Regional new teams

[Pootle]

On BBC breakfast news when they handover to the regional news and weather, are the regional news teams all given an alloted time to present? There must be about 15 odd regions, how do they all finish reading all at exactly the same time before they all go back to Dermot and Natasha?

[denisegordon]

I've often thought about this too, they do the same with the late news.  I've convinced myself that with the late news, the final bit from the presenter is pre-recorded and broadcast in some way locally, then the program finishes.  I don't know how they'd do this in the breakfast program since it's longer and doesn't just finish after the local news, and they can't go to an advert break.  That means it would still have to synchronize in some way.  Does that make sense?

Doesn't answer the question though, so hopefully someone knows.

[Pinotage]

They are professionals. Its easy enough to synchronise.

Just listen to - say - Today on Radio 4 - and see how skilled they are in a live programme at hitting the time pips, etc.

[Tim Baxter]

Yes, they're all given the specified time to present their items, if they aren't finished they simply get cut.

[Headtime]

The above answers are correct.

As a default BBC 1 (analogue) carries the main News Programmes with the regional segment provided by BBC London. This is broadcast across the whole country.

Traditionally, different regions have to "opt-out" of this broadcast and overlay their own bulletin in the time allowed.

So in Breakfast for example, the programme will stipulate that the "regional-opt", as it is known, will be 4mins 35 seconds long.

Each region will carry exactly a 4min 35 second bulletin and insert it over the main BBC output.

I was at BBC Leeds a few years ago, and there was a box rather like those used to launch nuclear missiles. It needed two seperate keys to be inserted and turned. And a button which, when pressed, overlayed the output of the BBC Leeds station over the main BBC broadcast output. All regions would do this.

This website here has a few examples of BBC Wales not getting it quite right.

http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/bbcwales/bbcwalesmistakes.html

I think it's slightly different for BBC1 digital output as each region is available on SKY. But the principle is the same. The regional news segments have to rigidly stick to the times alloted to them by Television Centre in London.

[snoteater]

Well, duh.....

[MargeB]

It's the same newsreader, reading the same news, just that they rerecord it for the different regions, and the reader has to do a different accent for each. Strange, but true.

[phl666]

MargeB. LOL

[Dave.B]

What happens if you live right on the fringes of two different regions? For example, if you live in Dorchester, you must be pretty close to receiving either BBC South West (Spotlight), or BBC South. What governs which regional broadcast you receive?