''BBC South Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

, much of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

and parts of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

and

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. Since 2000, an opt-out of the main programme has also covered

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

, parts of

, small parts of eastern

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

, western

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

and southern

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...

Overview

The BBC began broadcasting a regional TV news programme for the south of England (then known as ''South at Six'', but changing to the current title in the mid 1960s) in January 1961, getting on air four months before the launch of

Southern Television Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as 'Southern Television Limited' and the title 'Southern Television' was co ...

's rival magazine programme ''Day by Day''. Originally, the BBC's Southampton operations were based in South Western House, the former Cunard shipping line headquarters near the city's docks. In 1991, the programme moved to purpose-built studios in Havelock Road. The original presenter was Martin Muncaster. Bruce Parker joined the programme in 1967 and remained as a regular presenter until 1989, continuing to provide holiday cover and present weekend bulletins until 2003. The current main presenter, Sally Taylor, started co-presenting the programme in 1987 (replacing Debbie Thrower), initially alongside Parker and then successively with Paddy Haycocks,

Mark Longhurst Mark Longhurst is a British news presenter. Longhurst presented on ITV's regional news, ITV News West Country until October 2017. Before this, he was a presenter at Sky News, where he presented the channel's evening news programmes from Friday to ...

, Harry Gration, Andrew Harvey and Roger Finn, but in recent years she has been the regular solo presenter of the main programme. Currently, BBC South Today produces 11 bulletins each weekday: six bulletins in the morning during BBC Breakfast, a 15-minute programme at 13:30, the half-hour main programme at 18:30, a headlines update at 20:00 and a late night bulletin (Monday to Thursday at 22:30, running for 15 minutes and every Friday at 22:25, running for 10 minutes). Weekend news bulletins are also broadcast. These include early evening bulletins on Saturday and Sunday and a late night bulletin on Sundays, following the

BBC News at Ten '' BBC News at Ten'' formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'' is the flagship evening news programme for the BBC News channel and British television channel BBC One on weekdays and Sundays at 10:00pm. Huw Ed ...

. The times of these bulletins usually vary. The programme is broadcast live from studios in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. Prior to September 2001, BBC South Today's region included areas served by the Heathfield transmitter and its relays which covered eastern

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

and southern

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. These areas are now covered by the BBC's '' South East Today''. Following

digital switchover The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...

on 7 March 2012, the Whitehawk Hill transmitter switched from broadcasting BBC South Today to broadcasting the neighbouring '' South East Today''.

Oxford opt-out

Between 16 October 2000 and 16 December 2022, BBC South produced a distinct news service for the area served by the Oxford transmitter. Previously, the area was covered by ''

Newsroom South East ''Newsroom South East'' was the BBC's regional news programme aired on BBC One in the South East. It was launched on Tuesday 28 March 1989 as the successor to ''London Plus'', the South East's previous news programme. In 1992, ''South Today' ...

'', which also served

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than al ...

and the south east. As part of a three-tier restructure of regional coverage, the Oxford transmitter area was transferred to the BBC South region and began dedicated opt-out bulletins within ''BBC South Today''. A year later, London and the south east split into two distinct regions: BBC London and

BBC South East BBC South East is the BBC English region serving Kent, East Sussex, most parts of West Sussex and southern parts of Surrey. The BBC region was created in September 2001 by the joining of the Heathfield transmitter (formerly part of the BB ...

. Originally, ''BBC South Today Oxford'' was broadcast from BBC South's Studio B in

. Studio production of the bulletins was transferred in 2004 to the reception area at Radio Oxford while a new television studio and production gallery was built. The programme was produced and broadcast from Oxford from October 2005 until December 2022. Geraldine Peers presented the programme from May 2001 until the programme ended on 16th December 2022. On 21 April 2008, the ''BBC South Today Oxford'' opt-out service was renamed as ''BBC Oxford News'' (referred to on-screen as ''BBC Oxford''). New titles and graphics were introduced as part of an on-screen overhaul across the BBC's national, international and regional news services. From 29 October 2012, this was re-branded back to ''BBC South Today''.

Weekday bulletins

The Oxford sub-opt covered the first 10–15 minutes of the main evening ''BBC South Today'' at 18:30, before joining Sally Taylor for the latter part of the Southampton edition of the programme. Until April 2013, a full 30-minute Oxford edition was produced every Friday evening, but this was scaled back to 10–15 minutes. Special half-hour Oxford editions were still occasionally broadcast if there was a major news story in the sub-region. Viewers in these areas also received dedicated bulletins after the ''

'', but saw pan-regional bulletins from Southampton at breakfast and lunchtime and on weekends. The 30 second update at 8pm was produced and presented from Oxford for the entirety of its run. From 2007 there was also at 1520 (later 1500) a short regional update which was also produced and presented from Oxford until the bulletin was ended. On 26 May 2022, it was announced that the BBC proposed to close the Oxford opt (and the equivalent produced in Cambridge). The final programme, a half hour special aired at 6.30pm on the 16 December 2022. Regional BBC shows in Oxford and Cambridge end https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64001026

Presenters

Former presenters

* Dani Sinha *

Jane Hill Jane Amanda Hill (born 10 June 1969 in Eastbourne, Sussex) is an English newsreader working for the BBC. She is one of the main presenters for BBC News, and is the main presenter on the '' BBC News at One'' and the '' BBC News at Five'', as w ...

* Roger Johnson * Harry Gration *

* Jenni Murray * Susan Osman * Bruce Parker *

Jon Kay Jonathan Francis Kay (born 8 November 1969 in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire) is an English television presenter, newsreader, and journalist based in the West of England known for his work on BBC News. Early life Kay was born on 8 November 19 ...

Kate Adie Kathryn Adie (born 19 September 1945) is an English journalist. She was Chief News Correspondent for BBC News between 1989 and 2003, during which time she reported from war zones around the world. She retired from the BBC in early 2003 and ...

* Michael Buerk *

Alex Lovell Alexandra "Alex" Lovell (born 28 March 1973) is an English television presenter and voice-over artist. She has presented the BBC's regional news programme '' BBC Points West'' since 2005. Early life Lovell was born in Gravesend, Kent, grew up ...

* Andrew Harvey *

Kirsty McCabe Kirsty McCabe (born 10 July 1975) is a Scottish weather forecaster and presenter at Sky News, and was formerly the senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel, based at the UK office in London. Early life Kirsty attended Annanhill Primary Sc ...

Richard Drax Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (born 29 January 1958) is a British Conservative politician, journalist and landowner, serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dorset since 2010. Early life Drax was born on 29 January 19 ...

* Reham Khan *

Babita Sharma Babita Sharma (born April 1977) is a British television newsreader on BBC News (TV channel) and BBC World News, presenting the Newsday strand each Monday to Wednesday from London with Rico Hizon in Singapore. Early life and education Sharma is ...

References

External links