Points West studio

As far as I know Tom, it's always been the one that's there at the moment ...

none with presenters

broadcasts to west country (Bristol, Somerset, Wilts, Gloucs)

About as far south as Taunton/Yeovil, about as far west as Minehead, about as far east as Savernake Forest and as far north as Cheltenham/Gloucester, which it shares with Midlands Today.

On TV Screen (Launching on Sunday) we will be featuring stuff like this. So if anyone else has backstage photos or articles about TV and alike please get in touch.

contact@ben-hale.co.uk

Look out for the new site soon.

I was wondering about this too. As the original idea was to make the regional programmes blend in with the network news, it seems silly that the regions haven't taken on board the recent 'more red' tweaking.

Mind you, could that bit of china red added to Midlands Today's sidebar last week be taken as an indication that red will move into the regional shows?


BBC West (and therefore HTV West too, I suppose) is such a small region it's seems almost pointless. It might as well be split between BBC Midlands, BBC South and BBC South West as appropriate (and Carlton Central, Meridian and Carlton Westcountry, respectively).

The notion that England has a 'West' seems silly to me. It has an 'East' (Norfolk, Suffolk etc) but the very existance of Wales prevents there being a 'West'. The term 'midlands' suggests a land-locked area (in order to be in the middle ) Hence what is considered as the 'East Midlands' not going all the way to the east coast. Similarly the '(West) Midlands' also lacks a west coast. The point is that what would otherwise be a 'west of England' region is not England at all - it's Wales!!!

Obviously somebody decided that if England has an 'East' it must have a 'West' too, so they had to artificially contrive one. It's northernmost point is too far south for it to be 'West' (because the word 'West' when not accompanied by another compass direction (e.g. 'South West' ) suggests centre-west , which the Bristol-based region clearly isn't). It is the 'north east of south west england'.

(Edited by Cornerstone at 11:00 am on Feb. 4, 2002)

Tehnically though for there to be anything you must have an east and west, north and south the last always being the most important. But I know what you're saying there can't be a proper West England, because of Wales.

But please, The South Today region is big enough as it is (Don't forget that BBC South East is really South Today.

It would be difficult to split up the current BBC or HTV west regions, as there's only one main transmitter at Mendip (just north of Wells).

A few relays at the edges of the service area could be re-engineered into different regions by taking their feed from a different main transmitter, but the channels they re-broadcast on would probably have to be changed, in order to stop clashes between the incoming and outgoing signals; so it would be too much upheaval for the viewing public.

No, the best solution in my opinion, well documented in other threads so I won't drag on here, is to merge the current west and south-west regions of the BBC, and the HTV West and Carlton Westcountry franchises on ITV1.


(Edited by Nick Harvey at 5:09 pm on Feb. 4, 2002)

I'd have it reorganised so that Points West becomes a sub-opted service.

the area covered by the new Points West would be the following towns and cities: Bristol, Exeter, the English Riviera, Weymouth (shared with South Today), Taunton, Tiverton, Salisbury (shared with South Today), Yeovil, Swindon, Cheltenham and Gloucester.

The northern sub-opt would cover Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bath, Glastonbury and Weston Super Mare.

The southern sub-opt would broadcast from a studio in Exeter, and cover Weymouth, the English Riviera, Exeter itself, Taunton, Bridgwater, Yeovil, Newton Abbot and Okehampton.

This would decrease Spotlight's broadcast area significantly, but since Greg Dyke's pushing for greater regionality, this would satisfy his planning.

Oh God no!

The region is way too small to do this.

We don't even cover Exeter and Weymouth - they are South Today and Spotlight

Besides, from a technical standpoint, as Nick pointed out, it would be impossible to do ...

When you bare in mind that tip to toe (Yeovil to Gloucester) the region isn't much more than about 60 or 70 miles long - and the transmitter is slap bang in the middle, it would be a complete nightmare to do.

When you say 'The northern sub-opt would cover Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bath, Glastonbury and Weston Super Mare.' ... besides Swindon, that's most of the region anyway!

Having been hard on her in 'Female Newsreaders', I'll be nice to Katherine in this thread.    

If we take her idea and make it, at least technically, possible.

Simply move the boundary down a bit, by moving Stockland Hill main transmitter and its relays from south-west, into west.  That puts Mendip and Stockland in the west; and Huntshaw, Caradon and Redruth in the south-west.

TECHNICALLY okay, but a bit of a mess editorially, as Devon gets chopped in half, bringing in all those 'feeling like a region' arguments I've discussed elsewhere.

If you combined the two current regions, then there could be THREE fairly logical sub-opts. Mendip for the 'old' west; Stockland and Huntshaw for Devon; and Caradon and Redruth for Cornwall.

And before Chris pipes up from down the pointed end, YES, okay Four Lanes (Redruth)!


(Edited by Nick Harvey at 5:15 pm on Feb. 4, 2002)

You want to join the south west and west regions?

A region that would take from Gloucester to Lands End almost four hours to drive?

Good luck!

Please....just keep it the same!

Although I am not the biggest fan of Points West (although it's cirtainly not bad) I think it is very strong on being local. All the stories are close by in such a small region, unlike Wales, South or east etc.) It really does feel like the Local news.[B]