[steve]

I appreciate the economics of the ‘one size fits all’ approach to the regional sets, but when you see this, It does seem a shame that so much of the space in the studio is now unused.

Agreed, but I suppose it does make sense.

Interestingly though, I suppose apart from losing the desk on 'set left', the new studio sets are probably most like the old Newcastle set and it doesn't feel hugely smaller on screen for most of the time.

They also are using it in the same way (which is different from a lot of other regions) - as in sport headline with presenter at the start of bulletin by the tower too, and sports presenter and weather presenter sat on sofa at the end.