I can see that they need UK Today for use on Sky Digital BBC ONE, but why does it have to be used for a back up if another programme can't go out? I think it would be much more sensible to have your neighbouring region as a standby, so at least you get a bit more local news.
For North West Today it could be Look North (Leeds) and vice versa
For Reporting Scotland it could be Look North (Newcastle) and vice versa
and so on.
This would be much better.
BP
Big Phil
Not long ago we had Look North Leeds instead of NorthWest Tonight, and once before that we had Newsroom SouthEast or whatever it's called. These were both whilst UK Today was available.
Not as easy as it sounds. For one thing each region would have to arrange for a feed of it's neighbouring region's programmes each day. This would be incredibbly expensive.
Also how do you decide which is the nearest region. eg. if you get South Today and live in Southampton, you'd prefer to get Plymouth or Bristol. However if u live in East Sussex you'd be better off with Newsroom South east.
Reporting Scotland - Look North Newc.
Look North Newc. - Rep Scot./Look North Leeds
Look North Leeds - North West Today
North West Today - Look North Leeds
Midlands Today - East Midlands Today
East Midlands Today - Midlands Today
Wales Today - Midlands Today
Spotlight - Points West
Spotlight Channel Islands - Spotlight
Points West - Spotlight/South Today
South Today - Points West/South East Today
South East Today - London Live
London Live - South East Today/Look East
Look East - London Live/Midlands Today
For Newsline I don't know, I suppose one of the nearest regions out of Reporting Scotland, North West Today, Look North Newc., Wales Today.
sorry i disagree. what possible use would Look North be to Scotland? i think UK Today is the best idea, with the
top
stories from each region in the UK being featured.
I admit though I'd like the option to see other bbc regions, but only because I personally like to see the other titles, presenter etc. Thats why I spend so much time at TV Home. But for joe public, who perhaps couldnt give two hoots about stuff like that, showing another locale's programming would just annoy and confuse them.
Yes I suppose you're right for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. For the English regions it would be slightly better, especially for ones which are on the coast and are only bordered on one or two at the most sides.
DY
DaveYorks
In the Look North (Leeds) region - one of the largest English regions, it would make no sense whatsoever to take another region's programme instead of UK Today. The region is surrounded by so many other regions that whichever region's programme was chosen would seem pointless to people in some parts of the region - would people in King's Lynn really want to see news from Newcastle or Manchester?! I think not!
Caused a bit of a stir here haven;t I?! Its nice when people disagree, as we get more points of view. Its what the forum is about!
After looking at all this, I think UK Today should stay for a news point of view, but it would be nice for us TV fans to get another regional programme, e.g. when we got Newsline, Reporting Scotland and Wales Today during Wimbledon, we all went ballistic!
The reason this can't really happen is the following :
BBC One Network has to be fed to all regions in the most secure way possible, to try and ensure we don't lose it too often. Thus all the regions and Nations get the feed from London (with the exception of Cambridge and the Channel Islands who get a 'dirty' feed of Norwich and Plymouth respectively). This distribution network is supposed to be fully redundant, with two feeds of network coming via different routes, so that if a workman goes through a fibre somewhere between London and the regional centre, a reserve feed can be routed reasonably quickly.
To allow a region to replace itself with a neigbouring region :
1. All the regions Network feeds would have to go through each other - expensive, and less secure than the regions being distributed directly from London (with backups) You would also end up with opt-outs over opt-outs because the Network feed would still need to contain a reserve in case both regions failed to opt - It has happened (Monday morning 0627 Breakfasts were famous for presenters not turning up!)!
2. You could feed a regional prog separately to the neighbouring regions and then both regions could opt-out to the same feed. However if a region was unable to produce its own show it is unlikely that they would be able to staff their gallery to opt-out to this incoming network feed to do this. (Most opts don't happen because of technical failure or evacuation of the building)
It is a nice idea - and could possibly be done by ITV as they are not network based as such and thus have different capabilities.
It used to be possible for London to change what was fed to some regions on their Network feed, so TVC in London could drop in a different programme on the BBC East feed of BBC One without Norwich needing to be manned. I think this flexibility was seldom used and not possible for digital, so may have been removed.
(This was planned as an Election 97 backup - the last person in Norwich to leave the building was to route Cambridge studio output to London. Then TVC in London would switch the Cambridge studio into the BBC East Network feed to allow Cambridge to broadcast to the entire Look East region)
SO
SittingOvation
Big Phil posted:
Not long ago we had Look North Leeds instead of NorthWest Tonight, and once before that we had Newsroom SouthEast or whatever it's called. These were both whilst UK Today was available.
Before UK Today (and with it, BBC News 24) took on the generic look, it was EXCLUSIVELY used as the region-replacing programme on DigiSat. It was only after the generic makeover that it also became the fallback for temporarily unavailable BBC regions on all other platforms.
Maybe this explains the two incidents you've cited (i.e. they occured before UK Today went generic)
Mr Ovation, it was NEVER exclusive to DSat. It was transmitted by DNC1 (Digital Network Control 1) so anything using the digital network chain would see it unless it was opted out of, but now NC1 takes it also.
All this networked 'regional tv' stuff was going on
well
before UK Today of course.
Whatever London is broadcasting is what you would see if your region can't opt-out. Before UK Today it was Newsroom SouthEast.
If Elstree couldn't broadcast for whatever reason, network would hastily arrange a feed from Southampton and network that.
As Noggin says, it would be a logistical nightmare and financially impossible to do what Rob suggests
(Edited by techy peep at 12:08 am on Aug. 9, 2001)
BTW, NC1 and DNC1 are two completely seperate BBC networks, but mainly providing the same service.
There are times when digital viewers will hear a different announcer to their analogue friends, and also a different introduction to a programme.
This doesn't happen so much these days as they tend to use the same chain now, but in the early days of DTV the digital viewers would see a true widescreen programme while analogue viewers would see the programme ARC'd into 4:3 rather than 14:9 as is the case now. NC1 and DNC1 would have their own tape of that particular programme, and depending on promo's each played out etc, one network could be ahead of the other.
The announcer on digital would also mention this... 'Now on BBC1, in widescreen, Eastenders' or such.
