BBC television news from Manchester began on 30 September 1957, with a nightly bulletin entitled
News from the North, broadcast to the whole of Northern England from the
Holme Moss and
Pontop Pike transmitters. The rival ITV station,
Granada Television, had already begun providing regional news coverage when it began broadcasting in May 1956, at first covering the North West only before extending to Yorkshire six months later. For the first two years, the short weeknight bulletins were produced and broadcast from the
BBC's Dickenson Road television studio at
Rusholme in south Manchester. When separate bulletins for the North East and Cumbria were introduced in 1959, the TV news service was refocused to cover the North West and Yorkshire areas and at this point, production moved to a small studio at Broadcasting House, situated above a bank at
Piccadilly Gardens and shared with the BBC's radio and newsgathering facilities in Manchester. By 1962, the nightly bulletins had been extended to 20 minutes and evolved into the magazine programme
North at Six, later renamed as
Look North. On 25 March 1968, the Manchester edition of
Look North was refocused to cover the North West area, following the launch of a third
Look North programme from Leeds. The programme was renamed in 1980 as
Look North West, with
News North West introduced for shorter bulletins. On 18 May 1981,
Look North West moved from
Piccadilly Gardens to
New Broadcasting House on nearby
Oxford Road.
BBC North West Tonight was introduced on 3 September 1984 to coincide with the launch of the ''
BBC Six O'Clock News''. On the 18th February 1985 North West Tonight was the last ever programme to be introduced with the 1974 BBC1 mirror globe with the BBC1 North West byline version as 25 minutes later the new COW BBC1 globe would be introduced with its first use being to introduce Wogan at 7pm. Between 1986 and 1989, the programme also covered parts of Cumbria previously served by the Newcastle edition of
Look North and provided a news opt-out for the area at lunchtime. Later, Cumbrian news coverage was switched back to the Newcastle edition of
Look North. The last edition of the programme from Studio B at New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road aired on 27 November 2011 and was also the last broadcast from the studios after 36 years of operation. The programme's first broadcast from the BBC's Salford Quays studios took place the following day, during the BBC Breakfast programme.
BBC North West Tonight and
BBC Breakfast shared the same studio until 2023. ==Broadcast times==