[lookoutwales]

I didn't mind those titles too much - minimalist and half hearted as they were (and the Duncan and Christine era didn't really start to gel until they got both of them into the new corporate studio)

One thing that was notable around the time of the merger was how feature / magazine content started to outweigh the hard news in certain regions.

Wouldn't have meant a great deal of difference or Calendar or even Granada Reports (Caroline Whitmore popped up practically every night with her obligatory 'celebs visiting the region' story) but it was certainly notable elsewhere.

Anglia noted some of these changes in one of their programme review statements - weighting around 40% news / 60% features (though I'd argue it was even heavier for features at times)

Technical quality was, again, another thing. There were definitely a lot more technical hitches on ITV Wales News post-merger - they were still working off analogue tape until fairly late on (BBC Wales were using Digibeta) and relying on some quite basic graphics for stories, almost Clip Art quality.

Suffice to say they were in urgent need of the technical rollout when it did come their way (quite a bit was made out of North Wales getting its own SNG truck - whereas now, with their LiveU facilities, they can usually manage up to three OBs a night on Wales at Six)