on-air identity was changed to ITV , along with all other ITV plc-owned franchises. From September 2014, however, Meridian's identity
2052-505: The launch and the new company's logo was also incorporated into the product for the first advert shown on the station – the special edition Ford Fiesta Meridian, available through Southern Ford dealers. Six months after the launch of Meridian Broadcasting, the new company joined up with HTV , Westcountry Television , Channel Television and S4C to form a joint advertising company operated by Meridian Broadcasting and HTV. Shortly after, MAI began to expand by buying Anglia Television ,
2109-424: The move of ITV Meridian from their previous Northam studio complex to a new studio base in Whiteley , Hampshire. In the subsequent years, ITV Meridian's workforce has been condensed slowly with its operations considerably downgraded. This came to a head when Michael Grade announced his intention to reduce the number of regional programmes from 17 to 9. As part of these plans, which were approved by Ofcom in 2008,
2166-564: The move of the studio to Whiteley, the complex closed with a south-east newsroom with producers and reporters being moved back to The Maidstone Studios . Additionally, Meridian originally opened and operated a new studio complex at Newbury for its Meridian West operation. This closed in 2001, when the studio was moved to Southampton. When Meridian launched, it divided its news operations into three separate sub regions. These regions were served by their version of news programme Meridian Tonight , presented by an individual team of presenters from
2223-472: The programme Meridian – The First 10 Minutes , a 10-minute outside broadcast from Winchester Cathedral presented by Debbie Thrower and previewing the station's forthcoming output. Other launch day programmes included Michael Palin 's documentary First Night on Meridian and the first Meridian News bulletins for its three sub-regions. Meridian advertised their presence as the new ITV contractor heavily; promotions began appearing on TVS several weeks before
2280-559: The region for news purposes. The former ITV Central South sub-region headquarters at Abingdon was retained as the main news gathering base for ITV Thames Valley, but the studio presentation facility was mothballed. Bulletins during GMTV became pan-regional across the ITV Meridian and ITV Thames Valley areas, and branded as GMTV News . Weekend bulletins continued to be separate Meridian News (pan-regional for South Coast and South East) and Thames Valley Today/Tonight services. At
2337-698: The region. ITV Meridian ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting ) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England . The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South , and is owned and operated by ITV plc , under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. Meridian Broadcasting Ltd was one of several (but not all) ITV plc-owned regional companies to have its legal name changed on 29 December 2006, when it became ITV Meridian Ltd. This company is, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed with Companies House as
ITV News Meridian - Misplaced Pages Continue
2394-430: The region. The sub-regions retain their own local advertisements. In 2013, following a network wide rebrand of ITV, the long-standing Meridian Tonight brand was retired and replaced by ITV News Meridian . On 23 July 2013, proposals to reintroduce some elements of the sub-regional services were approved by Ofcom. As a result, ITV News Meridian now also produces separate breakfast, lunchtime and weekend bulletins for
2451-684: The same production team tackled vicious childhood bullying in Walking on the Moon . Meridian's two-part production In the Name of Love in 1999 starred Tara Fitzgerald , Tim Dutton and Mark Strong , and was written by Sarah-Louise Hawkins and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax. Hornblower was a Sunday night success for the ITV network while another Sunday night favourite, Where the Heart Is , transferred production from Anglia Television to Meridian in 2002 –
2508-404: The same titles, music and name. From launch until 5 May 1996, the programme titles featured a large translucent Meridian logo flipping over to reveal and yellow and blue map of the region. Accompanied by a trumpeted fanfare, the region lights up with several dots marking Meridian's news-gathering centres, and three pulses marking Southampton, Maidstone and Newbury – the locations of each of
2565-540: The scaled back service. Both sub-regional editions use the same presenter(s) and studio/set, therefore one of the two opt-outs – depending on the day's news – is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before broadcast. In February 2010, the programme won the Royal Television Society 's Award for Best Nations & Regions News Coverage. On Monday 14 January 2013, the news service was relaunched and rebranded as ITV News Meridian . On 23 July 2013, proposals for
