UTV sell TV business to ITV

A refresh / new set will wait until they decide what is happening accommodation wise.

It makes no sense to build a new set and redesign everything if they're moving out in a few months - plus the current set can't be relit as most of the colouring is physical, not lit.

But they could just move the set to the new premises?

Yep, the cost of a new set is nothing compared to the cost of moving premises.

It will be a shame if nothing can be done with Havelock House. Nearly 60 years of television history.

Like Meridian done twice with their previous set? Didn't they move it twice to new buildings?

Depends which bit of Meridian you are talking about.

When Meridian was a separate ITV franchise it ran three studio centres - Northam (which was Meridian South and also had general production studios. These were the original Southern/TVS studios), Newbury (North?) and New Hythe (South East).

After a few mergers they closed the studio in Newbury, and I think they then ran two news studios at Northam (operating a bit like Anglia who always worked with two studios in one location serving two different sub-regions), with New Hythe continuing to run separately for the South East bit of the region.

Then they moved the operation out of Northam and New Hythe, closed the general production studios at Northam, and relocated to an operation with three co-sited small news studios for the three sub-regions in a single operation based at Whiteley.

There was then a merger of news areas with Central South, which had previously had a studio centre in Abingdon. This created the ITV Thames Valley programme (which wasn't branded Meridian or Central) which came from one of the three Whiteley studios.

I wasn't aware that ITV had move out of Whiteley - so I'm not sure there have been two moves to new buildings.

*** EDIT - and I had totally missed their move to a second location in Whiteley ! ***

Well they could do, but there's more to it than just rolling a few bits of set out the door on a Friday for Monday - especially when a new building infrastructure are concerned.

They have no immediate rush to change the branding of UTV live.... I'd say the company's office accommodation and other business matters are probably more pressing right now.

A few years ago they moved from their original building in Whitley to another on the same Estate, in fact IIRC it was just across the road.

EDIT: here's some more details. Seems the lease ran out and they downsized to one studio:
http://tslsystems.co.uk/tsl-completes-the-relocation-and-hd-upgrade-of-itv-meridians-news-operation/

I would imagine we will see UTV Live move to single headed presentation. As of late this seems to be the norm with the recent takeover.

Ah - I'd totally missed that - probably because they hadn't moved location. Their original Whiteley tin-shed operation had a terrible reputation when it was first built. Many corners cut...

Nice to see Adrian Logan back on UTV tonight albeit just as a guest!

From June 6th the UTV Player will be no more and NI viewers will have full access to the itv hub for the first time. All UTV Live news clips will be integrated into itv's regional news site to be fully integrated with the "itv family"

http://www.u.tv/News/2016/05/25/ITV-Hub-to-roll-out-in-Northern-Ireland-59501