ITV News Meridian

Last updated

ITV News Meridian
ITV News Meridian.png
Also known as
  • Good Morning Meridian (2014-)
  • Meridian Tonight (1993-2013)
  • Meridian News (1993-2013)
Directed byAlison Nice
(Head of News)
Kim Hewitt
(Programme and Digital Editor)
Presented by Sangeeta Bhabra & Matt Teale
Country of originEngland, United Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Production locations Whiteley, Hampshire, England
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time29 minutes (18:00 broadcast)
Production company ITV Meridian
Original release
Network ITV1 (ITV Meridian)
Release4 January 1993 (1993-01-04) 
present
Related

ITV News Meridian is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian.

Contents

Overview

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, Maidstone, Poole and Reading.

Currently, the news service transmits to a vast coverage area across three sub-regions in the South and South East of England.

The programme is currently EDF Programme of the Year for London and 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) [1]

History

January 1993 – December 2006

Meridian's flagship regional news programme was launched as Meridian Tonight on 4 January 1993 – three days after Meridian replaced TVS.

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 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:

The presenting line-up for each news service reflected continuity and change. 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 the weather for Thames Valley and South and Ron Lobeck was also retained for the South East forecasts.

Robin Britton had scope to recruit the best talent not only from TVS, but from the outgoing Thames Television, Channel 4 Daily, TSW and TV-AM as well. These included 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 also took advantage of the franchise changes, hiring the very experienced Nick Myers from TV-am, and moving Steve McDonnell from current affairs at TVS back into the newsroom, this time as a programme producer alongside Myers. Mark Southgate also brought in new recruits, including the journalist Marc Percy – the three new-look programmes were hosted from an original set design was by Eye-Catching Design. [2]

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 studios in Southampton and near Maidstone were closed at this time.

The Northam studios in Southampton were sold off for 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 the West retained its own weekend bulletins right up until 3 December 2006, when ITV Thames Valley was launched.

December 2006 – February 2009

On 4 December 2006, the long expected 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 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 entire combined 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.

February 2009 – September 2013

At 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 announced as lead presenters of the scaled back service. Both sub-regional editions utilise exactly 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. [3]

In February 2010, the programme won the Royal Television Society's Award for Best Nations & Regions News Coverage. [4] On Monday 14 January 2013, the news service was relaunched and rebranded as ITV News Meridian. [5]

September 2013 – present

On 23 July 2013, proposals for 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 the South and the South East, in addition to the new Thames Valley bulletin. [6]

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.

Notable current on air staff

Notable former on air staff

Graphics

Upon launch of the three regional news services in 1993, Meridian made the decision that all three programmes would share the same titles, music and name. Upon the launch of Meridian Tonight from 1 January 1993 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 the three programmes. Each respective region would then zoom into their region of the Meridian region before the flipping logo reveals the programme name, separated by a horizontal line, at the end of the sequence. [8]

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 the centre of the line separating the programme name. [8]

The look was changed once 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 the side of the programme name and appearing as a DOG 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 the Meridian Tonight name. [8]

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 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 the region. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITV1</span> British free-to-air television channel

ITV1 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for the central and northern areas of Scotland where STV provides the service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Television</span> ITV franchisee for South & South-East England (1958–81)

Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as 'Southern Television Limited' and the title 'Southern Television' was consistently used on-air throughout its life. However, in 1966, during the application process for contracts running from 1968, the company renamed itself 'Southern Independent Television Limited', a title which was used until 1980 when the company reverted to its original corporate name. Southern Television ceased broadcasting on the morning of 1 January 1982 at 12:43am, after a review during the 1980 franchise round gave the contract to Television South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Television South</span> ITV franchise holder for the South and South East of England (1982–92)

Television South (TVS) was the ITV franchise holder in the South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, initially as 'Television South plc' and then following reorganisation in 1989 as 'TVS Entertainment plc', with UK broadcasting activities undertaken by subsidiary 'TVS Television Ltd'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITV Meridian</span> South & South East England TV region

ITV Meridian 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 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 a "Dormant company".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Dinenage</span> British television presenter and author (born 1942)

Frederick Edgar Dinenage MBE is a British author, broadcaster and television presenter. His television career has spanned nearly 60 years, including the long-running children's programme How and ITV's regional programming in the south of England. Dinenage retired from presenting regional news on ITV Meridian on 16 December 2021, after 38 years as a news anchor.

