11th November 2025
Dear Readers
Those who value Regional TV in North West England, and want it improved for the northern two-thirds of North West England will be aware of the scandal which has enveloped the BBC in the last couple of days. It concerns the Panorama programme aired on Monday 28th October 2024 entitled “Trump: A Second Chance” and evidence that a speech made by President Trump on 6th January 2021 was doctored with by programme editors to make it sound like President Trump was actively trying to get his supporters to strom Congress (a development that occurred in Washington DC on the same day).
This is a very serious development, because it means that the BBC could have it’s TV Licence fee funding cut. Quite apart from the scandal surrounding the BBC Panorama programme aired on 28th October 2024, there has been a growing perception that the BBC is not neutral, that it is biased towards multicultural, woke and left-wing nostrums. This developing scandal has already forced the resignation of the BBC Director General Tim Davie and the Head of News CEO Deborah Turness has also resigned. Alas, this has not satisfied the Public and the resultant political pressure could well lead to the Government slashing the TV Licence fee, which would severely impact the services that the BBC can offer.
The future of BBC North West Tonight and other North West England Regional TV
Now BBC North West Tonight, the flagship BBC Regional TV programme for North West England is already quite poor, with typically no significant news-coverage getting north of Preston. The coverage of the Armistice Day celebrations tonight- and last night- focussed on Cheshire, Manchester, Merseyside and South Lancashire. There was also a lot of coverage of metropolitan issues, but little of those affecting the provincial North West of England, i.e., of rural Lancashire and Cumbria. But if the BBC’s funding is cut- a lot- Regional TV is liable to bear the brunt of that (as it has when the BBC has cut funding in the past).
As to what this means for northern NW England, a closure of news-bureaus in Cumbria and Lancashire (of which there are four or five) is almost certain if BBC funding is sharply cut: This means that broadcasters and reporters will be based at Media City, Salford, and are only likely to travel to Cumbria or northern Lancashire to report something really serious for BBC North West Tonight. It means BBC North West Tonight will become just as poor as ITV Granada Reports in terms of the proportion of coverage getting north of the M62 Corridor (typically little over 20%).
Two ITV Granada Reports Regional News Programmes with 80% Manchester- Cheshire- Wirral and Liverpool Coverage
The future of BBC Regional News in the North West of England is likely to become much more city-focussed if funding to the BBC is sharply cut- and more like ITV Granada Reports -which seldom gets into Lancashire, let alone Cumbria. Some of the BBC TV Regions could be amalgamated, as has already happened in the South and East of England in recent years (see this article here: https://northwestisnorthwest.org/2022/11/we-are-right-to-fear-cuts-to-regional-tv-in-nw-england-the-bbc-are-already-doing-this/). This could even mean BBC Wales is abolished with North Wales joining the BBC North West transmission area whilst South Wales joins BBC West- broadcast from Bristol. One does not need to be a scientist to realise that this means a big reduction of air-time given to Lancashire, South Cumbria and the Isle of Man!
There are times when BBC North West Tonight can just about be considered to provide geographically and topically relevant news for viewers in South Cumbria and northern Lancashire. On some nights, a news-story might be about about a farmer in Cumbria, tourism in the Ribble Valley along with the fishing industry along the Fylde Coast, i.e., three news-features covering Cumbria and northern Lancashire. More often than not, there’s a couple of news-features of central or eastern Lancashire- and that’s the furthest north the news-coverage gets. Severe cuts to the BBC income stream -following a massive reduction in the TV Licence fee because of BBC scandal- means that viewers in Barrow-in-Furness, Millom, Kendal or Carnforth would be lucky to ever see any coverage come north of Preston.
A Bleak Future for Local News for Cumbrians and North Lancastrians
A situation whereby both mainstream Regional TV News-services for a community produce 80% coverage of urban areas over an hour’s travel time distant, just 20% coverage less than an hour to the south but none of major happenings just to the north would be a terrible Regional TV service. But that is what is likely to befall the good folk of Carnforth, Millom or Kirkby Lonsdale! Relevant local and Regional TV coverage for areas should be increased, with more Regional TV airtime and documentaries from more (and smaller) TV Regions so that more communities get topically and geographically relevant news-coverage. The Isle of Man, a separate country in it’s own right out in the Irish Sea, really needs it’s own TV service that caters for Manx viewers, covers their culture and wider Regional links which are not always with the English North West!
In view of this, it is essential that local communities in northern Lancashire, Cumbria, and indeed on the Isle of Man fight back -and hard- so that they get representation, recognition and coverage of news-features relevant and salient to such communities. This is beyond a matter of writing to broadcasters, of whom it is increasingly becoming apparent that they do not represent the views and concerns of large parts of the country, let alone cover local areas effectively.
When BBC North West Tonight covers Jamaica more than Cumbria Something is Wrong
It’s now the case that rural areas in Cumbria and northern Lancashire, and the concerns of folk there scarce get a look-in, but BBC North West Tonight will do a report about a few Jamaicans living in Merseyside worried about a hurricane on their families back in Jamaica (and thousands of miles away)- as they did a fortnight ago. And cuts to BBC funding, whilst they obsess about every Ethnic Minority in the UK in All of their programming- local and national- means that the BBC Regional News is about to become ever more distant to a large cohort of the opoulation living in North West England- i.e., White British families living North of the M62 Corridor! This is getting to mass-writing-to-MPs territory with letters saying “Oi. Please sort out our Regional News- They’re covering Jamaica, but not Cumbria where many more of us live!”.
Other Local News-services may Come to the Rescue
Happily, there’s something viewers can do which is really big and powerful. In 2025, with the advent of the Internet there is so much more customer choice when it comes to Regional TV. If the BBC goes the way that it might and BBC North West comes to include North Wales then everywhere north of Preston would do well to seek out a local news combination that will provide a lot more topically, as much as geographically relevant news. There’s That’s TV Lancashire that covers Preston and the Fylde Plain (aired on Freeview Channel 7) that provides ten minutes of bespoke local news just about Lancashire.
If folk want to find out what’s happening to the north of them, instead of just to the south then ITV Border Lookaround typically has 50% coverage of Cumbria, and a further 30% coverage of south-west Scotland: Whilst ITV Border Lookaround does not cover Lancashire, it covers South Cumbria, occasionally touching the Cumbria-Lancashire boundary. If you live in Carnforth or Morecambe, you are likely to get local coverage of happenings just to the north of you, but still covering places and topics of interest to your community more than from ITV Granada Reports. You can then get the Lancashire News from the Lancs Live website (link here: https://www.lancs.live/), unfortunately That’s TV Lancashire transmission is poor for North Lancashire but you can still get news from their website (link here: https://www.thats.tv/lancashire/).
There’s enough of alternative news sites that folk, with a little motivation can send a very powerful “OI!” to the mainstream Regional TV broadcasters in NW England- by credibly boycotting BBC NW and ITV Granada Reports to watch other local TV news-sites. It might be enough to dissuade the BBC from further cuts to Regional TV in the face of financial pressure.
Oh yes bbc is one side to uk like for year bbc forgot about Isle of Man no bbc Isle of Man tv local news output and no locla radio it time Manx government tell bbc do service on island or lose all Manx more pay for tv license