''BBC Wales Today'' 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 national

television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or tel ...

programme for

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, broadcast on BBC One Wales from the

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

BBC Cymru 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, ...

in Central Square,

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. According to the BBC, it is the world's longest-running television news programme. The programme can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite channel 972 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service. Selected video packages from the programme are available on the BBC news website.

History

The programme began at 6:10 pm on Monday 17 September 1962. Its predecessor, a short ''News from Wales'' bulletin, started in 1957 and was originally presented by

Michael Aspel Michael Terence Aspel (born 12 January 1933) is an English retired television presenter and newsreader. He hosted programmes such as '' Crackerjack!'', '' Ask Aspel'', ''Aspel & Company'', '' Give Us a Clue'', '' This Is Your Life'', '' Strange ...

. The new programme, originally presented by Brian Hoey, shared a 25-minute timeslot for regional news with '' Points West'' from Bristol – at the time, both programmes were broadcast to Wales and the West of England from the Wenvoe transmitter near Cardiff. By February 1964, two new television regions,

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, ...

and BBC West, had been created with the addition of a new channel (13) for Wales on Wenvoe. ''BBC Wales Today'' thus became a 25-minute programme broadcast only to Wales while ''Points West'' was only broadcast to the West of England. In 1969, the opening of separate UHF transmitters at Wenvoe (Wales) and Mendip (West) led to complete separation, except for overlap areas in South Wales. Between September 1984 and September 1988, the programme aired at 5:35 pm – one hour earlier than most of its counterpart BBC news programmes elsewhere in the UK – before moving to the 6:30 pm timeslot in September 1988. ''BBC Wales Today'' shared the same studio facilities (studio C2 at Broadcasting House in Cardiff) as S4C's ''

Newyddion ''Newyddion S4C'' (''S4C News'') is a Welsh language, Welsh-language news programme broadcast on S4C and produced by BBC Cymru Wales, covering national and international news stories from a Welsh perspective. History Welsh-language television ...

'' programme. On 28 September 2020, ''BBC Wales Today'' joined BBC Cymru Wales' presentation and radio teams at new headquarters in Central Square, in Cardiff's city centre. The first bulletin from the building was coverage of the Welsh Government daily

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

briefing.

On air

On weekdays, ''BBC Wales Today'' broadcasts six three-minute bulletins at 27 and 57 minutes past each hour during ''

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, ...

''. A 10-minute lunchtime programme airs at 1:35 pm during the ''

BBC News at One The ''BBC News at One'' is the BBC's afternoon news programme on British television channels BBC One and the BBC News channel with British Sign Language Interpretation, broadcast weekdays at 1:00pm and produced by BBC News. The programme runs fo ...

'', with a short preview at 5:15 pm. The main half-hour edition of the programme airs at 6:30 pm after following the ''

BBC News at Six The ''BBC News at Six'' is the BBC's evening news programme on British television channels BBC One and BBC News (British TV channel), BBC News (UK feed), broadcast weeknights at 6:00pm and produced by BBC News. It is normally broadcast for 30 ...

''. The late night bulletin airs at 10:30 pm following the '' BBC News at Ten''. Three bulletins air during the weekend: early evening bulletins on Saturdays and Sundays, and a late-night bulletin on Sundays, following the '' BBC Weekend News''. From November 2001, a fifteen-minute news bulletin was broadcast on the digital opt-out service BBC 2W, first as ''2W News and Sport'' and later, ''Wales Today on 2W''. The bulletin was axed in 2007. In 2020 a separate 30-minute broadcast was added to the schedule during the 2019 Coronavirus outbreak, reporting on live

Welsh Government The Welsh Government ( ) is the Executive (government), executive arm of the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of Cabinet secretary, cabinet secretaries and Minister of State, ministers. It is led by the F ...

press conferences.

Notable on-air team

Weather presenters

Former presenters

References

External links

* * {{Media in Cardiff 1962 British television series debuts 1960s Welsh television series 1970s Welsh television series 1980s Welsh television series 1990s Welsh television series 2000s Welsh television series 2010s Welsh television series 2020s Welsh television series BBC Cymru Wales television shows BBC Regional News shows British English-language television shows Television shows set in Cardiff Welsh television news shows Welsh television shows