BBC One HD still can't broadcast regional news in England.

Yes - and it is very difficult to justify spending money to upgrade BBC One HD to broadcast SD upscaled content (only Plymouth, Salford and London originate in HD)...

It is on the radar in the new charter period - my gut feeling is that it will happen once they decide how they are going to upgrade SD English regional centres to HD, as the approach taken for this could significantly change the distribution and backhaul requirements, and would inform how the opt-out functionality would be implemented. (Particularly if the broadcast studio output signal isn't actually created in the regional centre building...)

Then once in HD, there are issues with the studio sets in some places. Look North (Newcastle) looks ropey in SD at best. More money.

Yes it is justifiable.

Viewers shouldn't have to change the channel in order to see regional programming. It should be just available on the HD channel, even if it isn't in HD.

Are you volunteering to stump up the cash to enable the BBC to do this?

Or move One HD on to 1/101/001 and during the regional opts point people towards the SD channel - instead of the other way round as of now.

Ofcom/DCMS don't consider the HD versions of any PSB channels, to be PSB, so they are not permitted 'high' up on EPGs on HD receivers, unless they carry exactly the same content 24/7 as the SD version.

That's why BBC 1 HD nations are on Freesat (and Sky?) Ch 101, but not BBC 1 HD in England.

That said, plenty of Freeview TVs allow you to edit and move EPG allocations around to whatever you wish.
I've had the main 4 HD channels on EPG 1-4 for five years (and of course C5 HD on 5 too)

There's always arguments and reasons as to why they can't put regional news on BBC1 HD.

They just need to sort it. The current setup isn't adequate. Simple as.

Exactly. They just need to push on with a HD switchover - it's the only way. Obviously they don't want SD and HD simulcasts of all regions running together (on Sky/Freesat) for a long period of time so it'll either have to be a straight switch or a short crossover period of 1-3 months. It could even be done in phases so some regions only switch to HD once other SD regions have had their feed closed.

I do think at the very least though the BBC should aim to match the ITV regions on Freeview (even if they don't tackle Sky). I can't see how anyone could complain about getting BBC London News outside of London rather than a red holding caption.

The people who complain daily that the clock on ITV+1 is an hour out will have a good go.

That happens so often Good Morning Britain jokes about it on their Twitter profile description!

Let them, it keeps them busy

BBC One HD has returned to the Swimmers slide.