The point of sub-regions... Posted Sun Jul 2 08:57:53 BST 2000 by newguy3

Sub-regions came a few years ago to make it supposedly easier for production teams on regional news programmes. Let's look at a few examples, first, of where the idea doesn't work...
eg. CARLTON CENTRAL split into three smaller regions, one in Abingdon, one in Nottingham and one in Birmingham. Central West (Birmingham) use Central East's (Nottingham's) reports on Derby, Leicester and Coventry- which are all obviously in the East region. What's the point of this?

eg. ANGLIA- split into two. The massive west region supplies Cambs, Bucks, Herts, Beds, West Norfolk and East Northants. Why does the western region sometimes use the East region's reports?

eg. TYNE TEES split into two regions (North and South) and again would be better as one.

There must be others. Any comments on this?


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By NF on Sun Jul 2 10:59:44 BST 2000:

The Tyne Tees North South split would work if only they would show stories from their own region or give them more priority.


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Dan F on Sun Jul 2 16:02:47 BST 2000:

Sub-regions work best for the huge areas - like Meridian, where viewers in Dover aren't that interested in what happens in Dorchester. However, there's always an overlap, in Meridian's case Brighton, although Meridian in the South-East always mention stories about Worthing (clearly in the South).


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By big balls on Sun Jul 2 16:19:04 BST 2000:

>Sub-regions work best for the huge areas - like Meridian, where viewers in Dover aren't that interested in what happens in Dorchester. However, there's always an overlap, in Meridian's case Brighton, although Meridian in the South-East always mention stories about Worthing (clearly in the South).

Correct. The Central region is the same: Shrewsbury to Peterborough is a long way. Being in the middle, in Coventry, Leicester, Derby and Northampton you never know which sub-region to watch. Shrewsbury is the same distance from Coventry as Peterborough is. Therefore Coventry is an overlap.


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By bigballs on Sun Jul 2 16:21:12 BST 2000:

>>Sub-regions work best for the huge areas - like Meridian, where viewers in Dover aren't that interested in what happens in Dorchester. However, there's always an overlap, in Meridian's case Brighton, although Meridian in the South-East always mention stories about Worthing (clearly in the South).

For more on the news in the midlands visit the section above reading CENTRAL NEWS. People have put some good comments so far.
>
>Correct. The Central region is the same: Shrewsbury to Peterborough is a long way. Being in the middle, in Coventry, Leicester, Derby and Northampton you never know which sub-region to watch. Shrewsbury is the same distance from Coventry as Peterborough is. Therefore Coventry is an overlap.
>
>


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Jase on Sun Jul 2 16:23:38 BST 2000:

>The Tyne Tees North South split would work if only they would show stories from their own region or give them more priority.

Let's not lose track of the fact that YTV had a hidden agena when they opened the Teesside centre:

1) It would weaken TT in Newcastle and make it easier to run things from YTV;

2) It got them out of having to put out a half-hour local news programme at 10.30pm "Northern Life Late", which Tyne Tees had promised and I was looking forward to.


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Dan F on Sun Jul 2 16:34:52 BST 2000:


>2) It got them out of having to put out a half-hour local news programme at 10.30pm "Northern Life Late", which Tyne Tees had promised and I was looking forward to.

And rightly. TVS experimented with Coast to Coast Late in about 1989 (I think) for a whole week. It was a full half hour tailored to meet the needs of people who were still on the train at 6pm. But, a permanent Coast to Coast Late would have upset the network schedules afte News at Ten.


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Mr Ree on Sun Jul 2 20:21:19 BST 2000:

The Coast To Coast Late programme was promised in TVS's licence application (which they lost to Meridian) and, knowing how inflexible ITV Network is nowadays, probably would have been dropped anyway. Everything networked would have been timeshifted to 11pm instead of 10.40pm and would have caused problems with their nightime provider (Thames in the 18 months to 1993 and Carlton for several years from that point). It woudn't have worked.


Subject: Re: The point of sub-regions... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Richard on Mon Jul 3 10:14:59 BST 2000:

>Everything networked would have been timeshifted to 11pm instead of 10.40

or 10pm as UTV has done with some of its 10.40 programmes.


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