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BBC North (Group) is an operationalbusiness division of theBBC.[1]
It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean:
The firstBBC North operation was a large region, based inManchester and covering the areas now served byBBC North West,BBC North East and Cumbria,BBC Yorkshire andBBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Regional radio broadcasting was largely based at a leased studio complex above a bank known as 'Old Broadcasting House' at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre. These studios became the base for radio output from the region in 1929. The BBC's first regional television studio, studio A, would be based elsewhere in the city – at a converted church on Dickenson Road in Rusholme, which opened in 1954 after being owned and operated byMancunian Films.[2]
Regional television news bulletins began from Piccadilly's studio N on 30 September 1957[3] and served the entire North of England. Two years later, the northern half of the region (the North East and Cumbria) began receiving its own TV news bulletins from Newcastle (BBC North East and Cumbria) while the two distinct areas either side of the Pennines continued to receive what eventually becameLook North from Manchester until 22 March 1968. Regional radio output for this area continued on an opt-out ofBBC Radio 4 until September 1980 (by which time, six BBC Local Radio stations had been set up to cover the North West & Yorkshire regions).
Based at the Broadcasting Centre atWoodhouse Lane inLeeds, BBC North was the production centre for regional television output, including the nightly news programmeLook North andBBC Local Radio stationBBC Radio Leeds.
The Leeds island site went on air on 25 March 1968 as a response to the imminent opening ofYorkshire Television, the newITV contractor based in Leeds serving the area east of the Pennines, formerly part of theGranada Television area. And in a similar manner to the impending ITV east-west Granada-Yorkshire split, the BBC divided the old North Region (based in Manchester) into BBC North West (Manchester) and the new BBC North (Leeds).
This enabled a separate edition ofLook North to be produced, initially from All Souls in Blackman Lane - a church hall near Woodhouse Lane - using equipment from a redundantOB scanner plus "mobile"telecine and film processing vans (the latter obtained from BBC TV News in London). Until this time, BBC viewers here had only the Manchester edition of the regional opt-out to watch, just as on ITV, where Granada had been the only choice of regional news magazine programme for the entire Lancashire & Yorkshire viewing area. The launch ofYorkshire Television four months later would mark the launch of ITV's own regional news programme for the new region,Calendar.
Leeds was to have the third incarnation of the BBC programme calledLook North; the others continued to be produced in Newcastle, anotherisland site, and in Manchester, which was also the BBCNetwork Production Centre (NPC) for the north ofEngland.
In 1974[4] the programme moved into a new colour studio equipped withEMI 2001 cameras in the newly built Broadcasting Centre adjacent toBroadcasting House, in Woodhouse Lane, where it remained for thirty years until the studio was demolished in 2004.[5]
During 2001 an opt-out service was introduced for viewers in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, consisting of a news summary within the main 6:30pm edition ofLook North and a full length late bulletin on weeknights. The 6:30pm opt-out was extended into a full length 30 minute programme in November 2002.
In June 2004, the BBC North region was fully split to form theBBC Yorkshire and North Midlands region and theBBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire region. BBC Yorkshire and North Midlands is based in St. Peter's Square, Leeds, and is transmitted fromEmley Moor and its associated relays, as well as by satellite from SES Astra 1N at 28.2 East on 10.803 GHz, SID 6441, Freesat EPG 966 to a population of around 4 million. BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is based in Queen's Court inHull and is transmitted fromBelmont and its associated relays, as well as by satellite from SES Astra 1N at 28.2 East on 10,788 GHz V, SID 10303, Freesat EPG 967 to around 1.7 million.
Between 1990 and 1996, the threenorthern regions ofBBC North West,BBC North East andBBC North merged their administration and managerial departments as a cost-saving measure. The new service was centred onNew Broadcasting House inManchester. The new service produced all of the regional programming, and all the regions usedBBC North on-screen branding, but still retained the unique identity of the regional news programmes. The operation also became head of the Network Production Centre at Manchester, making BBC North one of the biggest producers of network television outside London. The regions were separated in 1996 in a drive to serve the regions better, which could not be done from Manchester alone.
BBC North Group[6] is one of eight major operational divisions of theBBC, the others beingBBC Television,BBC Radio,BBC News Group, BBC Executive Board, BBC Management Board,BBC Digital andBBC Finance & Business, and comprises a number of BBC departments (25 in all), operating at the 200-acre (81 ha) developmentMediaCityUK built by thePeel Group, as part of the "BBC North Project", also called "Out of London". This group is directly answerable to the Director-General's Office and theBBC Trust. The group containsBBC Sport, along withCBBC,CBeebies,BBC Learning,BBC Breakfast,BBC Radio 5 Live,BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra,BBC Philharmonic,BBC Research & Development,BBC Digital,BBC R & D (North Lab),BBC Radio 4 (programme production),BBC Radio 6 Music (programme production),BBC Radio Manchester,BBC Manchester network production centre andBBC North West.[7][8]
The project began in 2006 when Salford was named as the chosen location by theBoard of Governors[9] and in 2007 the go-ahead was given to the project by theBBC Trust.[10] The previousDirector-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, indicated that eitherBBC One,BBC Two orBBC Three could also move by 2015.
The day-to-day operation of production and broadcasting at MediaCityUK is now operated as BBC North for the BBC.[11]
53°48′21″N1°32′55″W / 53.8058°N 1.5485°W /53.8058; -1.5485
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