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{{Infobox ITV franchisee| name = Meridian
| image = ]
| based = [Whiteley, [Hampshire
(previously [Southampton)
| area = [Southern England and [South East England
| owner = [ITV plc
| airdate =
1 January [
| oldlogo = ]
''The original ident, used 1993-96''
| captionb =
| closeddate = Lost on-air identity 27 October [ (known as '''ITV1 Meridian''' before regional programming only)
| replaced = [Television South
| replacedby =
| website = http://www.itvlocal.com/meridian itvlocal.com/meridian
-->
ITV Meridian Ltd (formerly and more commonly known as
Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the
ITV franchise for
Southern England and
South East England Meridian licence - Ofcom. It has been broadcasting since 1 January
1993, when it replaced Television South. The main headquarters were situated at studios in
Northam, Southampton,
Southampton (previously used by both Southern Television and TVS), but in December 2004 they moved to part of an office building on the Solent Business Park, near 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).
Launch
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. Other launch day programmes including Michael Palin's
First Night on Meridian.
Other Meridian-commissioned programmes that were introduced included
Wizadora for pre-school children, plus
Zzap and
Eye Of The Storm for older children. Later on other children's programming was introduced including
Dog and Duck for pre-school children. Drama became a successful genre for Meridian, with
Peter Kosminsky's hard-hitting
No Child of Mine (co-produced by Stonehenge Films, United Productions and Meridian for
ITV) tackling the emotionally difficult subject of child abuse, winning Meridian a BAFTA. Later, the same production team tackled vicious childhood bullying in
Walking on the Moon for ITV.
Hornblower was a Sunday night success for ITV and another Sunday night favourite,
Where The Heart Is, transferred production from Anglia to Meridian in 2004.
When TVS took over from Southern in 1982 the south-east region was enlarged by switching the Bluebell Hill transmitter from Thames/LWT, resulting in a new centre in Maidstone, but when Meridian took over the franchise, they created a new "West" sub-region around the Hannington transmitter in order to improve the area's local news coverage, using a small news studio based at Newbury. The centre was closed in 2004, with production of
Meridian Tonight moving to the new headquarters in Whiteley.
Sub-regions
Meridian operates three sub-regions:
- ITV Meridian South East (Kent, Medway, East Sussex, South Essex 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, Berkshire and parts of Surrey, when it merged with neighbouring Central Independent Television to create a single ITV Thames Valley. 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. It is now the biggest of the three new regions adding Oxfordshire, the Swindon area and Buckinghamshire to the Meridian West counties.
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 (South) 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). This practice isn't a new one, though, as Anglia have always broadcast both of their editions of
Anglia News/
Anglia Tonight from Norwich for the east and west of the region since their inception in 1990, covering a geographical area roughly the same size in length as Meridian's. However, it is only the technical production and transmission end of the programmes that is centred in Whiteley - the main south-east newsroom and the reporters are based at
The Maidstone Studios in
Kent and the programme editorial decisions are made there. The model has been extended to
Thames Valley Tonight, which is also produced at the Whiteley headquarters, with the former Central South studio in
Abingdon, Oxfordshire as its newsroom and editorial hub.
Under the plans the region's three evening news broadcasts - Meridian South, Meridian South East and Thames Valley - will become one. The new regional programme would cover and area stretching from Kent to Dorset as well as parts of Essex and Berkshire.
ITV Meridian employs about 180 people. It is not known how many jobs will go because of the changes but some job losses look inevitable.{{cite news | title = Meridian faces axe
| publisher = Salisbury Journal
| date = 21 September, [
| url = http://www.thisissalisbury.co.uk/display.var.1703437.0.meridian_faces_axe.php
| accessdate = 2007-09-21-->
Presenters (
Meridian News)
- ITV Thames Valley - Wesley Smith, Mary Green, Hannah Shellswell,;
- ITV Meridian South East - Ian Axton, Sangeeta Bhabra, Glen Thompsett (freelance cover);
- ITV Meridian South - Fred Dinenage, Debbie Thrower;
- Weather - Gemma Humphries, Martyn Davies, Robin Lermitte, Philippa Drew (all sub-regions); Carl Tyler (relief forecaster/former regular South presenter); Simon Parkin (dedicated Thames Valley forecaster/very occasional cover for Meridian)
Identity
Meridian's original
Television ident featured an exploding mix of orange, yellow and blue, which then came together to form the familiar sun/face logo. The unusual logo design is reportedly inspired by maritime images (the sun/moon face is a recurring feature on compasses, sextons and other nautical artefacts used in the navigation of ships), appropriately reflecting the south's long seafaring history and naval credentials. The name "Meridian", which derives from a Latin word 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.
