January 1993 – December 2006 Meridian's flagship regional news programme was launched as
Meridian Tonight on 4 January 1993 – three days after Meridian replaced
Television South. Three sub-regional editions of the programme were broadcast simultaneously, from studios in Southampton, Maidstone, and Newbury. The three original sub-regional services for
Meridian News/Tonight were: •
South, based in
Southampton before moving to Whiteley in 2004. •
East (now South East), based in
Maidstone before moving to an industrial estate near
New Hythe in 1994. The news gathering operation was moved back to The Maidstone Studios in 2004, though studio production moved to Meridian's new
Whiteley base at the same time. •
West (now Thames Valley), based in
Newbury. Studio production moved to Southampton in 2001. Meridian's first Controller of News was Jim Raven, who had previously been the Editor for the South East edition of TVS's
Coast to Coast. Three regional editors (later heads of news) were appointed to run each of the three news sub-regions: •
South: Andy Cooper, former editor of
Coast to Coast South •
East: Mark Southgate, former producer of
Coast to Coast South East •
West: Robin Britton, who had been the deputy-editor of the Meridian South programme. TVS had done a short Thames Valley opt, launched in 1990. Meridian South went on air with Fred Dinenage (TVS & Southern) and Debbie Thrower (TVS & BBC), the South East anchors were Mike Debens (TVS) and Alison Holloway (Sky, HTV West) and in the Thames Valley, Andy Craig (Central) partnered with Mai Davies (TVS & HTV Wales). Carl Tyler did the weather for Thames Valley and South and Ron Lobeck was also retained for the South East forecasts. Robin Britton recruited programme producer Paul Erlam and transport correspondent Mike Pearse (
Thames News), along with Alison Black (
Channel 4 Daily) and Peter Brookes (
TV-am). Andy Cooper hired Nick Myers from TV-am, and moved Steve McDonnell from current affairs at TVS back into the newsroom as a programme producer. Mark Southgate recruited journalist Marc Percy. The three new-look programmes were hosted from an original set design was by Eye-Catching Design. All three editions of
Meridian Tonight went onto win the Royal Television Society's Nations and Regions Programme of the Year award – the only time three programmes have tied for the top prize. Presentation for all three services moved to new smaller digital studios at Whiteley, near
Fareham on Saturday 4 December 2004. The Northam studios in Southampton were sold for a reported £5 million for domestic housing and the studios near Maidstone were closed. The Meridian team in the South East moved back to the Maidstone Studios originally built by TVS and rejected by Meridian when they took over. Newsgathering operations in all areas were retained. In December 2006, the updates during GMTV became pan-regional. Weekend bulletins had become pan-regional across the South Coast and South East only, whilst the West retained its own weekend bulletins until 3 December 2006, when ITV Thames Valley was launched.
December 2006 – February 2009 On 4 December 2006, a merger between West and the
ITV Central South sub-region took place, forming the non-franchise
ITV Thames Valley news service, broadcasting
Thames Valley Today/Tonight from the same studio at Whiteley. The merger saw Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and the
Swindon area being added to the region for news purposes. The former ITV Central South sub-region headquarters at
Abingdon was retained as the main news gathering base for ITV Thames Valley, but the studio presentation facility was mothballed. Bulletins during GMTV became pan-regional across the ITV Meridian and ITV Thames Valley areas, and branded as
GMTV News. Weekend bulletins continued to be separate
Meridian News (pan-regional for South Coast and South East) and
Thames Valley Today/Tonight services.
February 2009 – September 2013 At the end of 2008, in light of a restructuring through the ITV regional news network, around 100 staff across the three sub-regional news services in
South East England were made redundant. A single edition of
Meridian Tonight for the entire region was launched on 9 February 2009. Within this, two sub-regions created –
South/Thames Valley and
South East. The then remaining sub-regional elements were: • The opening 15 minutes of the main 6pm programme. • Full late night bulletins on weeknights, following
ITV News at Ten. • Localised weather forecasts for South/Thames Valley and South East. Sangeeta Bhabra and
Fred Dinenage were lead presenters of the scaled back service. Both sub-regional editions use the same presenter(s) and studio/set, therefore one of the two opt-outs – depending on the day's news – is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before broadcast. In February 2010, the programme won the
Royal Television Society's Award for Best Nations & Regions News Coverage. On Monday 14 January 2013, the news service was relaunched and rebranded as
ITV News Meridian.
September 2013 – present On 23 July 2013, proposals for a more localised Channel 3 news service were approved.
ITV News Meridian extended the South and South East opt-out services by an extra five minutes during the half-hour 6pm programme, in addition to separate lunchtime and weekend bulletins for the two regions. A Thames Valley service was also reintroduced, consisting of a ten-minute opt out within the 6pm programme for the South and a late bulletin after
News at Ten. The two late night bulletins are retained for the South and the South East, in addition to the new Thames Valley bulletin. The expanded sub-regional service launched on Monday 16 September 2013. The Head of News was Robin Britton. He previously launched
Thames Valley Tonight and the West edition of
Meridian Tonight. In September 2017 he was replaced by Alison Nice, a former content editor for ITV Meridian. ==Notable current on air staff==