BBC Trust approves enhancements to Regions and Nations

The revised plan contains the following measures:

1. An annual 'state of the nation/region' journalism initiative in each nation and region
2. A fund for programming in the English regions
3. More landmark factual programming in the devolved nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
4. Geographically targeted sports coverage
5. Improvements to nations and regions linear TV and radio news including coverage of local government
6. A more geographically representative newsgathering operation
7. Distinctive factual programming in the devolved nations
8. Regional radio opt outs on national radio services in Wales and Scotland

full explanation in the notice on the website of the

BBC Trust

The most notable thing TV wise is plans for an extra bulletin on Saturdays and Sundays, and there is talk of improving breakfast and late night coverage, but not sure if that's on TV or on radio.

Good news, it shows one broadcaster is dedicated to regional news. The only problem is, many people will stick with ITV Regional News because its more their style. I think the BBC needs to aim their news at a wider audience range though, its too upmarket and posh for a lot of people.

Likewise there's a lot of people who don't watch ITV news because it's too celebrity and lifestyle focused.

One of the two companies think's there's a future in local news, the other doesn't, and you're suggesting the one which does should become more like the one which doesn't??!

It's about time they improved weekend coverage as the short 5 mins has always been too little and even after the cut backs, ITV still currently provide a longer bulletin. Of course ITV always used to provide 2 bulletins per day so I'm surprised they didn't match this years ago.

On both channels there is still a hint of 'Non-time specific feature story' followed by sport, with very little actual news provided at weekends, at least in my region, so they would need to provide funding for weekend journalism and not just increasing air time.

Coverage at Breakfast time and late are fine though, so it'd be interesting to see what improvements were made here

This will also be the BBC Trust's attempt to stop any further discussions on top slicing the licence fee to fund commercial tv regional news, by providing an even better service on the BBC

No I am not, I am saying some people stay away from BBC Regional News because its comes across upmarket and posh, and with ITV Regional News not worth watching anymore, then the BBC is the only real news service, so it should be made with wider audience in mind, and not currently which appears to be upperclass.

I don't want it to become celebrity and lifestyle focused, because that is not news, but the way they approach it.

And saying BBC News is not celebrity and lifestyle focused in a misconception, because I have lost count the number of times Doctor Who and the like have been mentioned on their news programmes in the last few years, just like ITV News and their endless interest in talent shows.

It's about time the BBC beefed up the Regional News at the weekend, ITV have had more Regional News on at weekends than the Beeb for the last 20 years or so, as said you would have thought a second bulletin would have been scheduled somewhere. I don't see what difference can be made at Breakfast, I think what we have is long enough, just the main News and Weather does most people fine, same goes for ITV and GMTV.

Fingers crossed that 'BBC Cheshire' is still going to happen, one of the largest counties in England that doesn't have a BBC Local Radio, a BBC Website that doesn't exist or redirects to Merseyside, Manchester or Stoke!

Don't forget all this will take sometime to be implemented so by the time all these extras arrive, ITV's offering could be almost non-existant.

You must be really common if you think Midlands Today is posh!

I have absolutely no idea what you're on about. Please explain why you think the Beeb is "upperclass" in the way they "approach it".

I can't help but wonder what skyfan is arguing a non existant point here and going off at a tangent. I can't imagine there is any loyalty to either than BBC or ITV regional news at weekends, due to the varying transmission times, people catch which ever one happens to be on. If the announcement was that BBC1 was moving weekday regional news to 6pm, I could see the point.

Computer says no Andrew...

You must be a License Fee supporter then