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Meridian Broadcasting 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 inheritated a large studio complex in Southampton) to producing little more than regional news bulletins which are a contractual obligation (as it does today).
Sub-regions
Meridian operates three sub-regions:
- Meridian South East (Kent, Medway, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove)
- Meridian South (Brighton and Hove, West Sussex, southern Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth and eastern Dorset)
- Meridian West (northern Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire).
Each sub-region produces its own edition of the flagship news magazine Meridian Tonight (6pm weeknights), alongside further Meridian News bulletins throughout the day. Only during GMTV are there pan-regional Meridian News bulletins. 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 and East Sussex is presented by Hampshire-based 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).
In June 2006 Meridian announced its intention to close its West programme and merge it with the neighbouring region, Central South.
Presenters
- Meridian South East - Phil Hornby, Charlotte Hawkins
- Meridian South - Fred Dinenage, Debbie Thrower
- Meridian West - Andy Craig, Mary Green
- Weather (all sub regions) - Gemma Humphries, Martyn Davies, Carl Tyler
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 channel 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 was a major shareholder in the consortium that won the franchise for Channel 5.OfCom
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 group of newspapers, Meridian, Anglia and a large shareholding (through the Yorkshire Post) in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television, the owners of Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees TelevisionPRNewsWire. 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 it had inherited from Central Independent Television.ITV plc
In 2004, Granada merged with Carlton to form ITV plc. Shortly after this, the new company chose to end the separate brandings for the ITV franchises that it controlled.
Productions
Some of Meridian's notable contributions to the national television network include:
- Hornblower
- How 2 (now produced by stv)
- Monkey Business
- That's Esther
- Wizadora
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.
References
External links
"Meridian Broadcasting"