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.
Ownership
Meridian Broadcasting was originally controlled by Mills and Allen International (MAI). United Business Media annual report. In 1994, MAI bought
Anglia Television, and in 1995 it was a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for
Five (TV). OfCom
In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers (via an
Mergers and acquisitions 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 PRNewsWire. This stake was sold to
Granada Television, allowing them to take control of the two franchises. In 1997, UNM bought HTV. OfCom
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 that it had inherited from
Central Independent Television. ITV plc
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.
Productions
Some of Meridian's notable contributions to the national television network include:
ITV Local
Meridian was the first to trial the online local television service,
ITV Local, in 2005 (former Meridian managing director and one-time LNN journalist Lindsay Charlton is director of programming and content). The service, available 24 hours a day, provides all regional content shown on Meridian, plus additional coverage of local events, documentaries, webcams, advertisements and other features. It was later joined by
ITV Thames Valley,
ITV London,
Central Independent Television,
Granada, HTV,
ITV Yorkshire, ITV Tyne Tees and ITV Border. The final rollouts to ITV West and Westcountry Television were completed on 8th October 2007.
References
External links
- ITV Meridian & Thames Valley at ITV Local
{{Infobox ITV franchisee| name = Meridian
| image = ]
| based = [Whiteley, [Hampshire
(previously [Southampton)
| area = [Southern England and [South East England
| owner = [ITV plc
| airdate =
1 January [
| oldlogo = ]
''The original ident, used 1993-96''
| captionb =
| closeddate = Lost on-air identity 27 October [ (known as '''ITV1 Meridian''' before regional programming only)
| replaced = [Television South
| replacedby =
| website =
http://www.itvlocal.com/meridian itvlocal.com/meridian
-->
ITV Meridian Ltd (formerly and more commonly known as
Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for
Southern England and
South East England Meridian licence - Ofcom. It has been broadcasting since 1 January 1993, when it replaced
Television South. The main headquarters were situated at studios in
Northam, Southampton, Southampton (previously used by both Southern Television and
TVS), but in December 2004 they moved to part of an office building on the Solent Business Park, near
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).
Launch
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. Other launch day programmes including Michael Palin's
First Night on Meridian.
Other Meridian-commissioned programmes that were introduced included
Wizadora for pre-school children, plus
Zzap and
Eye Of The Storm for older children. Later on other children's programming was introduced including
Dog and Duck for pre-school children. Drama became a successful genre for Meridian, with
Peter Kosminsky's hard-hitting
No Child of Mine (co-produced by Stonehenge Films, United Productions and Meridian for ITV) tackling the emotionally difficult subject of child abuse, winning Meridian a BAFTA. Later, the same production team tackled vicious childhood bullying in
Walking on the Moon for
ITV.
Hornblower was a Sunday night success for ITV and another Sunday night favourite,
Where The Heart Is, transferred production from Anglia to Meridian in 2004.
When TVS took over from Southern in 1982 the south-east region was enlarged by switching the Bluebell Hill transmitter from Thames/LWT, resulting in a new centre in Maidstone, but when Meridian took over the franchise, they created a new "West" sub-region around the Hannington transmitter in order to improve the area's local news coverage, using a small news studio based at Newbury. The centre was closed in 2004, with production of
Meridian Tonight moving to the new headquarters in Whiteley.