2622-431: The side of the programme name and appearing as a digital on-screen graphic in the bottom left corner of the screen throughout the programme. The last Meridian individual look was introduced on 4 February 2002 and featured two translucent halves of Meridian's logo merging and moving together against a purple backdrop. The end board of the sequence saw to two-halves move closer against a stripe of red and yellow colour against
2679-532: The south-east of the Central franchise area as well as the north of the Meridian area. For this reason it was unlike the GMTV Northern Ireland and GMTV Scotland services, as it was produced by an ITV regional franchise-holder, rather than an independent company. As GMTV at the time only paid for one regional news service per official franchisee, the regional GMTV News -branded service
2736-487: The station's last major contribution at a network level. GMTV News (South) GMTV News was the brand name for the regional news service in the south coast of England and the Thames Valley, from 5 December 2006 until 6 February 2009. The change in branding was brought about due to the launch of ITV's Thames Valley news region on 4 December 2006, which, although based at Meridian 's studios, consisted of
2793-444: The three editions of the news programme Meridian Tonight were replaced with a single edition with a pre-recorded opt out for either the South or South East of the region. The plans resulted in over half of Meridian's existing staff being made redundant; all employees wishing to remain with the company were obliged to re-apply for jobs. Some staff opted for voluntary redundancy and many others have been left without jobs. Strike action
2850-430: The three programmes. Each respective region would then zoom into their area, before the flipping logo reveals the programme name, separated by a horizontal line, at the end of the sequence. The title sequence and music was changed on 6 May 1996 to a blue and gold background variant, featuring a partly obscured circle displaying news related imagery, before flipping to reveal the centre of the Meridian logo falling back into
2907-494: The three sub-regions (South, East and Thames Valley). However to maintain lower costs, the main half-hour programme at 6pm contains a minimum 20 minutes of regional news (10 minutes in the Thames Valley) and daily use of "shared content" from outside the region. The practice of broadcasting one programme live and pre-recording others, using the same presenting team and studio set, continues. When Meridian originally won
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#17327867270262964-411: The weather for Thames Valley and South and Ron Lobeck was also retained for the South East forecasts. Robin Britton recruited programme producer Paul Erlam and transport correspondent Mike Pearse ( Thames News ), along with Alison Black ( Channel 4 Daily ) and Peter Brookes ( TV-am ). Andy Cooper hired Nick Myers from TV-am, and moved Steve McDonnell from current affairs at TVS back into the newsroom as
3021-405: The word "Meridian" below the ITV1 logo. However, even this did not last, and only a few years later these regional idents were dropped. Meridian for a while managed to retain some identity by featuring their (sun/moon face) logo on the local weather forecast, as well as the news desk of Meridian News and Meridian Tonight . However, the logo was completely removed in 2004, last seen at the start of
3078-530: Was Jim Raven, who had previously been the Editor for the South East edition of TVS's Coast to Coast . Three regional editors (later heads of news) were appointed to run each of the three news sub-regions: Meridian South went on air with Fred Dinenage (TVS & Southern) and Debbie Thrower (BBC), the South East anchors were Mike Debens (TVS) and Alison Holloway (Sky, ABC) and in the Thames Valley, Andy Craig (Central) partnered with Mai Davies (TVS). Carl Tyler did
3135-517: Was planned to build a multi-storey block of flats. In December 2010, the site was still lying empty after developer Oakdene fell into administration in 2009. Over the weekend of 22–23 October 2011, ITV Meridian moved to new premises in Fusion Three, on the same business park at Whiteley and across the road from its previous office. The new headquarters are again located in a conventional office building, and include two small studios, one of which
3192-432: Was revived by an announcement (including the sub-region) immediately prior to the evening edition of ITV Meridian News . Meridian Broadcasting was originally intended to function as a publisher-broadcaster, commissioning most programmes from independent producers and with in-house production largely restricted to regional news, sport and current affairs. However, over time and as its ownership changed, Meridian began to make
3249-416: Was threatened as a result of the announcement. At present the only local programming that ITV Meridian provides for the region is regional news programming and a pan-regional monthly late-night 30-minute political discussion programme, The Last Word . In 2013 proposals were approved by Ofcom that reversed the 2009 consolidation of ITV Meridian's regional news programmes, resulting in the reinstatement of
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