BBC Regional News Vs ITV Regional News

I was wondering, in each of the regions in the UK, where does BBC News get the most viewers, and where are the ITV local programmes the top dogs?

I know that in NI, UTV Live Vs BBC Newsline, UTV boast about being NI most watched news programme.

In the North West, I believe North West Tonight beats Granada Reports, but did at one time 'Granada Tonight' beat North West Tonight when it was on at 5:30?


Anyone know what its like in any other regions??

Look Hull gets 29% Calendar gets 22% even after the new service launched in January. The market research indicates is not that popular and is too Sheffield based.

AIUI the only regions where ITV regional news get higher ratings than BBC regional news for the evening programmes are UTV, Tyne Tees and Border.

However, I'm not sure if North East Tonight still has a lead over Look North since the retirement of Mike Neville... can anyone confirm if it's still the case?

I'm certain NWT and good ol' Gordon Burns has a lead over Granada... love the ending where Diana and Gordon have a chat... Granada presenters Lucy Meacock and Tony Morris are too false... AND the weather's presented from Yorkshire!!

So do the majority of ITV Regional news programmes do poor just because of the time slot?? If the BBC regional news were on at 6 and the ITV regional at 6:30, would ITV programmes do better??

I personally think that the BBC regional news programmes (well In my region) have more news, ITV have 1 news story, then its full of comps and lifestyle magazine rubbish until the sport and weather!

Agreed!!!
If both clashed, ITV would get a thrashing!!!
It was much better in the 90s when it was an hour (remember that?!) and wasn't generic!

I always say thast ITV is the tabloid version of news and then BBC regions are the more newsy based items. Granada Reports has gone down hill but so have other regions like Central east and Central West. Thames Valley tonight seems quite good so maybe it is difficult to compare some regiosn since ITV made changes.

I may be biased considering I have met the NWT team however, I'd have to say North West Tonight is better than Granada and I think it is like that for the majority. NWT has serious articles and lighter articles which make it a good program - the reporters are more professional in my opinion and try to crack a joke.. I do think NWT need to improve on the technical side of things however dont think they can be blaimed since they are in a temp office now.

See the thing on teenagers this week on NWT - rather interesting.

In Scotland, Reporting Scotland boasts about being " Scotland's only national news programme " which is true when you think that it's competitors on ITV are North Tonight, Scotland Today and Lookaround. So you would need to take into consideration the total of the three of the ITV regions gets against BBC Scotland. ( But then Border would cover both England and Scotland! )

I have always assumed that Border, and the now-defunct Central (South) are/were probably the only ITV regional news programme that would beat their BBC rivals in the ratings.

And even then, it would only because of better geography, rather than journalistic quality. (i.e. Border's BBC rivals cover news as far away as, say, Lerwick or North Yorkshire, respectively. And Central (South)'s BBC rivals covered news as far away as, say, Stoke-on-Trent or the Isle of Wight, respectively).

Now that CNsouth is no more, I had been working on the assumption that all BBC regional news programmes (in England, at least) probably get better ratings than their ITV counterparts.

Overall ITV News.


I get three regions - the BBC win hands down in the North West over the cringeworthy Granada Reports - with the situation completly reversed in the Midlands - if you think Granada Reports is bad, it's journalism at it's best in comparison to Midlands Today.


Wales is pretty much 50/50, but I think I'd give the edge to ITV just.

Here in the North East I pefer Look North over Tyne Tees. It just seems to be more professional and isnt just one news story then lifestyle/magazine cr@p.