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Westcountry (1993-1999)

Westcountry Television launched at midnight on 1st January 1993, although an unintended preview aired a few hours earlier. They replaced TSW who had lost out in the 1991 franchise auction. Westcountry intended to be a 'publisher-broadcaster', much like Channel 4. However in more recent times, they have produced much more programming, including some for UKTV and other digital TV channels. Westcountry hired a lot of staff from other places: David Foster came from TV-am, Richard Bath from ITN to name but two. Others have gone the other way, from Westcountry to other broadcasters, such as Sheila Jansen and Lorna Dunkley to Sky News. Westcountry was taken over by Carlton in 1996, and rebranded to Carlton in 1999. The Westcountry brand returned, in a way, as part of the ITV1 national branding in 2002.

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