ITV are to merge many of their regional news services and scrap UK Play in the wake of those phone vote scandals. Chairman Michael Grade says this will free up £1.2 billion by 2012, allowing ITV to spend more on new, innovative drama and Ant and Dec's wages.Is this good news, or bad news?
Well, I'm glad UK Play is biting the dust, and written drama is preferable to reality series, but it's a shame many viewers will now get "local news" about villages 2 hours drive away!
One thing I've always liked about ITV is its local sensibility, with cosy presenters, cheerful weathermen, chummy banter and comforting stories about village fetes, angry farmers and hosepipe bans. There's still something nice about hearing your town mentioned on telly, or seeing someone you know being interviewed.
I live in Lincolnshire, so I've had a problem getting relevant regional news for years. Y'see, I'm one of the poor unfortunates in a "crossover area", meaning I can get both Yorkshire and Central, but neither targets my locality. Strangely, my digibox has chosen Yorkshire as its channel 3 of choice; probably because it has "shire" in its name...
But, to be totally honest, I usually watch BBC regional news, anyway. I have a choice of two where I live: East Midlands Today or Look North with Peter Levy. The latter always gets my vote -- as you gotta love "The Levy", and they target my locality better than the East Midlands possie (who are obsessed with Nottingham and daren't go beyond Grantham.)
Okay, so I'm a hyprocrit. The degredation of ITV regional news won't affect my viewing habits. I'm a BBC boy these days. But, come on, whenever you visit other areas of the country, am I the only one who enjoys tuning into "their ITV" and discovering Krypton Factor's Gordon Burns and Fred Dinenage are still alive and well?
Um, don't answer that.
