BBC'S REGIONAL NEWS FOR ENGLAND TO AIR ON DIGITAL SATELLITE

THE BBC has announced that as of January 28, 2002, viewers watching BBC One on digital satellite in the five largest English Regions will be able to access their own regional news programmes at 6.30pm.
The programmes are BBC London News, South Today, Midlands Today, North West Tonight and Look North (for Yorkshire & Lincolnshire), covering 70 per cent of England’s population.
The service, available through BBCi, enables viewers to select any of these five programmes by pressing the red key on the remote control. The initial phase of the launch has been brought forward by several months with its extension to the remaining English Regions expected by the autumn.
UK Today, which has been the sustaining service on digital satellite at 6.30pm, will cease broadcasting from January 28.
The extension of the main regional news programme to digital satellite is but one part of an exciting programme of new digital services offered by the BBC this year. BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies - the latter two launching on February 11, have already been given the go-ahead by the Government.
Meanwhile, new proposals for BBC Three have been lodged with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). (CD)