Regional variation
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A regional variation generally refers to times when a radio station or television station simultaneously broadcasts different programs, continuity or advertisements to different parts of its coverage area. This may be so as to provide programming specific to a particular region, such as local news, or may be so as to allow advertisements to be targeted to a particular area.
Some regional variations are the consequence of a federal style television network or radio network where a local station is a part of a larger broadcast network and broadcasts the network's programs some of the time and its own programming the rest of the time. The latter is therefore sometimes considered a regional variation. Examples of this include the UK's ITV network throughout much of its history, and American network affiliate stations.
Regional variation is also a common term used in British television listings publications, such as magazines and newspapers, to show the different programs broadcast in different areas of the country.
Technicalities of regional variations
Traditionally, regional variations depend on a network or service broadcasting over multiple transmitters. Typically a 'network' feed will originate from a central location, such as
Whilst the BBC originated its network feed from the same place (Television Centre) ITV in earlier days would generally originate its feed from the broadcaster which made the programme.
Satellite services such as
Opt-out
Opt-out is a term used in broadcasting when a nation or region splits from the main national or network output. In the United Kingdom, BBC One Scotland, BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC One Wales often opt out of the main BBC One schedule in favor of regionally relevant programming.
In a similar manner, local television newsrooms present regional news following national news bulletins—the practice having been popularised by current affairs programs
Technical description
An opt-out is the process of a regional entity inserting its output into a tributary of an otherwise complete national broadcast distribution feed, creating a local variation in output.
Being a non-commercial broadcaster, the BBC has no need to play out local commercial spots, thus a regional node will typically only output program material during the local news. Rather than each region having to control or monitor output that is being relayed from a central source, the region will step back from the network, allowing the central source to directly feed its transmitters. The central source is a national feed, which is complete in itself including all continuity, timing, announcement, and program elements. The region interposes to broadcast its element locally, in place of a program in the national feed, by bringing itself into the network (cold-opt) in preparation for the start of the regional element (warm-opt). [1]
Within
Commercial broadcasters such as ITV, Channel 4 (with S4C) and Channel 5 distribute their programmes to regions complete with local advertising and regional programme variations. Regional programmes, although they may be produced in a particular region, are sent to a centralised play-out facility as contributions for insertion into the regional broadcast feed. BBC programmes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are broadcast from their own play-out facilities in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast, although receiving live and recorded programmes from London they continuously monitor their own output. Thus they do not actually "opt out".
By country
Canada
Commercial television in Canada generally used a model similar to the U.S., with networks composed of first-party
The major English-language networks, including advertising-funded public network
Corus Entertainment's private CTV affiliates substituted
CJON-DT has more significant variations due to having sublicensed different types of programming from Global, CTV, and Yes TV.
France
Regional elements are inserted into the French public broadcaster France 3 (France Régions 3, or FR3 for short) by opting out from a national service broadcast from Paris.
Italy
The Italian public television channel Rai 3 provides regional news programming, and programmes that are regionally relevant.
Norway
NRK1 features regional opt-outs for news programmes under the brand Distriktsnyheter. They air on weekdays at 19.30 and 22.55 local time. All Distriktsnyheter editions from across the country are replayed nationwide on NRK2 the following day.
Philippines
Regional variation in the Philippines is more of an exception than a rule as most of a network's stations across the country simulcast the entire programming lineup seen on that network's flagship station (usually based in Metro Manila). This practice effective renders most regional stations as relay stations of their parent network's flagship station.
However, some national networks like GMA have regional variations in selected parts of the country. They feature regional news programmes (each network decides how many different regional variations it wishes to have and which provinces constitute which viewing region). Sometimes, whilst network programming is ongoing, stations may insert a ticker tape of advertisements from local/regional companies.
Prior to
From 2011 to 2016, TV5 used to feature regional variations in its Cebu station DYET-TV with a local news programme entitled Aksyon Bisaya. Since then, DYET-TV has reverted to a relay station of DWET-TV.
