Regional news in England will be available on BBC One HD for the first time by the end of next year, as part of a major transformation of BBC services across the UK.
The move will end the red screen that currently appears instead of regional news on BBC One HD in England. Versions of BBC One HD for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland launched during 2012-13.
At the moment, viewers are advised to switch to BBC One standard definition on Freeview channel 1, Sky / Freesat / Virgin Media channel 101. The change will allow BBC One HD to eventually move to the first channel slot on all platforms, replacing the existing standard definition service. ITV already offers a full HD regional service on satellite and cable, but cannot do so on Freeview due to the way the HD signal is currently regionalised.
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Additionally, viewers in the North of England will get their own tailored version of BBC One, with its own continuity announcers and marketing.
This will affect viewers in the North East & Cumbria, North West and Yorkshire TV regions. The new service will work in similar way to BBC One Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have their own announcers, trailers and schedules.
It’s part of a major plan for the BBC unveiled by Director-General Tim Davie, as the corporation prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary amidst concerns that audiences in some parts of the UK are being underserved.
New homes for existing programmes
Some programmes including Morning Live (BBC One) and Newsbeat (Radio 1) will be moved to new homes outside of London. Other programmes including Newsnight (BBC Two) and PM (Radio 4) will move around the country.
Newsbeat will be based at BBC Birmingham, while Morning Live will move to Media City Salford (pictured above) – following in the footsteps of BBC Breakfast which moved up north a decade ago. Newsnight and PM will have no fixed home. Instead, they will be broadcast from a variety of different locations across the UK. For PM, this will include BBC Local Radio studios.
Some daytime programmes on Radio 1, 1Xtra and Radio 2 will be moved out of London. The majority of BBC Radio 6 Music’s output will move to Salford. BBC Asian Network will be consolidated in Birmingham.
The Today Programme on Radio 4 will also have an annual quota of 100 episodes co-presented from outside of London. Recently introduced local radio services in locations including Sunderland and Wolverhampton will be made permanent. The new stations will carry a peak-time service, handing over to their nearest existing local radio service at other times.
The developments follow the announcement that BBC Three would be returning as a linear channel next year.
The planned changes to BBC services in England follow recent changes elsewhere in the UK. In 2019, the BBC launched a new TV channel for Scotland. A year earlier, BBC Wales launched new radio station BBC Radio Cymru 2.
Support for S4C
Meanwhile, the BBC has also promised to support the distribution of S4C across multiple platforms. Earlier this month, the BBC confirmed negotiations were ongoing over the allocation of Freeview HD capacity in Wales for S4C HD. The current Public Interest Test for BBC Three indicates that S4C HD could take the bandwidth reserved for BBC Three HD elsewhere in the UK on Freeview. Last year, S4C’s chairman told the BBC that surrendering its original HD slot was a ‘strategic error’.
Since January, BBC Cymru Wales has been responsible for the playout of S4C.