[Spencer]

I thought the same and wondered had they been merged many years ago, when I think but may have been mistaken, that this was under consideration with a service based possibly in Milton Keynes, whether it would have survived as presumably they'd have been more significant in terms of potential audience.

In terms of a potential audience, a hypothetical Oxbridge region would have a population of roughly 3.7 million - which would make it the seventh largest of seventeen regions. If this was an independent region, that'd probably be enough to save it, but the Cambridge subregion itself has a population of 2.8 million - just shy of Wales' population and clearly larger than the Norwich master region (2.2 million) and the East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire region (1.6 million).

Though, for various reasons, the connection between population size and getting a BBC region is rather loose...

Very interesting to see that graph. I’d be interested to see a similar graph based on viewing figures.

I’ve wondered before why Look North East Yorks and Lincs has been spared the chop, given it was one of the three ‘new regions’ of the late 90s/early 00s along with Oxford and Cambridge.

I can only guess that Look Levy pulls in the viewers in a way that Oxford and Cambridge don’t. But I may be completely wrong.