Dynamic Team For UTV's GB News Bid

One of the UK's most experienced public affairs journalists has been appointed by UTV as Project Leader of its bid for the Government's Independently Funded News Consortium (IFNC) pilot project in the Border and Tyne Tees area.

Tony Baker will be joined by Andrew Friend, former Head of News at Tyne Tees and Jonathon Morrell, former main 'anchor' at Tyne Tees to complete the local team working with UTV management on this bid.

Michael Wilson, Managing Director, UTV Television said: "As three of the most experienced Senior Television Executives and Broadcasters in the North of England, I am delighted to welcome Tony Baker, Andrew Friend and Jonathan Morrell to our Border Live and North East Live team.

"Their significant media experience gained over many years working on the ground in this area brings considerable expertise, knowledge and unrivalled relationships in politics, business, education and media to our team to ensure our plans are firmly focused on local news for local people."

UTV produces the most watched regional news in the whole of the UK, our UTV Live audience share in 2008 was 35.9% more than double that of ITV North East Tonight’s 16.8% share and considerably more than ITV Lookaround’s 24.1% share.

In a career spanning 40 years, Tony Baker, Project Leader of the proposed Border Live and North East Live service said: "I am delighted to be asked to lead the team in seeking delivery of truly local news coverage in the North East and Border region.

"Having now worked in the area for 35 years I am passionate about restoring and developing high quality television and multiplatform coverage for the people who deserve that service."

He continued: "To this end our team hopes to make a compelling case for delivery working alongside the award winning professionals at UTV, who have a record in meeting local aspirations which is unique and unfaltering."

Three IFNCs are being created by the Government in Wales, Scotland and the Tyne Tees and Border area to develop sustainable multiplatform regional news. As well as broadcasting on the regional news slots on Channel 3 (ITV and STV), the consortia will be expected to provide increased local news using multimedia technology.

Michael Wilson concluded: "Through our websites, border-live.tv and northeast-live.tv, we have received tremendous feedback from the public in each of these areas on what they want from their local news service.

"We will continue to promote these sites throughout this process to ensure what we offer in each region meets local audience demands and is sustainable in the longer term," he said.

For more information visit:
 www.northeast-live.tv

(BMcN/BMcc)