ITV Westcountry

ITV West Country, is a non-franchise ITV regional station covering South West England and incorporating the ITV West ('East' edition) and ITV Westcountry ('West' edition) news output.

History
ITV West Country launched on 16 February 2009, and merged the two regions of ITV West and ITV Westcountry into one amalgamated region. The idea was first proposed following a speech by Michael Grade about regional broadcasting post-switchover at the 2007 Nations and Regions conference in Cardiff. There was speculation that ITV West and ITV Westcountry could merge operations, as part of further streamlining of regional operations, and rumours suggested that, while a newsroom (and separate regional identity) would be retained in the south west, the main Westcountry Live programme would move to a studio alongside The West Tonight at ITV West in Bristol. On 12 September 2007, ITV issued a statement to the City of London, saying that it wished to reduce the number of news studios from 17 to just 9. Shortly after the broadcasting regulator Ofcom gave ITV plc the go-ahead to merge the two regions.

Studios
ITV West Country's studio operations were all moved to ITV West's headquarters in Bristol, with the studio facilities in Plymouth mothballed, with a small news bureaux remaining.

Productions
ITV West Country produces a local news service ITV News West Country. The main evening programme at 6pm on weekdays includes separate opt-out bulletins for the first fifteen minutes from each of the two regions, some of which are pre-recorded depending on the day's news and due to the use of only one presenting team. The main 6pm evening programme is supplemented by shorter daytime bulletins, with the weekday Daybreak, lunch and late bulletin after the ITV News at Ten consisting of opt-out news for either the 'East' or 'West' of the region. Separate daytime bulletins for the regions were reintroduced in September 2011.

ITV West Country are also required to produce 13 hours of non-news programming a year - currently, the only non-news programme in production is The West Country at Westminster, a monthly political programme.