ITN Chopper

Southern had a boat. Not entirely sure for what purpose, but they had one. Perhaps it was just to film the 'Day By Day' ident, I don't know.

Meridian can use Fred Dineage's head to reflect signals off, much cheaper than using a satellite.

There's not a massive need for helicopters over here.

Local news doesn't play the sort of role over here as it does in the US. Some local US stations treat themselves as news channels and only have entertainment on in the evenings. Plus, practically every local station does a morning TV programme of its own before the national ones, and so traffic reports are more important.

The only time you can get benefit out of a helicopter is if you need pictures there and then. I remember watching the Seattle NBC affiliate 'KING5' when there was a bit of an earthquake in the area, they had two 'choppers' flying all over the region from Seattle to Olympia, so that they could see what damage had been done. It was quite interesting actually, you'd see one live report and at the end the people in the helicopter would say something like 'we can see smoke over there, we'll be back to you in five' and then five minutes later you'd find the helicopter flying over the smoke and finding out what it was. That sort of coverage can be useful. But just how often do we have earthquakes causing any sort of damage in the UK? Not often enough to make a helicopter financially viable.

NB: Technology has got the better of me and this forum seems to be a bit anti-@. So for the time being I will use my old name. *sobs*

Ya know it could be possible for local UK stations to have helicopters or at least an increase in local news coverage. I remember having a discussion with someone on the board a long time ago suggesting that, say for example, BBC North should have a Look North Morning Edition that would run, say, 6am-7am, then BBC Breakfast follows from 7-9am or even up to 10am. Then extend the lunchtime and late night Look Norths to half an hour, and if there's room, plunk another Look North at 1730 before the BBC Six O'Clock News. Oh, and actually have a 15-30 minute local bulletin on weekends.

But, they brought up the point: who would watch it? I'd say (and i didn't say this before) that if ANY region, whether regions on ITV or BBC or what have you, picked up this concept, they would have a much stronger following than now. Remembering an article that I read, it said that people like to get their news (especially local) from one source, and so they don't like to flip back and forth.

I know I've gone completely off topic from the Helicopters thread, but going back to it, some TV and radio stations do share helicopters. BBC London could be a worthy candidate for a helicopter to keep an eye for the travel conditions, and both TV, Radio, and Online services could share the information.

i too think the bbc and itv need to increase their regional output - which would in effect give them more value for money (as it doesnt matter how many hours per day are regional, you still have to pay rent/water/electricity/insurance/security etc for offices in cities around the country, so the more hours of output produced by them, the better value for money they get).

there are areas regional output should explore, e.g. i think central tv should buy a floor of the rotunda and have a daily 1/2 hour regional show, with celebrity interviews, discussing news, features etc (bit like richard and judy - but local)

as for helicopters - whats the point? most people listen to local radio eye in the sky for travel news - i dont think theres a demand for extensive tv travel news

What I suggested earlier was that a news gathering organization like BBC London (since TV, radio, and web resources are shared) can have a helicopter for travel. Radio services can use the helicopter to watch out for traffic, while TV services can utilize the helicopter for other things.

Then again, it's only a suggestion.