South West England & CI Thread

[cityprod]

Special titles for live Westcountry West edition.

[Brekkie]

This is where the current system of regional opt outs fails the regions.

Editorially, there was plenty of justification for extended coverage last night. The late bulletins really should have been extended to provide the level of coverage this story really deserved. There were breaking developments in the story past midnight, which is incredibly unusual. But neither ITV or BBC did that.

And again today, there's plenty of justification for extending the regional output today, but ITV won't do it. BBC could, Spotlight could be extended to replace the One Show, but arguably there's more justification for doing an extended lunchtime bulletin as well, but again, because of the tightness of the schedule post the lunchtime news, they won't do that.

Local radio in this case is only marginally better. Only BBC could really provide the coverage this story deserved, whilst both Heart and Greatest Hits Radio were in network mode all night. Local commercial radio here failed the local area.

On the flipside though there were conscious decisions made last night not to make this an open ended speculative story and to keep reporting brief and to the facts.

Not seen the evening bulletins but the BBC News at One also kept coverage brief and to the facts with Justin opening report and single live before moving on when in the past such a story may have taken half the bulletin. I don't think in this case extending the regional bulletin would have enabled them to provide any additional information.


Similarly whilst I think the destruction of local radio has been scandalous I also think in these situations it is wrong to assume extended news coverage is what best serves the local audience. For many today I suspect anything but news may have been what they needed.

[Stanley Matravers]

Unsurprisingly, the West Country "west" sub-region got the live programme tonight, with Kylie Pentelow anchoring solo as an OB from the Keyham area of Plymouth.

Last night's shooting incident was the sole news story for the entire programme, with no studio segment or other South West news at all.

The formal programme close and production caption was at about 18:28, with the weather forecast being shown separately afterwards. Kate Haskell was wearing a plain black top, and delivered the forecast in a fairly "sombre" manner, avoiding the usual "chipper" manner for obvious reasons.

Lucrezia Millarini was then seemingly stood on the exact same spot where Kylie had just been, to anchor the national ITV News from Keyham.

The "east" sub-region had a standard studio-based, pre-recorded edition presented by David Wood and Cari Davies. One of the "east" news stories was about London mayor Sadiq Khan visiting Bristol and meeting our mayor Marvin Rees.

The "west" programme included a brief bit of Sadiq Kahn passing comment about the Keyham incident whilst stood somewhere with the Clifton Suspension Bridge visible behind him. It was the exact same spot where he was being interviewed for stuff used on the "east" programme regarding Bristol transport and clean air plans.

[TJTSW]

It’s seems to been a media spot, as bbc spotlight was in the same place as Kylie, and now channel 4 news is in the same place

[cityprod]

It’s seems to been a media spot, as bbc spotlight was in the same place as Kylie, and now channel 4 news is in the same place

Actually, the BBC position is lower down the bank, closer to the road than the ITN position. The road in the background is Woleseley Road, part of the main route from St Budeaux to the main city centre.

[Stanley Matravers]

It would of course have been physically impossible for the respective ITV Evening News and BBC Spotlight presenters and crews to be occupying the exact same spot between 6:30pm-7pm.

[Ballyboy]

Victoria Graham credited Emily Wood by her full name on the 6:30 edition giving the circumstances

[London Lite]

West Country (West) 6pm.

https://youtu.be/iOxlzMbKAGA

[Rob]

Last night's BBC Spotlight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUaA5lxcOWA

[Stanley Matravers]

Surprised that BBC Spotlight didn't at least use the "sombre" version of the theme music, and/or special titles.

After the BBC Channel Islands sub-opt bulletin (which was about 13m35s in duration) they crashed into the Plymouth programme in the middle of one of its various report packages about the Keyham incident, starting with the final sentence of an eyewitness interview.

Whereas South Today Oxford ends with a verbal handover to the Southampton presenter, BBC Channel Islands always closes with "end of programme" style wording from the presenter - as if there's not going to be any more news programme of any kind immediately following it, and that The One Show will start at 6:45pm or something. Which is very poor of them, IMHO.

[Inspector Sands]

Similarly whilst I think the destruction of local radio has been scandalous I also think in these situations it is wrong to assume extended news coverage is what best serves the local audience. For many today I suspect anything but news may have been what they needed.

Yes but whereas extended news might not have been what people needed/wanted that doesn't necessarily mean that those in the area wanted business as usual either.

The advantage of a local radio station when such an incident happens in their patch is that they can change tonally. The people of Plymouth might not want Radio Devon's news coverage but they might not be in the mood to 'turn up the feel good' on Heart either. Whereas a Plymouth based station would have struck a better balance.

Pirate FM covers Plymouth, I don't know if they cranked it down a bit

[London Lite]

Victoria Graham presented Saturday's studio based Spotlight. Presumably recent events still warranted a senior presenter.

[Ballyboy]

When Prince Philip died she presented Spotlight that Saturday I believe?

[Philheybrookbay]

Whilst it's not common knowledge yet, sadly some of the funerals from Keyham incident are due to take place week of 6th September. The area around St Andrews Minster church including car parks will be closed off on both days on Monday and Thursday.

If like before- media will be expected around St Andrews Car Park in Plymouth City Centre.

[Ballyboy]

ITV News Westcountry ( West) had a GWR sponsorship for the weather but the South West edition didn’t?. just a generic ITV weather ident. Rather good I thought though