BBC North

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BBC North (Group) is an operational business division of the BBC.^[1]

It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean:

• The large BBC North region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968 and was based upon one of the four UK regional radio transmission stations.
• The BBC North region, centred on Leeds, that was active between 1968 and 2004 and which was split to form BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorks & Lincs.
• The operational department called BBC North that combined the output of the BBC's northern regions between 1990 and 1996.
• The BBC North Group of major BBC departments that have already moved or are moving from London to MediaCityUK in Greater Manchester from 2011 onwards as part of the BBC North Project.

BBC region 1920s–1968

The first BBC North operation was a large region, based in Manchester and covering the areas now served by BBC North West, BBC North East and Cumbria, BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Regional radio broadcasting was largely based at a leased studio complex above a bank known as 'Old Broadcasting House' at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre. These studios became the base for radio output from the region in 1929. The BBC's first regional television studio, studio A, would be based elsewhere in the city – at a converted church on Dickenson Road in Rusholme, which opened in 1954 after being owned and operated by Mancunian Films.^[2]

Regional television news bulletins began from Piccadilly's studio N on 30 September 1957^[3] and served the entire North of England. Two years later, the northern half of the region (the North East and Cumbria) began receiving its own TV news bulletins from Newcastle (BBC North East and Cumbria) while the two distinct areas either side of the Pennines continued to receive what eventually became Look North from Manchester until 22 March 1968. Regional radio output for this area continued on an opt-out of BBC Radio 4 until September 1980 (by which time, six BBC Local Radio stations had been set up to cover the North West & Yorkshire regions).

BBC region 1968–2004

Programmes

Based at the Broadcasting Centre at

The Leeds island site went on air on 25 March 1968 as a response to the imminent opening of

This enabled a separate edition of Look North to be produced, initially from All Souls in Blackman Lane - a church hall near Woodhouse Lane - using equipment from a redundant

Leeds was to have the third incarnation of the BBC programme called Look North; the others continued to be produced in Newcastle, another island site, and in Manchester, which was also the BBC Network Production Centre (NPC) for the north of England.

In 1974^[4] the programme moved into a new colour studio equipped with EMI 2001 cameras in the newly built Broadcasting Centre adjacent to Broadcasting House, in Woodhouse Lane, where it remained for thirty years until the studio was demolished in 2004.^[5]

During 2001 an opt-out service was introduced for viewers in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, consisting of a news summary within the main 6:30pm edition of Look North and a full length late bulletin on weeknights. The 6:30pm opt-out was extended into a full length 30 minute programme in November 2002.

In June 2004, the BBC North region was fully split to form the

BBC North Group

The project began in 2006 when Salford was named as the chosen location by the Board of Governors^[9] and in 2007 the go-ahead was given to the project by the BBC Trust.^[10] The previous Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, indicated that either BBC One, BBC Two or BBC Three could also move by 2015.

The day-to-day operation of production and broadcasting at MediaCityUK is now operated as BBC North for the BBC.^[11]

See also

• BBC English Regions
• MediaCityUK

References

External links

• Official BBC North website for news, events and updates
• Look North 35th anniversary.
• 6/bbc.htm Old Broadcasting House^{[permanent dead link]}
• BBC Jobs - BBC North 2011

53°48′21″N 1°32′55″W / 53.805754°N 1.548498°W / 53.805754; -1.548498

53°48′21″N 1°32′55″W / 53.805754°N 1.548498°W / 53.805754; -1.548498