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New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

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NG
noggin Founding member
Markymark posted:
South Today posted:
Markymark posted:
South Today posted:
Markymark posted:
deejay posted:
That was Jo Kent. She often presents on South Today bulletins and occasionally does Sport on South Today at 6.30pm. She doesn't often do the main gig though - wonder where Sally was? Roger Johnson is usually Sally's stand-in!


I wonder when Anna Brees (just joined from Central West) will be elevated from the off peak bulletins to being one of Sally's regular stand ins. Otherwise it's a bit of a downward career move for her ?


Having just joined you cant expect her to go straight into presenting the main edition - when there are other presenters having been there much longer!


Why, haven't you ever witnessed a new member of staff coming straight in up the ladder in the workplace ? It's experience and ability that counts, not necessarily just length of service and loyalty these days.

I doubt Anna B would have taken the job without that commitment, in what is a far less 'prestigious' TV region.


How is Central West more prestigious than BBC South???!!


It has a larger potential audience, the marketing types would refer to that as a 'bigger market'. Though it's not entirely fair to compare an ITV region with a BBC one in that way, what criteria would you apply ?


Total audience? I wouldn't be that surprised if South Today (Southampton and Oxford) got a greater total audience than Central West these days, even though it may have a smaller regional population?

Market leading within your market (or any market?)? South Today is the most popular regional news broadcast in its region, Central News West is beaten by Midlands Today.

Status? ITV Regional News is no longer a calling card that means very much on a journalist's CV - particularly as the budgets get tightened and the quality drops yet further.
NE
newsjunkie Founding member
Ratings wise, BBC South Today beats Meridian regularly. Where it goes against Thames Valley Tonight it loses, and when ITV go against BBC Oxford it's much closer with BBC usually nipping it, but not everynight by any means.
NA
natewilson
South Today has an hour special tomorrow (11th) on the QE2's final departure from Southampton. They are to have reporters live from various areas as the ship passes through Southampton water & out into the solent...
DE
deejay
natewilson posted:
South Today has an hour special tomorrow (11th) on the QE2's final departure from Southampton. They are to have reporters live from various areas as the ship passes through Southampton water & out into the solent...

Indeed. It's on BBC One South from 6.30-7.30 and continues via the red button until 8.15. There are, I believe, at least 4 OBs involved all feeding into each other...!

A subtle thing I've noticed is that the Sky EPG now carries details of special regional opts like this - it certainly used to be the case that only billings for the Nations could be detailled. It seems there has been a software or system upgrade somewhere that allows full EPG schedules for the regions too.
SP
Spencer
deejay posted:
A subtle thing I've noticed is that the Sky EPG now carries details of special regional opts like this - it certainly used to be the case that only billings for the Nations could be detailled. It seems there has been a software or system upgrade somewhere that allows full EPG schedules for the regions too.


I can't imagine there'd be any reason why the Sky EPG would allow BBC One regions to include variations at 1:30 and 6:30, but at no other times. Perhaps it was some kind of limitation with the BBC's systems, whatever they may be. However there never seemed to be a problem with The Superleague Show on the BBC northern regions.

I did notice though that the special hour-long programme tonight on BBC One South is listed as two half-hour programmes, both with the same title.
MA
Macalolo
Both the SE And South's speccial editions of Meridian Tonight's were brilliant. Are particually liked Meridian's South QE2 Fairwell Coverage.
MA
Markymark
Macalolo posted:
Both the SE And South's speccial editions of Meridian Tonight's were brilliant. Are particually liked Meridian's South QE2 Fairwell Coverage.


Didn't see Meridian's coverage, never thought to look to be honest, a complete reversal of how things were 20 years ago !

The Beeb's coverage was pretty good, of course they're allowed to ditch the One Show, but I suppose it's unthinkable that they might be permitted to time shift EastEnders, even by a second to accommodate more QE2 coverage. Silly me, there was I thinking the Beeb are a public service broadcaster !
Interesting Oxford was opted too ? I noticed that Ch 302 on DTT was empty, so why couldn't a full screen 'Red Button' service be provided after 19:30hrs, rather than a silly multiscreen box ? Attempting to receive the same on my Sky box, simply crashed it. was it full screen on there ?
WM
WMD
Also interesting that the 8pm opt was pan-regional from Oxford (though with South Today branding). I guess that's because Southampton had their gallery tied up with the extended programme on interactive. I thought there was a second studio at Southampton, but presumably they share a gallery?
DA
David
Markymark posted:
I noticed that Ch 302 on DTT was empty, so why couldn't a full screen 'Red Button' service be provided after 19:30hrs, rather than a silly multiscreen box ? Attempting to receive the same on my Sky box, simply crashed it. was it full screen on there ?


It wasn't full screen on DSAT either. I had assumed they made it a tiny box so that the DSAT coverage matched the Freeview coverage, I know the BBC like to do that, but if there was a free stream available on Freeview then it just seems silly to not use the available bandwidth on both services.
DE
deejay
WMD posted:
Also interesting that the 8pm opt was pan-regional from Oxford (though with South Today branding). I guess that's because Southampton had their gallery tied up with the extended programme on interactive. I thought there was a second studio at Southampton, but presumably they share a gallery?


There are two studios and two galleries at Southampton. The main gallery is the only one capable of the wipes and chroma-key involved in making the 8pm - and that was the gallery producing the QE2 programme. Southampton haven't (AFAIK) ever done an 8pm from their smaller gallery but Oxford do an 8pm every weeknight. Doing a pan-regional bulletin from Oxford was far easier all round.
JV
James Vertigan Founding member
Just logged the Meridian South East lunchtime bulletin (with Sangeeta Bhabra) at work - and she said Meridian Tonight will be "at the slightly earlier time of 5:59"...

What do they hope to gain from the extra minute then?
BU
buster
James Vertigan posted:
Just logged the Meridian South East lunchtime bulletin (with Sangeeta Bhabra) at work - and she said Meridian Tonight will be "at the slightly earlier time of 5:59"...

What do they hope to gain from the extra minute then?


Extra minutage in the run-up to the end of the year. Late bulletin is a bit of a monster at the moment too!

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