Sweden
Although Sweden's public television channels - SVT1 and SVT2 - have regional variations, the actual amount of airtime allocated for regional opt-outs is very small and is only limited to news updates. During weekday mornings from 06.00 to 09.00 local time, these regional news updates are embedded into SVT's flagship morning news programme Morgonstudion. A longer regional news bulletin (approximately 13 minutes long) is shown at 18.30 on SVT1. A shorter five-minute update follows at 19.55 after Rapport SVT1. A final news update is shown at 21.45 after the main Aktuellt newscast on SVT2. SVT does not have opt-out programming on Saturdays.
United Kingdom
The
BBC Two has in the past broadcast variations within the English regions, though now only has variations for Wales and Northern Ireland. BBC Two Scotland was discontinued in 2019 and was succeeded in purpose by the new BBC Scotland channel—which carries a nightly lineup of programming of relevance to Scotland. The channel is still effectively a regional variation of BBC Two (albeit operating in parallel with the English regions' version—which replaced BBC Two Scotland on Freeview—rather than as a substitute of it), as it simulcasts BBC Two outside of its main broadcast hours. BBC Choice also briefly had regional variations for these areas.
Variations in image and continuity
ITV
Until 2002, ITV's continuity was largely separate in each region of the country, even when announcing broadcasts that were the same throughout the country. The logo of the regional contractor would typically be displayed instead of, or far more prominently than, any 'ITV' logo, before programmes and during trailers. Separate announcers would also be used.
With the consolidation of many ITV companies throughout the 1990s, continuity was often shared between regions as a cost-cutting measure, with the
BBC
The BBC also provided regional continuity during the 1970s, often also for nationally networked programming, but in England this ended in 1980. Regional continuity by the BBC in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for BBC One and BBC Two is broadcast between 6 am and 2 am. Outside these times the channels use the main BBC One and BBC Two continuity. In England, BBC One continuity is simply referred to as BBC One on air at all times except preceding local programming where all regions except BBC London use pre-recorded announcements. BBC London uses the main BBC announcers for its local programmes. BBC Two is a single channel in England, and since 2019 in Scotland, uses national continuity at all times due to the BBC Scotland TV channel being launched.
have no regional variations and therefore no regional continuity.United States
U.S. broadcast television is heavily regionalised due to the business model of its major networks, which enter into agreements with stations in each media market to carry their national programming, similarly to a franchise. As the FCC enforces a limit on the market share of broadcasters, commercial networks only have owned and operated stations (O&Os) in major or otherwise strategic markets, and rely on third-party affiliates to reach the remainder of the country. PBS—the United States' public television network—refers to affiliates as member stations instead, and does not limit them to one per market. PBS does not have owned-or-operated stations due to its structure, but certain major-market members have been considered de facto flagships of the network due to their prominent contributions to the PBS national schedule, such as WGBH-TV in Boston, WNET in New York City, and WETA-TV in Washington, DC.
Outside of network programming (which usually consists of two or three hours of prime time programmes per-night at a minimum, and may also include national news, sports and daytime programmes), the scheduling of each station's programming varies, and usually consists of local newscasts, programmes acquired from the syndication market, and brokered programming (including infomercials, more often in off-peak hours). Similarities may still exist in the scheduling of syndicated programmes between markets, based on factors such as "recommended" timeslots suggested by a programme's distributor, and broadcasters acquiring a particular programme for all of their stations in a group deal. Due to differing market dynamics, Spanish-language networks such as Telemundo and Univision, as well as specialty networks designed to be carried on digital subchannels, have a centralised network schedule, which stations may opt out from for local news or regulatory obligations not fulfilled by national programming (such as children's educational programming).
