24th August 2023
Dear Readers
People who have looked at this website Look North Must Look North and read the articles will realise that this is a website about Regional TV in the North East of England, and specifically about how relevant it is to viewers in more remote parts of North East England- specifically rural and northernmost Northumberland. In previous articles I have drawn attention to the sparsity of all- round local coverage in the extremities of the English North East including North Yorkshire,-in the central Yorkshire Dales, the North Pennines and north and west Northumberland, and have explained how local viewers can bring pressure to bear on the two mainstream Regional TV providers, BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria) and ITV1 News Tyne Tees, in order to affect positive change with more geographic and topically appropriate Regional News coverage for the more distant rural margins of the North East Regional TV transmission areas.
However, it is parts of far northern Northumberland which suffers most acutely from getting all- round local news-coverage, and for which there are not other local news-providers that might provide more localised coverage of just Northumberland, the Scottish Borders and East Lothian whilst covering just a couple of the major news- features concerning Edinburgh and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Viewers are stuck with two Regional TV- services that major on Tyneside, Teesside, Wearside, and- at times- parts of North Yorkshire: All these are places well over an hour’s drive away and- in some cases over two hour’s drive away: It is a three-hour and ten-minute drive from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Scarborough on the North Yorkshire Coast! If one watches BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria), the good folk of Berwick-upon-Tweed will sometimes get bits of news about West Cumbria, also some three hour’s drive away! Clearly, folk who live in the Berwick-upon-Tweed area and who live in communities along the northern Scottish Border with Northumberland such as Norham, Cornhill-on-Tweed and Pawston are not getting effective local news-coverage.
Writing to BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria) and ITV1 News Tyne Tees and demanding additional coverage of Northumberland is scarcely going to have any impact: This is because rural northern Northumberland has less than 8% of the population in the entire transmission area of BBC1 North East/ Cumbria and less than 9% of the population in the ITV1 Tyne Tees transmission area. Broadcasters will simply tell complaining North Northumbrians to take a hike because the broadcasting needs of Tyneside/ Wearside and Teesside with two million inhabitants trumps the needs of no more than 200,000 North Northumbrians. Therein lies the problem!
The BBC1 and ITV1 Regions are simply too big to provide effective local coverage, even ITV1 Border Lookaround which is broadcast to a transmission area with a total population of just 800,000 inhabitants and which covers Cumbria and south-west Scotland very well does not cover the north-east end of the Scottish Borders so well. This means that an entire huge area, encompassing rural north and north-west Northumberland, the Scottish Borders and East Lothian is one of the most poorly-covered large areas of Britain. The worst thing is that this large region is divided between different transmission areas simply by virtue of the fact that it is dissected by the Scottish Border! The fact that there are strong cultural links and regional affiliation between Northumberland and places on the Scottish side of the border seems even less recognised: This means that the communities of rural northern Northumberland and the Scottish Borders get little or no effective local news-coverage relevant to those communities.
ITV1 Border Lookaround does do a wonderful job in covering Cumbria and southern Scotland (in practice, mainly Dumfries and Galloway), and there is strong recognition of cross- border links, but ITV1 Border is not transmitted to most of northern Northumberland and ITV1 Border Lookaround provides about 20% coverage of the Scottish Borders. There is a need for Northumberland/ Scottish Borders and East Lothian to have their own bespoke “Border TV” inasmuch as Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway do. But none really exists, so the communities along the Northumberland- Scottish Border will have to take matters into their own hands in order to push ITV1 and BBC1 into providing better, and more localised news-coverage.
The far north of Northumberland is unique: It has, at times in the past, been part of Scotland and Berwick-upon-Tweed has a football team that plays in the Scottish Football League. Berwick-upon-Tweed also has a rugby team (Berwick RFC) that plays in the Scottish Rugby Union’s East Regional League Division 1. This entire area was once part of the ancient county of Berwickshire, of which Berwick-upon-Tweed was the county town. This county extended over much of what is now the north-east end of the Scottish Borders including towns such as Duns, Lauder, and St. Abbs Head (refer to this article: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwickshire). Many folk living in this most northern part of Northumberland will go shopping, go for days out and commute to work- to locations in the Scottish Borders or closer to Edinburgh: Most of them will have family and friends who are Scottish rather than Northumbrian.
