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Aregional variation generally refers to times when a radio station or television station simultaneously broadcasts different programs,continuity or advertisements to different parts of its coverage area. This may be so as to provide programming specific to a particular region, such aslocal news, or may be so as to allow advertisements to be targeted to a particular area.
Some regional variations are the consequence of afederal style television network or radio network where a local station is a part of a largerbroadcast network and broadcasts the network's programs some of the time and its own programming the rest of the time. The latter is therefore sometimes considered a regional variation. Examples of this include the UK'sITV network throughout much of its history, and American networkaffiliate stations.
Regional variation is also a common term used in British television listings publications, such as magazines and newspapers, to show the different programs broadcast in different areas of the country.
Commercial television in Canada generally used a model similar to the U.S., with networks composed of first-partyowned and operated (O&O) stations, and third-partyaffiliates. However, from the 1990s through the 2000s, Canada's major commercial networks were largely consolidated underconglomerates:CTV,Global,Citytv,TVA, and nearly all of their respective stations are owned byBell Media,Corus Entertainment,Rogers Media, andQuebecor respectively.
The major English-language networks, including advertising-funded public networkCBC Television, have largely used similar schedules, and consistent branding and on-air continuity, with little variation besides local newscasts and public affairs programs (for example, some CTV stations, especially inWestern Canada, substitute the network's national morning showYour Morning for the local formatCTV Morning Live), andtime zone variations to allow forsimultaneous substitution of programming carried by U.S. broadcast stations available on subscription television in the market. There are relatively few third-party affiliate stations of Canada's commercial networks; they typically follow the schedule of an O&O in a nearby major market, but with opt-outs for local newscasts and other local programming, and may alsosimulcast that station's newscasts in timeslots where they do not air their own (essentially acting as a third-partysemi-satellite).
Corus Entertainment's private CTV affiliates substitutedCTV News programs withGlobal News programs, andCHEX-TV-2 additionally branded as "Global Durham" despite otherwise being a CTV affiliate.CHEX-DT/Peterborough is within the range of CTV's Toronto stationCFTO-DT, and both are carried on cable locally; the stations ultimately became Global stations after the affiliation expired.[1] These stations were previously private CBC affiliates; whenHockey Night in Canada aired games regionally, CHEX aired an alternate game over CBC's Toronto stationCBLT to provide an additional option for viewers where both stations were readily available.
CJON-DT has more significant variations due to having sublicensed different types of programming from Global, CTV, andYes TV.
Regional variation in the Philippines is more of an exception than a rule as most of a network's stations across the country simulcast the entire programming lineup seen on that network's flagship station (usually based in Metro Manila). This practice effective renders most regional stations as relay stations of their parent network's flagship station.
However, some national networks likeGMA have regional variations in selected parts of the country. They feature regional news programmes (each network decides how many different regional variations it wishes to have and which provinces constitute which viewing region). Sometimes, whilst network programming is ongoing, stations may insert a ticker tape of advertisements from local/regional companies.
Prior toABS-CBN's free-to-air stations' shut down due to the non-renewal of that network's broadcasting franchise, its regional stations used to feature regional programmes beyond news. However, most of them had been scaled back dramatically or cancelled altogether due to cost-cutting measures and preparations for the network's impending digital switchover.[2] WhenABS-CBN offered regional free-to-air TV, it featured regional variations ofTV Patrol, which were standalone news programmes that aired late in the afternoon immediately before themain national edition.
From 2011 to 2016,TV5 used to feature regional variations in its Cebu stationDYET-TV with a local news programme entitledAksyon Bisaya. Since then, DYET-TV has reverted to a relay station ofDWET-TV.
