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.svg) BBC South East's area within the UK | |
| TV stations | BBC One |
|---|---|
| TV transmitters | Bluebell Hill Dover Heathfield Whitehawk Hill |
| Radio stations | BBC Radio Kent BBC Radio Surrey BBC Radio Sussex |
| Headquarters | The Great Hall, 16 Mount Pleasant Rd,Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QU |
| Area | Kent East Sussex West Sussex (Adur,Crawley andMid Sussex) Surrey (Tandridge,Reigate and Banstead) |
| Regions | South East |
Key people | Quentin Smith, Ben Moore |
Launch date | September 2001 |
Freesat/Sky | 984 |
 |
|---|
Commercial subsidiaries |
Key properties in London |
Birmingham |
BBC South East is theBBC English region servingKent,East Sussex (including the City ofBrighton and Hove), parts ofWest Sussex andSurrey.
The BBC region was created in September 2001 by the joining of theHeathfield transmitter (formerly part of theBBC South region) with theBluebell Hill andDover transmitters (from the then BBC London and South East region) to form a new regional TV service. UnlikeITV Meridian (East), it does not provide local news for southernEssex (received from aBluebell Hill overlap), this area being part of theBBC London region instead.
BBC South East's television output consists of the flagship regional news serviceSouth East Today and its main programme is broadcast weeknights at 6:30 pm, with short bulletins throughout the day and during the weekend. A half-hour opt-out duringSunday Politics is produced by an independent production company. In 2020,South East Today joined forces withBBC London News during theCOVID-19 pandemic to keep viewers in both regions informed with the developments about the virus in their areas, although it didn't affect their separate main evening programmes. The joint venture happened again in January 2021.
BBC South East coversKent,East Sussex and parts ofWest Sussex andSurrey.
Due to the size ofSurrey, the listenership ofBBC Radio Surrey is covered by bothBBC London,BBC South and BBC South East.
The region is the controlling centre forBBC Radio Kent,BBC Radio Surrey andBBC Radio Sussex.
Radio Kent carries local programming between 6 am and 7 pm from the Tunbridge Wells studio, then simulcasts networked programming along with stations in the BBC South and South East regions until 1 am every night. Radio Sussex and Radio Surrey each carry three hours a day of local programming for each county from 6 am to 9 am, sharing the remainder of their output between 9 am and 7 pm, then joining with other stations in the BBC South and BBC South East regions at 7 pm.
BBC South East also produces regional news and local radio pages forBBC Red Button andBBC Local websites for each county.It also provided regional information for the BBCCeefax service until its closure in October 2012.
Prior to 2001, London, and the whole of the South East had been considered part of the same editorial region by the BBC, and as a result, received a single regional service, including news programmesBBC London Plus (1984–1989) andNewsroom South East (1989–2001). London had not been afforded the same 'regional' status as the other BBC regions as the bulk of the national content was produced in the capital. This was reflected in the fact that since the launch of regional TV news bulletins in 1957, there was no specialist division within the BBC tasked with producing South East opt-outs.
As a result, the region had fewer local bulletins.Town and Around, the BBC's first attempt at a South East news programme, was gradually integrated intoNationwide, whose production team produced the local bulletins, presented for many years byBob Wellings. This issue was addressed to a degree with the launch ofSouth East at Six on Monday 4 January 1982 and later, on Monday 3 September 1984, byLondon Plus – which saw the introduction of short daytime bulletins of the type seen in other BBC regions. Production teams based within the BBC's Current Affairs department continued to produceLondon Plus until a dedicated South East operation was finally introduced on Tuesday 28 March 1989 with the launch ofNewsroom South East from a dedicated news centre at theBBC Elstree Centre in Hertfordshire. Despite the changes throughout the decade, the large region and fewer regional operatives meant the service was still far from ideal.
The size of the region was gradually reduced in stages, starting in 1993 when theHeathfield transmitter serving East Sussex was switched from BBC South East to BBC South. On 16 October 2000, the areas served by the Oxford transmitter were transferred from BBC South East to a newopt out service from BBC South'sSouth Today. This service was concluded on financial grounds in December 2022.
Following the BBC's South East Review of 2001, the London and South East arrangements changed, withBBC London split off as a separate entity andHeathfield viewers rejoiningBluebell Hill andDover in a new smaller BBC South East region, launched on Monday 3 September 2001 and based inRoyal Tunbridge Wells.
Following digital switchover in the south on 7 March 2012, theWhitehawk Hill transmitter inBrighton transferred from the BBC South region to BBC South East.[1] The network had been broadcasting around the fringes of Brighton and Hove prior to switchover and has always been part of the region's remit since 2001; BBC South East now broadcasts terrestrially to the whole city extending along the coast into West Sussex as far asWorthing.
The regional broadcasting centre is based inTunbridge Wells,Kent with local radio studios and television bureaux located inBrighton andGuildford. BBC South East is the only one of the BBC regions not based in a major city.
The Tunbridge Wells studios are located in The Great Hall, a historic building previously used as public rooms, photography studios, a performance venue, a cinema, a dancing school and until 1980, a nightclub calledCarriages. In 1980, the building was severely damaged by fire. It was renovated and bought and now contains an arcade of shops, a hidden car park and the headquarters of BBC South East andBBC Radio Kent. The studios, as is now the trend with most modern developments, can be viewed by the public through tours or through the display windows into the offices from the public areas. Until late 2015, the complex contained a BBC Shop.
