[cma-l] Historic Rivals Unite to Lobby Ofcom

[Jaqui Devereux]

Dear all

Please find below the text of the joint Press Release issued today by 
the community and commercial local TV sectors.

Best wishes
-- 
Jaqui Devereux

Acting Director
Community Media Association


“UNITED FOR LOCAL TELEVISION”
HISTORIC RIVALS UNITE TO LOBBY OFCOM

Prominent groups from the voluntary, community and commercial sectors 
have today joined forces to appeal to the communications regulator, 
Ofcom, to develop a new tier of local TV channels for the counties and 
cities of the UK.

A diverse group of voluntary sector organisations, commercial TV 
operators and media campaigners have signed a joint letter calling on 
Ofcom to reserve spectrum to ensure every major part of the UK is able 
to receive its own local channel on Freeview carrying local news and 
other “public service” programming. Calling themselves “United for Local 
Television” the group are criticising Ofcom’s current plans, which could 
see all spectrum suitable for local TV auctioned off for other uses.

Jaqui Devereux, Acting Director of the Community Media Association who 
helped coordinate the letter to Ofcom said:

“In the past, there have been lots of different groups in different 
parts of the country calling for different forms of ‘local TV’ which may 
have made it difficult for Ofcom to know who to listen to. Now, for the 
first time, we are appealing to Ofcom as one voice to argue for 
guaranteed access to the UK’s number one TV platform, Freeview.”

“Almost every country in the democratic world reserves some spectrum for 
local broadcasting. It is complete madness to say that the only way 
local TV can get access to spectrum is to out-bid national TV channels 
that enjoy far lower operating costs. We all want the same thing – local 
TV channels providing local information, local production and local 
advertising. Ofcom has to look at its own research and realise local TV 
cannot be viable if it is unable to secure access to Freeview on 
sensible terms.”

Daniel Cass of the SIX TV Group who currently broadcast commercial local 
TV channels in Oxford and Southampton said:

“Local TV is popular and successful in almost every other country in the 
free world. In the US local TV channels are consistently number one for 
local news in even quite small cities. Yet here Ofcom seem to think 
nobody will watch it – despite local TV being one of the most demanded 
services in all of the research it has conducted.

“The shopping channel, QVC, recently announced it had secured Freeview 
carriage until 2022. It seems nonsensical for Ofcom to be reserving 
spectrum for dozens of UK-wide channels and at the same time to say they 
cannot ensure a single local news channel launches on the Freeview 
platform. Even the BBC has now dropped its plans for local TV, which 
makes it even more vital that Ofcom takes action.”

Rebecca Fulton of Public Voice, the principal voluntary sector coalition 
campaigning for citizens’ interests in communications regulation, said:

“Since Ofcom first announced its review of the broadcast spectrum freed 
by the switch from analogue to digital TV, Public Voice has highlighted 
the regulator’s failure to uphold its duty to citizens by ensuring 
spectrum is available for public service, social and community uses, By 
advocating a simple market auction approach to the release of this 
spectrum, Ofcom is inviting a situation where broadcasters with 
citizen-focussed remits will almost certainly be outbid for spectrum 
access. This is particularly true for local television, where national 
companies can out-bid local TV operators when competing for DTT capacity 
at major transmission sites.”

Rebecca concluded:

“Local TV has been “crowded out” of spectrum for too long and we believe 
Ofcom has a duty to take action to address this market failure and make 
local TV available for use by and for local communities.”

Signatories to the letter to Ofcom include the holders of 11 existing 
analogue local TV licences, voluntary organisations such as Community 
Service Volunteers and prominent media campaigners such as the Voice of 
the Listener and Viewer.


ENDS

EDITOR’S NOTES:

UNITED FOR LOCAL TELEVISION

A copy of the full letter and statement sent to Ofcom by UNITED FOR 
LOCAL TELEVISION is attached to this press release, together with a full 
list of signatories.

Information and contact details for three of the lead organisations 
involved in UNITED FOR LOCAL TELEVISION is set out below.

BACKGROUND
Digital switchover and the demand for local television

The spectrum currently used by analogue TV is due to be switched off on 
a region-by-region basis between now and 2012 as digital TV replaces the 
traditional analogue broadcasting signals. Ofcom is due to announce a 
policy statement on the use of the spectrum freed up by the digital 
switchover process later this month. In its original consultation last 
year Ofcom suggested it would leave the market to decide how spectrum is 
used but, since then, it has proposed new measures to help some of the 
major broadcasters and radio microphone users.

Many campaigners for local TV feel that Ofcom is listening to big 
pressure groups led by the BBC and ITV whilst ignoring market research 
which shows very strong demand for new local TV channels on Freeview 
(DTT). The most recent research commissioned by Ofcom (Ipsos MORI 2007) 
showed that “local TV on Freeview” was the second most preferred use of 
new spectrum, ahead of high definition TV and improved mobile coverage, 
and the ‘number one’ application for those with no interest in digital 
technology (see bar chart below). Ofcom has expressed a desire to see 
local TV develop on the internet, but economic analysis commissioned by 
Ofcom concluded last year that local TV would not generally be viable 
without access to the Freeview platform (“Digital Local, 2006”).





























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