 | |
.svg) BBC London's area within the UK | |
| TV transmitters | Crystal Palace, Reigate |
|---|---|
| Radio stations | BBC Radio London BBC Radio Surrey BBC Radio Berkshire BBC Radio Essex BBC Radio Three Counties |
| Headquarters | BBC'sBroadcasting House, London |
| Area | Greater London Most ofSurrey Parts ofHertfordshire Parts ofEssex Parts ofBedfordshire Parts ofBuckinghamshire Parts ofBerkshire Parts ofHampshire Parts ofKent Parts ofWest Sussex Parts ofOxfordshire |
| Nation | BBC English Regions |
| Regions | London and parts of theSouth East andEast |
Key people | Mike McFarlane Head of Regional and Local Programmes |
Launch date | 2000 |
Official website | www.bbc.co.uk/london |
 |
|---|
Commercial subsidiaries |
Key properties in London |
Birmingham |
BBC London is theBBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services inLondon,Surrey and parts of the surrounding areas of theHome Counties. Its output includes the dailyBBC London news bulletin and weeklySunday Politics on television, theBBC Radio London radio station and local coverage of the London area onBBC Online andBBC Red Button. The region's headquarters are situated in the new eastern extension of theBBC'sBroadcasting House.
The staple of the local television service isBBC London bulletin which broadcasts daily onBBC One, appearing with short bulletins duringBBC Breakfast, after theBBC News at One, theBBC News at Ten andBBC Weekend News. The flagship programme is broadcast between 18:30 and 19:00 each weekday evening, following the end of theBBC News at Six and is presented byRiz Lateef. Comparisons are inevitably made to the commercial TV regional competition, in this caseITV News London, which is produced forITV byITN. BBC London can be viewed in any part of the UK (and Europe) ondigital satellite channel 954 on theBBC UK regional TV on satellite service.
BBC London also produces current affairs, features and sports programming for the region including the topical magazine seriesInside Out, a 20-minute opt-out duringSunday Politics.
BBC Radio London combines speech and music based programmes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Broadcasting across London on 94.9FM,DAB,Virgin Media Channel 930,Sky Channel 0152 (in London area only), Freeview Channel 721 and also online. The station was previously known asBBC London Live,GLR (Greater London Radio) andBBC London 94.9.
The current Breakfast show presenters arePenny Smith andPaul Ross and the mid morning phone-in show is presented byVanessa Feltz. The Breakfast and Drivetime shows feature a wealth of local London news and comment with roving reporters out and about. Other programmes such asJoAnne Good orRobert Elms include varied speech and music with local news bulletins every half-hour.
News bulletins on BBC Radio London at the top of the hour are traditionally longer than other BBC radio services at 5 minutes to fit in international, national and local stories with local sport and weather. In addition to the News service, a dedicated travel news service is operated by BBC London on TV, Radio and Online using information supplied byTransport for London,National Rail andNational Highways. The travel news on BBC Radio London is updated at 31 and 58 minutes past each hour during off peak times, and every 15 minutes, starting at the top of the hour, during evening and morning peaks. It is one of the few radio stations to have access to TfL traffic cameras.
Sport is a major part of the radio schedule, with a three-hour sports based programme each weeknight evening and four-hour sport specials on Saturdays and Sundays. This is more than most other BBC local radio stations and reflects London's large number of sporting teams and events.
The bulletin launched on 1 October 2001 following changes to the coverage areas of BBC transmitters allowing for the establishment of new editorial areas. The main result was a reorganisation of the BBC'sSouth East region; the London area was to break away entirely, while a new programme,South East Today was to be created for the new South East region. BBC London, as it came to be called, replaced the long-runningNewsroom South East.
Greater London and its environs have had a regional BBC television news service for many decades, but the boundaries of the region have always been somewhat nebulous due to the coverage areas of the transmitters used, as television signals do not tend to stick neatly to administrative or historical boundaries. Therefore, while the main focus of "regional" news coverage for this area has always been on the capital itself, it has for much of the BBC's life had to offer coverage of other parts of theHome Counties as well.
There were many incarnations of regional news programmes in this area before the current programme was introduced in 2001. These included the London segment of theNationwide fromLime Grove Studios; in this case, the regional presenters for London were also usually the main presenters of the national sequence of the programme which followed. Other identities for the London area coverage wereBBC London Plus, and finallyNewsroom South East.
Originally, the BBC London and theSouth East region took in the whole ofGreater London, together with parts ofEssex, Hertfordshire,Kent, Surrey,Hampshire, Buckinghamshire,Berkshire, Sussex,Bedfordshire andOxfordshire. This meant that sizeable communities which probably deserved dedicated programming of their own – such asOxford,Luton,Crawley andMedway – were often ill-served by a London-biased programme.
The area created for the BBC London programme to broadcast to now covers a much more tightly defined area, chieflyGreater London but still including parts ofBedfordshire,Essex, andHertfordshire in theEast of England region and parts ofBerkshire,Buckinghamshire,Hampshire,Kent,Oxfordshire,Surrey andWest Sussex in theSouth East England region. There is also some overlap with the editorial areas of other BBC regions in this part of England such asBBC East,BBC South East andBBC South.
Oxfordshire (excludingHenley-on-Thames), most ofBuckinghamshire (excludingMarlow andHigh Wycombe), northBerkshire, north eastWiltshire, south eastGloucestershire and south westNorthamptonshire, took an opt-out ofSouth Today for some years before coming to an end on financial grounds in 2022.[1] Most of Kent andEast Sussex continues to be covered by the BBC South East region based inTunbridge Wells, which producesSouth East Today.[2]
The previous news services for the area, in the oldBBC South East region, were variously based inShepherd's Bush,White City andElstree in Hertfordshire. Following the launch of BBC London, the region moved into facilities inMarylebone High Street, where the news service was based alongside BBC London News and the BBC's Governance Unit.
The arrangement was only a temporary one, as at the time the BBC was trying to consolidate its London portfolio into a few properties. This included, most notably, the planned closure ofBBC Television Centre and the extension and renovation ofBroadcasting House, stage one of which would construct a huge wing, mirroring Broadcasting House in shape, size and structure named Egton Wing. The wing has recently been renamed the Peel Wing afterJohn Peel and is the home of a number of BBC services including BBC London, who moved there in 2009 following the structure's completion and fitting.
