>Is it unfair that Granada contibute so much to the ITV network (600 hours of network programmes plus a year) far ahead of any other, only Anglia are close with 300 hours, Carlton not even coming near with just 100 hours.

Given the quality of Carlton programmes, we're lucky they don't produce more. Over the last five years, the quality of the entire ITV output has fallen drastically.

>What can we do to protect the regional Identities of ITV and how can Carlton be forced to change back the names to Central And Westcountry respectively ? Was Carlton buying Westcountry a good idea?

What is the point of regional identities, anyway?

>ANY comments on news at ten are also VERY welcome...Is it the end for news on terrestrial tv as we know it with Britain's first 24 hour news channel Sky News launching an interactive news service next week and ITN are to soon follow, with NTL's help, launching their 24 hours news service on digital tv (sky as well as ondigital) and cable network NTL. Are programmes such as news at ten needed or do consumers prefer to watch unbranded news programmes such as "Sky News on the Hour"?, or is the "Sky News LIVE at FIVE" programme more appealing because it has that personal touch? Is "Sky News at Ten" a step in the right direction, and how many of us watch it?

Interactive news service? Do you mean like Ceefax?
Speaking personally (of course) I don't need 24-hour news, I can do without death and carnage until the next scheduled bulletin. And I certainly don't need 3 24-hour services (BBC,Sky,ITN). I don't need to be reminded of the same headlines every 15 minutes.
News At Ten had an identity which (possibly all) other news programs lack. It was regular, sufficiently in depth, and became "trusted" over the years. Scrapping it in favour of the shit that has replaced it is disgraceful. Even the rarely shown movies are hardly worth watching.

Sky News is launching a new 'interactive' service (24 hrs). It runs along the same lines as Sky sports ACTIVE allowing viewers to choose what they want to watch. It will in future allow them to vote using the service. Programmes such as YOUR CALL and Technofile will be expanded to give viewers a 'wider and more interactive view'. The Sky News website is also to be redesigned in the Autumn, questioning whether there will be another new logo for Sky News
Tom Davis

Was Carlton buying Westcountry a good idea?

I think that Carlton buying Westcountry was a good idea because it has put more money into it's local programming. I think that re-branding Westcountry was the worst move ever. I also think that Carlton should have left Central alone.

Carlton doing anything is wrong, they don't make a decent programme unless central or westcountry do it for them. Carlton are soooooo up themselves renaming Central and Westcountry, granda have got more to boast about and do they do it NO.

600 hours from Granada sounds a lot, but to be fair, I bet that's Granada+YTV+LWT+TyneTees, isn't it.

Regional TV on ITV is in decline, I reckon that they ought to separate ITV from the regional stations and set up a new network of unconnected digital stations which all make programmes for local areas (1 or 2 towns) and cannot be merged by their owners into big conglomerates. Common ownership is fine, just model it on Granada or UNM (independent news teams, idents, programmes) not Carlton (nuff said)

The figure of 600 hours is actually a little low: according to the ITC site (www.itc.org.uk), Granada supplied 670 hours of new programmes to the network, without the help of YTV, Tyne Tees or LWT.

YTV supplied 177 hours of new programmes, Tyne Tees 8 hours and LWT 287 hours.

The thing is, of course, Granada and LWT programmes tend to be as interchangable nowadays (This Morning switched from Liverpool to the South Bank, for example) as Yorkshire and Tyne Tees!

>YTV supplied 177 hours of new programmes, Tyne Tees 8 hours and LWT 287 hours.

UTV supplied 0 hours of programmes to the Network Full stop. Though there is a show about Irish dancing which was supposed to have been shown last year but is to be shown soon.

And it was only 3 years ago that Tyne Tees put out 78 hours. Sniff.

Re: News at Ten and regional news.
Average drop in the early evening regional news programme audiences on ITV since the new schedule was introduced last year is 22 per cent.
That's surely the worst indictment of ITV's commitment to regional television.
What was once often a flagship programme, especially for the smaller companies, has been sacrificed for (marginally) higher ratings on networked programmes later on at night.
This fact seems to have been overlooked in most of the News at Ten debate, yet it's the one that has most radically changed ITV and it's the one that's most indicative of the way that the larger companies operate.

>Sky News is launching a new 'interactive' service (24 hrs). It runs along the same lines as Sky sports ACTIVE allowing viewers to choose what they want to watch. It will in future allow them to vote using the service. Programmes such as YOUR CALL and Technofile will be expanded to give viewers a 'wider and more interactive view'. The Sky News website is also to be redesigned in the Autumn, questioning whether there will be another new logo for Sky News
>Tom Davis

Apparently you're able to do things like get reports on demand and access live feeds coming into the Sky Centre (eg a press conference, when the main channel moves away you can keep watching) Sounds interesting, anyone used it yet?

yes it was slightly confusing at first, but a nice idea and better than Sky Sports interactive

yes it was slightly confusing at first, but a nice idea and better than Sky Sports interactive