New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

Is there any set pattern to Look East sub-regions at 6:30pm any more?

I know that having entirely-separate Cambridge/Norwich editions at 6:30pm had started to happen, but some days it was still just the traditional partial split during the middle section of the programme IIRC.

Do fully-split 6:30pm programmes still happen at all? If so, are they always on the same day(s) of the week throughout the year (e.g. Mondays only, or whatever)? Or does it vary sporadically from one week to the next?

And, on days where the split is still only partial, is it still in the middle bit of the programme, or is is, say, sometimes at the beginning like how South Today Oxford is?

The pattern for the opt-out or 'Close Up' which it used to be branded, on Look East remains how it started in 1997. There are a couple of main stories presented in the Norwich studio then the opt-out and a seamless link from Cambridge back to Norwich for the more magazine type features.

There were a few occasions last year when whole editions were split on an ad hoc basis, but I would think these were just experimental and the BBC's PQF put an end to this. These could have been either produced from a technical or presentation stance as even then, both editions shared the same opening stories before launching into a 'pretend' Close Up.

From what I've seen of BBC Oxford into South Today or BBC Channel Islands into Spotlight, the opt-out always seems to crash into the later programmes, thus it seems to make sense to rebrand BBC Oxford South Today even if it isn't geographically correct.

It sort of makes sense; it allows a smoother transition to the Southampton news and features under the South Today brand while still retaining the fact that it is regional. It also differentiates the TV news programme from the radio station of the same name, BBC Oxford. As for the music, I despair - it doesn't sound right to me.

Cheers for info.

At the time that a few fully-separate Cambridge 6:30pm editions were happening (which I never actually watched, I just saw the discussion on here), it was unclear to me how regular and/or permanant the move was.

It sounds to me like the experiment was perhaps a trial for such increased-separateness to become permenant/regular, but was ultimately either judged unsuccessful/unneccessary, or perhaps just financially ruled-out when DQF came along?

Or maybe such full-splits may very occasionally stull occur on an ad-hoc basis, if/when there is ever a newsworthy reason to do so?

I agree.

I guess that the sub-opt always wanted something to differentiate itself from the main show. In the days of the text-only "logo"/titles endoard (i.e. before the 2008), the only way of doing this was to have the word "Oxford" written somewhere.

However, the 2008-onwards look includes a regional image on the endboard (currently the Needles Lighthouse on the Southampton edition, and the Radcliffe Camera on the Oxford edition). This visual distinction seem more that adequate enough, without the sub-opt also needing to shoehorn "Oxford" into the logo/title.

I always thought "BBC Oxford News" made it sound like it was biased towards just a single city, not a wider region (imagine the fuss if, say, Midlands Today was branded as "BBC Birmingham News" or so on). And it also seemed odd for something that is merely a sub-opt, rather than a "proper region", to have absolutely no words-in-common with the name of the "parent programme" to which it belongs.

Meridian's Philippa Drew is a meteorologist, who'd have known it. Maybe between her sparse appearances à la Sian Lloyd she works for the Met Office.

This still leaves BBC Channel Islands News as a separate brand to BBC Spotlight, although the CI sub-opt is a distinctive area in comparison to the Oxford sub-opt.

Yes, although there is very little overlap between Hannington (BBC South) and Oxford. South of the Ridgeway (the line that is also the Berks/Oxon) border Hannington is used, north of it Oxford. That's not to say reception doesn't overlap (it does significantly), it's just that the direction of receiving aerials used is razor sharp, probably the best defined border technically and editorilly of any neighbouring pair of transmitters in the UK !

Yes she does. I think I've read before that Philippa is employed with the Met Office at an RAF site in Hampshire. Although I could be wrong. I know she is definitely freelance at Meridian though.

So, if the rationale for changing the name of the Oxford opt back to 'South Today' is one of consistency of branding, would anyone like to hazard a guess why the programme is still called 'BBC Oxford News' on the EPG and the BBC website (bbc.co.uk/oxford and indeed the BBC One listings pages)?

All seems a bit strange to me.

It seems the people at the BBC in Oxford don't ever speak to the online people. The name of the radio station changed back from BBC Oxford to BBC Radio Oxford two years ago, but the website still shows the old name.

Looks like Oxford is having some kind of refurb... no 10:25 bulletin tonight, so pan-regional from Southampton.

Maybe that's why the South Today branding has been reinstated in the northern part of the region?