Look East (West) to get dedicated programme

Yep - I caught the regional news bit of Simon McCoy’s show on BBC News the other day where NE&C and Yorkshire were both featured. It was explained that they covered 2 different patches and where they are, and that Peter Levy was missing to complete the hat trick, although nobody understands what area his show covers. It was moderately amusing.

When @BBCSimonMcCoy thought @peter_levy wasn't watching! 😆 pic.twitter.com/hrY4USMo2C

— BBC East Yorks and Lincs (@looknorthBBC) April 18, 2018

Despite the new sub-local bulletin, there was a pre-recorded pan regional forecast.

Understood reading got the Thames valley version of itv meridian, so thought it should be the same

Have seen it on in reading in fact come to think of it

I'm sure that when the current BBC Weather graphics debuted, at least the first 22:25 (or 22:30?) Look East - West bulletin contained a pan-regional forecast (pre-recorded in Norwich, as ever) for whatever reason.

West-only forecasts (also pre-recorded in Norwich) for the late Cambridge bulletin soon reappeared though. So, I'm cautiously hopeful that the same will happen for the new full Cambidge 18:30 programme's forecasts soon enough too.

The middle belt of the South is served by the Hannington transmitter, which is located in north Hampshire.

Its broadcast area is approximately: Berkshire (except some E parts (such as Windsor and Slough), which get BBC/ITV London), northern Hampshire (down to circa Winchester* ), E parts of Wiltshire, and W parts of Surrey.

* (Hannington reception does actually "bleed" much further south, so a minority of viewers in the likes of Southampton might be tuned to it rather than the more ideal Rowridge transmitter (located on the Isle of Wight). Nevertheless, I believe that Winchester-ish is prety much treated as the southern "editorial boundary" for Hannington).

This is where BBC South and ITV Meridian differ significantly.

The BBC Oxford opt is literally just for the Beckley/Oxford transmitter area. So, the pure Southampton-only programme broadcasts all the way up to e.g. Reading.

Conversely, ITV Meridian's "Thames Valley" opt is for Beckley/Oxford and also Hannington . The other opt is therefore essentially a "South Coast" sub-region. The vast majority of Meridian bulletins are pan-regional for these two areas combined. Only bulletins on weeknights (excluding public holidays) are wholly/partially split.

The weather map always depicts the whole Thames Valley & South Coast combined area (from Banbury to the Isle of Wight), even during the fully-split 22:30 bulletin.

The "South East" version of Meridian (Kent & East Sussex) is usually a 100% separate service for the full duration of every single bulletin. There may be the odd very rare ad-hoc exception, where Meridian viewers from Kent to Dorset to Oxfordshire get a totally pan-regional edition.

I’m not sure if this is new but Cambridge now have a screen to the left of the presenter (as we look at the screen) in a similar fashion to the NBH studios - though clearly on a smaller scale. I guess for a half hour programme this is important to provide some variety of shots.

It looks like Norwich are recording the weather in the studio rather than using the CSO used for news channel down the lines - though the same applies I think to the 2000 update.

Nice surprise to see former CBBC presenter Ana Boulter present the West edition tonight. Haven't seen her since a previous Sky News attempt of a debate show.