It follows, therefore, that these northern Northumberland/ Scottish Border communities are almost completely unrepresented in local and Regional TV. This fact needs to be made known to broadcasters of Regional TV that is rather more forceful than just writing a letter saying Please give Northumberland more coverage! Northumberland is a large county and, dare I suggest, that for a Berwicker what happens in Hexham or Blyth is of little significance to their lives but what happens in Kelso, Duns or Eyemouth (over the Scottish Border) is much more likely to be because those places are much closer! It is necessary for entire communities to come together to make a stand by stating that Ninety percent of BBC Look North and ITV News Tyne Tees is irrelevant to this area. That is completely unacceptable for our community near the Scottish Border! This means more than one Berwicker, Norhamer and Cornhiller writing to the Heads of News for each Regional TV News-service. These are:
For BBC1 Look North (North East/ Cumbria):
Mr. Phil Roberts
Head of Regional and Local Programmes in the North East and Cumbria, Broadcasting House, Barrack Road, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE. NE2 4NS.
For ITV1 News Tyne Tees:
Michaela Byrne, Head of News for ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border, Television House, The Watermark, GATESHEAD. NE11 9SZ.
If that does not work, then it is time for aa number of folk to get together to write to the local MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, currently the Right Hon. Lady Anne-Marie Trevelyan. She can be contacted by email at: annemarie.trevelyan.mp@parliament.uk. However, for communication with the local MP to make an impact and have less likelihood of being intercepted by secretaries and spam- filters it is better to write with the letter marked URGENT and FAO THE RIGHT HON. LADY ANNE-MARIE TREVELYAN to the postal address one writes to all MPs: House of Commons, LONDON. SW1A 0AA. The letter should say something like this, fairly short but to the point:
FAO The Right Hon. Lady Anne-Marie Trevelyan, MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed
XX August 2023
RE: REGIONAL TV ON THE NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND- SCOTTISH BORDER.
Dear Right Hon. Lady Anne-Marie Trevelyan
I am one of your Constituents who lives up near the Scottish Border in the very north of Northumberland. I wish to point out that I and my friends, and others in our community find the Regional Television as provided for this area wholly inadequate and it fails to recognise cross Border links with the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh. Ninety percent of the coverage from BBC1 Look North and ITV1 News Tyne Tees is about Tyneside, Wearside, and Teesside along with parts of North Yorkshire- places that are over two hour’s drive from here. This area has historical links with Scotland and Berwick-upon-Tweed has both a rugby team and a football team that are in Scottish rugby and football leagues.
I have written to Mr. Phil Roberts, Head of Regional and Local Programmes for BBC1 North East/ Cumbria and Michaela Byrne, Head of News for ITV Tyne Tees and Border, and my requests for more local news-coverage recognising the strong links this area has with the Scottish Borders and the Edinburgh area have fallen on deaf ears. I would be grateful if you could prevail upon our Regional TV broadcasters the fact that North East England is a large Region and that what may be appropriate for Gateshead or Newcastle-upon-Tyne is not at all appropriate up here on the Scottish Border!
Thank you for taking the time to consider our concerns.
Yours Sincerely
XXX
If the local MP receives a number of such letters from folk living along the North Northumberland/ Scottish Border, it is certain that this will be communicated to the North East’s two mainstream Regional TV services. But with tight resources and limited budgets it is likely that neither BBC1 North/ East Cumbria nor ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border will make significant changes. ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border is perhaps the most likely to give some ground because they produce some news about the Scottish Borders for southern Scottish viewers of ITV1 Border Lookaround. It’s hardly likely to break the bank to put one or two of these news-features about the Scottish Borders into ITV1 News Tyne Tees, but what programmers won’t easily be persuaded of is the need for an opt-out for Northumberland and the Scottish Borders which costs more money during these tough economic times.
The Power of Boycotting ITV1 News Tyne Tees and BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria)
When writing to Heads of News for the two mainstream North East England TV-services and writing to MPs to get them to put pressure on Regional TV News- providers has had no effect it is time for a new approach: This is when a number of folk in the North Northumberland Scottish Border communities need to put their foot down and write back to the Heads of Regional Programming for BBC1 North East/ Cumbria and ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border with a letter like this:
Dear Head of Regional and Local Programming
I am writing to express the utter dismay of myself and others in our North Northumberland community up near the Scottish Border that you have no intention of providing a Northumberland/ Scottish Borders opt-out and will not include any Scottish Borders’ coverage on the grounds that it might dilute coverage of Tyneside, Teesside, and North Yorkshire. This is completely unacceptable for our area.
