“It all went downhill when they axed Gus Hunnybun. Seriously though, whatever the politics, it's sad to read that jobs will be lost.”

“Sorry Folks it was an epic but so is this story been since 1992 As for Advertising revenues going down yes they did, but Local ITV ie Westward TSW Westcountry was always a License to print money they were all very successful before they became part of the wider ITV1 channel, the bigger a company the higher its overheads and the bigger the waste, OFCOM should have accepted ITV's offer of returning the Franchises and re-advertised them we would have had a new company with and injection of new money, sadly OFCOM are spineless they caved in as soon as ITV made their threat and if the unions do as they say the screens will go blank anyway plus ITV will regret this decision as they will lose so many viewers, shot themselves in their foot, but all you can help write to OFCOM complain and it just may reverse this daft decision. ITV will never be able to compete with SKY why because its a subscription based company plus it has the bonus of advertising sponsors too ITV just has the Adverts revenue and a tiny bit from the License fee as being a columnist the Herald knows where I am I doubt I will get the call nice of you to think so though LOL”

“i notice no such trait here or elsewhere Mandy. maybe you don't read across the boards. the point about itv at langage is that they don't have the cash. That's probably because the advertising revenue down here isn't high value or productive. Why do we need a second local news channel. Whenever i have recorded westcountry and spotlight to see a particular item i am interested in, the duplication and similarities are virtually complete except that BBC specialist reporters tend to be better, they seem to catch humour without wallowing in absolute mindless trivia and there investigative feel seem more carefully honed. But then it's all a matter of opinion and angle, isn't it?”

“molly,sutton.i have noticed over the past couple of weeks that you leave such stupid,negative comments.i take it you have nothing better to do.
the loss of local news will be sad,and yet another econmy cutback!!!”

“Ken, Saltash Passage - I, too, started to read your epic, but thn started to lose the will to live.
Why don't you apply to the Herald for a job as a columnist? You had better be quick though, all the journalists from Westcountry will doing the same thing.

For the benefit of everyone else, I'll abridge your narrative: I don't like the changes either.”

“Ken from Saltash Passage - wow! I tried to read your post but my eyes failed.

As for moving ITV news to Bristol, well I'm very sorry that more and more interesting jobs are being lost in the Westcountry. That's why it's turning into an area of holiday homes. No work. I'll be watching the BBC.”

“Molly: By style and charm, I meant that Westcountry News has a friendlier sort of nature to it than the slick commerical looking stuff from places nearer London. You can see that the presenters have personalities on Westcountry news - they make proper jokes and laugh etc. It may be sort of amateurish compared to the national news but I like it.”

“I agree with Stuart OFCOM should have re-advertised the whole Franchise which is what i said to them when this idea was first suggested, not just for this Region but all the regions affected. Sadly OFCOM have no backbone and seems not to want to do its job as a regulator, it sits on the sidelines wringing its hands but does nothing, I suggested they call ITV's bluff let them hand back the ITV Franchises as they threatened to do, there are plenty of other Companies who would have jumped at the chance of providing quality local news, and have the prime TV Slots that are currently enjopyed by ITV they would have been kicked off the air by a rival, but sadly OFCOM does not have the viewers interests at heart anymore. Like all our institutions these days they seem to have no responsibility or accountability. Molly the reason for having two Stations was suppose to afford some independence in the news, the BBC is owned by you and me the Licence payer or rather the Government, its not always as impartial as it should be, ITV stands or it did for Independent Television ITN stands for Independent Television News I confidently predicted all this would happen in 1992 when we had the last and final Franchise Battle when TSW lost it to WCTV They won promising to reinforce local news and make more local programmes and to build prestigious waterfront Studios none of this of course happened. I was then Chairperson/ Spokeperson for the Viewers Association South West, we tried to warn everyone of what was going to happen, it took a little longer than I predicted, however with in 2 yrs WCTV was sold a few people became very rich indeed just as i said they would they then sold it on again to Carlton who were picking up Franchises all over the UK to create ITV1 in direct competition with SKY something we warned both the ITV and BBC not to do, both these are called Public Service Providers which means they both get some money from the Licence payers true BBC gets the lions share, but ITV signed up to be a PSP SKY have always been a Subscription Company just like Virgin and others, however BBC/ITV Channel 4 and 5 all get money from the Licence, all these channels should have continued doing what they do best compete against each other for viewers, not everyone will pay subs to watch TV they only have 12million customers/ viewers between them at SKY and Virgin etc BBC can command that many for a good story on Eastenders ITV can pull in 16million for Coronation St, my point being both Companies tried and in my view failed miserably in competeing with SKY, they have both wasted £millions on Digital Channels ITV2/3/4 showing mostly repeats of their heydays and introducing Ondigital which closed with a loss of £millions BBC have with BBC3 &4 and other services instead of using that money to creat proper Drama as they use to, yes its expensive but if you stop producing you have lost your core viewing base they both have, My house is a typical one SKY is watched more than any other channel usually UK Drama or SKY1 ITV and BBC are only watched for the NEWS National and Local and if they produce a really good Drama not that often these days. My advice to OFCOM is put the viewers FIRST ask us what we want from this, I bet the majority would say keep it as it is now, or Advertise the Franchises again, with the same remit as before, that Regional Television is Paramount especially Local News systems can be built into these Franchises they always have, and as long as the Companies realize that OFCOM will not succumb to blackmail from Public Service Provider then our Televison can only get better, those systems should include the production of quality based Drama less of the trash TV we have seen for the past 14 yrs which caused our TV once the Best in the World to be now the worst, it can be done, sadly them at OFCOM are too afraid of their own shadows and have ran sacred of ITV which is a disaster to all the viewers, everyone involved with this”

“We have only one local newspaper so why did we need two local tv stations?”

“I don't think ITV plc have had a commitment to the Westcountry region for many years. The fact that we're about to end up with half a programme from Bristol is testament to that. Ofcom seem to forget that Westcountry only won the franchise in 1992 because of it's commitment to sub-regional news coverage. Now it seems the whole of Westcountry is to become a sub-region of ITV West.
Ofcom are allowing ITV plc to breach their contract and the franchise should be re-advertised. Perhaps ITV would be the only bidders, but I suspect somebody such as Virgin Media TV would consider a bid for some of the franchises in England that ITV have mangled beyond recognition.
Well, it's all good news for BBC Spotlight who continue to provide an excellent service for the region; to show their commitment they are even moving to new facilities in Plymouth in the next 18 months.”