Spotlight | |
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Still from BBC Spotlight title sequence
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Also known as |
BBC Channel Islands
(Channel Islands opt-out) |
Presented by |
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Production | |
Producer(s) | BBC South West |
Location(s) | BBC Broadcasting House Plymouth, Devon |
Running time | 30 minutes (main bulletin) 30 seconds (8.00 pm bulletin) |
Release | |
Original network | BBC One South West |
Original release | 1961 – present |
Spotlight is the BBC's regional TV news programme for the South West of England, covering Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, southern and western Somerset, western Dorset and the Channel Islands. There is also a special version of the programme for viewers in the Channel Islands. The main version of the programme broadcasts between 18:30 and 19:00 on weekdays, with shorter bulletins at other times. The programme can be viewed anywhere in the UK (and Europe) on Sky channel 967/968 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service. Its main competitors are ITV West Country's main evening programme ITV News West Country in Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, southern and western Somerset and western Dorset and ITV Channel Television's main evening programme ITV News Channel TV in the Channel Islands.
Spotlight is broadcast from BBC Broadcasting House in Seymour Road, Plymouth, the headquarters of BBC South West. There are smaller studios in Barnstaple, Exeter, Paignton, Taunton and Truro.
Although local radio had been broadcast from Plymouth as station 2PY between 1924 and 1934, the first regional television programme was not broadcast until 20 April 1961, just nine days before the rival ITV service from Westward Television began broadcasting. At first a ten-minute bulletin called News from the South West was read by Tom Salmon, but in under a year it had doubled in length and had been renamed as South West at Six, hosted by Sheila Tracy. The name Spotlight was adopted on 30 September 1963.