Media

Thank you for your interest in the Television South West News Consortium.

It is now being overseen by interim chairman Magnus Carter.

Earlier in the year the group welcomed South West News Service as the latest media 

organisation to come on board.

The consortium comprises several media production companies, news gathering organisations

in the south west, highly experienced news media professionals and businessmen.

Updates on some ideas for the two former south west ITV regions and the Government's

Digital Economy Bill will appear here, so please come back again soon.

Jan 2010

For information here are the consortia through to round 2 of the selection process:

Wales

• ITN with Newsquest, Northcliffe Media, Tindle, Boomerang and ITV Wales news staff;

• Tinopolis;

• UTV with NWN Media Ltd.

Scotland

• Johnston Press with the Herald and Times Group, Tinopolis, and D C Thomson;

• STV with ITN and Bauer Radio

Tyne Tees/Borders

• ITN with Johnston Press, Newsquest, Metro Radio, University of Sunderland and ITV Tyne Tees and Borders news staff;

• Trinity Mirror with the Press Association and Ten Alps;

• UTV.

* NEWS RELEASE *

TV CONSORTIUM PLANS TO RESCUE ITV NEWS IN THE SOUTH  WEST

The spirit of TSW and HTV, the former ITV stations in the west and south west of England, may soon be returning to television screens in the region. Hugely popular in the 1980s and 1990s TSW/Westcountry and  HTV were lost to ITV in a long series of franchise changes, mergers and acquisitions.

Now a new consortium plans to take advantage of government proposals that will allow companies to provide local news programmes on ITV.  The consortium intends to provide a new television news service on ITV across Devon and Cornwall as well as dedicated news for Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire.

The consortium is the first of its kind in the region to publicly register interest in government proposals for new regional television news services.

Backed by regional newspaper group Northcliffe Media and local businessmen, as well as media and television professionals, the consortium will bid to supply  two ITV regional news services that were previously based in Bristol and Plymouth, when they become available in the lead up to the 2012 digital switchover. ITV wants to pull out of regional news by that time.

Plans include extra local ‘opt-out’ bulletins in towns and cities across the south west, using the latest technology. The consortium’s hugely experienced team is led by former HTV managing director Jeremy Payne, who says: “We intend to build a truly local television news service for the westcountry. After years of decline in ITV regional news, the government has published proposals that will enable us to reintroduce and even improve on the best days of regional news.”'

Westcountry journalist and television producer Dave Mason formed the consortium and is determined to see an improved local television news service. He says: ”We intend to provide more localised town and city television bulletins across the region.  Research tells us west country people want more local news from their area, not pan-regional news from a city with which they don’t identify”, he says.

The new service will link with Northcliffe newspapers' existing resources in the region using websites and internet television to extend and improve coverage for local communities.

Steve Anderson-Dixon, Northcliffe's managing director for the South West & Wales is passionate about expanding his local newspaper and internet news services onto television.

‘Our newspapers and websites have a unique relationship with readers and users and the prospect of being able to extend that onto television is exciting. Our focus has always been to make local matter more and to support local communities to make a difference. I look forward to us further strengthening that relationship by giving people across the West Country truly local news on television’.

David Rodgers, former Westward, and TSW  tv presenter and now chairman of Radio Plymouth is another consortium member with a passion for local television news and the need for audience choice. He says: "It is very important that the BBC is not the only local news provider. There used to be a time when there was real choice in the style of regional news and features; the local ITV programmes used to have a genuine connection to their audiences. We want to bring that respected, warm, two-way relationship back”, he says.

The government, which concluded a consultation on the proposals for the new television news services today, plans to award pilot schemes to consortia in Scotland, Wales, and an English region next year.

Television South West News Consortium ~ Tuesday 22nd September 2009