The BBC has just announced that it is reorganising Nations and Regions - effectively restructuring it so that it no longer exists as a single entity.
The BBC English Regional operations are being merged with the News division, whilst the Controllers of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are promoted to Directors, and now sit on the Direction board, and are thus more able to represent the nations at a higher level.
The role of Head of N&R effectively disappears AIUI - with Pat Loughrey, who is in that current role, departing.
"These changes will add weight to the out-of-London representation on the BBC's senior strategy and decision-making body. "
which roughly translates as "we've realised regulators no longer see english regions as important, so we'll scrap that, and pay more attention to the nations, as they shout loudest"
this really is a fantastic year for english regional broadcasting outside of london - first london based itv plc decimate their regional network, then the bbc effectively scrap birmingham based english regions and absorb it into london based news.
Though English Regions being based in Birmingham is a relatively new - in the scheme of things - development isn't it? 10-15 years or less? The creation of the English Regions management structure was itself a result of the erosion of each English Region as I understand it.
Previously each region had both a Head of Centre (HoC) and an Editor, News and Current Affairs (Ed,N& CA).
These posts were effectively downgraded and merged into a Head of Regional and Local Programmes (HRLP), with a Head of English Regions post being created to act for all the regions together, rather than each region representing themselves?
Now that English regions (in TV terms) are essentially now just news and current affairs production centres (with Inside Out and the odd Network Commission - Helicopter Heroes is a notable commission from an English regional centre?) it makes sense for them to be part of BBC News. BBC News isn't based just in London after all... It should also allow more sensible resource sharing between network and regional news (which has already improved a lot - but is still far from perfect)
How local radio fits within BBC News is a more interesting question - they have as much in common with Audio and Music I'd have thought?
Helicopter Heroes is a notable commission from an English regional centre?
I hadn't realised that was made by BBC Yorkshire - how was it credited on the endcap? I know earlier series of the Superleague Show use to be credited as BBC Leeds, not strictly within the BBC branding guidelines.
I hadn't realised that was made by BBC Yorkshire - how was it credited on the endcap? I know earlier series of the Superleague Show use to be credited as BBC Leeds, not strictly within the BBC branding guidelines.
I'm almost certain that such programmes have been credited to 'BBC English Regions'.
The old branding rules were if it was made for the region then it was branded by the region name, but if it was made for the network then it was branded with the city the regional centre was in.
So Look East, made for the region, would be "BBC East" but a show made for network would have been "BBC Norwich"
Pebble Mill was the odd one out - as it was used instead of BBC Birmingham for network shows for many years.
So under the original Lambie Nairn guidelines Helicopter Heroes would have been "BBC Leeds" - as it was a network show.
The old branding rules were if it was made for the region then it was branded by the region name, but if it was made for the network then it was branded with the city the regional centre was in.
So Look East, made for the region, would be "BBC East" but a show made for network would have been "BBC Norwich"
Pebble Mill was the odd one out - as it was used instead of BBC Birmingham for network shows for many years.
So under the original Lambie Nairn guidelines Helicopter Heroes would have been "BBC Leeds" - as it was a network show.
Well, as usual, BBC guidelines are there to be broken.
As a former employee of BBC English Regions it's a good thing that the structure is being flattened - having 2 departments above, one for nations and regions and another just for England was too much, especially when you consider that my department was based in Birmingham but all my admin was done in Bristol! I never really knew what the guys in Pebble Mill did for me.
It should also help the relations between network and regional news - it was always a pain trying to get the national news to co-operate... unless they wanted something of course! Like Noggin, I do wonder how the radio stations fall into it though
Yep - though I think the previous guidelines have long since become obsolete. They must be at least 10+ years old.
I can understand the English Regions end board for network shows made by a number of regions - such as the floods special last year, or for when the "Best of" networked Inside Out shows were shown in all regions. However when a particular region makes a show for the network it feels a bit generic.
Also - the "English Regions" bit of that end cap doesn't look to be the right height or in Gill Sans, and AIUI the baseline should follow the text not the blocks - so the baseline for English Regions should line up with the baseline of the caps BBC not the bottom of the blocks (so not a triumph...)
Has the rules for network productions made by network production departments in England - but AIUI these are part of BBC Vision (and thus branded as BBC Productions) rather than BBC Nations and Regions.
AIUI one of the only shows that doesn't have a BBC Productions end cap is The One Show - as it has contributions from BBC Productions, BBC Productions Bristol, BBC Productions Manchester, BBC Wales and quite a few independent production companies.