<i>BBC South Today</i> BBC television news programme for the south of England

BBC South Today is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, much of Dorset and parts of Surrey and Wiltshire.

The history of ITV, the United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies "Independent Television" commercial network, goes back to 1955.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Maidstone Studios</span> Television studio complex in Kent, England

The Maidstone Studios, formerly called TVS Television Centre, is the largest independent television studio complex in the United Kingdom, and is based at Vinters Park in Maidstone, Kent, England. It has been home to a varied selection of independent British television programming including Later... with Jools Holland, Jools' Annual Hootenanny, Take Me Out, Catchphrase, as well as popular children's shows such as Mister Maker and Let's Play for CBeebies, or Art Attack for TVS and later for ITV and Disney Channel.

<i>ITV News Central</i> British regional news programme

ITV News Central is a British television news service for The East and West Midlands, broadcast and produced by ITV Central.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITV Thames Valley</span> Former ITV news region

ITV Thames Valley was a non-franchise ITV news region covering the Thames Valley area of the United Kingdom from 4 December 2006 until 8 February 2009. Owned and operated by ITV plc, it served the south/south-eastern area of the legal Central franchise and the north/north-western area of the legal Meridian franchise. In its first year, its flagship news programme Thames Valley Tonight won the Royal Television Society's Southern Centre Award for News Magazine Programme of the Year for its coverage of the 2007 summer floods.

<i>Thames Valley Tonight</i> British regional television news programme

Thames Valley Tonight was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2009.

<i>Coast to Coast</i> (British TV programme) English TV series or programme

Coast to Coast was the flagship regional news programme produced by TVS, covering the south and southeast of England with separate news services for both parts of the dual-region between January 1982 and December 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Television Centre, Southampton</span> Former headquarters of the ITV contractors Southern, TVS and Meridian

Television Centre, Southampton was home to the three ITV contractors for the South and South East region: Southern, TVS, and Meridian. It was also known as The Southern Television Centre, The Southampton Television Centre, and unofficially as The Northam Studios.

Scene South East was a regional television news magazine programme produced by Southern Television, covering the south east of England.

This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Central Independent Television. It has provided the ITV service for the Midlands since 1982.

This is a timeline of the history of the former British broadcaster Southern Television. It provided the ITV service for the South and South East of England from 1958 to 1981.

This is a timeline of the history of the former British broadcaster TVS. It provided the ITV service for the South and South East of England from 1982 to 1992.

This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Meridian Broadcasting. It has provided the ITV service for the South and South East of England since 1993.

This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster London Weekend Television. It has provided the ITV weekend service for London since 1968.

This is a timeline of the history of regional news on the British television network ITV.

References

  1. Linford, Paul. "Hold the Front page". holdthefrontpage.co.uk. Hold the Front page website. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  2. "News/Factual/Corporate Set Design". eye-catching design. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  3. Seventeen regions into nine: How the updated ITV local news services will run Caitlin Fitzsimmons, The Guardian, 17 February 2009
  4. "Royal Television Society - Television Journalism - Winners - 200". Archived from the original on 2 March 2010.
  5. ITV launches rebrand on air and online, itv.com, 14 January 2012
  6. OFCOM sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5 Archived 26 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine , OFCOM, 23 July 2013
  7. "Fred Dinenage steps down as TV news anchor after 38 years". BBC News. 12 October 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Hale, Ben; Hackett, Steve. "Meridian News". TVARK: The Online Television Museum. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
Preceded by RTS: Television Journalism
Regional Daily News Magazine
(South edition)

2004
Succeeded by
Preceded by RTS: Television Journalism
Nations and Regions News Coverage
(Justice for Hannah – South edition)

2010
Succeeded by