It consisted of a round up of stories from the BBC's various local news programmes where it had not initially been possible to show regional variations.

Lack of English variations on Satellite was due to a single broadcast feed being able to cover the entirety of England (in reality it could cover much of north and western Europe) whilst on digital terrestrial it was due to the regional broadcast centres in England not yet being equipped to 'opt in and out' of the digital network when digital terrestrial broadcasts began in 1998.

This presented a problem with two obvious solutions – either just show the BBC South East version of the channels (already used as a 'sustaining feed' in case of failure at the regional centres), or create new programming to fill the gaps.

In 2002 the satellite version of BBC One England started carrying the London region's programme, BBC London News, although an interactive service did allow viewers to select one of four alternate regional programmes, including South Today and North West Tonight, for the main 6.30 pm news bulletin.

Also, the teletext service Ceefax continued to carry regional content on BBC Two until analogue switch-off in 2012.