South West England & CI Thread

Emma Baker is maternity cover for Jess Dunsdon.

Technical problems at the start of Westcountry West tonight, with this clock instead of the usual ident, and then no titles, instead cutting straight to Jonny and Kylie (with the latter apologising for the problems).

I watched the East edition which was pre-recorded that had no issues.

Is Westcountry West, the west of the region i.e Cornwall/Devon, or the region formerly known as the west, i.e Bristol?

I think it's Westcountry *slash* West, eg West Country and HTV West.

West - ITV Westcountry
East - ITV West.

Or in old money.

West = TSW
East = HTV West

"Westcountry" (one word) was the spelling of the Plymouth franchisee's company name from its formation in the early 1990s.

"West Country" (two words) is the official spelling of the merged (Gloucestershire to Cornwall) ITV plc region that now exists (as reflected in the current corporate logo seen on signage etc, and the news' on-screen branding).

People posting a mixture of old and new standards (e.g. "Westcountry East") just confuses the issue. Spelt that way, would surely mean one of the four micro-regions that Westcountry Live had until 2009?!

Of the two current "sub-regions" (as they are now officially designated), the old Westward/TSW/Westcountry area is geographically the more westerly. Hence, it is "West Country (West)". Therefore, the ex-HTV West area is "West Country (East)".

I believe that when everything became subsidiaries of ITV plc called e.g. ITV Anglia Ltd, ITV Border Ltd (etc) in 2004, the Plymouth company became "ITV Westcountry Ltd" (retaining the one-word spelling). HTV's legal name became something clunky like "ITV Wales & West Ltd" in 2004, but with any/all public-facing branding (such as signage on the Cardiff/Bristol studios) favouring separate "ITV Wales" and "ITV West" names.

In practice, the "Plymouth" regional news of course moved to being presented from the Bristol studios in 2009. The legal franchising structure of Ofcom Channel 3 licences finally caught-up with reflecting reality in 2014, with a standalone Wales-only licence and a merged pan-West Country licence replacing what had gone before.

In at least the early part of the 2009-2014 period, "ITV West & Westcountry" (or similar) was used on things like the ITV website. At quite what point this gave way to "ITV West Country (West)" and "ITV West Country (East)" becoming the official designations, I'm unsure.

Or in even older money:

West = Westward
East = TWW

There seems to be some fuss over twitter what has happened with Victoria Graham on Spotlight. Apparently she hasn't appeared for 4 weeks now. I much prefer long stalwart, Natalie Cornah, on presenting duties.

Blimey, Kernow! You're going back to the days of groats and bartering sheep there.

Both are excellent presenters in their own right. The fact that there is some "fuss" on Twitter shows you the viewers miss her.

She has responded and said she hopes to be back soon. Personal reasons I guess.