Central News at Six (West)

[Oxfordshire should break away from South Today and its opt-outs, pinch a few bits off other regions (Herefordshire and north Gloucestershire from MidsTdy/PtsWst) and become a fully fledged South Midlands Today region!

SOUTH MIDLANDS is not an official, political region like WEST MIDLANDS and EAST MIDLANDS, so I doubt this will happen.

I doubt it would ever happen. The idea is that the opt out covers a small area because it doesn't warrant a full region. This is true at the moment because it only broadcasts from the Oxford transmitter which means its coverage area is rather small. Other regions are single transmitter regions but they may be higher power or generally cover a larger area. (its all down to the transmitter and natural features)

'South Midlands Today' could be made into a proper region if it took over from Midlands Today from the Ridge Hill transmitter. This would give it the same coverage area as CNSouth and could probably be made into a full region.

Although, at the end of the day. Is there really need for one, Oxford viewers are glad they have local news at last after very poor coverage from Newsroom South East, so an opt out is probably enough at the moment. Though with all this talk of improved regional services and the seperation of Look North (Yorkshire & Lincolnshire) then it may happen.

You never know.

did anyone see the central news west bulletin on 13/10/01 just before the formula 1? - the presenter said 'and now the latest from central news, and we welcome viewers in the south (obviously meant central news south) - why was this? techincal reason, no newsreader or....??

The Ridge Hill transmitter is out of action today, I believe. This means the usual Central News South viewers in Herefordshire and north Gloucestershire saw a Birmingham bulletin earlier.

Don't worry, Wesley Smith didn't take the rest of his region with him when he went to Central News in Birmingham last week!

lol - did they tune some relays to central west's feed then - as ridge hill was out of action - as on an afternoon bulletin about 6 months ago i can remember Jo Malin saying the same (welcome to viewers in the south).

how come we dont get the same here (temporarily haveing other shows) - the only time ive ever seen another subregion, is when Jo Malins microphone went wrong during the lucnchtime show(making screaching noises) and we suddenly had Central News East with that fat bloke.

Most of Northants is covered by Anglia News West

It would be difficult to upgrade the Oxford opt to a full half-hour in its current form I'm afraid. It was designed to be as cost-effective as possible - and comes from a small presentation studio and gallery in the BBC Southampton building, just up the corridor from the main BBC South Today studio I believe. The cost of the sub-opt is kept to a minimum by being able to share staff - such as graphics, engineering etc. Some of the reports are edited at the BBC Radio Oxford centre, and played down to Southampton for later transmission, but that is really the only Oxford based production effort in the programme, apart from the news crew(s).

To increase to a full half-hour would really require at least a 3 camera studio, probably a live truck, one or two more edit suites, and a lot more staff. It would probably require its own premises as well... This all costs money - and the region is currently the BBCs smallest (with the exception of the Channel Islands I guess) so it would be difficult to justify an Oxford half-hour. Especially before upgrading the much larger Cambridge region - which is also still a sub-opt and would be easier to upgrade as they already have a separate production centre, with a larger 2-3 camera studio!

My feeling is that the BBC should ideally create a Thames Valley region - merging the Oxford and Hannington transmitters. (This would cover part of the Central South patch, and also the Meridian Newbury patch) This would be a larger region - and would have quite a lot in common. It is unlikely to happen soon though - as the South East has only recently been re-jigged - and Leeds / Hull are getting the next round of investment.

Central West is the default region. When anything prevents Central East or South broadcasting, they automattically go straight to Central West.

This is exactly what I think!

Yes, indeed, just Oxfordshire is too small to be a SMidsTdy region on it's own, so it should indeed pinch the far south of the current MidsTdy region (Herefordshire + N Gloucestershire). Because in the same way that Oxfordshire seems to have little in common with Southampton etc, I suspect that 'Ridge-Hill country' has little in common with B'ham etc.

If these changes occurred, the B'ham region could then rebrand as West MidsTdy!

Dividing up regions seems to be all-the-rage with the BBC at the moment - they've only just finished reorganizing SE England, and are already starting to reorganize Yorks/Lincs.

This makes me feel that a BBC South Midlands region in the near future is not all that unlikely....