New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

I know, but I am just wondering when the East opt will join the program as from what I could see there was no real place for it to be introduced.

LIVE from Basingstoke at the moment but the Live DOG is in the current style but in Gill Sans but the 'Basingstoke' part is in Swiss.

Hijinks from some Tonbridge Wells youths during the weather on BBC South East Today this evening. It can be relived here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast-video/21416752

Sangeeta and Luke on ITV Meridian tonight. I wonder if they are screen testing, if and when Fred retires. I wonder who will take over? Phil Hornby maybe?

Sad news about former South Today weather presenter Reham Khan. Hopefully she'll make a full recovery...

https://www.facebook.com/reham.khan.16

Any chance of getting those videos on a 'public domain' both shown as private now.

South East Today used the word 'tosser' a number of times in the 18:30 edition but the subtitles did not use the word at all, seemingly rewriting what was said to avoid using the word. Pretty poor service to deaf viewers when you consider the 'story' was "Man calls another man a tosser".

I believe tonight was the launch of the Thames Valley opt on Meridian. Interestingly, the top story was done by Heather Edwards who, under the name of Heather MacCarthy, presented the BBC's first Oxford sub-opt.
http://vimeo.com/74646395

Some info about Meridian’s new Thames Valley variant…

During both the 6pm and 10:30pm opts, phrases like “Thames Valley news stories” etc are bandied about here and there. On the first night, Fred said something like “Meridian across Hampshire, the Thames Valley, Surrey and Wiltshire” shortly before the 6:10pm join. Thankfully, this clunky phrase has not been repeated since.

Are equivalent phrases being used in either/both other sub-regions?

Sadly, all weather forecasts are still pan-“West” only, even in the now-split 10:30pm bulletin. Ever since the new weather graphics launched in January 2013, the Meridian West map looks as if Oxford city is the northernmost point of the region, thus rather ignoring viewers up towards Banbury. Sadly, despite the new Thames Valley service, this has not been amended.

The structure post-6:10pm suggests no point at which the East could conveniently also join, so I presume that no part of the programme is utterly pan-regional across all three areas anymore, and therefore the East edition is fully standalone now? (Despite the fact that the exact same 10-minutes worth of “aggregate” content presumably turns up on both West and East)

This must mean that 40-minutes worth of pre-recorded editions are made before 6pm each day, regardless of which sub-region(s) is/are due to be live.

On ITV+1, the Freeview EPG here in the ex-Central South area has listed “ITV News Central” at 7pm for as long as I care to remember, and yet the programme that would actually come on at 7pm was Meridian (East edition)! Chipping Norton viewers being lumbered with Kent news was, of course, an absolutely dire situation.

But as of 16th Sep, ITV+1 (and presumably ITV HD too?) here does actually show Central West news at 7pm, as per what the EPG states!

I had hoped (but, realistically, not really expected) that the old Portsmouth and Reading studio backdrops would be resurrected, plus a new Winchester (or something) video backdrop for pan-West. Sadly, it’s still the East-centric Tonbridge backdrop on all Meridian sub-regions. Boo.

I would have thought a backdrop of Reading or Oxford would be more appropriate?

That's what I was saying! Reintroduce both pre-2009 video backdrops - the Reading backdrop for the Thames Valley sub-opt, and the Portsmouth backdrop for the South Coast sub-opt. Then, for the pan-West part of the programme after 6:10pm, a backdrop that's "neutral" between Thames Valley/South Coast, such as Winchester.

SET had a locally produced weather forecast tonight from Rachel Mackley instead of a hub produced bulletin from London.