In British television, regional variations commonly involve the provisioning oflocal news andcurrent affairs programming; for example, the licenses forthe ITV network require that its stations carry a minimum quota of regional news.[3] As the United Kingdom consists of four differentcountries, television stations servingNorthern Ireland,Scotland, andWales have a tradition of providing additional programming of interest to their respective nation, which may preempt programs seen in other regions.[4][5][6][7]
TheBBC's local outlets are divided into departments for each country, includingBBC English Regions (which itself is subdivided into divisions encompassing the variousregions of England),[8]BBC Northern Ireland,BBC Scotland, andBBC Cymru Wales.[9][10] The English Regions division was first established in the 1970s in response toITV and the growth ofBBC Local Radio; it replaced broader transmission regions that previously operated in England (BBC North, BBC Midlands and East Anglia, and BBC South and West. BBC London primarily served as the production centre for national programmes and network feeds, and was not considered a transmission region) with a system of regional production centres for national programming inBirmingham,Bristol, andManchester (so that national programming would not be produced exclusively from London), and smaller regions with the capability of producing local programming such as news.[11][12]
BBC One currently operates fifteen regional services, with twelve (and three sub-regions) for England, and one each forNorthern Ireland,Scotland, andWales; they are differentiated primarily bylocal news and current affairs programming.[13] The Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales channels have more noticeable on-air differences, including more prominent regional branding, use of localcontinuity announcers, and additional opt-out programs specific to the region; for example, BBC One Scotland has aired original series such as the Glasgow-set soap operaRiver City, localsports coverage under theSportscene banner,[14][15][16][17] andHogmanay-themed programming onNew Year's Eve in lieu of the London-focused specials aired on the rest of the network.[18][19]
BBC Two has one regional service,BBC Two Wales; from 2001 to 2009, the channel carried a part-time opt-out inprime time ondigital television known asBBC 2W, which carried a separate lineup of Wales-produced programming. The service was discontinued in 2009, after which BBC Two Wales began to be broadcast in both analogue and digital, with a mix of national programmes and opt-outs for regional programmes.[20][21] BBC Scotland previously operated aregional version of BBC Two for the country, but it was discontinued in 2019 in favour of a part-timeBBC Scotland channel.[22][23][24]
ITV was originally conceived as a collective of broadcasters serving different regions of the United Kingdom with regional and national programming; the franchises were originally awarded by theIndependent Television Authority (ITA) through a review process.[25][26][27] The implementation of theBroadcasting Act 1990 and replacement of the ITA with theITC resulted in major changes to the structure of ITV; the previous review process was replaced by an auction,[28][29][30] and most of the previously separate companies began to consolidate over the decade in order to be more competitive against larger conglomerates.[31] This resulted in two main owners across England and Wales:Carlton andGranada. These two companies would then merge to formITV plc in 2004.[32][33]
As of 2013, ITV operated 14 news regions, expanding from a previous realignment that had cut ITV to eight news regions, and also led to cuts in non-peak news programmes and other regional programmes.[3][28] Following ITV's acquisition ofChannel Television in 2011,[34] two franchises—UTV in Northern Ireland andSTV in Scotland—remained the only ITV franchises not owned by ITV plc.[35][36] In 2009, STV became caught in a legal dispute with ITV over its decisions to opt-out of networked programmes that it deemed "underperforming", in favour of more Scottish productions.[4] STV and UTV's presence in the network were transitioned to anaffiliate model in 2012, in which they would now pay an upfront license fee to ITV plc for the rights to carry ITV programming.[37] UTV would later be sold to ITV plc in 2015.[7]
In Wales,S4C launched in 1982 as a fourth television channel dedicated toWelsh-language programmes; prior to then, Welsh programmes had commonly been scheduled as regional opt-outs on BBC One Wales and ITV stationHTV—a practice that proved controversial due to their inconvenient scheduling, as well as the resulting pre-emptions of English-language programmes screened elsewhere. Upon S4C's launch, BBC Cymru Wales and HTV agreed to move their Welsh-language output to the new channel.Channel 4—a fourth national channel that concurrently launched outside of Wales—sub-licensed its English-language programmes to S4C at no charge, as they would not otherwise be available in Wales. Channel 4 programmes aired on S4C in off-peak time slots.[5][6][38] The arrangement was phased out with the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television, as Channel 4 became available over-the-air in Wales onFreeview. As a result, S4C would solely carry Welsh programming on its digital feeds.[39][5]
U.S. broadcast television is heavily regionalised due to the business model of its major networks, which enter into agreements with stations in eachmedia market to carry their national programming, similarly to afranchise. As theFCC enforces a limit on the market share of broadcasters, commercial networks only haveowned and operated stations (O&Os) in major or otherwise strategic markets, and rely on third-partyaffiliates to reach the remainder of the country.PBS—the United States'public television network—refers to affiliates asmember stations instead, and does not limit them to one per market. PBS does not have owned-or-operated stations due to its structure, but certain major-market members have been consideredde facto flagships of the network due to their prominent contributions to the PBS national schedule, such asWGBH-TV in Boston,WNET in New York City, andWETA-TV in Washington, DC.
