MERIDIAN BROADCASTING

'ITV Meridian Ltd' (formally and more commonly known as 'Meridian Broadcasting') is the holder of the ITV franchise for South and South East England^[1]. It has been broadcasting since 1 January 1993, when it replaced TVS. The main headquarters were situated at studios in Northam, Southampton (previously used by both Southern 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).

Contents

Launch

Sub-regions

Presenters (''Meridian News'')

Identity

Ownership

Productions

ITV Local

References

External links

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.
The aftermath of the infamous "closed franchise auction" that took place in 1991 was probably predictable in the case of TVS: Meridian was chosen as its successor, and was different from both Southern and TVS in the sense that it used independent producers (and production companies) to produce the majority of its programmes, at least to begin with. Compared with the TVS era (and even Southern's output), networked shows - after an initial flourish with ideas such as ''Full Stretch'' - were much fewer in number than before!
Midnight on New Years' Day was bad time 'AND' a bad idea for a formal introduction of a new ITV company; the viewers at home were probably either too busy celebrating the New Year or asleep, so there was just a brief ten minute introduction to Meridian and its new programming. This programme initially had a few minor sound level problems which were rumoured to be caused by disgruntled ex-TVS technicians, but generally speaking the launch could be regarded as successful.
Later that same day at 7pm was the proper introduction to Meridian and its programmes entitled ''First Night On Meridian'', with Michael Palin being the main presenter. During the programme he made a journey across the Meridian region using public transport, which was in direct contrast to the high profile 'all action' helicopter ride that Khalid Aziz made during the TVS opening show ''Bring In The New'' - obviously Meridian were intent on not making the same 'mistakes' that TVS made 11 years earlier.
Whilst travelling by train, Michael Palin interviewed various members of the public to find out what they wanted from a new ITV service, though the answers as you might expect were fairly predictable. He travelled from Brighton in the east of the region across to Portsmouth, ending up on the Isle of Wight before travelling to Southampton. A few people who appear in Meridian's productions such as Tracey Ullman and Toyah Willcox were also featured.
''First Night On Meridian'' interspersed Michael Palin's train and ferry journey with clips of forthcoming Meridian programmes such as ''A Class Act'' which was a comedy sketch show starring Tracey Ullman who had become successful in America after appearing on BBC Two's ''Three Of A Kind''. Other comedy programmes introduced included ''Coltrane in a Caddilac'' as well as ''Full Stretch'' with 'many more' being promised at the time.
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 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. 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'' 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 as its newsroom and editorial hub.

Presenters (''Meridian News'')

★ 'ITV Thames Valley' - Wesley Smith, Mary Green, Hannah Shellswell,;

★ 'ITV Meridian South East' - Ian Axton, Sangeeta Bhabra, Glen Thompsett;

★ '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 (Thames Valley only)

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. 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).^[2]. In 1994, MAI bought Anglia Television, and in 1995 it was a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for Channel 5.^[3]
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^[4]. This stake was sold to Granada Television, allowing them to take control of the two franchises. In 1997, UNM bought HTV.^[3]
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.^[6]
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''

★ ''Monkey Business''

★ ''That's Esther''

★ ''Wizadora''

★ ''ZZZap!''

★ ''No Child of Mine''

★ ''Walking on the Moon''

★ ''Where The Heart Is'' (transferred from Anglia)

ITV Local

Main articles: ITV Local

Meridian was the first to trial the online local television service, ITV Local (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, Granada and ITV Wales, ITV Tyne Tees and ITV Yorkshire. Further rollouts at ITV plc's other regional companies are expected in the near future.

References

1. Meridian licence - Ofcom
2. United Business Media annual report
3. OfCom
4. PRNewsWire
5. OfCom
6. ITV plc

External links

★ ITV Meridian & Thames Valley at itvlocal.com