Border Television

I read on another forum that viewers in Berwick are pleased that they now get Tyne Tees.

It's a shame they didn't get to enjoy it in the stations heyday...

The reason for the switch at Berwick was because all dependent relays have to take their feed from the one parent transmitter after DSO, and Berwick's relay was fed from two (BBC - Chatton, ITV/C4 - Selkirk). Had it been left as it was, it would have gone blank when the Border area goes digital at the end of next year. It also brought those viewers in the areas served by the relay (Tweedmouth, Spittal, East Ord, Norham and Horncliffe) into line with the rest of Berwick, which gets Tyne Tees from the Chatton transmitter.

With regards to Haltwhistle, it has always been a Border transmitter, although most people in the town also get Tyne Tees from the relay at Haydon Bridge a few miles away. There were plans to switch the Haltwhistle relay over to Tyne Tees as it too is fed by two main stations, Pontop Pike and Caldbeck, but I'm not sure if anything came of this.

I grew up with Border and have to say it has been quite English biased in the past.The Scottish opt out and the special Scottish news bulletin has only been going for about six years.

Border never even used to Scottish opt out on Hogmanay last year so the viewers in South Scotland could not get the STV show.I can't comment for the English side of thre Border but as for the Scottish side we should come under STV .

I don't want to hear news about the Isle Of Man and they don't want to hear news from Scotland.The culture the law and the education system are all diffrent in Scotland.I think Border have tried their best but at the end of the day the Scottish optout is nothing more than a box ticked that they are NOT even commited to.

Isle of Man is an interesting question given DSO. The Douglas relay usually rebroadcasts Caldbeck, unless BBC North West have opted out in which case it swaps and takes Winter Hill. Presumably this arrangement will change during switchover?

Given that the current Granada region is a one-(main)-transmitter-only region, the only way that an expanded Granada region could have two sub-regions, would be if the "North" sub-region consisted of just the ex- Border bits (Cumbria & Manx). I seriously doubt that Cumbria & the Isle of Man alone can generate enough news to fill a news service.

So, they'd prob have to do it like Calendar - i.e. all short bulletins are pan-regional, and only the main 6pm weekday show is split, and even then, the two different 6pm shows would - again, like Calendar - have a fair bit of story sharing (particularly the latter portions of the "North" edition using "South" stories, vice-versa would probably sldom be required, as i'm sure the existing Granada patch wouldn't struggle for news stories alone).

Perhaps rename as ITV North West News and North West Reports , so as not to alienate ex- Border viewers with the "wrong" region name?

To be honest it wouldnt bother me if the "ex Border" part of an enlarged Granada region only had a 10 minute opt out,
I would rather hear stories from Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside than stories from Scotland,
As for the Granada name, again I dont think it would be an issue for people in Cumbria and the Isle of Man, I think people in the current Granada region would be a bit upset if the Granada name dissapeared altogether.

As someone who lives on the English side of the region I have to disagree!
Most of the output is and always has been Scotland or Carlisle focused, anywhere south of Carlisle is rarely mentioned.

I agree that Southern Scotland should be brought in line with the rest of the nation and get STV. When Scottish and Grampian became one, the announcers used to say, "welcome scotland, were altogether now" I think they forgot that Dumfries & Galloway and the Borders are in Scotland!

That's a curious arrangement that has always puzzled me. If Douglas has got feeds from Caldbeck and Winter Hill, why does it ever need to switch?

If it's taking BBC North West regional programmes, why does it not just take Winter Hill permanently? Does this mean that when BBC NE & Cumbria have opt-outs at non-standard times, Douglas has to take those?

Presumably this is why Isle of Man stories are covered on both BBC North West and BBC NE & Cumbria Ceefax services?

I presume the Caldbeck feed is cleaner, but editorially they've decided to lump it with North West and will tolerate the poorer quality feed to provide NW programming.

I guess that if NE were doing something locally and MW were staying on network the Manchester studio could soft-opt to prevent Douglas switching, if anybody cared sufficiently to set that up.

We shall have to agree to disagree .Hogmanay is a pretty big thing in Scotland and on Border TV for many years Scottish viewers were forced to watch English New Year Celebrations from London. Where realy we should be watching something much more related to Scotland and it's culture especially at this time of year.STV should takeover South Scotland and perhaps have a special news optout.

Is the Douglas transmitter switch wired up to the Manchester opt switch or the Newcastle one, I wonder? Or is the switching between Caldbeck and Winter Hill handled separately (and by whom)?