[Brekkie]

In recent years it’s appeared to me that ITV Wales don’t get the credit they perhaps deserve when it comes to local output, producing a level of output very similar to UTV (and from the looks of it, frequently more than STV manage in a given week) but without the same level of attention.

Looking at a typical week in Wales of late and you’ve got a mix of local politics, a local Panorama/Tonight-type programme, a local features series and a local arts and culture show. The mix is slightly different in Northern Ireland but isn’t too dissimilar, whilst in Scotland this week’s local output appears to be limited to two hours of local politics and nowt else - STV don’t even appear to have opted out of the second half hour of tonight’s ITV Evening News when both Wales and Northern Ireland did so for local programming.

I think they still produce a bit for S4C too, though probably not as much as they once did.  Y Byd ar Bedwar has been their flagship Welsh production for years.

I think ITV Wales benefit from not having tried to cover their local hours just by increasing news and when you look at what they do produce they do a pretty decent job, but suffer from having to jump around the network schedules, made even more difficult by the changes to the soap schedules - and then things like I'm a Celeb running beyond the hour hit the later slot too.    The audience is clearly there for it though, just as it would still be there for some content in the English regions if ITV hadn't convinced OFCOM in the noughties that digital TV would mean viewers suddenly lost interest in regional content.

ITV would probably gloat more if they were independent but I suspect also that should they ever look to buy STV (which doesn't seem to be on the cards) by keeping Wales strong they can convince regulators that Scottish viewers would not be negatively impacted by them taking over from STV.


It is a shame though, but far from a new issue, that on ITV especially (though increasingly on the BBC too) that content from the nations is generally limited to current affairs and factual - there isn't the opportunity to do some comedy, drama or entertainment geared towards a more local audience.