BBC South West is the BBC English Region serving

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, Isles of Scilly,

West Somerset West Somerset was a local government district in the English county of Somerset. The council covered a largely rural area, with a population of 34,900 in an area of ; it was the least populous non- unitary district in England. According to f ...

West Dorset West Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. Its council was based in Dorchester. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the boroughs of Bridport, Dorchester and ...

and

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

Services

Television

''BBC South Wests television service (broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

South West) consists of the flagship regional news service ''

Spotlight Spotlight or spot light may refer to: Lighting * Spot lights, automotive auxiliary lamps * Spotlight (theatre lighting) * Spotlight, a searchlight * Stage lighting instrument, stage lighting instruments, of several types Art, entertainment, an ...

'', the opt-out service '' BBC Channel Islands'', and a 20-minute opt-out during ''

Sunday Politics ''Daily Politics'' was a BBC Television programme which aired between 6 January, 2003 and 24 July, 2018, presented by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn. ''Daily Politics'' took an in-depth review of the daily events in both Westminster and other areas a ...

''. BBC South West covers

Due to the size of

, the Listenership of

BBC Radio Solent BBC Radio Solent is the BBC's local radio station serving Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Havelock Road in Southampton. According to RAJAR, the station has a ...

has both covered by

BBC South BBC South is the BBC English Region serving Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset, Berkshire and parts of Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Surrey, West Sussex and Wiltshire, with geographic coverage varying b ...

and BBC South West.

Radio

The region is the controlling centre for

BBC Radio Devon BBC Radio Devon is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Devon. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Mannamead area of Plymouth. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 1 ...

BBC Radio Cornwall BBC Radio Cornwall is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Cornwall. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Phoenix Wharf in Truro. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 1 ...

, BBC Radio Somerset,

BBC Radio Jersey BBC Radio Jersey (Jèrriais: ''BBC Radio Jèrri'') is the BBC's local radio station serving the Bailiwick of Jersey. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB+, Freeview and via BBC Sounds from studios on Parade Road in Saint Helier. Like other BBC enter ...

and

BBC Radio Guernsey BBC Radio Guernsey is the BBC's local radio station serving the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Bulwer Avenue in St Sampson. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly au ...

. On weekdays, the five stations carry local programming between 5am and 7pm before joining together for networked programming between 7pm and closedown at 1am. Weekend evening programmes are also simulcast with stations in the

BBC West BBC West is one of BBC's English Regions serving Bristol, the majority of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire; northern and eastern Somerset and northeastern Dorset. Services Television BBC West's television service (broadcast on BBC One) consists o ...

region.

Online and Interactive

''BBC South West'' also produces regional news & local radio pages for

BBC Red Button BBC Red Button is a brand used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. BBC Red Button's text services were due to c ...

and ''BBC Local'' websites for each county.

History

Television

BBC South West began a regional television service on 20 April 1961 (nine days before the first broadcast of the rival ITV station,

Westward Television Westward Television was the first ITV (TV network), ITV franchise-holder for the South West England, South West of England. It held the franchise from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a ...

) with ten-minute news bulletins on weekdays, originally presented by Tom Salmon. A year later, the bulletin was expanded and relaunched as the news magazine programme ''South West at Six'' (hosted by

Sheila Tracy Sheila Tracy (née Lugg; 10 January 1934 – 30 September 2014) was a British broadcaster, writer, musician, and singer. She began her career as a trombone player during the 1950s. in all-female bands. Biography Sheila Lugg was born in Mullion, ...

) before being renamed again on 30 September 1963 as '' Spotlight South West''. An opt-out for the Channel Islands was introduced during the 1990s, beginning with short bulletins after the '' Nine O'Clock News'' on weeknights, presented from a small studio at the

Frémont Point transmitter The Fremont Point transmitting station is a facility for FM radio and television transmission at Fremont, Vingtaine du Nord, Saint John, Jersey. It serves the whole of the Channel Islands, either directly or via the relay stations at Mont ...

. The service was expanded on 16 October 2000 and now incorporates the first half of ''Spotlights main 6:30pm programme (under the name ''BBC Channel Islands News'') and the full late bulletin after the ''

BBC News at Ten ''BBC News at Ten'' formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'' is the flagship evening news programme for the BBC News channel and British television channel BBC One on weekdays and Sundays at 10:00pm. Huw Edwa ...

'' on weeknights. The service is now based at the studios of

in St Helier. Following the merger of Westcountry and

HTV West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

to become ITV West & Westcountry in February 2009 (later becoming "

ITV West Country ITV West Country is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the South West England franchise area on the ITV network. Previously, between 2009 and 2013, the area was a non-franchise region, branded with the sa ...

" on 1 January 2014), ''Spotlight'' is now the only regional TV news service dedicated entirely to, and produced in, the South West, as the ITV service (''

ITV News West Country ''ITV News West Country'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV West Country. Overview ''ITV News West Country'' is broadcast from studios in Brislington, Bristol, with district reporters and camera crews based i ...

'') is based in Bristol with bulletins and opt-outs for the region.

ITV Channel Television ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the ...

continues to produce and broadcast its own dedicated local news service for the Channel Islands from its studios near St Helier in Jersey.

Studios

Plymouth Broadcasting House geograph-1669982-by-Lewis-Clarke

The regional headquarters and television centre is at Broadcasting House in the Mannamead area of Plymouth, with offices and television studios also in St Helier,

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

and Exeter. The Plymouth studios were originally a Victorian villa on Seymour Road called ''Ingledene'' before being bought by the BBC following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and subsequently fitted out with technical facilities. A new colour television studio was added to the complex in 1974, allowing ''Spotlight'' to broadcast in colour for the first time. The studios were due to close in late 2011, with BBC South West moving to a new purpose-built broadcasting centre on the banks of Sutton Harbour, opposite the Barbican in Plymouth city centre. The move stalled, however, due to a developer pulling out of the project and the effect of the recession on the construction industry. In late 2012, the owner of the harbour expressed fears the move may never happen and admitted other parties had expressed an interest in moving to the site earmarked for the BBC. In 2013, the BBC confirmed it would not be moving to Sutton Harbour, but instead be refurbishing its existing Plymouth headquarters. The studios in St Helier, Jersey are used for the opt out Channel Islands news bulletins.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc South West

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

Mass media in Cornwall Mass media in Dorset Mass media in Guernsey Mass media in Jersey Mass media in Plymouth, Devon Mass media in Somerset Television channels and stations established in 1954

Services

Television

Radio

Online and Interactive

History

Television

Studios

See also

References

External links