The changing world of local television
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by Peter Williams
The world of local TV has changed dramatically. It is no
longer a question: should we support truly local television. The
fact is that local TV will soon be on television sets all over the
country.
Local TV is now at the heart of one of the most exciting
initiatives in the British media for years. The new local TV
station will serve communities of 200,000 to half-a-million. The
first few may be city-based - but, it is vital that, in this first
tranche of licences issued over the next two years, areas such as
Kent without a huge city, should not be left out.
It is difficult accurately to forecast what "typical" local
TV will look like. Perhaps it will be two or three, 2-hour segments
of "local" programmes to be scheduled each day, including local
news, with the local TV network (Channel 6) supplying programming
for the remaining hours which each local station may choose to take
or to ignore.
Perhaps a network which is more of a library of material that
each station may draw from and schedule when they will. Crucially,
the local stations should have control of the network, with a
number of representatives on the board of the company which will
run the network.
The first task is to produce that network. Companies, perhaps
existing networks such as ITV or Channel 4, have been asked by the
Coalition Government to express their interest. Once this spine is
in place and its form settled, interested groups who think they can
make a local TV station work financially, will bid for a franchise
to "own" those local TV hours. Only then will the substance and
breadth of local TV emerge.
Kent should be perfectly capable of sustaining a local station
of its own. And local TV will produce hundreds of new jobs with the
emergence of an estimated 50 to 80 stations. By any standard, the
new jobs that will emerge through this initiative has to make local
TV...Good News.
- Peter Williams is a founder member of United for Local
Television (ULTV) and vice-chair of the Greg Dyke's Local
Television Advisory Committee
Wednesday, February 16 2011
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