Meridian Broadcasting

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Meridian

Based in	Whiteley, Hampshire
Broadcast area	South and South East England
Launched	1 January 1993
The original ident, used 1993-96
Closed	Lost on-air identity 27 October 2002 (known as ITV1 Meridian before regional programming only)
Replaced	Television South
Website	itvlocal.com
Owned by	ITV plc

Meridian Broadcasting (now legally named ITV Meridian Ltd) is the holder of the ITV franchise for South and South East England. It has been broadcasting since 1 January 1993, when it replaced TVS. The main headquarters were situated at studios in Northam, Southampton, but in December 2004 they moved to part of an office building in Whiteley, Hampshire; as a result, Meridian's role has gradually been reduced from producing a wide variety of regional and network programming (as it did since 1993, when it inherited a large studio complex in Southampton) to producing little more than regional news bulletins which are a contractual obligation (as it does today).

The first programme shown on Meridian was Meridian - The First 10 Minutes This was a 10-minute long movie, showcasing the future for ITV on Meridian.

Contents 1 Sub-regions 2 Presenters (Meridian News) 3 Identity 4 Ownership 5 Productions 6 ITV Local 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Sub-regions

Meridian operates three sub-regions:

• ITV Meridian South East (Kent, Medway, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove);
• ITV Meridian South (Brighton and Hove, West Sussex, southern Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth and eastern Dorset);
• ITV Thames Valley - this replaced ITV Meridian West which served northern Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire when it merged with neighbouring Central South to create a single ITV Thames Valley[1]. Its news programme is now called Thames Valley Tonight, and although ITV Thames Valley is not branded as Meridian, it does broadcast from Meridian's studios.

The South and South-East regions produce their own editions of the flagship news magazine Meridian Tonight (6pm weeknights), alongside further Meridian News bulletins throughout the day. Only during GMTV are there pan-regional bulletins, which are now branded GMTV News as they now also cover all of the Thames Valley region. The sub-regions have their own local advertisements too, but otherwise, programmes across the whole Meridian region are identical. All of the bulletins for all three regions come from studios in the same building in Whiteley, Hampshire. Some consider this controversial, particularly as the Meridian South East programme for Kent, East Sussex and South Essex is presented by anchors from a studio in Hampshire, 60 miles from the nearest part of the South East region (Brighton) and 160 miles from its furthest point (Broadstairs). However, this is purely transmission - the main south-east newsroom and the reporters are based at Maidstone in Kent and the programme editorial decisions are made there.

[edit] Presenters (Meridian News)

• ITV Meridian South East - Ian Axton, Sangeeta Bhabra, Glen Thompsett;
• ITV Meridian South - Fred Dinenage, Debbie Thrower;
• weather (all sub-regions) - Gemma Humphries, Martyn Davies, Robin Lermitte, Philippa Drew, Carl Tyler, Simon Parkin.

[edit] Identity

Meridian's original ident featured an exploding mix of orange, yellow and blue, which then came together to form the familiar sun/face logo.

Under several different formups and backgrounds, the sun/face logo was in use until 2002 when the station was re-branded as 'ITV1 Meridian'. The original logo was last seen at the start of the late-night weather forecast on 5 December 2004, and on 1 February 2005 it was replaced with a banner simply saying 'ITV Meridian', the 'official' name of the franchisee these days.

[edit] Ownership

Meridian Broadcasting was originally controlled by Mills and Allen International (MAI).^[1]. In 1994, MAI bought Anglia Television, and in 1995 it was a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for Channel 5.^[2]

In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers (via an agreed takeover by United) to form United News and Media (UNM). The resulting company owned the Daily Express newspaper, Meridian, Anglia, and a large shareholding (through the Yorkshire Post) in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television, the owners of Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television^[3]. This stake was sold to Granada Television, allowing them to take control of the two franchises. In 1997, UNM bought HTV.^[2]

UNM had spent several years attempting to merge with either Granada Group or Carlton Communications, but negotiations came to nothing. Instead, in 2000, UNM sold its broadcasting and newspaper interests and became United Business Media. Meridian, Anglia and HTV were acquired by Granada, but the UK Broadcasting Act, at that time, did not allow one company to control that number of franchises. Granada gave HTV to Carlton, in return for Carlton relinquishing the 20% stake in Meridian tgat it had inherited from Central Independent Television.^[4]

In 2002, Granada and Carlton decided to consolidate the separate brandings for the ITV franchises that they controlled, this consolidation became even more apparent after Granada and Carlton merged to form ITV plc.

[edit] Productions

Some of Meridian's notable contributions to the national television network include:

• Hornblower
• Monkey Business
• That's Esther
• Wizadora
• ZZZap!

[edit] ITV Local

The Meridian Region was the trial region for ITV Local, a new local broadband service from ITV providing regional news and events 24 hours a day. This service has now been extended to cover the Thames Valley, Central and ITV London regions.

[edit] References

1. ^ United Business Media annual report
2. ^ ^{a b} OfCom
3. ^ PRNewsWire
4. ^ ITV plc

[edit] External links

• ITV Meridian & Thames Valley at itvlocal.com