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Westcountry Television was one of two rival consortia bidding against the incumbent TSW when the ITV franchises were put to tender early in 1991.
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Westcountry and Television
** ITV companies GMTV, Carlton Television, Meridian Broadcasting and Westcountry Television start broadcasting, replacing TV-am, Thames Television, TVS and TSW respectively.
* Television South and Television South West were deemed to have overbid for their licences, and hence their franchises were awarded to lower bidders Meridian Broadcasting and Westcountry Television, respectively.
The franchises that use the ITV1 brand are Anglia Television, Border Television, Carlton Television, Central Independent Television, Channel Television, Granada Television, ITV Wales & West, London Weekend Television, Meridian Broadcasting, Tyne Tees Television, Westcountry Television and Yorkshire Television.
UNM then went on to purchase Wales and West broadcaster, HTV in 1996, while Carlton purchased Westcountry Television later that year.
ITV Westcountry, formerly known as Westcountry Television, is the ITV franchise holder in the South West of England.
The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited ( formerly Westcountry Television Limited ).
Following discussions with the Independent Television Commission Westcountry announced on 1 April 1992 it had abandoned the plans to build new studios on the Plymouth waterfront, opting instead to convert an industrial unit at Langage Science Park, Plymouth.
Westcountry, originally an independent company, replaced Television South West at 00: 00 GMT on 1 January 1993.
In November 1996, Westcountry was purchased by Carlton Communications ( now ITV plc ), who by that time owned the London weekday ( Carlton Television ) and Midlands ( Central ) franchises.
In their annual reports, the Independent Television Commission ( ITC ) commented on Westcountry's programming and performance ; in 1995 they stated that Westcountry had a " good news service and regional programming ", despite a difficult first year.
Westcountry and was
On 16 October 1991, Westcountry was announced as the winner, bidding £ 7 million a year against TSW's 16 million.
The first programme aired on the channel was a short promo voiced by Bruce Hammal and Trish Bertram ( two of Westcountry's first trail voiceovers ) welcoming viewers to Westcountry and beginning with the words, " Happy New Year, and welcome to Westcountry, your new ITV station for the South West.
Subsequently, Westcountry was re-branded as Carlton Westcountry in September 1999, although only referred on screen as Carlton.
ITV1 Westcountry was used for a time after this, although the regional name was only verbally mentioned before any locally-produced programming.
Following a speech by Michael Grade about regional broadcasting post-switchover at the 2007 Nations and Regions conference in Cardiff, there was speculation that ITV West and ITV Westcountry could merge news operations, as part of further streamlining of regional operations.
Westcountry was originally based at Brittany Ferries ' offices in Millbay Docks, Plymouth with a view to building a purpose-built studio centre on the Plymouth waterfront.
Although Westcountry was in Plymouth, transmission for the channel was run by HTV Wales staff at HTV's presentation centre in Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff with continuity announcers based at the Plymouth studios.
Westcountry was the first and only ITV company to produce four opt-outs for their region.
The Westcountry name was only used on the news programme Westcountry Live.
The ITV1 logo was located in the bottom right corner with the caption ITV1 for the Westcountry located beneath.
In 1999 the ITC again commented that Westcountry provided a " regional service of generally high quality " and that overall their range of regional programmes was " wide and included some strong factual material ", also noting that one of their children's programmes had been supplied to the network.
The new identity, produced by Lambie-Nairn was used across all of Carlton's franchises ; Carlton London, Carlton Westcountry and some elements on HTV.
TSW was seen as slightly more ambitious than both its predecessor Westward Television and its successor Westcountry Television and its presentation, although still homelier than much seen on ITV and not dissimilar to that of Westward, was considered more professional than its forebear.
At the end of the bulletin of the transmission was switched to Westcountry who began with a quick introduction and movie.
In 1840 the Westcountry author Thomas Hardy was born.
The was short-lived, however, and Westcountry then dropped the series completely, meaning that viewers in Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South West never saw the entire series.
Westcountry and two
The franchise briefly became ITV1 for the Westcountry in 2003, before being renamed onscreen as ITV1 Westcountry upon the ITV plc merger of 2004, and officially taking this name two years later.
Carlton increased its stake in Central Television to 81 %, in 1994 and two years later Westcountry Television to its portfolio.
In the next decade he made two series for Carlton Westcountry TV visiting villages in a Morris Traveller and using locals as guests.
The first band to be signed up on this label were Westcountry rockers Asgard in 1972 who released two singles from their album, In the Realm of Asgard.
Westcountry and TSW
Of the 297 TSW employees, only 16 found work at Westcountry at the start of the franchise.
At 09: 25 GMT the other franchise-losers such: TVS, TSW and Thames began their final day's schedules and were replaced at 00: 00 GMT by Meridian, Westcountry and Carlton respectively.
Westcountry Television were the south-west region franchise winners and took over from TSW at 00: 00 GMT on 1 January 1993.
When TSW lost their franchise, their successors, Westcountry, chose not to purchase the studios, preferring new facilities just outside Plymouth, at Langage Science Park, Plympton instead.
When Westcountry Television took over from TSW, they initially dropped The Sullivans from their schedule, only to bring it back a while later due to popular demand.
Westcountry and when
In 2007, Shepton Mallet came to international attention when Westcountry Farmhouse Cheesemakers broadcast the maturation of a round of Cheddar cheese called Wedginald, an event that attracted more than 1. 5 million viewers.
This went on until August 2003, when Carlton dropped the practice, resulting in changing the brands from Carlton Central to ITV1 for Central England, from Carlton Westcountry to ITV1 for the Westcountry.
Westcountry and ITV
Covering Devon, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and areas of Somerset and Dorset, Westcountry forms part of the non-franchise ITV West & Westcountry region, alongside ITV West.
In February 2009, the Westcountry region, along with areas covered by ITV Wales and Granada ceased its analogue broadcasts as part of the switch to digital TV.
Rumours suggested that, while a newsroom ( and separate regional identity ) would be retained in the south west, the main Westcountry Live programme would move to a studio alongside The West Tonight at ITV West in Bristol ( akin to the Meridian and Thames Valley news services at Whiteley ).
This includes merging ITV West with ITV Westcountry to form a non-franchise region, ITV West and Westcountry, from February 2009.
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