A group of us will be coming down to Newcastle to picket outside Broadcasting House on Barrack Road, Newcastle to make our feelings clear about this: We want North Northumberland and Scottish Borders news-coverage as that is what is local and relevant to our area, and that is the news we wish to see on our TV screens, and this is how strongly we feel about your virtual refusal to provide all- round effective news-coverage for our communities. A number of us have friends, uncles, aunts, parents, and grandparents who were born, raised and still live on the Scottish side of the Scottish Border and we don’t have a news-service that covers our area that even remotely recognises that community links don’t stop at the Scottish Border.
From now on, and until you can find a way to include more coverage of Northumberland and including some news-features from across the Border (perhaps by eliminating some of the Sports coverage that folk can get elsewhere in 2023), I and others will be boycotting your Regional TV News. We will not be watching BBC Look North, and we will not be watching ITV Tyne Tees. I, for one, will watch BBC1 Reporting Scotland via I-Player because news about Edinburgh and the Forth-Clyde valley and the Scottish Borders (which is often about 30% of the news) is a bit more local to our community than news about Sunderland, Teesside, Durham, and North Yorkshire. I will also look at the Northumberland Live Breaking News Facebook page to find out what is happening in Northumberland.
When you start covering northern Northumberland effectively, and start recognising our strong cross-Scottish Border links by providing some coverage of happenings in the Scottish Borders and towards Edinburgh we will come back to watching your Regional TV News: Until then I, for one, will watch BBC1 Reporting Scotland and some of my local friends will do the same!
Yours Sincerely
XX
It is only when Berwickers and other North Northumbrians living close to the north-east end of the Scottish Border actually make very clear to Regional TV broadcasters based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Gateshead that their product is not good enough and that alternative outlets will be sought that broadcasters will decide that action needs to be taken to keep viewers. Some folk living in and around Berwick-upon-Tweed may well be watching BBC1 Reporting Scotland, or STV News at Six (Edinburgh Region), which is possible of one signs up to ITVX if one types in an Edinburgh postcode for your address- your default ITV1 Region becomes STV (East/ Central Scotland, which means that, instead of ITV1 News Tyne Tees at 6.pm one should get STV News at Six (Central & East Scotland): Most of the news, about Edinburgh, East and West Lothian, Fife, Stirling and the Scottish Borders- with just a little coverage of Glasgow too- will be a bit closer to Berwick-upon-Tweed and the extreme north of Northumberland than news from County Durham, Sunderland, Teesside and North Yorkshire! For catching up on Northumberland news there’s the Northumberland Live Breaking News Facebook page (details here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2758783767739183/).
In truth, as a Regional TV service serving northern Northumberland and the Scottish Borders does not exist, it means viewers in the extreme north of Northumberland have to choose between Regional TV services, neither of which produces any significant local news-content. BBC1 Reporting Scotland does not have more than about 20% coverage of the Scottish Borders, East and Mid- Lothian and Edinburgh, even though the programme arguably has more news-content within an hour’s drive or train journey of Berwick-upon-Tweed and extreme north Northumberland than has BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria) or ITV1 News Tyne Tees with regards to locations on the northern side of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (which news has to be to be local to the far north of Northumberland). The question then becomes which relatively-poor local news-service does one opt for to make a stand and bring a message to Regional TV Producers in the North East that what is offered to viewers in the very north of Northumberland is not good enough.
A sizeable number of folk living in Berwick-upon-Tweed and along the northern Northumberland/ Scottish Border have strong links cross-Border. A sizeable number of folk living in the area desire that Berwick-upon-Tweed be in Scotland, and it would be to those viewers of Regional TV that this Website would appeal: You may already be watching BBC1 Reporting Scotland, and/ or STV News at Six (East Scotland Region). If that is you, write to the Heads of Programming for BBC1 North East/ Cumbria and ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border to explain why you watch BBC1 Reporting Scotland and STV News at Six instead of their Regional TV programming: Namely that your regional affiliation is more towards Edinburgh, that you find BBC1 Look North and ITV1 News Tyne Tees provide news-coverage that is seldom ever local and which does not reflect your- or your community’s’ local and regional geographical affiliation. Encourage those whom you know who are dismayed at the lack of local news-coverage from North East Regional TV to switch to STV News at Six (Edinburgh/ East Scotland Region) or BBC1 Reporting Scotland, and to write to the Regional TV broadcasters in the North East to explain why they are doing this. Tell your wavering friends who wish to stick with nurse for fear of worse, as it were that websites such as Northumberland Live Breaking News still keeps them in the loop with regards to what is happening in Northumberland, but that changing the habit of a lifetime is the only way of making Programmers for BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria) and ITV1 News Tyne Tees take the concerns and issues of North Northumberland seriously.
