Accurate maps of ITV regions

There were certainly surveys carried out before sub opts opened. They would put a cue dot or some other identifier on one sub region's output then send market researchers out or on the phone to ask people in the target area is they can see it.

I remember an article in the Gloucestershire Echo investigating the mysterious white square in the corner of the screen on Central which appeared a few times for several weeks in the early 90s from the Ridge Hill (and possibly other) transmitters.

Going back to the first posts, Not sure what use these would be to you and how much the regions have changed over time, but these maps show which towns and cities are supposed to be covered by each regional news and advertising service now.

Interesting that the Wales and West maps imply that there is no ITV office in Wales, which I'm pretty sure is wrong.

I assume itv plc do STV's advert sales which is why they are featured in these itv branded maps. Don't they have further sub opts within the traditional Scottish/Grampian regions? Or are they purely for news and can't do split ad playout?

The imperative in the 70s and early 80s by the BBC and IBA was to ensure as many homes as possible were being served by UHF 625 line transmissions, one new transmitter a week was being built during the 70s, and much of the 80s. Whether that was with the 'correct' region was of secondary importance. It wasn't until 1982 when attention started to be applied to providing correct regions. Buxton relay moved from midlands to north west, north Norfolk relays, Marlborough relay moved from Southern to HTV West etc

The issues that regions like Central had were nothing to the overlap issues Westcountry had when they localised their news:




(from Flikr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk8mHtw5)

Quite interesting that on the STV map, it suggests that St Andrews, and what is the North Fife area comes under the STV north banner. I always thought that area was in the STV central area, as opposed to the old Grampian TV region. Also surprised that Fort William comes under STV Central, when it should logicaly be in the STV North area.

Fort William is served by the Cow Hill relay, Cow Hill can only really 'see' towards the south west, so it's forced
to derive its feed from Torosay, which in turn is Black Hill fed.

The route from Rosemarkie (aka Grampian Tx) south-westwards was forged much later, and it effectively terminates at Ft Augustus.

If you think that's bad, Dumfries and Galloway (including all the relays) had to put up with BBC 1 Newcastle until 1979, until the Beeb provided BBC 1 Scotland from Sandale. BBC 2 Scotland, came even later (mid 80s)

Although, to be fair, a 405 line BBC 1 Scotland service was available from Sandale....not much use, I admit, to those without dual-standard sets! Parts of Dumfries and Galloway actually received better signals from Divis in Northern Ireland. And some properties in Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland could actually receive 625 line signals from Durris in Aberdeenshire!

It was all down to ease of feeding transmitters rather than providing a local service....the Pinwherry and Ballantrae relays in Ayrshire, for instance, carried Border TV and BBC North East England programmes. Some relays in the Scottish Borders were, and are, fed from either Craigkelly or Black Hill. And much of south Cumbria was covered by Granada rather than Border....although some relays were reallocated to Border in the 1980s....a move that wasn't universally welcomed in the communities concerned.

Fife is split right down the middle for TV, if you live at the higher end of Glenrothes you would get either or i think the same was for Leven etc

Some of those Westcountry sub-regions are ridiculously small, how much newsworthy stuff could really have gone on on a daily basis in the yellow 'west' region?.

Obviously a well meaning but expensive franchise commitment in a different pre-digital era.

This video seems to suggest that instead of it being four specific opt-outs it was just four 'throws' to each of the local studios shown pan-regionally.
(Watch from around 13 minutes).



EDIT: I'm wrong, later on in the video it crosses to one of the four studios for a longer opt-out.