Regional definitions

exactly my point



r.e. The uses of a Daily Express

OK fine, maybe to line the boxes of the homeless?

Not even fit for that. It just makes those poor people even more depressed.

What do you expect for a rag owned by Richard 'Dirty' Desmond?

Credibility!

It can't be true anyway, because they didn't link to it to Diana in any way

Please - the express lie! NEVER! And why would the beeb allow for the new look BBC London then? Although it does make me think - why does some of the beebs regional news act like ITV (two presenters both on camera always, more amusing stories about crab fishing increasing) and some be a single, deadly serious presenter (like Riz or Asad on BBC London - shootings, stabbings, oh Peter Cockroft it'll be horrible weather wont it!)

I kind of agree with the logic of that argument.

Arguably, people are generally interested in what's happening on a national/international level, or what's happening on a very local level (e.g. just your town, or district, or county (at the most)).

The telly "regions" fall between those two extremes. The regions are often too big to be "local", but don't necessarily breed news stories of "national"-equivalent news value either.

Hence, (taking the BBC Midlands region, as a purely random choice of example), you have the problem of: "Do viewers in Stoke-on-Trent really want to hear about news from Gloucester (and vice-versa) in their "local" news programme?".

So, the "regions" are rather bizarre geographic areas, in terms of individual viewers' interest.

The source of the article, was a university professor in Media Business!



He thinks because of the BBC's relatively poor licence fee settlement BBC Regional news would be the first choice to cut back.

BBC have said they are committed to their regional shows, other things like local TV (the Midlands pilot) and new local radio stations for Bradford and Cheshire are more likely to be dropped.

In my opinion, the local TV was too local, and very dull. The only reason for watching would be if you were filmed by one of their reporters. The money would be more wisely spent on extra resources / additional bulletins for the main regional shows. They then could be looped streamed online and on a multi-screen.

They'd be happy to say Prince Philip murdered Sally Taylor. (Even if she's not dead.)

Never going to happen. The BBC are looking massively into local TV (something which is causing said newspapers to go mental, claiming anti-competitive practices).

Seems like yet another London-centric article. Regional news may not seem vital in LDN land, when the vast majority of the news agenda appears on the national news, but in the likes of Scotland it's vital.

If anything you may see regional news move from BBC1 to broadband in the very, very far future, but I can't see any other variation of that.

erm ... why would bbc one want to lose programme(s) which consistantly draw high audiences in early evening

i think you are talking out of your 'arris

They probably had one too many "Diana" stories and filled the gap with a bit of waffle!

I didn't say it was going to happen tomorrow - it's very unlikely to happen before analogue switchoff. But say decades in the future these programmes lose their relevance, say the traditional audience for these programmes dies out and is not replaced by the next generation, say the BBC feels the regions are they are setup are out of date, what would be to stop them moving to broadband, where they can set their own parameters?*

* The correct answer probably being major lobbying by the major newspaper companies.