Viewers of Regional TV in Cumbria and North Lancashire need their own Local News

8th April 2024

Dear Readers

The Regional TV News-services and “local” bulletins for North West England have long short-changed viewers who live in the northern half of North West England, by which I mean Cumbria and northern Lancashire. Neither ITV.Plc nor the BBC can be said to provide news that is relevant to this large area. The BBC, in particular provides news-programming that’s 80% about North East England to northern Cumbria and 70% about the M62 Corridor for Lancashire and South Cumbria. How does this serve local communities that are two hour’s drive from both the M62 Corridor and Tyneside/ Teesside? It doesn’t!

Regional TV services do not serve Cumbria and North Lancashire well

With the exception of ITV Border Lookaround that serves viewers in central and northern Cumbria well, the Regional TV services that serve the large area extending from Blackpool and the Wyre plain northwards to the Scottish Border do a poor job. The BBC provides Regional TV from the North East that’s 80% Tyneside, Teesside and North Yorkshire for folk living in Whitehaven, Seascale and Maryport. BBC1 North West Tonight has over 70% coverage of locations south of Preston for folk living in Windermere, Barrow-in-Furness, the Lune Valley and Millom. However, it’s ITV Granada Reports offering for northern Lancashire and South Cumbria that’s worst, with only about 20% coverage northwards of the M62 Corridor. Cumbria is rarely covered.

Now, BBC1 North West Tonight covers Cumbria and northern Lancashire better than ITV1 Granada Reports. This evening (8th April) both BBC1 North West Tonight and ITV1 Granada Reports covered the protests about sewage in Lake Windermere: Both programmes covered the 100th birthday of a special lady, Joy Killip from Blackpool. Joy Killip was one of the founders of The Talking Newspaper, which she set up back in 1977. However, it is rare that ITV1 Granada Reports covers Cumbria, rarer still that both BBC1 North West Tonight and ITV1 Granada Reports each  cover Cumbria and also cover northern Lancashire in another news-feature!

Viewers in Cumbria and northern Lancashire need Cumbrian and Lancastrian News-coverage

If one lives in Carnforth, or Millom, or Kirkby Lonsdale the default TV Regions from BBC1 and ITV1 are BBC North West and ITV1 Granada respectively. If it is exceptional to have two news-items that are about happenings within an hour’s drive, normal to hear of nothing less than thirty miles to the south, then something is wrong. Viewers should not need to scabble about on websites like Lancs Live or try to get ITV1 Border Lookaround once it is loaded on to the website- in order to find out what is happening locally or to the north of where they live (which neither BBC1 NW nor ITV1 Granada cover).

Viewers of Regional and Local News in northern Lancashire and South Cumbria require much more geographic-appropriate news-coverage. The provision of Regional TV is not mere entertainment: Regional TV is there to inform, to warn, to show folk of what is happening in their communities and surrounding areas (up to, but no more than an hour’s travel time distant). This is so that people can make informed choices,- about new work-opportunities locally, so folk can avoid difficult travel conditions on their commute or should they go out for the day, learn about beautiful places to visit within an hour’s drive, and so forth.

Regional TV is a Public-service and should be funded as such for northern NW England

It follows, therefore that broadcasters should fund Regional TV as if it were a Public service. This is because it serves a valuable purpose in informing, telling, and warning local communities of local happenings. If the Regional TV that serves Cumbria and northern Lancashire cannot fulfil this role because the Regional TV transmission is too large, broadcasters must stump up the funds to pay for additional TV Regions.  Then all parts of northern Britain get plenty of good, geographic-appropriate Regional TV coverage.

National and Regional TV broadcasters are reluctant to spend money on Regional TV which is expensive: Unlike national programming, with single programmes going out across all national networks, broadcasters must have separate Regional TV programmes produced in each Regional transmission area. That costs money. Neither the BBC, nor ITV.Plc will willingly spend more improving Regional TV or providing new TV Regions so more areas get local news-coverage because that would affect their respective bottom-lines.

Only Pressure from Statutory Authorities will make the BBC and ITV.Plc spend more on more localised Regional TV

The only way the BBC and ITV.Plc will spend more money to offer more, and more local Regional TV, is if the Government or appropriate arms-length bodies like OFCOM require them to. Viewers can help to bring this about by writing to OFCOM and to their local MP whose address will always be:  House of Commons, Westminster, LONDON. SW1A 0AA. One can also write to the newly re-named Culture, Media and Sport Committee at this address: CMS Committee, House of Commons, LONDON. SW1A 0AA.

The Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee is made up of MPs whose role is to discuss and propose how to improve Media and Culture (as it’s name suggests), so these serve the British population better. That remit includes television and broadcasters’ provision of news-programming, including Regional TV News. If enough voters living in northern NW England write to the CMS Committee to state that they need a Regional TV service of their own because they do not get local news from existing Regional News-services the CMS Committee (made up of MPs who pass legislation) will put pressure on broadcasters to provide better local news-coverage.

If a group of local folk write to the Parliamentary Committee set up to address what TV broadcasters produce that is going to have a more powerful impact than just writing to the local MP. The MPs serving constituencies in Cumbria and northern Lancashire will be familiar with the problems around poor Regional TV coverage, so it is still worth writing to them in you live in Cumbria and northern Lancashire. Get local friends and family to do the same, writing both to the local MP and to the CMS Parliamentary Committee.