ITV News Meridian

Meridian's flagship regional news programme was launched as Meridian Tonight on 4 January 1993 – three days after Meridian replaced TVS.

Three sub-regional editions of the programme were broadcast simultaneously, from studios in Southampton, Maidstone, and Newbury. The three original sub-regional services for Meridian News/Tonight were:

• South
  • (central and eastern Dorset, the Isle of Wight, the majority of West Sussex, the Brighton and Hove coastal conurbation of East Sussex, southern Hampshire and southern Wiltshire), based in Southampton before moving to Whiteley in 2004.
• East
  • (East Sussex, Kent, southern Essex and parts of West Sussex), based in Maidstone before moving to an industrial estate near New Hythe in 1994. The news gathering operation was moved back to The Maidstone Studios in 2004, though studio production moved to Meridian's new Whiteley base at the same time.
• West
  • (Berkshire, Oxfordshire, northern Hampshire, northern Wiltshire and parts of Surrey), based in Newbury. Studio production moved to Southampton in 2001.

Meridian's first Controller of News was Jim Raven, who had previously been the Editor for the South East edition of TVS's Coast to Coast.

Three regional editors (later heads of news) were appointed to run each of the three news sub-regions:

• South: Andy Cooper, former editor of Coast to Coast South
• East: Mark Southgate, former producer of Coast to Coast South East
• West: Robin Britton was tasked with launching the new Meridian West service forming the Thames Valley, who had been the deputy-editor of the Meridian South programme, the third sub-region was Meridian's trump card, TVS had done a short Thames Valley opt, launched in 1990).

The presenting line-up for each news service reflected continuity and change. Meridian South went on air with Fred Dinenage (TVS & Southern) and Debbie Thrower (BBC), the South East anchors were Mike Debens (TVS) and Alison Holloway (Sky, ABC) and in the Thames Valley, Andy Craig (Central) partnered with Mai Davies (TVS). Carl Tyler did the weather for Thames Valley and South and Ron Lobeck was also retained for the South East forecasts.

Robin Britton had scope to recruit the best talent not only from TVS, but from the outgoing Thames Television, Channel 4 Daily, TSW and TV-AM as well. These included programme producer Paul Erlam and transport correspondent Mike Pearse (Thames News), along with Alison Black (Channel 4 Daily) and Peter Brookes (TV-am).

Andy Cooper also took advantage of the franchise changes, hiring the very experienced Nick Myers from TV-am, and moving Steve McDonnell from current affairs at TVS back into the newsroom, this time as a programme producer alongside Myers. Mark Southgate also brought in new recruits, including the journalist Marc Percy – the three new-look programmes were hosted from an original set design was by Eye-Catching Design.[2]

All three editions of Meridian Tonight went onto win the Royal Television Society's Nations and Regions Programme of the Year award – the only time three programmes have tied for the top prize.

Presentation for all three services moved to new smaller digital studios at Whiteley, near Fareham on Saturday 4 December 2004; the studios in Southampton and near Maidstone were closed at this time.

The Northam studios in Southampton were sold off for a reported £5 million for domestic housing and the studios near Maidstone were closed, the Meridian team in the South East moved back to the Maidstone Studios originally built by TVS and rejected by Meridian when they took over. Newsgathering operations in all areas were retained.

In December 2006, the updates during GMTV became pan-regional. Weekend bulletins had become pan-regional across the South Coast and South East only, whilst the West retained its own weekend bulletins right up until 3 December 2006, when ITV Thames Valley was launched.

On 4 December 2006, the long expected merger between West and the ITV Central South sub-region took place, forming the non-franchise ITV Thames Valley news service, broadcasting Thames Valley Today/Tonight from the same studio at Whiteley. The merger saw Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and the Swindon area being added to the region for news purposes. The former ITV Central South sub-region headquarters at Abingdon was retained as the main news gathering base for ITV Thames Valley, but the studio presentation facility was mothballed.

Bulletins during GMTV became pan-regional across the entire combined ITV Meridian and ITV Thames Valley areas, and branded as GMTV News. Weekend bulletins continued to be separate Meridian News (pan-regional for South Coast and South East) and Thames Valley Today/Tonight services.

At the end of 2008, in light of a restructuring through the ITV regional news network, around 100 staff across the three sub-regional news services in South East England were made redundant. A single edition of Meridian Tonight for the entire region was launched on 9 February 2009. Within this, two sub-regions created – South/Thames Valley and South East.

The then remaining sub-regional elements were:

• The opening 15 minutes of the main 6pm programme.
• Full late night bulletins on weeknights, following ITV News at Ten.
• Localised weather forecasts for South/Thames Valley and South East.

Sangeeta Bhabra and Fred Dinenage were announced as lead presenters of the scaled back service. Both sub-regional editions utilise exactly the same presenter(s) and studio/set, therefore one of the two opt-outs – depending on the day's news – is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before broadcast.[3]

In February 2010, the programme won the Royal Television Society's Award for Best Nations & Regions News Coverage.[4] On Monday 14 January 2013, the news service was relaunched and rebranded as ITV News Meridian.[5]

On 23 July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved.

ITV News Meridian extended the South and South East opt-out services by an extra five minutes during the half-hour 6pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two regions.

A Thames Valley service was also reintroduced, consisting of a ten-minute opt out within the 6pm programme for the South and a late bulletin after News at Ten. The two late night bulletins are retained for the South and the South East, in addition to the new Thames Valley bulletin.[6]

The expanded sub-regional service launched on Monday 16 September 2013. The Head of News was Robin Britton. He previously launched Thames Valley Tonight and the West edition of Meridian Tonight. In September 2017 he was replaced by Alison Nice, a former content editor for ITV Meridian.