[Stuart]

But why do they need to all look the same? Who watches Look East and Look North?

It's known as a 'corporate image'. Banks don't have different signage at their branches, any more than BBC regional news programmes want to have different persona for their viewers.

People actually travel around for business purposes or on breaks in the UK, so they would view different regional programmes. I guess it's good to see something familiar.

Some ITV regional news sets are slightly different because of their studio size, but essentially the identity is always the same sort of design. I know when I watch '+1' that it's the Central version, because the corners next to the screens are different to those in Bristol. But I'm a pres geek.