BBC Look East Close Up

Why don't Look East Close Up play the full titles on screen??!! Its really annoying.
For example, if you were new to the region, or just visiting on holiday, then they don't show you the name of the programme, as it goes to the plasma screen just as the logo come up!

I've noticed that its not called Close Up anymore. They have redesigned and now have a sting of their own region shape and its called Look East (copied South Today opt out to Oxford)

It varies!

Sometimes they play the full titles on screen, other times they don't!

The programme is called Close Up during the 6:30 edition but the 10:25 update is independent so it calls itself Look East and I think it has done since the opt outs were initiated.

Once, I don't know why but they played the full version of the Close Up titles (version used for 10:25 - slightly different animation also!) on the main Look East! (which went across the whole region)

They faded it down just before it rested on the end frames, else you would of seen the shape of the region for Close Up.

That meant that the whole region seen it! It was just after the main headlines on the 6:30 edition and Stewart and Susie looked rather startled!

Sorry, I wasn't recording it!

I've got the full version of the South Today Oxford titles on tape somewhere as well. During the bank holidays, I think they record their Oxford programmes. (they might record the Southampton versions as well) They used the full Oxford titles and came from the main South Today studio and not the small studio as normal.

I was quite surprised that they bothered to record a seperate edition for Oxford, I thought they would just put a live/recorded bulletin that covered the whole region.

But I digress and sorry for taking this OT!

Thanks for that James - you weren't going off topic.

So are any other regions planning to use opt outs?

Look North (Leeds) plan to introduce an East and West opt out service from Belmont and Emley Moor, respectively.

The East service will come from Hull, in its own studios but be controlled by a gallery in Leeds.
The West service will be as normal from Leeds.

I'm surprised Reporting Scotland haven't introduced opt outs yet! There are 3 programmes on ITV depending on where you are. Although, if I had the choice and lived in South Scotland, I would watch Reporting Scotland rather than Border Lookaround!

I wish the North West did an opt out for Merseyside. I think all the regions should opt out to the main cities for local news for about 5 mins in the programme.

For North West:

Liverpool for Merseyside
Lancaster for Lancashire
Chester for Cheshire
Manchester (normal studio with Gordon Burns) for Greater Manchester.

It would be really good - probably not practical though!

OMG - what a name - Border Lookaround!! How stupid. I think a good name for the London/South East region would be BBC Down South. Sounds great. And for NE & Cumbria BBC Up North.

Your right, in many regions its just not practical.

Opt outs come from main transmitters that serve a large part of the region. The only exception to this is Calendar South which broadcasts on local relays around Sheffield.

To get the local relays working and making sure the right feed goes to the right place is difficult, and costly.

I don't think you'll ever see opt outs on North West Tonight because there is only one transmitter serving the North West. (Winter Hill)

If Cumbria would of stayed with BBC North West (when BBC North East lost it for a while ) then you might of seen an opt out for Cumbria. Look North (Newcastle) don't seem to be bothered though.

A lot of regions don't really need opt outs though, they have enough trouble to try and find news! A problem which affected BBC East Midlands in its early stages but now its going strong.

Ther would only be one problem with that NWT opt out, the BBC don't actually have an office in Chester nor do they have one in Lancaster!
Granada have a Chester office, GMTV bulletins used to be done from there.
I've been in a few times and they still have the studio but it isn't used anymore.
The only time it is likely to be used is if there is some sort of explosion or somesuch event that would lead Granada to go to Chester.
To be honest there isn't that much news in Chester to provide a 5 min update! And what would NWT do for the Manx people?
Cheshire was never given its own BBC Radio station because there was simply not enough news, instead a seperate unit at BBC Merseyside was set up so that it could cover Cheshire within normal bulletins.
Nice idea though but the north west isn't really big enough for an opt out.

Yes, how come East Midlands Today is so small? Why did they set up a region for them?

South East Today will be an even smaller region - just two counties, Kent and East Sussex, are going to get an entire full region just for them!

The East Midlands used to be a part of the BBC Midlands region.

It was a massive region and was OK as long as there were no big stories!

Opt outs were actually introduced from a broom cupboard studio at Nottingham to read the main East Midlands news, if anything broke they could also report it.

In 1991, the East Midlands broke away and was given its own news programme from the Waltham transmitter. Bosses were unhappy about the decision and said 'Its not practical, you'll never fill half an hour.'

This was true and for the first couple of months there were sometimes problems finding newsworthy stories. It built up a good team and got reporters everywhere and it hasn't looked back since!

Its a really good programme and can report stories better than Midlands Today, as it has less 'ground' to cover, so to speak. It also gave people in Lincolnshire a chance to get news from the BBC as Look North seemed to slowly forget that Lincolnshire was their coverage area, except when Peter Levy advertises BBC Radio Lincolnshire during Breakfast.

It was better for both regions, it meant that each region had less area to cover. I think East Midlands Today is a good example of breaking off a programme. They could of stayed with an opt out, but they have done very well since the split,

In some respects, I consider East Midlands Today to be better than East Midlands Today. I find myself watching it more than Midlands Today. Then again, I'm am on the borerline of the regions, so I have a choice really!

Do Westcountry Live still have their opt outs? That must be the smallest opt out - the North region covering North Devon from Barnstaple!! When I saw it, Westcountry North was presented by Sean Brickell (now on Newsroom South East). Westcountry East serves a fairly big area compared to the rest though. They always end the opt outs by saying 'have you got any news for us?' and then give the local news centre address. In the main Westcountry Live, the opt outs used to haver their own local sting called 'Local News'.

Are/were the South Today Oxford Opt out titles on TV Home?

I can't remember what my signal from Oxford is like, but I'm sure it wasn't clear enough last time I looked....