is the
ITV station for the South and
South East England . It has been broadcasting since
1 January 1993 . The main headquarters were situated in
Northam ,
Southampton , but have recently moved to
Whiteley .
Meridian operates 3 sub-regions:
Each has their own version of ''Meridian News'', including the flagship show ''Meridian Tonight'' at 6pm, and shows local advertisements - otherwise, programmes across the Meridian region are identical.
Meridian's original
Ident featured an exploding mix of orange, yellow and blue, which then came together to form the familiar sun/face logo.
Under several different formups and backgrounds, the logo was in use until
2002 when the station was re-branded as 'ITV1 Meridian'. The original logo was last seen at the start of the late-night weather forecast on
5 December 2004 , and on
1 February 2005 it was replaced with a banner simply saying 'ITV1 Meridian'.
Soon after gaining the ITV franchise from
Television South , Meridian was bought by
MAI , who were themselves later acquired by
United News And Media , and then in
2000 by Granada. In
2004 Granada merged with Carlton to form
ITV Plc , which ended Meridian's existence as a separate brand.
Some of Meridian's notable contributions to the national television network include:
The Meridian Region was the trail region for
ITV Local , a new local broadband service from ITV providing regional news and events 24 hours a day.
