ITV Meridian Ltd (formerly and more commonly known as Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for South and South East England. It has been broadcasting since 1 January 1993, when it replaced TVS. The main headquarters were situated at studios in Northam, Southampton (previously used by both Southern and TVS), but in December 2004 they moved to part of an office building on the Solent Business Park, near Whiteley, Hampshire; as a result, Meridian's role has gradually been reduced from producing a wide variety of regional and network programming (as it did since 1993, when it inherited a large studio complex in Southampton) to producing little more than regional news bulletins which are a contractual obligation (as it does today).
1993-1996
Meridian's first ident was a colourful affair. It burst onto our screens when they took over the franchise in 1993. There were three soundtracks to this ident, a formal version to link to the news, a soft version for soaps and dramas, and a rock version for more entertaining programming.
This glass version of the 1993 Meridian ident was broadcast late at night, and was never seen during the day. Shame really, as this would have made a great daytime ident.
The funky original breakbumper. An interesting take on the sun/face logo.
1996-1998
The second Meridian ident was introduced in 1996. Unlike the previous ident, there were only two versions of the soundtrack. The rock-star style music was withdrawn.
1998-1999
With Granada and Carlton failing to agree on a design for the generic Heart idents, Meridian plugged the gap by introducing this ident. No surprises in terms of design, the third and final local ident from the south used the same formula as the idents that preceded it. It lasted a year before the re-edited GMG Hearts finally took to the airwaves.
1999-2001
Meridian adopted the hearts motif used across most of the ITV network in 1999. The familiar sun logo was reduced to a smudge in a blue box.
2001-2002
The ident was updated in 2001 to co-incide with the new ITV1 branding.
2002-2004
Regional continuity was thrown out the window in 2002, although regional idents still appeared before local programmes. The Meridian logo was gone forever...
2004-2006
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