November 23: Kent TV get the Jedward result at EU awards
IT seems Kent TV did not have
the X-Factor when it came to the battle to secure a coveted award
EU award that it had been shortlisted for.
The county council’s £1.8million internet TV
channel was among 52 finalists in a competition set up to reward
innovative practice – the Holy Grail of all public bodies – by the
EU but it seems that it did not have the qualities to beat off
entries from Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Portugal and Italy (although
a press release announcing the winners is thoroughly
confusing).
A delegation from County Hall travelled to
Malmo in Sweden for the awards ceremony last Thursday - paid for by
the EU by the way - but returned empty handed. (For an interesting
blog on this read this
from Thanet blogger Tony Flaig).
Will this have any bearing on whether KCC’s
Conservative administration decides to continue with the
project?
I very much doubt it. Of course, picking up a
gong – albeit in a rather obscure awards competition – would have
been a handy fillip for those at County Hall who believe Kent TV
should go ahead but I think the Conservative cabinet will prove
rather more hard-headed about its eventual decision.
Meanwhile, I see that Ten Alps, which runs
Kent TV on behalf of KCC, is a partner in a bid to run an
alternative independent news service in the north east as part of a
Government pilot project, which you can read about
here.
And also of interest is this
story about another authority has abandoned its plans
to set up a council newspaper at a cost of £300,000. Thurrock
Council has scapped the idea after deciding that there was no
business case that could justify the initiative.
Of course, KCC’s original business case for
Kent TV was based around the idea that it would become
self-financing through advertising revenue – and so confident was
the authority about this happening that the possibility of not
doing so was identified as a low risk in one of the original
cabinet papers about the scheme.
It's unclear precisely what the business case will be for the
new contract but I gather that would-be bidders have been asked to
come up with "alternative methods of funding".
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There are traditionally two ways that politicians look at
opinion polls. One - when they suggest your party is on the skids -
is to suggest that the only poll that matters is the one on
election day.
The other - when polls point towards your party is on the up -
is to suggest the opposite and when it goes against the trend of
other polls to chracterise it as a rogue poll.
I don't suppose Labour will be thrilled that they remain six
points behind the Conservatives according to a recent poll but it
offers a small crumb of comfort to some MPs that the
trouncing many privately expect next year might not be quite
as grim as they anticipate.
Monday, November 23 2009