Westcountry Live

Westcountry Live
Also known as	'Westcountry News'
Genre	Regional News
Presented by	Richard Bath Alexis Bowater
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer(s)	ITV Westcountry
Release
Original network	ITV Westcountry
Original release	4 January 1993 – 15 February 2009
Chronology
Preceded by	TSW Today
Followed by	ITV News West Country

Westcountry Live was the flagship regional news programme of ITV Westcountry, serving South West England.

History

The programme was first broadcast on Monday 4 January 1993 - four days after Westcountry Television took over the ITV regional franchise from Television South West.

From December 1993 until early 2009, Westcountry ran four sub-regional services, each providing short opt-out bulletins for their area during the flagship news programme Westcountry Live and the late bulletin after News at Ten. The opt-outs were broadcast from Westcountry's studios in Barnstaple (covering North Devon), Exeter (serving East Devon & parts of Somerset), Plymouth (South Devon & parts of East Cornwall) and Truro (Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly). Westcountry was the first and only ITV company to produce four opt-outs for their region. The programme ended on Friday 13 February 2009.

Merger

Following ITV Westcountry's merger with ITV West to form ITV West & Westcountry, the new pan-regional programme The West Country Tonight launched on Monday 16 February 2009. A 20-minute opt-out for the current Westcountry region is featured within the 6pm programme alongside fully separate short bulletins and localised weather forecasts seven days a week. The news service was renamed ITV News West Country on 14 January 2013.

Depending on the day's news, either the West or Westcountry bulletins are pre-recorded. The service is presented from Bristol with newsrooms in Plymouth, Truro and Exeter covering the region. Former Westcountry Live newscasters at time of closure Richard Bath, Alexis Bowater and Jemma Woodman were made redundant.^[1] Bath and Woodman presented the final main edition of the programme on Friday 13 February 2009, which featured a special highlights compilation with contributions from presenters, reporters and production staff.

Newsrooms in Plymouth, Barnstaple, Penzance, Torbay and Weymouth were closed. A new, smaller Plymouth newsroom opened at the offices of independent production company Twofour.^[2]

Former on air team

References