ITV News Tyne Tees

ITV News Tyne Tees is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Tyne Tees & Border from its studios in Gateshead, and serving County Durham, North Yorkshire, Northumberland, Teesside and Tyne and Wear.

History

1959–1996

On 15 January 1959, the original Tyne Tees Television news service was launched with short evening bulletins and a weekly magazine programme, North East Roundabout which was broadcast each Friday. On 30 March 1964, it begun airing nightly with the modified name North East Newsview. In 1969, the station's first colour television news programme was broadcast under the new name of Today at Six. From 6 September 1976, Tyne Tees' longest running news programme Northern Life aired with notable presenters including Paul Frost and Pam Royle. On 5 October 1992 this was replaced by Tyne Tees Today (and from 31 March 1993 a sub-regional service would be known as Network North for South of the region only). In November 1995 both Tyne Tees Today and Network North were renamed to Tyne Tees News although separate news services for the North and South of the region unaffected. In January 1996 this was joined by lifestyle programme Tonight.^[2]

1996–2005

On Monday 2 September 1996 following the defection of the popular Mike Neville to Tyne Tees from the BBC's Look North after 32 years, North East Tonight was launched, replacing two separate news services and a lifestyle programme.

Mike Neville announced his retirement from the programme on 5 June 2006 after almost a year on sick leave.^[3]

2005–2009

In August 2005, following chief presenter Mike Neville's absence the month prior, North East Tonight opted for two separate news services for the Tyne Tees region once again:

• North: (Northumberland and Tyne and Wear), broadcast from the Pontop Pike and Chatton transmitters.
• South: (County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire), broadcasting from the Bilsdale transmitter.

Other bulletins including GMTV bulletins, weekday lunchtime, weekday late, and weekend early evening were pan-regional.

2009–2013

In September 2007, ITV plc announced that Tyne Tees' newsroom would be merged with ITV Border, subject to Ofcom approval.^[4]

On 26 September 2008, Ofcom (the Office of Communications, the UK's broadcasting regulator) authorised ITV's plans to save £40 million a year by making regional programming cutbacks. These include axing mid-morning bulletins on weekdays and lunchtime bulletins at weekends, merging a number of regions and axing most non-news regional programmes.

As part of major ITV regional news cuts, taking place from November 2008 to February 2009, around 50 staff were made redundant or accepted voluntary redundancy at ITV Tyne Tees. On 16 December 2008, Press Gazette leaked that journalists were told that leaving collections were banned, along with leaving presentations and on-screen goodbyes. In a staff memo, head of news Catherine Houlihan cited the ban was because of the large number of staff being made redundant at the station.^[5] One worker told Press Gazette that "morale is at rock bottom". The main anchors were announced as Ian Payne and Pam Royle.^[6]

The final North and South sub-regional editions of North East Tonight aired on 13 February 2009.

ITV Tyne Tees & Border was formed on 25 February 2009, with Lookaround and North East Tonight titles retained for the 6pm programme and late bulletin each weekday, whilst shorter bulletins were known simply as Tyne Tees & Border News.^[7]

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.

On 14 January 2013, the "Tyne Tees" news service was relaunched and rebranded as ITV News Tyne Tees.^[8]

2013–present

On 14 June 2013, it was reported ITV would restore a full 30-minute edition of Lookaround and shorter bulletins for Border viewers, effectively leading to a demerger of the Tyne Tees and Border services.^[9] OFCOM approved the plans a month later, allowing Tyne Tees to reintroduce its own full regional news service. The minutage requirement for the main evening programme was reduced from 30 to 20 minutes, although ITV retain a full half-hour with the option of using some aggregate content from other regions.^[10] Daytime and weekend bulletins for the Tyne Tees region were reintroduced on Monday 16 September 2013.

The news service is produced and broadcast from studios at The Watermark, Gateshead with reporters also based at a Teesside office in Billingham. Both regional services utilise exactly the same presenter(s) and studio/set, therefore one of the two programmes - depending on the day's news - is pre-recorded 'as live' shortly before broadcast.^[11] The head of news is Michaela Byrne.

Broadcast times

ITV News Tyne Tees airs on ITV Tyne Tees seven days a week. On weekdays, a four-minute lunchtime bulletin airs at 1.55pm, followed by the main half-hour programme at 6pm and an eight-minute late bulletin at 10.30pm following ITV News at Ten. At weekends, two 5-minute editions of ITV News Tyne Tees are broadcast - one later on Saturday afternoons and another on Sunday evenings.

On weekday mornings, Good Morning Tyne Tees airs short bulletins within Good Morning Britain at approximately 6.05am, 7.05am and 8.05am.

Notable on-air team

• Pam Royle (1983-1984, 1989—) - Main anchor, former weather presenter
• Ian Payne (1992—) - Main anchor, former sports presenter
• Rachel Sweeney (2009—) - Good Morning Tyne Tees anchor, former correspondent
• Ross Hutchinson (2012—) - Weather presenter

Correspondents Helen Ford, Claire Montgomery and Gregg Easteal often guest anchor, alongside sports presenter Simon O'Rourke.

Past presenters/reporters

References

External links

• ITV News Tyne Tees at itv.com
• ITV News at itv.com