[newsjunkie]

In the past ITV Regions/Nations had 2 class of regional office (not officially though). Those with multiple numbers of people working there with cameras, reporters, other journalists and sometimes sales teams based there. And those that are simply a feed point with a desk and an internet connection.

When I worked at ITV Meridian almost 20 years ago now, they had the following:

Whiteley - major base with studios

Abingdon, Brighton & Maidstone - multiple reporters, cameras and production staff.

Salisbury, Bournemouth, Swindon, Reading (and probably one I have forgotten) - Feed points with a small desk area and room for a down the line (though normally not with a fixed camera).

These smaller offices were incredibly helpful in the pre high speed mobile internet era meaning you could feed material back to the main offices without a satellite truck. The advent of liveu/internet feeds have made these pretty much redundant. Instead of having fixed offices, ITV regions/nations have invested heavily in liveu kits and that is why you see a lot more lives than you would have ever seen in the past - even when budgets were significantly bigger.

Personally I think its a shame you don't have that buzz as you're sat in traffic trying to get off the M4 into the Madejski stadium so you can feed an interview via Abingdon and down to Whiteley for the 6pm show. My heart would probably think a bit differently. Internet feeding has revolutionised news in a way not seen since the advent of ENG cameras (before my time thankfully).