''BBC Points West'' is 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 ...

's regional TV news programme for the

West of England The West of England is an area of South West England around the River Avon. The area has a local government combined authority that consists of the unitary authorities of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset. The comb ...

, covering

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, the majority of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

and

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

(excluding the city of

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

), and northern parts of

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. The service is produced and broadcast from the

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

Whiteladies Road Whiteladies Road is a main road in Bristol, England. It runs north from the Victoria Rooms (Bristol), Victoria Rooms to Durdham Down, and separates Clifton, Bristol, Clifton on the west side from Redland, Bristol, Redland and Cotham, Bristol, C ...

with district newsrooms based in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

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

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

and

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

History

BBC television news from Bristol began on 30 September 1957 with a five-minute bulletin on weekday nights, serving what would later become the BBC's

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

West West 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 Romance langu ...

and South West regions of England. The first bulletin, which survives as a telerecording, was presented by actress Armine Sandford – the first woman to regularly present a BBC television news bulletin. The launch of the BBC's regional TV bulletins came ahead of the rival ITV services provided by TWW, which began in January 1958, and

Southern Television Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited. However, in 1966, during the application pr ...

, which launched the following August. Around this time, the West Region bulletins were obliged to share a ten-minute timeslot with news bulletins for Wales as the Wenvoe transmitter on the outskirts of Cardiff was serving viewers in both South Wales and the West Country. This arrangement continued even after separate bulletins for the South and South West regions were introduced in 1961. Thus, when the newly launched ''Points West'' was given a ten-minute slot on 17 September 1962, it shared its slot with ''

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 n ...

''. The launch of a dedicated

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

television station in February 1964 finally allowed ''Points West'' to become a full-length regional news programme broadcast only to the West of England. This was more than seven years before a similar regional news service would be introduced by HTV West. Between June 1991 and May 2000, the programme was known as ''BBC News West'' before reverting back to its original title on 22 May 2000.

Coverage area

The programme covers much of the

, including

, the majority of

and

, and parts of north

. Southeastern parts of Wiltshire, including

and Tidworth, are served by ''

South Today ''BBC South Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, much of Dorset and parts of Surrey and Wiltshire. The service is produced and bro ...

'' broadcast from

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

since television signals in those areas are received from the Rowridge and Hannington transmitters. Eastern parts of

and some parts of eastern

such as

Stow-on-the-Wold Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot (244 m) hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman ...

and Fairford cannot get signals from the Mendip transmitter on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

but instead receive the

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

transmitter that also broadcasts ''South Today''. Freeview viewers in the north of Gloucestershire around

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

and

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town grew following the construction of Tewkesbury Abbey in the twelfth century and played a significant role in the Wars of the Roses. It stands at ...

receive better signals from the Ridge Hill transmitter which broadcasts ''

Midlands Today ''BBC Midlands Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the West Midlands (region), West Midlands. It was launched in 1964 and is presented by Mary Rhodes, Nick Owen, Elizabeth Glinka, Rebecca Wood and Shefali Oza. Overview ...

'' from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. However, those areas receive ''Points West'' on Channel 101 through satellite providers such as

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...

, based on the towns' postcodes. Western parts of Somerset and the

Taunton Deane Taunton Deane was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with borough status in Somerset, England. Its council was based in Taunton. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of ...

area receive better television signals from the Stockland Hill transmitter that broadcasts '' Spotlight'' from

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

on Freeview.

Notable presenters and reporters

* David Garmston * Ian Fergusson * Fiona Lamdin * Dan Johnson (network correspondent for

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

)

Former presenters and reporters

* Jon Kay * Chris Vacher *

Alex Lovell Alexandra "Alex" Lovell (born 28 March 1973) is an English television presenter, actress, newsreader and voice-over artist who is employed by ITV West Country. Her previous roles include stage and television acting, and she presented or co-prese ...

* Susan Osman * Gerald Hine-Haycock (as Gerald Haycock) *

Michael Buerk Michael Duncan Buerk (; born 18 February 1946) is a British journalist and newsreader. He presented BBC News from 1973 to 2002 and has been the host of BBC Radio 4's '' Moral Maze'' since 1990. He was also the presenter of BBC One's docudrama ...

* Armine Sandford * Vivien Creegor * Sue Carpenter * Clive Myrie * Saima Mohsin *Richard Angwin (weather) *Gwyn Richards *John Norman *Graham Purches *Peter Brown * Andrew Harvey (journalist) *

John Craven John Raymond Craven (born 16 August 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, best known for presenting the BBC programmes '' Newsround'', '' Countryfile'' and '' Beat the Brain''. Early life Craven was born in Leeds, West Rid ...

*Mark Puckle * Hugh Sykes (journalist)

References

External links