BBC Northern Ireland


BBC Northern Ireland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Northern Ireland.
It is one of the three BBC national regions, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Cymru Wales. Based at Broadcasting House, Belfast, it provides television, radio, online and interactive television content. BBC Northern Ireland currently employs 700 people, largely in Belfast.
BBC Northern Ireland has two TV channels - BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two Northern Ireland; and two radio stations - BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle.

Television

BBC Northern Ireland operates two television stations;
Prior to 27 October 2006, BBC Two NI was a digital only service while BBC Two Northern Ireland was available on analogue transmission. Since 28 October 2006, BBC Two Northern Ireland has been the on-air name for both services which have been merged.
BBC Northern Ireland has its own team of continuity announcers which introduce the vast majority of programmes on BBC One and BBC Two in Northern Ireland.
BBC Northern Ireland makes some of its own programmes itself. However, unlike the radio stations, the television stations' content is for the most part identical to that broadcast by the BBC One and BBC Two channels in England. Some network programmes may however be time-shifted to make room for more local programming. Most local programmes are broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland.

Regional television

As well as programmes intended purely for a regional audience, BBC Northern Ireland also produces programmes for national consumption on the BBC's channels across the UK. The main part of BBC Northern Ireland's network productions are in comedy and drama. This has included producing the high-profile drama series Messiah.
BBC Northern Ireland is also involved in co-productions with other broadcasting networks, most notably with the Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

Republic of Ireland

BBC Northern Ireland operates two radio stations:
BBC Northern Ireland takes part in the 'Regionalisation' of some of the BBC's national radio output. Until 2012, for example, Radio 1 split the home nations on Thursday morning from midnight to 2am, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland broadcasting their own shows to showcase regional talent. The Radio 1 session from Northern Ireland was last presented by Phil Taggart from Omagh.

Online

BBC Northern Ireland's online service provides News, Sport, , and Programme information for television and radio programmes. It provides a streaming audio service for Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle as well as every programme on demand for up to a week after transmission. bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ is part of BBC Online and operated from the Belfast base. It also provides multi platform interactivity for TV programmes including the annual Schools' Cup Rugby union and Gaelic Athletic Association finals.

BBC Experience

In recent years BBC Northern Ireland in conjunction with Libraries NI, have launched an interactive road show visiting libraries across Northern Ireland. The road show allows people to learn more about day-to-day life in the BBC as well as allowing them to take part in activities such as presenting the news or weather, starring in a radio drama or making jingles. For the majority of the days, there is an outside broadcast from BBC Radio Ulster's Hugo Duncan.

Programmes

Significant regional programmes

Radio

Rugby

In 2010 BBC Northern Ireland with RTÉ Sport, TG4 and BBC Alba bought the rights for Celtic League rugby. Setanta Sports had held the Irish and Scottish rights from 2004 to 2009.

Irish League football

BBC NI provide coverage of Irish League football.

Languages

Although BBC Northern Ireland broadcasts primarily in English, there is some programming in Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots.
Radio Ulster carries a daily programme in Irish and there is an Irish language section on BBC Northern Ireland's website, where reference is made to "BBC Thuaisceart Éireann". There are also occasionally TV programmes in Irish. Programmes are also broadcast in Ulster Scots, though with much less frequency.
There is a weekly radio programme for the Chinese community in Northern Ireland which broadcasts in Cantonese, called "Wah Yan Jee Sing".

Technical

The BBC television and radio stations are broadcast primarily from the Divis, Limavady and Brougher Mountain transmitters. Both transmitters receive the BBC stations via a satellite feeds and each transmitter has a wealth of relay transmitters to provide analogue service to areas not served by their respective main transmitter.
BBC Northern Ireland have a radio link from their studios in Belfast which allows mobile on-location news crews to hear the studio; the test tone is known as the "commbeep".

TV Studios

BBC Northern Ireland has three main television studios located in Belfast. There are two small studios located in the BBC Broadcasting House in Belfast. These are home to BBC Northern Ireland's regional news and current affairs programmes. They are around each and are called Studio B and Studio 1.
The largest of the studios is called Studio A which is located in the BBC Blackstaff House on Great Victoria Street in Belfast. The studio measures. Studio A has been home to the award winning local sitcom Give My Head Peace. Nolan Live for BBC One NI airs live from Studio A. It was announced in June 2019 that the BBC quiz show "Mastermind" would be recording their 2019 shows in Studio A during July 2019.

BBC NI broadcasters

Former BBC NI broadcasters