Use of heritage names for ITV regional news programmes

Is it time for ITV to rebrand some of its English regional news services?

The names of some of the regional news programmes echo the old company names rather than the regions they serve.

And in some cases the link is not obvious.

Take ITV News Meridian – the service covering much of the south and south east of England.

Since the last round of changes to ITV’s regional provision in 2013, Meridian has provided 30 minutes of distinct news for the south and south east each day at 6pm plus a sub opt for the former Thames Valley region.

The name Meridian means “of the south”. It was, of course, the name of the company which won the franchise from TVS and took over from 1993.

But Meridian’s brand only lasted for six years before it started to be displaced by the ITV brand name. Like other English regional station names it was consigned to a secondary role in 2002 before disappearing completely as a station name when regular regional output other than news came to an end a few years later.

I’d bet a large number of people who live in the south and south east do not realise they are in the Meridian region. A corporate name for a region which stretches from Dorset to the Thames Estuary and includes territory which once belonged to Central.

A simple name like ITV News South at least avoids pretentious affectation.

Alternatively why not brand the two editions separately? ITV News South and ITV News South East would highlight the fact two distinct editions of the programme are produced.

There are other anomalies.

Does the name ITV News Anglia make sense to viewers in Luton or the fringes of the Midlands?

Does ITV News Calendar only work because of the historic strength of Calendar? It also avoids the use of the word Yorkshire in a service also covering Lincolnshire and the North Midlands?

In the Border region, the bulletins are branded as ITV News Border but the main programme is ITV News Lookaround – all presented from Tyne Tees in Gateshead.

And don’t get me started on the continuing use of the name Granada Reports – 20 years after Granada disappeared as a company.

If all those names were only the names of the TV news services it would be just about possible to argue for their retention – they refer to the programmes or regions subsumed into ITV plc and respect the local heritage.

But they are also the names of the regional services on itv.com/news.  Those who are too young to remember ITV as a federal system – who should be one of the website’s target audiences – must be mightily confused.

When the next rebrand comes, serious thought must be given to finally ditching the heritage names for regional news programmes – on air and online.

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