KENT may be known for apples, cherries, hop gardens and the pharmaceutical industry, but it has long been home to another speciality - media.

For years, it went largely unrecognised. It did not help that TVS lost the regional broadcasting franchise and Meridian decided to sell the Maidstone Studios and move to far less prestigious premises in New Hythe.

Meridian has since seen the error of its ways and returned home. Hundreds of talented people quit the studios when TVS lost the franchise. They became freelances, setting up businesses across the county.

But their talents were used in all sorts of ways, not least in the studios which, under Flextech’s control, continued to make good television.

But it struggled to find a consistent role, and companies came and went. It found it hard to compete with bigger studios in London and Manchester.

But this has changed. Regionality and independent production have risen up the agenda and ITV’s commitment to spending at least £350 million outside the M25 and a further £9 million to local producers with good regional ideas, should be good for job creation and the local economy.

Thank goodness, ITV in its new single form has seen the importance of regional programming. It may not be a great moneymaker for a company that needs to please shareholders.

But it is one way for the commercial network to differentiate itself from the rest. The BBC has already committed resources to regional shows and it was vital for ITV not to abandon its regional heartland.

The new money should strengthen Maidstone’s ambitions to be widely known as a great place to make television, radio and advertising, and also for new media, design and other aspects of the creative industry.

That industry needs a constant inflow of new talent, and cannot rely on just the old TVS people for its creativity. There is an issue over local skills training and how appropriate it is for the industry.

Kent Institute of Art and Design needs to work more closely with media companies to find out the skills they need and tailor their courses accordingly.

As Peter Williams, the respected Maidstone producer said at the launch of MediaTree, he does not need young people who can analyse the film classic Battleship Potemkin but practical types who know one end of a lens from the other and how to edit a piece of tape.