A quick rant about ITV News Meridian.   It comes on every evening at 6.00pm and is normally fronted by Portsmouth fan Fred Dinenage and one Sangeeta Bhabra.   Now the clue is in the title - ITV NEWS - but it appears to offer anything but `news.`

Instead, it simply picks up on the national news of the day and tries desperately to find some locally regional connection, however tenuous it might be.  Then invariably we are treated to some trailer or other about a programme which is to be screened later that evening on the main ITV Channel.  Then again - and the BBC Regional news is just as guilty in this regard - we are shown assorted `celebrities` who may be touring the region in various theatres across the south east.  Seems nothing more than free advertising for those performers, some of whom are of doubtful pedigree but who nevertheless must be grateful for the free plugs their acts and the venues involved are getting.  And then to fill in the half hour programmes we often see items that are obviously bussed in from other ITV regions far away from the south east.

The region covered by Meridian is alleged to be Kent, Sussex and a bit of Essex although the inclusion of Essex in the south east region might be stretching geography a little far.  But it seems that the centre of Meridian`s universe is rooted in Brighton - they seem obsessed with anything and everything to do with Brighton to the point where people like me who have no interest in Brighton at all get a little tired of hearing about it and their confounded Seagulls football team - all to the exclusion of much of the rest of the region they are supposed to be covering.

I think they have to decide what they really are - they are based at Whiteley in Hampshire with a sub post office in Maidstone.  In order to cover the entire area stretching from Essex to Dorset and even Oxfordshire they spread their resources too thinly;  Brighton being in the centre of that very extensive area probably explains their preoccupation with that city as they can produce items that can appear relevant to audiences right across that extended region.  It doesn`t work though - we end up with a disproportionate content about Brighton.

Perhaps the best they can do - if they are going to live up to  their remit as a regional NEWS channel - is to concentrate on just that;  the real and legitimate news that is going on and relevant to the area and spare us all the fillers and other stuff that we could all do without.

Here endeth the rant.  Thank you and goodnight..