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BBC English Regions

Headquarters	The Mailbox, Birmingham
Broadcast area
Nation	England
Regions	BBC North East and Cumbria BBC North West BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire BBC East Midlands BBC West Midlands BBC East BBC West BBC South BBC London BBC South East BBC South West
TV Transmitters	Terrestrial, cable and BBC UK regional TV on satellite.
Radio Stations in this area	BBC Local Radio
Key people	Ranjit Sondhi (National Governor for the English Regions) Andy Griffee (Controller, English Regions)
Websites	http://www.bbc.co.uk/england

BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

The division is made up of 12 separate regions. Many of the names of these regions are similar to those of the official government Regions of England, but the areas covered are often significantly different as they are determined by analogue transmission areas, not administrative boundaries.^{[citation needed]}

The headquarters of BBC English Regions is at The Mailbox in Birmingham, with regional television centres in Newcastle upon Tyne, Leeds, Hull, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwich, Bristol, London, Tunbridge Wells, Southampton and Plymouth, and local radio stations based at 43 locations across England.^{[citation needed]}

Overall the division produces over 70% of the BBC's domestic television and radio output.^[1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Broadcasting in the Seventies 1.2 Since 1970 2 BBC English Regions 3 External links 4 References and further reading

The current BBC English Regions division was the product of the controversial Broadcasting in the Seventies report - a radical review of the structure of the BBC carried out in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

Before this the structure of regional broadcasting in England had remained virtually unchanged since the late 1920s, when the establishment of 4 regional radio transmission stations covering England had led to a regional structure on similar lines. BBC North was based in Manchester and covered the area from Cheshire and Sheffield northwards, BBC Midlands was based in Birmingham covering a swathe of central England from the Potteries to Norfolk, and BBC West was based in Bristol covering the area south and west of a line from Gloucester to Brighton. The London area, though it had regional transmission infrastructure of its own, received only national programming and wasn't considered to be a region.^{[citation needed]}

These regions (alongside the national regions BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland that performed a similar role outside England) were well-suited to delivering the pre-war BBC Regional Programme and the post-war BBC Home Service that replaced it. By the 1960s, though, the growth of television, the birth of the more locally-based ITV franchises in 1955 and the development of smaller BBC Local Radio stations (made possible by the development of FM radio) were making the structure look increasingly anachronistic.v

The effect of Broadcasting in the Seventies was to separate the two different roles of regional BBC offices into different organisations.^{[citation needed]}

The two major television channels BBC 1 and BBC 2 were to remain primarily national operations. To prevent this leading to total domination by London, three Network Production Centres - BBC Bristol, BBC Birmingham and BBC Manchester - were established in the headquarters of the former regions, to produce programming for national broadcast across the entire United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

BBC English Regions was created to take on the other role of the former regions - the production of specifically local programming - through a new tier of much smaller regions, controlled from headquarters in the new Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham.^{[citation needed]}

As a result Plymouth-based BBC South West and Southampton-based BBC South were split from BBC West; Norwich-based BBC East separated from BBC Midlands; and a new BBC North West was created in Manchester, with the BBC North name being taken by the new region based in Leeds.^{[citation needed]}

In addition London and the surrouding area was finally recognised as a region with the creation of BBC South East.

These new regions produced regional news programmes and opt-outs on television, but regional radio programming on the BBC Home Service ceased, replaced by the national Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4 and the growing number of local radio stations.^{[citation needed]}

This structure has largely survived to the current day. Local news services were developed on Ceefax from 1997 and were extended on onto the web in 1999. The decreasing costs of television production also enabled the gradual development of even smaller regions. BBC East Midlands was created in Nottingham in 1991, BBC London also became a region in 2001 and BBC North was split into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in 2004.^{[citation needed]}

• BBC North East and Cumbria
• BBC Yorkshire
• BBC North West
• BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
• BBC East Midlands
• BBC West Midlands
• BBC East
• BBC South
• BBC London
• BBC West
• BBC South East
• BBC South West

• BBC England
• About BBC English Regions
• BBC English Regions Annual Review 2005-2006

• Briggs, Asa (1961-1995). The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom (Volumes I-V). Oxford University Press.