Monday, 31 October 2022

RXTV; Confirmed: Two BBC TV regions to close within weeks

Story from RXTV:

BBC local news programmes from Cambridge and Oxford will be axed the week before Christmas.

The last edition of the Cambridge-based Look East is now due to be broadcast on 16th December 2022, heralding the end of the BBC sub-region sometimes referred to as ‘BBC One East West’ and the end of 25 years of separating the East TV region for news.

Following the closure, BBC One viewers in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and parts of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire will rejoin the main BBC East region, based in Norwich. This reverses a change made back in 1997.

From 17th December 2022 onwards, Look East will be a single news programme covering the whole of the wider region.

The change was first proposed in May as part of a range of money saving measures following funding cuts and soaring inflation.

After the announcement this afternoon, Look East Cambridge presenter Mousumi Bakshi confirmed the team would not be producing a bulletin on Monday, giving viewers an early taste of a combined edition from Norwich.

Meanwhile, the Oxford edition of BBC South Today is also due to close at the same time. After this point, BBC One viewers in most of Oxfordshire will switch to the main Southampton-based South Today. This also reverses a regional split that began in 2000 with the unwinding of the former Newsroom South East region.

But at time of this post The BBC has still to close if BBC South Today will close on December 16th.

2022 RXTV Info AIS