[CCFG]

Possibly relating to the regionalisation on Freeview:
DigitalBitrate is now showing a new blank data service on PSB3/BBC-B from transmitters in England.

[Former Member 406]

Clean Feed has confirmed that there will be five macro regions of BBC One HD on Freeview replacing the Red Screen Of Death fairly soon-ish. So, not everyone will get the exact correct regional news programme.

The macro regions are as follows (with my educated guesses as to which is likely to be the service carried, shown in brackets):

1. London.
2. West and South West. (Bristol)
3. East, South East, and South. (Tunbridge Wells)
4. East Midlands and West Midlands. (Birmingham)
5. North West, Yorks & N Midlands, Lincs & E Yorks, and NE & Cumbria. (Salford or Leeds?)

cleanfeed.thetvroom.com 

First preparations for BBC One HD English regions on Freeview - Clean Feed
Behind the scenes, the first visible adjustments to what's broadcast on Fre…
  Source: cleanfeed.thetvroom.com

[agentsquash]

Surely the North macro region will be Salford - only studio with HD already?

[IanJRedman]

I'm pretty sure it's already been confirmed that Freeview will get the full regionalisation, like other platforms. It would be a pretty severe U-turn if they only launched five macro versions, and I'm reasonably sure that won't be the case (at least, not on any permanent basis). At this stage I fully expect the Freeview mux to be regionalised as necessary...

[Nick Harvey]

The macro regions are as follows (with my educated guesses as to which is likely to be the service carried, shown in brackets):

1. London.
2. West and South West. (Bristol)
3. East, South East, and South. (Tunbridge Wells)
4. East Midlands and West Midlands. (Birmingham)
5. North West, Yorks & N Midlands, Lincs & E Yorks, and NE & Cumbria. (Salford or Leeds?)

Surely more logical for 2 to be Plymouth (HD studio), 3 to be Southampton (HD studio), and 5 to be Saford (HD studio).

[Former Member 406]

Presumably the macro-regional arrangement is only a short-term interim arrangement, with full regionalisation to follow ASAP afterwards.

Much as was the case in the 2000s with the limited number of English Regions initially made available via the red button on digital satellite BBC One, when LDN replaced UK Today as the default output. Full regionalisation followed fairly soon afterwards.

My guesses for the macro-regional services were based on which are the most densely-populated of the buddied-up regions, rather than current HD studio capability.

[agentsquash]

Presumably the macro-regional arrangement is only a short-term interim arrangement, with full regionalisation to follow ASAP afterwards.

Much as was the case in the 2000s with the limited number of English Regions initially made available via the red button on digital satellite BBC One, when LDN replaced UK Today as the default output. Full regionalisation followed fairly soon afterwards.

My guesses for the macro-regional services were based on which are the most densely-populated of the buddied-up regions, rather than current HD studio capability.

The North becomes a bit of a problem in that case.

All the rest have at least some common overlap - but there isn’t that much shared across the Pennines (apart from perhaps some stories about Northern/TPE being a continual mess).

For viewers in north Cumbria, NWT would be a better choice than directing them to stories in Leeds/York. Likewise, for viewers in the NE, there’s no point showing what’s going on in Liverpool. The populations are roughly similar, too, so the inability to do an east/west split isn’t the best.

The least worst solution would probably be to air Look North (from Leeds) on HD, even if NWT is the HD studio - purely because ITV air Granada across the whole region. But I guess it’s only temporary!

[London Lite]

Most Freeview viewers will stick to watching regional news on LCN 1 in SD as ITV viewers already have to do in the regions where the HD regional news is from miles away. (Central West in Penzance for example).

[Stooky Bill]

The plan is for every region to go HD, if these macro regions are happening (and the phrase 'Clean Feed has confirmed' doesn't mean much) then they'll either be temporary or a bit of a bodge in the interim.

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The macro regions are as follows (with my educated guesses as to which is likely to be the service carried, shown in brackets):

1. London.
2. West and South West. (Bristol)
3. East, South East, and South. (Tunbridge Wells)
4. East Midlands and West Midlands. (Birmingham)
5. North West, Yorks & N Midlands, Lincs & E Yorks, and NE & Cumbria. (Salford or Leeds?)

Surely more logical for 2 to be Plymouth (HD studio), 3 to be Southampton (HD studio), and 5 to be Saford (HD studio).

I'd have thought that if this is happening that the choice of region would be based on its importance and size of region and not the specs of the studio. 

Newcastle has an HD studio now too, but Salford is more logical because of it bigger population

[Humphrey Hacker]

The plan is for every region to go HD, if these macro regions are happening (and the phrase 'Clean Feed has confirmed' doesn't mean much) then they'll either be temporary or a bit of a bodge in the interim.

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Surely more logical for 2 to be Plymouth (HD studio), 3 to be Southampton (HD studio), and 5 to be Saford (HD studio).

I'd have thought that if this is happening that the choice of region would be based on its importance and size of region and not the specs of the studio. 

Newcastle has an HD studio now too, but Salford is more logical because of it bigger population

I think "bodge" is an understatement. From a subjective view the "pan-northern" region has a slew of potential problems especially with ensuring the right news is transmitted.