[cma-l] Tories call for 81 local TV stations

[Ian Hickling]

Oh dear!


I do wish that when something like this is released to the Industry - and indeed to the public at large - that the account be re-written in accurate English as opposed to glib uninformed media-speak.

 

1 - There will not be a ".....switch-over from the analogue television signal to digital.....".

The terrestrial digital service will be completed and the analogue service will cease.

There is no magic "Switchover" 

 

2 - Ofcom will not ".....be able to create 81 new local television channels at little cost....."

Ofcom will be able to release spectrum vacated by present analouge services which can be made available for 81 possible local television services.

 

3 - Having announced the coming availability of channels, it's then confusing to the reader to write that "....the channels themselves can be manned and run by volunteers.....". 

People don't man and run television channels. Local stations using the newly-available channels can be manned and run by volunteers.

 

4 - And in English, it's "compared with" - not "compared to"!

 

Ian Hickling

transplan UK

 



 
> Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:52:23 +0100
> From: nicky at cmso.co.uk
> To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
> Subject: [cma-l] Tories call for 81 local TV stations
> 
> 
> From today's Telegraph:
> 
> An ambitious report that looks at how local news can be brought to more 
> areas and at a lower cost will be published on Wednesday morning and 
> will form the basis of a new Tory consultation on communications.
> 
> Among the proposals that Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, is 
> most keen to see work is that of cheaper news gathering at a local level 
> which can be broadcast via new television stations that only reach 
> individual communities.
> 
> The report has been written by Roger Parry, a media expert and former 
> BBC reporter. He highlights how when the switch-over from the analogue 
> television signal to digital happens in the next few years Ofcom will be 
> able to create 81 new local television channels at little cost.
> 
> Mr Parry's 58-page report examines what can be done with that new 
> platform. He is recommending that local reporters can combine new 
> digital camera technology which is low cost and does not requite several 
> people with easier broadcast techniques, to bring news into people's homes.
> 
> The channels themselves can be manned and run by volunteers, he suggests.
> 
> Mr Parry estimates that it would cost just £1,000-a-hour to produce 
> compared to close to £10,000 an hour for some existing local news channels.
> 
> The Conservatives are keen to exploit new ways of bringing local news to 
> people particularly as cost constraints have started to threaten much of 
> the output in many regions of the UK.
> 
> Mr Hunt recently said that the old way of covering regional news had failed.
> 
> "Why does Birmingham Alabama have 8 local TV stations when Birmingham in 
> the UK - four times the size - has none?" he asked.
> 
> "In America even much smaller cities have not one but a whole clutch of 
> local news channels, greatly enhancing both a sense of community and 
> vibrant local democracy. None have access to a licence fee. So instead 
> of putting yet more burden on taxpayers why is the government not 
> embracing a digital-era version of syndicated local TV, something that 
> could also prove to be a lifeline for our local newspaper industry?"
> 
> 
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/5828314/Tories-call-for-American-style-local-news-channels.html
> -- 
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