So long, New Broadcasting House
Wandering round the BBC's former Manchester studios
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Meridian (1993-2000)
Meridian Broadcasting, owned by MAI (later UNM, or United News and Media) and headed by Labour peer Lord (Clive) Hollick, won the franchise battle for the South and South-East of England ITV region in 1991 and took over from TVS on 1 January 1993, using the Northam (Southampton) and Vinters Park (Maidstone) studios purchased from the deposed TVS as well as opening a new news studio in Newbury.
Meridian was notable for being one of the first ITV franchises intending to use the same 'publisher broadcaster' model that had served Channel 4, notably commissioning the bulk of its output from independent producers such as Topical Television and Countrywide Productions, though Meridian did produce some programmes of its own. An initial flurry of networked productions followed such as Full Stretch and Harnessing Peacocks, but none of these proved to be successful and Meridian's contributions to the ITV network soon became minimal especially when compared to its predecessor.
In 1997 UNM (now known as United Business Media or UBM) acquired the Anglia and HTV franchises as well as becoming a main shareholder of Channel 5. Meridian and Anglia were sold to Granada in 2000 - nowadays the Meridian name is only used for regional news programming, with Meridian Tonight being the name of the early evening news programme (replacing TVS's Coast to Coast). Other notable programmes included the continuation of TV Weekly, Country Ways, Grass Roots and Hornblower.
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- On Obligatory showing of teeth, David Hastings said: Latest conspiracy theory doing the rounds is that BBC local radio cutbacks were deliberately put forward as a "sacrificial lamb", knowing full well that they would be highly vocal public... Read more and comment on this article.
- On Obligatory showing of teeth, Reginald Murgatroyd said: If you want to make large savings, then you do not make cuts on services which have the smalles budget ie local radio and regional TV. If the BBC was... Read more and comment on this article.
- On Sorry Hazel, but what did you expect?, Reginald Murgatroyd said: Glenn Aylett makes a most insightful point. The New Labour administration, was elected with the support of Granada Television under Gerald Robinson, who even hosted the Labour Party Political Broadcst,... Read more and comment on this article.
- On Sorry Hazel, but what did you expect?, Glenn Aylett said: Maybe Hazel would have been better employed trying to stop the destruction of that other Manchester broadcaster, Granada, over the years. This one time BBC of the North with a... Read more and comment on this article.
