Radio Times

There doesn't seem to be an existing thread about this, but apologies if it is already being discussed elsewhere on the forum.

I notice that the 'North West' and 'Yorkshire/North East' editions have been amalgamated with effect from this coming week (7-13 April) with ITV1 Granada, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees listed in the main box under the gerenic sub-heading 'North'. The BBC listings cover North West, Yorkshire and North Midlands, East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and North East and Cumbria.

The small-type 'regional variations' for this edition are BBC Scotland, Wales, 2W, East, East Midlands and West Midlands; ITV Border, Anglia, Central and Wales; and S4C.

Have any other regional editions been amalgamated?

South West became South, West and South West from last year, with surprisingly no complaints or anyone noticing. Regionality may be less but part of the appeal of listings magazines was that they provided seperate editions for each TV region.

For Radio Times the exercise has been an own goal; listing four different regional news programmes at 6:00pm takes up more space than listing just one, and therefore limits space available for detailing programmes which follow. And it's all thanks to the beancounters.

The same thing happened in Scotland years ago. Radio Times used to have separate editions for Grampian and Scottish then after a while they just merged into one Scotland issue. Of course nowadays, the separate issues wouldn't be necessary for Scotland.

The London and Anglia editions were also merged at the same time. It's a bit annoying that they still waste space with a large box at the bottom of the daytime television pages just to tell you that ITV1 Central, Meridian and Yorkshire have different regional news programmes. Also you usually get more detailed descriptions of regional programmes shown in those regions than you do for those in London, East and South East!

It also means the BBC Local Radio pages (headed 'Radio in Your Area' ), which are shared with the South, West & South West edition, nowadays list a skeleton schedule for every station from Kent to Hereford & Worcester, via Norfolk and Cornwall!

Well living in the West, i certainly wasn't complaining at this change - it made things a hell of a lot better! Beforehand, we had a West/Wales edition, which was awful as there were so many variations for Wales. The BBC2 column was the worst example as it was split in two most evenings, one under the heading West/Analogue Wales and the other Digital Wales. And some days you had 3 different schedules for BBC2 with Analogue Wales showing something different. It looked a complete, horrible mess, with just a few words for some programmes.

So i was very happy when we merged with South West/South as there are very, very few differences between our schedules. So it made complete sense to me.

Radio Times only had Grampian and Border editions for about 3 months after the listings monopoly ended in 91.

Of course, now this wouldn't even be an issue - only the name of the news programme differs in the former Grampian region while a Border edition would be a nightmare. BBC Scotland and BBC North East would need equal billing and even the potential circulation would obviously be unviable.

I remember the good old days when TV Times used to have the logo of the local station in the top right corner of the front page. I have many of these in boxes in my loft!. Whenever I travelled to different parts of the country would always buy a TV Times because it was a souvenir of where I'd been!

Nostalgia-fest over!!!

A couple of points here.

The South/South West/West combined edition was actually born two years ago, with the 16th April 2005 edition.

It's not true that nobody noticed or that there were no complaints. Indeed, there were so many complaints from the areas bordering the Bristol Channel, from people often watching from the other side, that Radio Times had to offer their subscription clients both editions for the price of one for the first few weeks as a "softener".

Whilst I fully take Ronant's point about him preferring the current situation, I am one of the many frequently watching programmes from the other side of the Channel, so still find the tiny space for Welsh variations in the South/South West/West combined edition rather annoying.

Here's the original, 2005, thread, including some of the complaints.

It does make sense to amalgamate them, what's the point of producing and distributing lots of diffrent versions when within England there are very few diffrences. It's no point whining about 'beancounters' - it's a commercial operation which doesn't do things just because it provides 'appeal'

I prefer the way they put the regional variations (in my case London and Anglia) in the listings themselves) It saves people seeing a programme in the listings and then being disappointed!

Never got why Wales has been Wales/West for so long. Well, I guess it's due to HTV actually - but it never made sense!


As I mentioned a few weeks ago though, TV Easy has ridiculously combined Wales and Scotland - and except on satellite, I doubt any viewer can get both.

The stupid thing is though they had (haven't bought it since) ditched the BBC1/2 England listings altogether - just having variations for Scotland and Wales. That makes it pretty useless around here where alot of the area is served primarily by Granada/Central.

That long ago eh?


I didn't expect there not to be any complaints - but, perhaps unsurprisingly, these were kept off the RT letters page. It's bad enough RT is pushing a few pence short of a quid but when you get less regional listing for your money, it's a poor show.


In spite of my regret at the passing of the South West edition, I have to concede the Welsh have got a better deal - finally getting a Radio Times all to themselves. It was only because of HTV's dual franchise that RT had to combine its Wales and West edition, and while ITV's administrative regions have not changed, it's better for the Welsh to have a magazine catering for their different televisual setup.

Hey, I used to do exactly the same - collecting TV Times' from different areas. I only wish I'd kept more of them.

What's the current situation with the Scorland edition? STV in the main panel Border listed as a 'region variation', or in a separate box? I always thought Border got a rough deal with its listings only appearing in small print.

Can anyone clarify how many regional editions there are now?