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 (including the 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).Digital Spy – Ofcom 'to allow' ITV regional news cutsBBC News – ITV to merge regional newsrooms
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 , 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 AzizYour Westcountry news from Bristol, Western Morning News, 27 January 2009Newsgirl Lisa Aziz quits after dropping race and sex claims Elisa Roche, Daily Express, 25 February 2010 Steve ScottScott confirmed as ITV News sports editor Sports Journalists' Association, 11 March 2010 2009 Ellie Barker or Claire Manning 2010 Vanessa Cuddeford 2010–2012 Ian Axton 2012–2013 Cordelia LynchNew presenter joins ITV News West Country ITV News, 5 July 2013 2013–2017 Kylie PentelowWho is Kylie Pentelow, who's replaced Andrea Byrne on ITV Wales? Wales Online, 4 February 2019 2017 Mark LonghurstAnd finally....some news about Ian, itv.com, 16 December 2016 2018–2019,2020–2022 Jonty MesserITV News West Country presenter Jonty Messer announces decision to step down Caroline Abbot, Devon Live, 28 June 2022Presenter Jonty Messer says Goodbye after 12 years at ITV West Country itv.com, 27 July 2022 2019–2020,2022 Eli-Louise WringeEx-BBC presenter Sabet Choudhury joins ITV News West Country itv.com, 3 October 2022 2022–2023 Sabet Choudhury 2023 Kylie PentelowPresenter Kylie Pentelow says goodbye to ITV West Country after 10 years itv.com, 29 September 2023 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.Seventeen regions into nine: How the updated ITV local news services will run Caitlin Fitzsimmons, The Guardian, 17 February 2009 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.OFCOM sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5 , OFCOM, 23 July 2013 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.
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