Westcountry Television was one of two rival consortia bidding against the incumbent TSW when the ITV franchises were put to tender early in 1991.

[2] Two of Westcountry's original shareholders were Brittany Ferries and South West Water; the latter investor attracted criticism as only three years earlier it had been responsible for one of the worst water pollution incidents in the United Kingdom and which had occurred within the franchise area at Camelford.

[6] In February 1992 the legal process found in favour of Westcountry[7] and while it could now finally sign the franchise agreement, its original programme plans were hit by the delay.

Technicians switched from the TSW microwave link to Westcountry Television, launching into a two-minute trail voiced by Bruce Hammal and Trish Bertram welcoming viewers to Westcountry, proudly announcing its forthcoming regional programmes.

[8] Six months after the launch, the company joined up with Meridian Broadcasting, HTV, Channel Television and S4C to create a joint advertising sales operation.

[10] In October 1996 GWR, the radio group, made a bid of £70m for Westcountry TV, outbidding both HTV and Carlton,[11] but within a few weeks United News & Media increased its offer and was expected to acquire the company,[12] But Westcountry owners had become increasingly frustrated at the slow progress of talks[13] and criticised United boss Lord Hollick's "nickel and dime" tactics over negotiations, opting instead to sell to Carlton Communications for £10m higher than United's offer of around £75m, around 25 November 1996.

ITV1 Westcountry was used for a time after this, although from 13 November 2006, the regional name was only verbally mentioned before any locally produced programming.

On 12 September 2007, ITV issued a statement to the City of London, saying that it wished to reduce the number of news studios from 17 to just nine.

The company opted instead to convert an industrial unit at Langage Science Park in Plympton, which was backed up by a network of seven local newsrooms and studios in Torbay, Penzance, Truro, Exeter, Barnstaple, Weymouth and Taunton.

Between 1 January 1993 and 5 September 1999, Westcountry's presentation featured that of a large 'W' shape on a frosted screen over a background video of a nature scene.

This presentational package lasted throughout the whole period, with the only change on 8 September 1997 that of a form-up added made out of diagonal lines.

The look, featuring a start up film involving hearts would flash out to reveal the Carlton name over a spinning star background.

Westcountry's programme offerings were primarily aimed at a regional market as opposed to gaining network slots.

[29] Two years later in 1997 the ITC again noted its "strong, high quality regional programming" and that it had "scored a major network success with Christmas with the Royal Navy, a series of five live programmes".

[30] In 1999 the ITC again commented that Westcountry provided a "regional service of generally high quality"[15] and that overall its range of regional programmes was "wide and included some strong factual material", also noting that one of its children's programmes had been supplied to the network.