BBC1 is to make regional news programmes available on digital satellite for the first time, as the corporation steps up its digital expansion.

The service, which launches in the new year, will allow viewers in London, the north, the north-west, the west midlands and the south to access local news bulletins from their set-top boxes.

The BBC will use the same interactive technology used for its coverage of Wimbledon, meaning that viewers in the five regions can choose the service most applicable to them.

It means that viewers in Manchester can watch the London regional news by choosing the bulletin from their on-screen menu.

The BBC director general, Greg Dyke, said the move underlined the corporation's commitment to digital services.

"We firmly believe in the digital future and will do whatever we sensibly can to invest in it to add to viewers' choice," he said.

"With the innovative interactive technology used so successfully for Wimbledon and the Open Golf this summer we can now provide these new regional services."

The first phase covers 70% of the English population, but a BBC spokeswoman could not give an exact date for when the remaining programmes would be available on satellite.

In the meantime, those viewers will have to switch back to analogue TV for the services.

Today's announcement also means that the current service used to transmit regional news, UK Today, will stop broadcasting in January next year.