BBC Wales Today



Wales Today is the BBC's national news programme for Wales, broadcast on BBC One Wales from the headquarters of BBC Wales in Llandaff, Cardiff. According to the BBC, it is the world's longest-running television news programme.

The programme can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite channel 972 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service. Selected video packages from the programme are available on the BBC news website.

History
The programme began at 6:10 pm on Monday 17 September 1962. Its predecessor, a short News from Wales bulletin, started in 1957 and was originally presented by Michael Aspel. The new programme, originally presented by Brian Hoey, shared a 25-minute timeslot for regional news with Points West from Bristol - at the time, both programmes were broadcast to Wales and the West of England from the Wenvoe transmitter near Cardiff.

By February 1964, two new television regions, BBC Wales and BBC West, had been created with the addition of a new channel (13) for Wales on Wenvoe. Wales Today thus became a 25-minute programme broadcast only to Wales while Points West was only broadcast to the West of England. In 1969, separate UHF transmitters at Wenvoe (Wales) and Mendip (West) meant complete separation, except for overlap areas in South Wales.

Between September 1984 and September 1988, the programme aired at 5:35 pm - one hour earlier than most of its counterpart BBC news programmes elsewhere in the UK - before moving to the 6:30 pm timeslot in September 1988. Wales Today shares the same studio facilities (studio C2 at Broadcasting House in Cardiff) as S4C's Newyddion programme.

On air
On weekdays, Wales Today broadcasts six three-minute bulletins at 27 and 57 minutes past each hour during BBC Breakfast. A 15-minute lunchtime programme airs at 1:30 pm with a short preview at 5:15 pm. The main half-hour edition of the programme airs between 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm. A short 30-second headline update is broadcast during the BBC News Summary at 8:00 pm with the late night bulletin airing at 10:35 pm, following the BBC News at Ten.

Three bulletins air during the weekend: early evening bulletins on Saturday & Sunday and a late night bulletin on Sundays, following the BBC News at Ten.

From November 2001, a fifteen-minute news bulletin was broadcast on the digital opt-out service BBC 2W, first as 2W News and Sport and later, Wales Today on 2W. The bulletin was axed in 2007.

On air team
N.B. Persons marked with an * are also a stand-in presenter/newsreader.

Former on air team
Former presenters of Wales Today include: Noreen Bray; John Darran; Sara Edwards; Gail Foley; Jayne James; Rhys Jones; Patrick Hannan; Brian Hoey; Bob Humphrys; Vincent Kane; Jason Mohammad; Chris Morgan; David Parry-Jones; Betsan Powys; Penny Roberts; Simon Pusey; Tim Rogers.