BBC West is one of BBC's English Regions serving

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, the majority of

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

and

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

; northern and eastern

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and northeastern

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

Services

Television

BBC West's 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, ...

) consists of the flagship regional news service '' BBC Points West'', the topical magazine programme ''Inside Out West'' and a 30 minute political programme ''

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 ...

''.

Radio

The region is the controlling centre for

BBC Radio Bristol BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC's local radio station serving Bristol, Bath and North & North East Somerset. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Broadcasting House in Bristol. According to RAJAR, the stati ...

, BBC Radio Gloucestershire & BBC Radio Wiltshire Radio Bristol, Radio Gloucestershire and Radio Wiltshire broadcast local programming every day between 5am and 7pm, while BBC Somerset was broadcast by BBC South West local programming at breakfast from Monday to Saturday, weekday drivetime and Saturday afternoons, simulcasting Radio Bristol at all other times. The three stations simulcast networked programming each evening, joined by stations in the BBC South West region at weekends. Radio Bristol also broadcasts through the night on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Online and interactive

BBC West also produces regional news and local radio pages for the

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

BBC West launched a regional television service from Bristol in September 1957. Initially broadcast from the Wenvoe transmitter on the outskirts of Cardiff, the geographical nature of the Wenvoe signal meant the first regional news bulletins were broadcast to both Wales and the West of England, sharing a ten-minute timeslot with ''News from Wales''. Until December 1960, news bulletins from Bristol also served the south coast of England, which latterly received its own regional programme. The weekday timeslot for regional news extended to 25 minutes in September 1962 – around this time, the West of England bulletin became known as ''Points West'' while the Welsh bulletins received a more comprehensive relaunch as ''

BBC Wales Today ''BBC Wales Today'' is the BBC's national television news programme for Wales, broadcast on BBC One Wales from the headquarters of BBC Cymru Wales in Central Square, Cardiff. According to the BBC, it is the world's longest-running television ne ...

''. The opening of a second signal from Wenvoe in February 1964 finally allowed the split of BBC television in Wales and the West. A separate BBC Wales channel was launched while BBC West became a full regional opt-out service to the extent seen in other English regions, with ''Points West'' becoming a full-length programme. ''Points West'' continued until 1991, when the service was renamed ''BBC News West''. The ''Points West'' brand was revived on Monday 22 May 2000 with the launch of the BBC's generic regional news graphics and presentation.

Studios

BBC West's regional broadcasting centre is located on Whiteladies Road in the Clifton area of

with local radio studios and television bureaux also in Bath,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, Swindon and

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 ...

. The Bristol studios are the main base for '' Points West'',

and various regional and, previously, network programmes. Network output is now made at other specially built facilities or does not use a studio. The site originally had two studios, A and B, which catered for all output - network programming was produced from Studio A and ''Points West'' and other regional output from Studio B. Studio A was closed in 1991 as a cost-saving measure, and in 1996 the site was altered so that new gallery facilities were inserted into part of Studio A. The now smaller Studio A is now used for ''Points West'', while Studio B has been demolished.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc West

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Television channels and stations established in 1952