Westward Television was the ITV franchise holder for the South West of England from April 1961 until December 1981. A mainly rural region of the country, the South West had no ITV broadcaster before 1961.
Based at purpose-built studios at Derry's Cross in Plymouth, Westward was one of the smallest ITV operators and produced very little output for the network, choosing instead to concentrate on regional programmes of particular interest to the South West's rural and agricultural communities, as well as regular regional news bulletins. Westward's flagship news programme was Westward Diary, which went out at 6pm every weekday for the entire duration of the franchise.
Westward ceased broadcasting on 31 December 1981, being replaced the following day by TSW (Television South West), which took over the Derry's Cross studios and retained most of Westward's staff.
