2009 multi-national TV series or program
| ITV News West Country | |
|---|---|
 Title card for the west sub-region, depicting Smeaton's Tower | |
| Presented by | Sabet Choudhury & Alex Lovell |
| Country of origin | England, United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Nimesh Joshi (Head of News) |
| Production locations | Bristol, England |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 29 minutes (18:00 broadcast) |
| Production company | ITV West Country |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV1 (ITV West Country) |
| Release | 16 February 2009 (2009-02-16) – present |
| Related | |
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ITV News West Country is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV West Country. It is broadcast from studios in Brislington, Bristol, with district reporters and camera crews based in newsrooms at Plymouth, Exeter, Truro, Taunton, Swindon and Gloucester.
The programme currently transmits into two sub-regions.
- West serving Bristol, Somerset, the majority of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and parts of north Dorset.
- South West serving Devon, Cornwall, Isles of Scilly, western Dorset, southern and western Somerset.
Its main competitors are BBC Points West in the West region; and BBC Spotlight in the South West region.
Southeastern parts of Wiltshire, eastern parts of Swindon and some parts of eastern Gloucestershire receive ITV News Meridian. The north of Gloucestershire receives ITV News Central.
History
The nightly regional news programme was launched on 16 February 2009 as The West Country Tonight, following the merger of two regional news services – The West Tonight (ITV West) and Westcountry Live (ITV Westcountry).
From 24 November 2016, ITV News West Country began broadcasting in HD on Sky and Freesat only. Freeview and Virgin Media carry ITV News West Country only on the standard definition ITV channel.
On air staff
As of 2024, the presenters are Alex Lovell and Sabet Choudhury. Notable on air staff include Ben McGrail (Somerset correspondent). Notable former on air staff include Lisa Aziz, Alex Beresford, Bob Crampton, Mark Longhurst, Jonty Messer, Kylie Pentelow, Peter Rowell and Steve Scott.
| Main presenters history | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Presenter 1 | Presenter 2 | ||
| 2009 | Lisa Aziz | Steve Scott | ||
| 2009 | Ellie Barker or Claire Manning | |||
| 2010 | Vanessa Cuddeford | |||
| 2010–2012 | Ian Axton | |||
| 2012–2013 | Cordelia Lynch | |||
| 2013–2017 | Kylie Pentelow | |||
| 2017 | Mark Longhurst | |||
| 2018–2019, 2020–2022 |
Jonty Messer | |||
| 2019–2020, 2022 |
Eli-Louise Wringe | |||
| 2022–2023 | Sabet Choudhury | |||
| 2023 | Kylie Pentelow | |||
| 2024– | Alex Lovell | |||
Sub-regional service
When the programme launched in February 2009, two opt-out services for the regions served by its predecessor news programmes were retained. These incorporated the first half of the main evening programme on weeknights at 6pm, the full late bulletins after News at Ten on weeknights, and sports news on Mondays and Fridays. On 5 September 2011, separate weekday daytime bulletins for the two sub-regions (at breakfast and lunchtime) were reintroduced.
In September 2013, ITV News West Country extended the opt-outs to at least 20 minutes of the 6pm programme, in addition to separate weekend bulletins, effectively restoring full services for the two areas. Both opt-outs use the same presenter(s) and studio in Bristol, therefore one of the two opt-outs – depending on the day's news – is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before transmission.
Weather forecasts are pre-recorded and are localised for the West and South West opt-outs. They are produced and presented from Met Office headquarters in Exeter or studios in Bristol.
References
- Digital Spy – Ofcom 'to allow' ITV regional news cuts
- BBC News – ITV to merge regional newsrooms
- Your Westcountry news from Bristol, Western Morning News, 27 January 2009
- Newsgirl Lisa Aziz quits after dropping race and sex claims Elisa Roche, Daily Express, 25 February 2010
- Scott confirmed as ITV News sports editor Sports Journalists' Association, 11 March 2010
- New presenter joins ITV News West Country ITV News, 5 July 2013
- Who is Kylie Pentelow, who's replaced Andrea Byrne on ITV Wales? Wales Online, 4 February 2019
- And finally....some news about Ian, itv.com, 16 December 2016
- ITV News West Country presenter Jonty Messer announces decision to step down Caroline Abbot, Devon Live, 28 June 2022
- Presenter Jonty Messer says Goodbye after 12 years at ITV West Country itv.com, 27 July 2022
- ^ Ex-BBC presenter Sabet Choudhury joins ITV News West Country itv.com, 3 October 2022
- Presenter Kylie Pentelow says goodbye to ITV West Country after 10 years itv.com, 29 September 2023
- Alex Lovell (30 October 2023). "After 18 years presenting BBC Points West I have taken the huge decision to leave at the end of November. Thank you to all my amazing colleagues and lovely viewers for all the love, laughs and tears - we've shared it all haven't we. I am super excited to be joining @itvwestcountry in December and I will be in the studio with my lovely friend @Sebchoudhury in January" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Seventeen regions into nine: How the updated ITV local news services will run Caitlin Fitzsimmons, The Guardian, 17 February 2009
- OFCOM sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5 Archived 26 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine, OFCOM, 23 July 2013
