Viewers of Regional Television in rural Northumberland, which potentially number over 200,000 individuals have a simple recourse if they are fed up with the lack of coverage of their area and the immediate north of them on ITV Tyne Tees or BBC Look North. They can do this in a way that maximises impact and brings about a realisation that the northern hinterlands of North East England need more coverage- if they are not to lose viewers and (potentially) revenue.
The measure is a one- two punch that will have maximum impact on programmers at BBC Look North (North East/ Cumbria) and ITV Tyne Tees: The first part involves viewers writing to the Heads of Programming to explain why they are unhappy at the regional output- that rural Northumberland is scarcely covered whilst almost all the news concerns locations an hour or more to the south by car. Then the viewers of rural Northumberland state that unless improvements are made, with Northumberland getting much more coverage- complete with overlap coverage into the Scottish Borders- then they will stop watching BBC Look North and ITV Tyne Tees, that they will do their utmost to get ITV Border (Scotland) that does cover northern Northumberland and the Scottish Borders in output.
There are also means and ways that viewers can get much more localised news if they live in rural Northumberland: There is Northumberland TV (see:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRjaNG8hxEey9jHfGPaSuVg ), which is on You Tube- so you can watch it if you have Internet. There’s Hexham TV, which has news in and around Hexham in the rural Tyne Valley, it is again a You Tube channel (see here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0s7GfPKbVGRHHjPTH_BcQ) and, of course, ITV Border (Scotland). If you live in Otterburn, in northwest Northumberland, you could watch Hexham TV on the Internet after tuning in to ITV Border (Scotland) from Sky or Freeview (or you could get this off the ITV Hub, if you have internet). If you lived in Wooler, in North Northumberland a Northumberland TV off You Tube followed by ITV Border (Scotland) off ITV Hub will also give you much better localised and all- round coverage than anything BBC Look North or ITV Tyne Tees will provide for rural Northumberland.
Of course, it is not ideal. You have to go onto You Tube on the Internet to get local news, but if you want to watch news on the television watching ITV Border (Scotland) does cover the Scottish Borders and the Berwick-upon-Tweed area. It offers a practical, more bearable alternative to receiving 95% of coverage about places sixty or more miles to the south of your community if you live north of Alnwick. In time, you could grow used to these more local news outlets, if you were not getting it from elsewhere.
Tell your Regional News producers based in the North East of England about the more local alternatives to the so-called local Regional News that you can tune in to receive on the Internet, that you will be watching them from now on- unless they increase their amount of North of Tyne news coverage. If enough rural Northumberland viewers made this stand, Regional programme producers would have to act for fear of losing viewers and- in the process (in the case of ITV Tyne Tees)- advertising revenue.
Contact details for Heads of News for BBC Look North (North East/ Cumbria) and ITV Tyne Tees are here:
For BBC Look North. Rozina Breen is Head of News for BBC North- Email: rozina.breen@bbc.co.uk
For ITV Tyne Tees, Michaela Byrne is the Head of News and Programmes for both ITV Tyne Tees and ITV Border, so she is a good point of contact. Her email address is: michaela.byrne@itv.com
My name is Ian Pennell and I am a freelance Book-keeper: I live near Alston, in the North Pennines in north-east Cumbria. I have friends who live in northern North West England - near Lancaster (which is where I went to University and used to live until 17 years ago) and in other parts of Cumbria. I have two Website Campaigns that seek to promote more localised Regional TV coverage for large rural areas across the North of North West England and North East England. .
A big problem is that the Regional Television Bulletins for the North West covers the southern third of the Region about 90% (plus a part of Derbyshire which is NOT the North West of England), covers the middle third of North West England poorly and covers the northern third of North West England not at all! When I was studying at Lancaster University, I used to watch BBC1 North West Tonight because it covered areas up around where I was brought up- in northern Cumbria as well as more immediately locally around Lancaster. Then I came home one day, turned on BBC1 North West Tonight wondering why they were silent on Cumbria and discovered why: Most of Cumbria had been chopped off the weather-map! .
People living in the westernmost part of North West England (around St. Bees Head) have local BBC news on their televisions which is 90% about North East England!
In rural and northern Northumberland too, Regional TV, as is received by viewers, tends too often to be Tyneside/ Wearside/ Teesside- focussed with little news locally. Communities in North Northumberland have strong links across the Border into south-east Scotland and towards Edinburgh but none of the Regional TV News- services serving Northumberland today ever goes across the Scottish Border for significant happenings of interest to North Northumbrians. I have also done walking in the area, including around the Cheviots in the past- and the Northumberland/ Scottish Borders/ East and Mid Lothian area is vast- but it is largely overlooked by mainstream Regional TV! .
North Yorkshire, the largest county in England also falls in the gaps between coverage from BBC Look North (NE/ Cumbria) or ITV1 News Tyne Tees in the north of the county, and the Leeds-based BBC1 and ITV1 Regional TV- services in the south of the county: North Yorkshire is a huge, yet beautiful county, which I have visited and explored in the past, yet is poorly covered in Regional TV. .
Based near Alston, near the Cumbria/ Northumberland boundary I am well-placed to discuss Regional TV in all these large rural areas, in which collectively some two million folk live, yet they are poorly covered by the Regional TV News- services set up to serve them. These huge areas are an hour to two hours' drive from where I live: North Lancashire and South/ West Cumbria are to the south-west, Northumberland and the Scottish Borders and Lothian are to the north and north-east, and North Yorkshire is to the south-east of my home near Alston. I am well-placed to draw attention to deficiencies in Regional TV coverage for folk in all these areas. The North Pennines, where I live, is arguably another large area that touches on the other three where Regional TV coverage falls through the gaps completely (and that is despite the North Pennines running north to south down the middle of the BBC1 NE/ Cumbria Region). .
In two websites, one for northern North West England and the Isle of Man (a country in it's own right that does not have it's own TV service!), and another Website focussing on Northumberland, North Yorkshire and the North Pennines I make the point that Regional TV that informs viewers of important things in their local area is a Public Service, funding for which should be given a higher priority (and if necessary via statute through the BBC's Charter), than funding for Soaps, Films or Sport- which are for leisure. I also give viewers the tools to fight effectively for better- and more geographic-appropriate Regional TV where they live- and to seek it through alternative (often little-known) local TV services, some of which may only be available on the Internet.
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LOOK NORTH MUST LOOK NORTH 