If you are frustrated at the lack of local news-coverage on Regional TV but nonetheless persist with watching BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria) and/ or ITV1 News Tyne Tees because you think it is the best that there is on offer then try the Northumberland Live Breaking News Facebook page for Northumberland news, linked to Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Evening Chronicle that has a Northumberland Live Website- with regular news and clips covering Northumberland (details here: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/northumberland), and for sit- down Regional TV try STV News at Six (East Scotland Region) via ITVX- be sure to put in an Edinburgh post-code into your ITVX subscription otherwise you will not get STV News at Six (Edinburgh/ East Scotland Region), that has 30 to 35% coverage of places on the Scottish side of the Scottish Border that is nonetheless within an hour’s travel-time of your home, if you live close to the North Northumberland Scottish Border. But if you cannot get STV News at Six via your ITVX subscription then you can get BBC1 Reporting Scotland. BBC1 Reporting Scotland can be viewed from Berwick-upon-Tweed and places along the North Northumberland/ Scottish Border with a clear view west, so that you can pick up the BBC1 Scotland signal from the Selkirk transmitter.
You can also, of course, also pick up ITV1 Border (Scotland) from the Selkirk transmitter although the flagship Regional TV programme Lookaround is 75% about Cumbria and south-west Scotland. The Scottish Borders gets about 20% coverage and occasionally there may be the odd report about Northumberland, but no news coverage of West and East Lothian or the Edinburgh area. ITV1 Border (Scotland) does have special Scottish programming, including such programmes as Representing Border and Border Life, in which the Scottish Borders gets a bit more coverage.
However, my advice would be to give ITV1 Border Lookaround itself a miss because the 75% coverage of Cumbria and south-west Scotland would be even less local to Berwickers than news-coverage about Tyneside, Teesside, and Wearside from ITV1 News Tyne Tees or BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria): If you need to make a powerful statement to Regional TV broadcasters that it is links with Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders that need to be recognised in coverage this far north, you want to switch to news that covers the Edinburgh, East Lothian and Scottish Borders areas- and then tell the default Regional TV broadcasters for northernmost Northumberland why you are switching BBC1 Look North and ITV1 News Tyne Tees in favour of STV News at Six (East Scotland) or BBC1 Reporting Scotland.
BBC1 Reporting Scotland has 20% coverage of the Scottish Borders, East Lothian, West Lothian and Edinburgh and, if one can get it STV News at Six (Edinburgh/ East Scotland), that has over 30% of coverage of Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders and East and West Lothian- certainly a more news from places within an hour’s travel-time of a Berwickers’ community than one would get from ITV1 News Tyne Tees, BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria) or ITV1 Border Lookaround.
Changing from watching BBC1 Look North or ITV1 News Tyne Tees may be a wrench, and you might think the Scottish news-services would provide even worse coverage, but I assure you that if you watch STV News at Six (Edinburgh/ East Scotland) you will be surprised how many of the places covered in the Regional TV coverage are within an hours’ drive of one’s community up on the North Northumberland/ Scottish Border. Once you have made the change and discovered the joys of STV News at Six (East Scotland version) you will wonder why you stuck with BBC1 Look North and ITV1 News Tyne Tees– with only one news-item a night (if that) within an hour’s drive of your community! If you make the switch to STV News at Six or BBC1 Reporting Scotland tell your local friends and get them to make the switch too, and if they do, to write to the North East England Regional TV broadcasters: If enough North Northumberland viewers do this it is entirely possible that they will bow to pressure and provide that Northumberland/ Scottish Borders opt-out that local viewers really need.
