Maybe it's best if the English operation is merged with Tyne Tees and Granada, but the Scottish operation says as it is.
There isnt enough news from D&G and the Borders for them to have their own half hour news programme.
Well, while it doesn't have a huge amount of news, the area can fill two ten minute(ish) bulletins on Radio Scotland. While not all of that content would be good enough for regional TV, a lot of it would - so the material is there. Also, Border aren't very good at localising national stories - which is something that the Scottish Parliament really allows them to do: e.g. looking at how a development there might affect people in southern Scotland. Whether they have the resources to get to the stories is another matter.
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?
When I lived on the island (admittedly some time ago now) the feed changed to Winter Hill just for local programmes. But if the weather was bad, the feed from Winter Hill was dropped, so we'd get BBC NE and Cumbria occasionally.
The signal from Caldbeck seemed to be more reliable than from Winter Hill. Having said that, in Onchan and higher-up places, a lot of people just watched Winter Hill directly - mainly to get Granada instead of Border.
Interestingly, for the Laxey relay (about seven miles away from the Douglas transmitter) there was no facility to switch to Winter Hill and they'd get the NE and Cumbria all the time. That changed eventually.
When Caldbeck was switched to BBC NW during the mid-late 80s, Douglas's signal came from Cadlbeck all the time. In those days, the daytime bulletins were the Cumbria News! I always thought it was odd that that wasn't retained when Caldbeck went back to Newcastle.
If the Scottish bits of Border want to leave for STV, go for it, but don't merge the rest of Border with Granada - Granada already cover part of Cumbria (the southern coastal area get their signal from the Lancaster relay) - but get very little look-in on a programme dominated by Liverpool / Manchester. With Border in Kendal there's something from South Cumbria on Lookaround every evening.
If the Scottish bits of Border want to leave for STV, go for it, but don't merge the rest of Border with Granada - Granada already cover part of Cumbria (the southern coastal area get their signal from the Lancaster relay) - but get very little look-in on a programme dominated by Liverpool / Manchester. With Border in Kendal there's something from South Cumbria on Lookaround every evening.
Isn't it drifting toward a situation where Border is de-facto a sub-region that sits accross a boundary between two macro-regions?
The Scottish Border region is homogeneous, distinct, and different from Glasgow, Edinburgh or Newcastle. Perhaps it is sensible for a regional news service to run out of Carlisle? Perhaps, its even sensible for this to be part-shared with some parts of England (as now)?
Isn’t it a clear given that the Scottish parts of Border should receive SMG national programming, including of-course Scotsport.? Perhaps the sensible thing would be for SMG to take over the programming and advertising of all the Scottish txs, but for SMG and ITV/GMG North to share the provisioning of regional news out of Carlisle.
I suppose the question should be asked....if Border TV hadn't existed for the last 46 years would it even be considered now? And the answer is a resounding "no". And yet many, at least on the Scottish side of the border, have a love-hate relationship with their "local" station. To be honest, many of the news stories which are currently aired on Border wouldn't get a look in if Granada extended northwards into Cumbria or STV extended south. On the other hand, there are programmes of "national" interest in a Scottish context which Border doesn't screen. Indeed, programmes like Scotsport are a relatively recent phenomenon. BTW, a number of the relay transmitters in South Cumbria which now transmit Border were at one time fed from Winter Hill. And, IIRC, there was an outcry from some viewers in that area when Granada was dropped in favour of Border. The bottom line is that the Border TV transmission area was created out of transmission convenience, rather than perceived as a coherent region. After all, relays in South Ayrshire carry Border, which offers no "local" coverage, presumably because it would be difficult, and more expensive, to provide a feed from Darvel. The most interesting test for Border will be if, as many in Scotland are urging, broadcasting issues become a matter for Holyrood rather than Westminster.
I suppose the question should be asked....if Border TV hadn't existed for the last 46 years would it even be considered now? And the answer is a resounding "no". And yet many, at least on the Scottish side of the border, have a love-hate relationship with their "local" station. To be honest, many of the news stories which are currently aired on Border wouldn't get a look in if Granada extended northwards into Cumbria or STV extended south. On the other hand, there are programmes of "national" interest in a Scottish context which Border doesn't screen. Indeed, programmes like Scotsport are a relatively recent phenomenon. BTW, a number of the relay transmitters in South Cumbria which now transmit Border were at one time fed from Winter Hill. And, IIRC, there was an outcry from some viewers in that area when Granada was dropped in favour of Border. The bottom line is that the Border TV transmission area was created out of transmission convenience, rather than perceived as a coherent region. After all, relays in South Ayrshire carry Border, which offers no "local" coverage, presumably because it would be difficult, and more expensive, to provide a feed from Darvel. The most interesting test for Border will be if, as many in Scotland are urging, broadcasting issues become a matter for Holyrood rather than Westminster.
Got it in one!
The fact is that viewers in southern Scotland do get a raw deal from Border and the age-old argument about the area getting no coverage if it was served by STV is now irrelevant - they are entitled to receive Scottish programming, the same as everyone else, and it's only because of a stroke of the beuraucratic pen some forty-odd years ago that they are denied this.