Regional definitions

The whole reason Britain had the best TV in the world (and is still at very least number 2, despite what some may say) was the BBC licence fee. We were, and are, the biggest and richest country in the world with a well-funded broadcaster that doesn't have to rely on the fickle forces of advertising. ITV were kept on their toes by having to compete with the BBC on equal terms. All this led to a culture of quality which, although it has diminished over the years, is still the envy of the world.

And some would like to give that up in order to have a taxation-free broadcasting system that even the USA would baulk at (bear in mind that PBS is funded by the US taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars every year, remind you of a similar UK system?). Incredible.

Points West has been carried on 101 in North Glos on cable for 10 years, and on satellite for about 5 years. So this preceded the transmission of ITV West from Ridge Hill, which started last December.

The BBC is not the richest in the world at all. They barely have enough 'dough' to pay for what they are showing now. Hence why they don't give away high amounts of money away on gameshows.

The BBC have almost as much money to spend on programmes as ITV does -- it just isn't in their remit to go giving away millions in prize money, and quite right too. In any case, shows like Millionaire and Deal or No Deal more or less pay for themselves in phone-in revenues.

The East Midlands does have a strong regional identity actually, and is not woolly or artificial-- anymore than the Northeast of England is.

People in the East Midlands region are distinct from the West Midlands (region)-- we talk completely differently for a start! East Mids has its own government office as well. People in the East Midlands get tired of being constantly associated with Birmingham and the Black Country (usually by folk who haven't ventured farther north than Luton).

It may only be a change of compass-point in the title of those regions, but there's a difference, trust me!

You only have to look at the Not From Brum petition, which gathered thousand of signatures and strong protest in 2004, to see that people didn't want ITV Central News East tranferring its presentation to Birmingham from Nottingham.

Sadly it did not stop ITV from doing so, which is probably why BBC East Midlands Today (wholly based in Nott'm) trounces CNE in the ratings.

I was surprised by jason's comment too.

The existence of such things as the "East Midlands Ambulance Service" (for example) does indeed suggest that the "East Midlands" identity does exist in wider terms than just TV regional news, and has done for a long time. But I could be wrong.

It is not the East Midlands that is woolly -- it is the dubious transmitter allocation of said region that makes little sense.

Okay, fair enough However one of the main transmitters for the Northeast TV region (Bilsdale) is in the Yorkshire & Humber government region!!

As I said earlier the transmitter range is dependent on topography rather than geographic entities. The BBC regions have to be called something, so approximate geographic names were chosen

Why is the region allocation from the Waltham transmitter dubious or makes little sense?! It is slapbang in the middle of the East Midlands region!! ! Only around 15 miles away from Nottingham and Leicester, the region's two biggest cities! All its relays are entirely in the East Midlands too.

Waltham's coverage in terms of counties:

Leicester: Whole

Rutland: Whole

Notts: Whole-- although north Notts is covered by Belmont and Emley too.

Lincolnshire (admin county): Most of Lincs, decent signal can be picked up as far as Louth AIUI

Northamptonshire: A deceptively hilly county, so only the northern half of the county get Waltham.

Derbyshire: Direct signal for southern Derbys. Relays for Waltham spread as far north as Stanton-in-Peak (between Matlock and Buxton).

Chesterfield and Dronfield are much nearer to Sheffield, therefore pick up that signal-- but Waltham is apparently receivable as far north as Maltby (S-Yorks)

Owing to Glossop (and other parts of Derbyshire's High Peak borough) being on the western of the Pennines, the signal from both Waltham's relays and Emley Moor are both blocked.

However the signal from Winter Hill travels straight across the Greater Manchester Plain, so that part of the East Midlands is served only by BBC Northwest/Granada AFAIK.

Otherwise, you can pick a signal from Waltham anywhere in East Midlands.

I can see I'm going to have to back down here, seeing as I have clearly chosen a bad example due to making some wrong assumptions about the Central East region, despite having lived in Nottingham for 2 years

I had been under the impression that (a) Central East doesn't cover Lincolnshire at all, (b) it covers Staffordshire, and (c) it also covers Cambridgeshire (overlapping with Anglia). This was the basis of my (flawed) reasoning, and I apologise for any offence caused

I am originally from the West Midlands and I know there is a difference between the East and West Midlands. Yes we are all Midlanders together but the East and West Midlands have been seperate entities forever.

Of course the West Midlands contains Birmingham, the second city, but that makes it no more important than the East Midlands, they are just totally different.

As for Central East, they don't cover Staffordshire, that's Central West's patch!

That's OK, apology accepted You lived in Nottingham for two years, you've suffered enough

Waltham does cover the City of Peterborough area of Cambs to be fair, but doesn't cover Staffs*. Have a look at the maps at the bottom of this page: Waltham coverage maps.

In fact looking at an atlas, Waltham is ideally placed to serve the East Midlands. In terms of county boundaries: It's in Leicestershire, Notts is 6 miles away, Rutland 8 miles away, Lincolnshire 7 miles away, Northamptonshire 16 miles away and Derbyshire is 21 miles away.

*Staffordshire is indeed served by CNW. Uttoxeter, Cannock, Needwood Forest, Burton-upon-T and Rugeley are on S-Coldfield's doorstep.

The rest of the county picks up The Wrekin AIUI, given that land between the Black Country Hills/Cannock Chase/Pennines and the Wrekin is relatively flat. All the relays in the Staffordshire Pennines receive Central West AFAIK.

So now you know, sorry to be so didactic

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/mw_copy_copy2.jpg

Despite jason's choice of the "East Midlands" as being an example of a "wooly, artificial area" being doubtful, jason's actual original wider point still stands!

Which was...


I've always thought that the so-called "West of England" region is totally imaginary. Even the northern-most point of the Bristol-based TV region is more than 50% of the way south within England as a whole!

For anything to be described as "West of England" it would surely have to be directly opposite East Anglia? (i.e. if we slimmed down our definition of "the midlands", then something like Shropshire + Staffordshire + Herefordshire would be the true "West of England"!!!) Or if Wales were a "region of England", rather than a separate country/principality (or whatever it is), then it would be the true "West of England".

The "West" is surely the single-most artificial TV region going!

Doesn't the "South West political/government/EU region" thingy comprise of the equivalent of TV's "southwest" and TV's "west" combined? So, the so-called "West" is really the northern half of the wider South West!