Outside of network programming (which usually consists of two or three hours ofprime time programmes per-night at a minimum, and may also include national news, sports anddaytime programmes), the scheduling of each station's programming varies, and usually consists of local newscasts, programmes acquired from thesyndication market, andbrokered programming (includinginfomercials, more often in off-peak hours). Similarities may still exist in the scheduling of syndicated programmes between markets, based on factors such as "recommended" timeslots suggested by a programme's distributor, and broadcasters acquiring a particular programme for all of their stations in a group deal. Due to differing market dynamics, Spanish-language networks such asTelemundo andUnivision, as well asspecialty networks designed to be carried ondigital subchannels, have a centralised network schedule, which stations may opt out from for local news or regulatory obligations not fulfilled by national programming (such aschildren's educational programming).
Affiliates may, from time to time, opt out of network programs to airspecial programming of local interest (such as coverage of sports or local celebrations); affiliation contracts typically contain restrictions on how often this can be done, and may require the displaced programming to be pre-empted to either asister station,digital subchannel, or different timeslot (such as during the late-night hours or on a different night) as compensation. In the past,Westinghouse Broadcasting was known for pre-empting network programming on its stations for its own in-house programming; when reaching a major affiliation deal withCBS in 1994 (as part of alarger re-alignment of broadcast television triggered byFox's acquisition ofNew World Communications), the company agreed to cease this practice and carry all CBS network programming in-pattern with no preemptions. Westinghouse would later acquire CBS outright.[40][41]
In certain highly publicised cases, affiliates have opted out of network programmes (either individual episodes, or entire series) based on objections to their content by station management,[42][43] such as due to the owner'sreligious values (KSL-TV—a Utah-based station owned by a for-profit arm of theLDS Church—has a long history of having declined shows it deemed to be objectionable),[44][45][46][47][48] political reasons,[49][50] and sensitivity issues (in June 2017, NBC-ownedWVIT in Connecticut opted out of an episode ofSunday Night with Megyn Kelly that controversially featured an interview with conspiracy theoristAlex Jones, who haddenied theSandy Hook Elementary School shootings).[51] Boston's then-NBC stationWHDH threatened to decline the network's then-upcoming prime time talk showThe Jay Leno Show over concerns that it would be detrimental to the viewership of its late-night local news. However, the station relented after NBC threatened to pull its affiliation from WHDH if it went through with its threat. As was feared by the station, the underperformance ofThe Jay Leno Show resulted in a 25–30% decline in the viewership of late local newscasts across some NBC stations.[52][53]
A more straightforward equivalent to a regional variation in North American broadcasting is asemi-satellite—a co-owned rebroadcaster of a television station that is used to extend its range into a different portion of a market (typically if the main signal is not strong enough to reach it), or a different one entirely, but has more variation in programming than a straight rebroadcaster. Semi-satellites typically share the majority of their programming with a parent station (which may vary to account for syndication rights), but carry a different on-air brand, and local advertising specific to the region. Some semi-satellites have dedicatednews bureaus, and may opt out from the parent's station's newscasts to carry either local news segments, or dedicated local newscasts in selected time slots.
Regional sports networks that cover large regions may similarly be carved into regional variants to account for differing broadcast rights to teams between markets. Examples includeFox Sports San Diego—spun fromFox Sports West in 2012 after it acquired rights to theSan Diego Padres ofMajor League Baseball,[65] andMSG Western New York—aBuffalo, New York-centric feed of the state-wideMSG Network that is co-owned by local team ownerPegula Sports and Entertainment.[66]
The days when an ITV franchise was deemed 'a licence to print money' and a single regional company – Granada – could splash out millions on high-quality dramas such asBrideshead Revisited andThe Jewel in the Crown are long gone.
Mr Green said consolidation of ITV into one company was needed because the companies had to be in a position to compete with large overseas groups.
