[cma-l] Opportunities for local TV immense

[Phil Shepherd]

Here's Peter Williams' article for Broadcast 10.10.10 - lots of interest
expressed since for the consultative committee mentioned.   Says Peter  "Our
committee will consider representations and all options and will report (to
Jeremy Hunt) by the end of the year."

"Over the past 10 years, the number of mainstream journalists¹ jobs in the
UK has shrunk by a third.*

Jobs gone between 2007 and 2009: 9,500. Jobs remaining: maybe 40,000. Not
happy reading if you¹re one of the 8,000 or so would-be journalists who
graduate every year.

So the reaction (Broadcast, October 8th) to Jeremy Hunt¹s proposal for a
network of truly local TV stations in the UK was, well, staggering. This is
a proposal that, over the years, would create hundreds of new jobs
throughout the UK. Yet one correspondent dismissed the initiative as ³a
waste of time and resources².

Let me further spell out why she couldn¹t be more wrong. First, there¹s the
democratic argument. Local TV can fill the gap left by the axing of ITV¹s
regional programming in the arts, sport, religion, music and, crucially,
politics with a tighter focus than ITV¹s regional programming ever had.

Local TV on broadband and Freeview can stimulate local initiatives and
intensify local accountability. Local TV can, and will, inspire media
partnerships, embracing local newspapers, universities and, on occasions,
local authorities provided independent governance is assured.

³No one can see a commercial model for local TV news in the UK that works²
wrote Kate Bulkley the same day. Well, ³no-one can see it² because no-one in
the UK has yet tried what we, and I believe Jeremy Hunt, have in mind. A key
to successful local TV is a network. It works in France and Germany and, as
Hunt points out, in the US. A network gives access to national advertising.
It enables the best of local programmes, and those with common interests, to
be shared. It gives cohesion to a valuable democratic tool.

The network which will surround the output of each local station could run
in a number of different ways. It will certainly draw on good quality
acquired material. It could also sell some of its airtime to an existing
broadcaster ­ after all, local TV will run at peak time on Freeview and, as
the Shott Committee recommended, with a page 1 prominence on the EPG. As we
told Shott, we have a consultative committee, chaired by Greg Dyke, ready to
explore the options of how a local TV network would operate.

The business model for local TV is not difficult to grasp. A tight-knit team
of video journalists will create a core of news and local interest
programmes, which can be repeated and updated through the day.  They will
co-operate with and embrace community initiatives, including colleges and
universities. Local businesses will advertise in spot ads and advertorials.
Each station will not be short of eager investors.

Ironically, a clue to the future shape of local TV lies in the BBC¹s
proposals rejected by the BBC Trust in 2008. The BBC was not proposing ³City
TV², to serve say 12 cities, ignoring the rest of the country. The BBC
identified 60 areas, where TV stations could be set up to serve counties and
other sensible sub-regions. That is the basis of a network ­ and,
interestingly, the Trust rejected the proposals partly because they thought
they might be too successful, encouraging a BBC monopoly.

We are surrounded by talk of cuts and pain. Local TV is about expansion and
opportunity. Those of us who¹ve been in the business for a year or two, have
a duty fully to explore the potential of local TV. The prize, both in terms
of the democratic process and in future careers, is immense."

*Francis Nel, University of Central Lancashire