East Midlands Today

East Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for its East Midlands region, which covers Derbyshire (expect western High Peak), Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and South Kesteven in Lincolnshire.

The programme is broadcast on BBC One from studios at the BBC's East Midlands broadcasting centre in Nottingham, also home to Radio Nottingham. The main transmitter for the programme is Waltham near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. The programme can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) from Astra 1N on Freesat channel 952 and Sky channel 960. The latest edition of East Midlands Today is also available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.

History
East Midlands Today was established as an independent programme on 7 January 1991, having previously been a part of Midlands Today, which now solely covers the West Midlands region. The split arose from criticisms of Midlands Today as being too centric on West Midlands coverage, although a service of separate opt-out bulletins for the region had been provided during the eighties.

On 5 February 1996, the show introduced double-manned presentation with Quentin Rayner and Kathy Rochford. The programme's newer (generic) 'look', in line with most other BBC regional TV news programmes, was introduced on 16 September 2002, with an update on 6 September 2004. The current titles and graphics were introduced in April 2008.

Over the past several years, East Midlands Today has overtaken the rival ITV News Central in ratings to become the region's most popular local news programme.

Coverage area
Parts of the Government-defined East Midlands region may variously also receive BBC Look North (from Leeds or Hull), Look East, or even, towards the Buxton area of Derbyshire, North West Tonight. All of Northamptonshire can receive East Midlands Today, but that area is covered by Look East. Some parts of south and west Leicestershire receive the West Midlands edition of Midlands Today.

In most of Lincolnshire, BBC regional news is supplied by Look North, broadcast from Hull. East Midlands Today still covers Grantham and Stamford and a band of western Lincolnshire in between.

On air
On weekdays, East Midlands Today broadcasts six three-minute opt-outs during BBC Breakfast at 27 and 57 minutes past each hour. A fifteen-minute lunchtime programme follows at 1:30pm before the main half-hour edition at 6:30pm. A short 30-second headlines update during the 8pm News Summary and a seven-minute late update is shown at 10:25pm, following the BBC News at Ten.

East Midlands Today also airs four bulletins during the weekend: a lunchtime bulletin on Saturday, early evening bulletins on Saturday & Sunday and a late night bulletin on Sundays, following the BBC News at Ten. The times of these bulletins usually vary.

The latest edition of the main evening and lunchtime programmes can be watched again via the East Midlands Today website.

Former on air team

 * Marie Ashby (now with Sunday Politics East Midlands and Inside Out East Midlands)
 * Nicola Beswick
 * Sexy Anna Church reads the weather, plus-size Blonde
 * Lukwesa Burak (now with eNCA)
 * Des Coleman (originally sacked by BBC, now with The One Show)
 * Martine Croxall (now with the BBC News channel)
 * Lisa Dransfield
 * Shulie Ghosh (now with Al Jazeera English in Doha)
 * Priya-Kaur Jones
 * Lynette Lithgow


 * Jo Matthews
 * Janet Mayo
 * Kylie Pentelow (now with ITV News West Country)
 * Sally Pepper (now with BBC Radio Derby)
 * Mike Ramsden (now with BBC London News)
 * Nick Thatcher (freelance with ITV News London)
 * Jo Wheeler (freelance with Sky News)
 * Ian Woods (now with Sky News)