Campaigning for More Local TV and Changing TV Region for North Northumberland and the Scottish Border
If the loss of a bit of coverage of Northumberland seems to high a price to pay to switch to STV News at Six or BBC1 Reporting Scotland then North Northumbrians can campaign to be put in a different TV Region where they would enjoy better coverage of North Northumberland and get cross-Scottish Border coverage of the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and the Edinburgh area. If whole communities in North Northumberland are involved, this sort of campaigning if associated with political pressure and the odd campaigning rally can be very effective- even the does BBC can cave in to this sort of pressure if kept up over a few years! Over thirty-five years ago the BBC put Carlisle and northern Cumbria in with BBC1 North West, so that North Cumbrians got Regional TV News mainly about Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, but little coverage of Cumbria and none of Newcastle and western Northumberland (with which locals had more regional affiliation as these areas are much closer to Carlisle and North Cumbria than Manchester or Liverpool. The BBC’s change to Regional TV in North Cumbria caused uproar, Cumbrians wrote in to BBC North West in their thousands complaining about the coverage, and MPs and local newspapers got involved in the campaign to get BBC1 Regional News for North Cumbria shifted back to Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the grounds that that is where North Cumbrians had closer regional affiliation. As a consequence of the strength of local opposition the BBC provided North Cumbrians with a lunchtime opt-out broadcast from Carlisle which had news just about Cumbria. When North Cumbrians still voiced their unhappiness at not getting news about Newcastle-upon-Tyne and western Northumberland and continued to campaign the BBC finally backed down and on Friday 27th September 1991 BBC1 Regional TV for North and West Cumbria was switched back to BBC1 Look North broadcast from Newcastle, and the reassuring face of the main BBC Look North news-anchor, Mike Neville appeared on North Cumbrian TV screens again, five years after North Cumbrians last saw him.
That is the Power of Protest: If a community gets together to change something it does not like, not even the mighty BBC stands in the way. Could the good folk of Berwick-upon-Tweed not do something similar, perhaps taking on ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border and asking for news-service covering Northumberland and the Scottish Borders: Berwickers could travel down to the ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border headquarters at Television House, The Watermark, in Gateshead to picket outside waving banners emblazoned with: Up along the Northumberland/ Scottish Border We Want Northumberland and Scottish Borders Regional News, NOT Tyneside, Teesside and North Yorkshire News. Either Provide Us with this Regional News-service or switch North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders to the STV Edinburgh/ East Scotland Region!
Now, ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border, which also produces ITV1 Border Lookaround and ITV1 Border (Scotland) special programmes as well as producing ITV1 News Tyne Tees for North East England, is probably best-placed to provide such a Northumberland/ Scottish Borders regional news-service via the Selkirk transmitter. They already have that infrastructure in-place since years ago there was the so-called Selkirk opt-out which produced highly localised news-coverage about the Scottish Borders transmitted from Selkirk. It would not take too much to tweak the Chathill transmitter, just south of Berwick, so that it picks up this special sub-regional Scottish Borders/ Northumberland programming from the Selkirk transmitter rather than carrying ITV1Tyne Tees from the south. It may cost only £100,000 annually, because ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border already have reporters and a news bureaux at Selkirk, but ITV.Plc, like the BBC is in no mood to spend extra money on Regional TV News! However, if there are rallies- and pressure from viewers up near the North Northumberland/ Scottish Border- and the local MP gets involved ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border might well be persuaded to take steps to ensure viewers in North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders get much more geographic- appropriate news-coverage.
If this is not forthcoming, a major Campaign also involving viewers in the Scottish Borders as well as northernmost Northumberland, to get all of northern Northumberland switched from the ITV1 Tyne Tees transmission area and the Scottish Borders switched from the ITV1 Border (Scotland) transmission area into the STV (East Scotland) transmission area may be needed. It is possible that STV.Plc refuse to extend any of their transmission areas into Northumberland on the not-unreasonable grounds that they only serve Scotland, but this is where the power of rallies and strong campaigning could come into play. If even the mighty BBC did not hold out against North Cumbrian communities furious at getting Regional news from Manchester rather than Newcastle-upon-Tyne after five years of campaigning, it is very possible that STV might bow to demands by North Northumbrians to get STV News at Six from Edinburgh.
Much more likely is that, before STV agree to broadcast to Northumberland, is that ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border will adapt their Regional programming and alter their transmission areas: ITV1 Border (Scotland) is likely to become ITV1 Border (Scotland & Northumberland) with 15 minutes of bespoke Northumberland and Scottish Borders news would be provided by a 15-minute opt-out within the main ITV1 Border Lookaround programme (the continuity ITV Border Lookaround would focus more on Cumbria and south-west Scotland, as nowadays). The Selkirk opt-out would be revived in-full to provide this. This latter development would provide a more bespoke North Northumberland/ Scottish Borders Regional News- service.
