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New BBC One North

But what is North? Manchester or Hull, Newcastle or Cumbria? (March 2021)

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DO
dosxuk
I don't really see any difference between the Manchester/Liverpool situation and the Leeds/Sheffield situation the other side of the Pennines.
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JO
Jon
I don't really see any difference between the Manchester/Liverpool situation and the Leeds/Sheffield situation the other side of the Pennines.

Well that’s the thing the BBC can’t have a major base in every town and city in the UK. But Salford in theory should give Liverpool talent more of an opportunity to get into the industry and the same with Leeds and Sheffield.
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LL
London Lite Founding member
While I welcome the BBC One North proposal, I'd like to hope that Hull, Leeds and Newcastle are finally upgraded to HD as it'll only be the North West which will benefit from regional bulletins in HD.
JO
Jonwo
While I welcome the BBC One North proposal, I'd like to hope that Hull, Leeds and Newcastle are finally upgraded to HD as it'll only be the North West which will benefit from regional bulletins in HD.


I wonder if BBC London News will be one of the first to switch to HD?
LL
London Lite Founding member
Jonwo posted:
While I welcome the BBC One North proposal, I'd like to hope that Hull, Leeds and Newcastle are finally upgraded to HD as it'll only be the North West which will benefit from regional bulletins in HD.


I wonder if BBC London News will be one of the first to switch to HD?


Possibly, there's also Spotlight, NWT and Look East Cambridge which could be in the first group as they already output in HD.

Viewers in the Channel Islands will see CI News upscaled, but then the last 15 mins of Spotlight in HD.
MK
Mr Kite
I don't really see any difference between the Manchester/Liverpool situation and the Leeds/Sheffield situation the other side of the Pennines.


But you do see the difference with the Enfield/Croydon situation, right?

I think Sheffield is also hard done by and I mentioned the city in passing earlier. I don't think it's good enough for Sheffield and it certainly isn't for Liverpool.
JO
Jon
I don't really see any difference between the Manchester/Liverpool situation and the Leeds/Sheffield situation the other side of the Pennines.


But you do see the difference with the Enfield/Croydon situation, right?

I think Sheffield is also hard done by and I mentioned the city in passing earlier. I don't think it's good enough for Sheffield and it certainly isn't for Liverpool.

So what do you suggest the solution is?
MK
Mr Kite
I'm not repeating myself or going into it now. It's 1:30 in the morning, I'm tired and I spoke at length upthread. You can go read it if you wish.
LL
London Lite Founding member
I don't really see any difference between the Manchester/Liverpool situation and the Leeds/Sheffield situation the other side of the Pennines.


But you do see the difference with the Enfield/Croydon situation, right?

I think Sheffield is also hard done by and I mentioned the city in passing earlier. I don't think it's good enough for Sheffield and it certainly isn't for Liverpool.


ITV at least has Sheffield in the Calendar South region, where they share news with Hull and Lincolnshire which gives the city a better chance on the running order compared to Look North Leeds where the editorial area is shared with an editorial area that goes up to Scarborough.
MA
Markymark
If you think Humberside went a long time ago, Middlesex was abolished in 1965, but you tell the Post Office or the Cricket Club that!


Or the rugby union county, or the RFU, "Middlesex sevens"!

On a serious note, BBC North has existed before, in the mid 80s, to the early 1990s. It was during this period, that the whole of Cumbria was moved from the North East, to the North West


If you go back further, it's actually the set up the BBC had with the old Home Service on radio. They had a Northern region based in Manchester, (covering on AM more or less the macro region being discussed) a Midland region from Birmingham (Midlands and East Anglia) and a West region based in Bristol covering the West, SW, South, and SE regions. When FM became more of a thing, there were opt outs from those macros that more or less match the present BBC TV regions.

The only exception were MW relays in Kent and Sussex, that remained tied to Bristol because of GPO landline constraints! Home Service from FM Wrotham and FM Swingate was tied to London. Another reason for the Beeb's weird London+SE TV region!
Last edited by Markymark on 19 March 2021 6:48am
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Wasn't the North Home Service shared with Northern Ireland due to a shortage of frequencies?

On the point about certain areas being under served by news, part of this plan is to introduce extra journalists specifically to cover areas which traditionally have been off the news radar.

District Reporters seem to be a thing of the past in local radio, except for on stations with geographically big patches like York, where it makes sense to have a presence in Scarborough, so it's an interesting change of direction.
CO
commseng
If you go back further, it's actually the set up the BBC had with the old Home Service on radio. They had a Northern region based in Manchester, (covering on AM more or less the macro region being discussed) a Midland region from Birmingham (Midlands and East Anglia) and a West region based in Bristol covering the West, SW, South, and SE regions. When FM became more of a thing, there were opt outs from those macros that more or less match the present BBC TV regions.

I did have a similar thought to that, which is why I asked if further fragmentation of BBC 1 in England was likely in the future.
Again it would be re-inventing the wheel, this time back to the 1970s and the National Production Centres in Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester to counter the London heavy programming in England.
As someone else said, it'll last until budget cuts are required in 10 years time!

The BBC 1 North proposed in this document sounds fairly low key, and of course it will not affect the existing news opt outs. But asking for more seperate programming for cities just 60 miles apart is financially impractical across the UK.
Over the years on various forums we have all seen that certain parts of the UK are more special than others, many threads about local radio say that as national brands are rolled out the listeners in these places will never bother with the new station as they aren't local voices for local people.

If programming is good, the voices are not generally a problem. I've been enjoying an early evening programme about the lost railways in Northern Ireland, I don't need it to have a Brummy accent so I can watch it!!
People do move around, the accents are less pronounced now than they were even a few decades ago, however even back at the start of Radio Clyde, one of the daytime presenters was Steve Jones from Crewe - I doubt he had a local Glaswegian accent.
I like a variety of accents, I live in London, but like most here I wasn't born here, colleagues are from all over the world never mind just the UK. Broadcasting has made us listen to different voices and helped knock the sharp corners off when there wasn't understanding.
People evolve, language evolves, and the broadcasters have to as well.
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