Launch BBC One North

[Steve in Pudsey]

The latter although I imagine it'll be used strategically too. The media planners will have all sorts of data as to what appeals to who and who watches what and where they are. The ability to promote different things to different parts of the country is very useful. 

Its not something ITV do, but of course they did once. The audience of Tyne Tees wouldn't have have been getting the same mix of promos for networked shows than those watching Thames would have

Do they need a complete separate playout and continuity setup outside London to be able do this? Surely it’s just a case of scheduling the promos on a computer which could be done from anywhere in the world.

When we’re at the point when BBC local radio programmes and regional news programmes aren’t allowed to have more than one presenter, it does seem rather a luxury to have five different people around the UK all telling us that it’s time for The One Show.

Most of the cost is probably already accounted for in the DR arrangements.

The RedBee shenanigans demonstrated the value of having a hot spare facility, and putting it on air regularly means there won't be any surprises (like C4's access services surprise) when something hits the fan.

There could be some hidden wins in this scenario - if the Salford based staff were just there on standby* there's probably not a lot of job satisfaction there, so the cost of employing an announcer and going on air every day might be offset by reducing staff turnover and the cost of recruting and training. That's obviously speculation, of course.

* At the old DR facility at a location in the South East, staff were rotad to work at both sites on different days, typically doing prep activities from the DR site but being available to take over if W12 had a catastrophe.