Sub-regions
Meridian operates three sub-regions:
- ITV Meridian South East (Kent, Medway, East Sussex, South Essex 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, Berkshire and parts of Surrey, when it merged with neighbouring Central Independent Television to create a single ITV Thames Valley. 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. It is now the biggest of the three new regions adding Oxfordshire, the Swindon area and Buckinghamshire to the Meridian West counties.
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 (South) 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). This practice isn't a new one, though, as Anglia have always broadcast both of their editions of
Anglia News/
Anglia Tonight from Norwich for the east and west of the region since their inception in 1990, covering a geographical area roughly the same size in length as Meridian's. However, it is only the technical production and transmission end of the programmes that is centred in Whiteley - the main south-east newsroom and the reporters are based at The Maidstone Studios in Kent and the programme editorial decisions are made there. The model has been extended to
Thames Valley Tonight, which is also produced at the Whiteley headquarters, with the former Central South studio in
Abingdon, Oxfordshire as its newsroom and editorial hub.
Under the plans the region's three evening news broadcasts - Meridian South, Meridian South East and Thames Valley - will become one. The new regional programme would cover and area stretching from Kent to Dorset as well as parts of Essex and Berkshire.
ITV Meridian employs about 180 people. It is not known how many jobs will go because of the changes but some job losses look inevitable.{{cite news | title = Meridian faces axe
| publisher = Salisbury Journal
| date =
21 September, [
| url = http://www.thisissalisbury.co.uk/display.var.1703437.0.meridian_faces_axe.php
| accessdate = 2007-09-21-->
Presenters (
Meridian News)
- ITV Thames Valley - Wesley Smith, Mary Green, Hannah Shellswell,;
- ITV Meridian South East - Ian Axton, Sangeeta Bhabra, Glen Thompsett (freelance cover);
- ITV Meridian South - Fred Dinenage, Debbie Thrower;
- Weather - Gemma Humphries, Martyn Davies, Robin Lermitte, Philippa Drew (all sub-regions); Carl Tyler (relief forecaster/former regular South presenter); Simon Parkin (dedicated Thames Valley forecaster/very occasional cover for Meridian)
Identity
Meridian's original Television ident featured an exploding mix of orange, yellow and blue, which then came together to form the familiar sun/face logo. The unusual logo design is reportedly inspired by maritime images (the sun/moon face is a recurring feature on compasses, sextons and other nautical artefacts used in the navigation of ships), appropriately reflecting the south's long seafaring history and naval credentials. The name "Meridian", which derives from a Latin word 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.
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.
Ownership
Meridian Broadcasting was originally controlled by Mills and Allen International (MAI). United Business Media annual report. In 1994, MAI bought Anglia Television, and in 1995 it was a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for Five (TV). OfCom
In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers (via an Mergers and acquisitions 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 PRNewsWire. This stake was sold to Granada Television, allowing them to take control of the two franchises. In 1997, UNM bought HTV. OfCom
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 that it had inherited from Central Independent Television. ITV plc
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.
Productions
Some of Meridian's notable contributions to the national television network include:
- Hornblower (TV series)
- Monkey Business (TV series)
- The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1993-2000; previously TVS)
- Esther Rantzen
- Wizadora
- ZZZap!
- No Child of Mine
- Walking on the Moon
- Where The Heart Is (transferred from Anglia)
ITV Local
Meridian was the first to trial the online local television service, ITV Local, in 2005 (former Meridian managing director and one-time LNN journalist Lindsay Charlton is director of programming and content). The service, available 24 hours a day, provides all regional content shown on Meridian, plus additional coverage of local events, documentaries, webcams, advertisements and other features. It was later joined by
ITV Thames Valley, ITV London, Central Independent Television,
Granada, HTV,
ITV Yorkshire,
ITV Tyne Tees and ITV Border. The final rollouts to
ITV West and Westcountry Television were completed on 8th October 2007.
References
External links
- ITV Meridian & Thames Valley at ITV Local
meridiantv.co.uk
meridiantv.com
ITV Local: Your local news just got upgraded. Now transferring you to ITVLocal.com.. If you are not transferred in 5 seconds, please click here.
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