Since Monday of this week, Newbury viewers will be receiving news programmes and advertising targeted at the Thames Valley. Prior to this they had only been able to receive the Southampton programmes on channel 103.

A spokesperson for ITV said that this was all part of an upgrade process for the area which started on August 1st. One of the advantages of the satellite system is that each subscriber can be accurately targeted with the appropriate programme for their postcode area.

ITV Meridian broadcasts three separate sub-regional editions of Meridian Tonight. One covers Hampshire, West Sussex and parts of Dorset, another covers the Thames Valley, and the third broadcasts to East Sussex, Kent and south Essex. Each edition has its own team of presenters and reporters.

Newbury.net had been advised that prior to this some viewers had been retuning to terrestrial TV just to watch the local news presented by Andy Craig.