Affiliates may, from time to time, opt out of network programs to air
In certain highly publicised cases, affiliates have opted out of network programmes (either individual episodes, or entire series) based on objections to their content by station management,[6][7] such as due to the owner's religious values,[8][9][10] and political reasons.[11][12]
A more straightforward equivalent to a regional variation in North American broadcasting is a
- WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks, North Dakota—a sister to WDAY-TV in Fargo. Until December 2018, it aired Grand Forks-specific evening and late-night newscasts, while otherwise simulcasting regional newscasts produced from Fargo by WDAY.[13][14][15]
- WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia—which previously operated a retransmitter, W16CE, to improve its broadcast coverage in the state capital of Charleston, West Virginia. During this time, the stations' newscasts were divided into regional and local segments; the first half was simulcast across the stations and presented by anchors in both Huntington and Charleston via split screen. The stations then broke away for segments with stories specific to their respective city.[16]
- In some regions, a larger-scale group of co-owned stations may be linked together to form a state network—such as the KMCY in Minot(which are largely fed from WDAY), as well as chains of non-commercial stations (typically PBS stations).
- In some markets, there may be multiple PBS member stations, either operating as a duopoly partner of another station (such as WGBH's WGBX), or being operated by another entity. In these cases, the members cooperate with PBS on alternate schedules so that the secondary stations carry different amounts of national programming.
Regional variations in listings
Magazines and national newspapers print different editions of their TV listings for different areas – some just for the four British nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, while others produce separate editions for the regions within England also. For example, the "
A regional variations column shows programmes in areas which differ from those in the main listings columns. Generally, only programming that differs from the main schedule is listed rather than listing the entire schedule of each regional area verbatim, much of which would be identical. It is these programmes that make up regional variations. Sometimes all UK regional variations are listed, generally when only one copy of a publication is made for every area, but often only adjoining regions are listed as variations, as is the case in the "Radio Times".
In English regional and UK-wide editions, the main BBC One or ITV column shows programmes in the London region, with other regions (and nations) in the regional variations column. S4C is also often listed here. In Welsh and Scottish editions, adjoining English regions are usually listed. In Northern Ireland, some services from the Republic of Ireland are often listed as regional variations, although they are not.
See also
- BBC UK regional TV on satellite
- France 3 Régions
- TV listings (UK)
- Listings magazine
- local insertion
External links
Notes
- ^ The terms "cold-opt" and "warm-opt" are not the generally used BBC terms which are "hard-opt" and "soft-opt" – care needs to be taken with these terms, as the normal IT conventions of hard and soft are reversed within colloquial BBC lexicon.
- ^ Kovach, Joelle (14 August 2018). "CHEX-TV newscasts rebranding as CHEX News on Global Peterborough". The Peterborough Examiner. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
- ^ ralphierce (25 June 2018). "ABS-CBN Regional Cancels Agri Tayo Dito, MagTV Na". From the Tube. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
- ^ Zier, Julie A. (18 July 1994). "CBS, Group W form historic alliance" (PDF). Broadcasting and Cable. Retrieved 13 February 2013.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Kandell, Johnathan (16 November 2012). "Obituary: Laurence A. Tisch, Investor Known for Saving CBS Inc. From Takeover, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
- ^ "Channel 6 bumps Osbournes to 1 a.m., schedules drug special instead". Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
- ^ "KSL PULLS 'PICKET FENCES,' CALLS THE SHOW 'OFFENSIVE'". Deseret News. 25 January 1993. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
- ^ Scott D. Pierce (26 January 1993). "AS CBS PROGRAMS BECOME MORE RISQUE, WILL KSL-CH. 5 REMAIN A NETWORK AFFILIATE?". Deseret News. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
- ^ Scott D. Pierce (6 March 1993). "NBC HAS BIG PLANS FOR THE 'CHEERS' FINALE". Deseret News. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
- Seattle Times. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
- ^ "Names of U.S. war dead read on 'Nightline'". NBC News. Associated Press. 29 April 2004. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
- ^ "WDAY takes over 5 p.m. news in Grand Forks". Grand Forks Herald. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
- ^ "WDAY Launching Statewide Morning Newscast". TVSpy.com. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
- ^ "WDAZ to merge broadcasts with WDAY". Grand Forks Herald. 30 November 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- ^ "The Charleston Split". WSAZ-TV. Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
- U-T San Diego. MLIM Holdings. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
- ^ Pergament, Alan (21 June 2016). "Wide-ranging deal will keep Sabres – and other Pegula Sports & Entertainment content – on MSG". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 22 June 2016.