BBC North (Group) is an operational business division of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean: *The large ''BBC North'' region, centred on

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968 and was based upon one of the four UK regional radio transmission stations. *The ''BBC North'' region, centred on

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, that was active between 1968 and 2004 and which was split to form

BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire is one of the English regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Kingston upon Hull. Serving West, North and South Yorkshir ...

and BBC Yorks & Lincs. *The operational department called ''BBC North'' that combined the output of the BBC's northern regions between 1990 and 1996. *The ''BBC North Group'' of major BBC departments that have already moved or are moving from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in City of Salford, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by The Peel Group, Peel Media; its principal tenants are Mass media, ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

from 2011 onwards as part of the ''BBC North Project''.

BBC region 1920s–1968

The first ''BBC North'' operation was a large region, based in

and covering the areas now served by

BBC North West BBC North West is the BBC English Regions, BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, as well as parts of North Yorkshire (western Craven District, Craven), Derbyshire (western High Peak, Derbyshire, High ...

BBC North East and Cumbria BBC North East and Cumbria is one of the BBC's BBC English Regions, English regions covering Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Gateshead, South Tyneside, City of Sunderland, County Durham, Northumberland, north and mid Cumbria and parts of N ...

and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Regional radio broadcasting was largely based at a leased studio complex above a bank known as 'Old Broadcasting House' at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre. These studios became the base for radio output from the region in 1929. The BBC's first regional television studio, studio A, would be based elsewhere in the city – at a converted church on Dickenson Road in Rusholme, which opened in 1954 after being owned and operated by Mancunian Films. Regional television news bulletins began from Piccadilly's studio N on 30 September 1957 and served the entire North of England. Two years later, the northern half of the region (the North East and Cumbria) began receiving its own TV news bulletins from Newcastle (

) while the two distinct areas either side of the Pennines continued to receive what eventually became ''Look North'' from Manchester until 22 March 1968. Regional radio output for this area continued on an opt-out of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

until September 1980 (by which time, six BBC Local Radio stations had been set up to cover the North West & Yorkshire regions).

BBC region 1968–2004

Programmes

Based at the Broadcasting Centre at Woodhouse Lane in

, BBC North was the production centre for regional television output, including the nightly news programme ''

Look North ''BBC Look North'' is a name used by the BBC for its regional news programmes in three regions in the North of England: * ''BBC Look North (North East and Cumbria), BBC Look North'' for the BBC North East and Cumbria region * ''BBC Look North (Y ...

'' and

BBC Local Radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 39 stations. As of December 2024, the network broadcasts to a combined audience of 7.1 mil ...

station BBC Radio Leeds.

History

The Leeds island site went on air on 25 March 1968 as a response to the imminent opening of

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

, the new ITV contractor based in Leeds serving the area east of the Pennines, formerly part of the

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

area. And in a similar manner to the impending ITV east-west Granada-Yorkshire split, the BBC divided the old North Region (based in Manchester) into BBC North West (Manchester) and the new BBC North (Leeds). This enabled a separate edition of ''Look North'' to be produced, initially from All Souls in Blackman Lane - a church hall near Woodhouse Lane - using equipment from a redundant OB scanner plus "mobile"

telecine Telecine ( or ), or TK, is the process of transferring film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in this post-production process. Telecine enables a motion picture, captured origi ...

and film processing vans (the latter obtained from BBC TV News in London). Until this time, BBC viewers here had only the Manchester edition of the regional opt-out to watch, just as on ITV, where Granada had been the only choice of regional news magazine programme for the entire Lancashire & Yorkshire viewing area. The launch of

four months later would mark the launch of ITV's own regional news programme for the new region, ''

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

''. Leeds was to have the third incarnation of the BBC programme called ''Look North''; the others continued to be produced in Newcastle, another ''island site'', and in Manchester, which was also the BBC ''Network Production Centre'' (NPC) for the north of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In 1974 the programme moved into a new colour studio equipped with EMI 2001 cameras in the newly built Broadcasting Centre adjacent t
Broadcasting House
in Woodhouse Lane, where it remained for thirty years until the studio was demolished in 2004. During 2001 an opt-out service was introduced for viewers in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, consisting of a news summary within the main 6:30pm edition of ''Look North'' and a full length late bulletin on weeknights. The 6:30pm opt-out was extended into a full length 30 minute programme in November 2002. In June 2004, the BBC North region was fully split to form the

and North Midlands region and the BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire region. BBC Yorkshire and North Midlands is based in St. Peter's Square, Leeds, and is transmitted from

Emley Moor The Emley Moor transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on Emley Moor, west of the village centre of Emley, in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It is made up of a concrete tower and apparatus that began ...

and its associated relays, as well as by satellite from SES Astra 1N at 28.2 East on 10.803 GHz, SID 6441, Freesat EPG 966 to a population of around 4 million. BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is based in Queen's Court in Hull and is transmitted from Belmont and its associated relays, as well as by satellite from SES Astra 1N at 28.2 East on 10,788 GHz V, SID 10303, Freesat EPG 967 to around 1.7 million.

Operation 1990–1996

Between 1990 and 1996, the three northern regions of

, BBC North East and ''BBC North'' merged their administration and managerial departments as a cost-saving measure. The new service was centred on New Broadcasting House in

. The new service produced all of the regional programming, and all the regions used ''BBC North'' on-screen branding, but still retained the unique identity of the regional news programmes. The operation also became head of the Network Production Centre at Manchester, making BBC North one of the biggest producers of network television outside London. The regions were separated in 1996 in a drive to serve the regions better, which could not be done from Manchester alone.

BBC North Group (2004–present)

BBC North Group is one of eight major operational divisions of the

, the others being

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

, BBC News Group, BBC Executive Board, BBC Management Board, BBC Digital and BBC Finance & Business, and comprises a number of BBC departments (25 in all), operating at the development

built by the

Peel Group The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Greater Manchester, Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes ...

, as part of the "BBC North Project", also called "Out of London". This group is directly answerable to the Director-General's Office and the

BBC Trust The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...

. The group contains

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

, along with

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

, BBC Learning,

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One every morning from 6:00am. It is also broadcast on the UK feed of BBC News channel on weekends. The simulcast is presented live, ...

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a sister station to BBC Radio 5 Live and shares facil ...

BBC Philharmonic The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at Media ...

BBC Research & Development BBC Research & Development is the technical research department of the BBC. Function It has responsibility for researching and developing advanced and emerging media technologies for the benefit of the corporation, and wider UK and European m ...

, BBC Digital, BBC R & D (North Lab), BBC Radio 4 (programme production),

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

(programme production),

BBC Radio Manchester BBC Radio Manchester is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

, BBC Manchester network production centre and

. The project began in 2006 when Salford was named as the chosen location by the

Board of Governors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulations ...

and in 2007 the go-ahead was given to the project by the

. The previous

Director-General of the BBC The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC. The post-holder was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period 1927 to 2007) and then the ...

, Mark Thompson, indicated that either

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

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

could also move by 2015. The day-to-day operation of production and broadcasting at MediaCityUK is now operated as BBC North for the BBC.

References

External links

Official BBC North website for news, events and updates

Look North 35th anniversary.

6/bbc

BBC Jobs - BBC North 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc North

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

Mass media in Yorkshire Television channels and stations established in 1951 Organisations based in Salford Mass media companies based in Greater Manchester

1951 establishments in the United Kingdom