Another option, which will be better still for North Northumberland viewers, would be that ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border to switch Selkirk to the general ITV1 Tyne Tees transmission area and provide 15 minutes opt-out programming from Selkirk for North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders from within ITV1 News Tyne Tees, which will become ITV1 News Tyne Tees & Scottish Borders: or ITV1 News North East & Scottish Borders. That will be better for far northern Northumberland and the Scottish Borders which, if they have links southwards tend to be more towards North East England rather than Cumbria. Viewers in towns like Berwick-upon-Tweed, Duns and Wooler are just over an hour by train or car from Newcastle-upon-Tyne but less than an hour’s drive or train journey to Edinburgh. Carlisle, on the other hand, is two-and-a-half hours’ drive away. The activist Campaign for North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders to have their own Regional TV service should put this suggestion to ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border!
In conclusion, if just one hundred Berwickers or far North Northumbrians really campaigned like this for a bespoke Regional TV-service covering North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, and they persisted in their Campaign for five years (if need be), it is certain that programmers for ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border would provide that opt-out for which the infrastructure already exists- in the form of reporters and studios in Selkirk. It would cost nothing like setting up an opt-out from scratch, and yet BBC1 North West provided just such an opt-out- with news delivered from a studio in Carlisle and transmitted via the Caldbeck transmitter for Cumbrian viewers- during the period when all of Cumbria received BBC1 North West output.
If the Campaign for much more local coverage of North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders was accompanied by demands to be switched to the STV (East Scotland) TV Region if their demands are not met, it is likely that ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border, faced with the potential loss of up to 300,000 of their viewers (who live in North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, who currently get ITV1 News Tyne Tees or ITV1 Border Lookaround), then ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border would likely acquiesce to the demands of viewers up in the Scottish Borders and northernmost Northumberland! A potential loss of 300,000 viewers equates to a potential loss of almost 10% of the viewers who potentially watch ITV1 News Tyne Tees and ITV1 Border Lookaround– equating to an almost 10% drop in advertising revenue. Broadcasters for ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border would provide the North Northumberland and Scottish Border opt-out because that would be much cheaper than losing just a fraction of those 300,000 viewers!
The main reason that ITV1 News Tyne Tees does not provide opt-out programming for North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders is because Programmers and ITV.Plc Management do not want to spend more money than they absolutely have to. But if an opposing financial loss (due to losing viewers over their not providing this much more local programming up on the North Northumberland/ Scottish Border) presents itself then that will shift the balance of financial incentives and where savings can be made in the minds of ITV.Plc management. It is incumbent upon communities in the affected Northumberland/ Scottish Borders areas to Campaign, to be prepared to boycott and switch over to STV News at Six, and to have rallies outside Television House in Gateshead demanding more local news-coverage- to change the minds of management for ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border with regards to the balance of financial incentives and penalties. This means that North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders ends up with the more localised Regional TV News-service that this sizeable area with 300,000 potential viewers deserves.
To do this, one can not unreasonably point out to programmers for ITV1 News Tyne Tees that during the period of the opt-out programming for North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders that the continuity ITV1 News Tyne Tees could focus much more on providing tailored local news-coverage for Tyneside, Teesside, Wearside, whilst also finding space to cover North Yorkshire and the North Pennine areas a bit better too- and that would also bring in more North East viewers who are not happy with local coverage being diluted by coverage of Cumbria (as they get from BBC1 Look North (NE/ Cumbria)). It can be presented as a win-win for both viewers and ITV1 Tyne Tees & Border, as a more local Regional TV News-service both for urban North East England & the North Pennines, and for North Northumberland & the Scottish Borders will attract more viewers. This will lead, in time, to more advertising revenue that would more than pay for providing the opt-out news for North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders from the studio in Selkirk that already exists. Local news, if it’s geographic- appropriate, is popular as the ITV1 Border Lookaround viewing figures attest: Viewers in Cumbria and south-west Scotland are extremely happy with this service: I would wager, however, that those at the north-east end of the Scottish Borders are in the one area that’s not so happy with ITV1 Border Lookaround since most of the news is about places two or more hours’ drive away!
If North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders had their own version of ITV1 Border Lookaround it is certain that they would be very happy with it too: It’s in the gift of communities along and near that north-east end of the Scottish Border adjoining the North Sea to collaborate to make that happen- through writing to Programmers, through boycotting existing Regional TV services and campaigning with a few rallies outside Television House in Gateshead.
LOOK NORTH MUST LOOK NORTH 
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