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 </head><body><p>Sounds like you&#39;re referring to the dishonestly-named IFNC scheme &#34;Independently Funded News Consortia&#34; </p><p><br></p><p>That proposal was a response to attempted blackmail by ITV to stop making local news because it said it couldn&#39;t afford to go on making local programmes. Far from being &#34;independently funded&#34; it was to be funded by subsidy from top-slicing of the licence fee via Ofcom. It was a shameful proposal that Ofcom should never have dirtied its hands with, and even though they got as far as selecting the &#39;successful&#39; bidders, it was abandoned after a change of Government.<br></p><p><br></p><p>I well remember an Ofcom meeting in Glasgow at which they tried to sell the idea, and the Ofcom panel strongly objected to my referring to it as a publicly subsidized ITV news service, even though that was absolutely and exactly what it was to be.<br></p><p><br></p><p>ITV started lobbying again last year for public subsidy of their news service., so the idea may yet resurface.<br></p><p><br></p><p>You can&#39;t help wondering, if in 2010 ITV said local programme production was totally uneconomic (even at its rather huge &#39;local&#39; scale), how did anybody ever countenance the viability of much smaller-scale local TV?<br></p><p><br></p><p>Alex<br></p><blockquote type="cite">On 15 October 2015 at 17:33 Marilyn Hyndman &#60;marilyn@northernvisions.org&#62; wrote:<br><br>... offset against property or investments in terms of the deficit?<div><br><div>&#160;It may imply that local media and newspapers etc are not particularly profitable overall?</div><div><br><div>&#8230;.it is not so long ago that newspapers were looking to do their own form of TV as an alternative to Local TV under the Brown government.&#160;</div><div>Someone else might remember what the awful and contrived scheme was called, have forgotten.</div><div><br></div><div>M</div><div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 15 Oct 2015, at 17:10, Ian Hickling &#60;<a href="mailto:transplanfm@hotmail.com">transplanfm@hotmail.com</a>&#62; wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div class="hmmessage" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div dir="ltr">How the heck can you operate a business - even as part of a larger Group - with such scathing losses?<br>Isn&#39;t that Trading in Deficit?<br>Isn&#39;t that illegal?<br><br><div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; position: static;"><span style="font-size: medium;" size="3"><strong>Ian Hickling</strong><br></span></div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: medium;" size="3"><span style="color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff;">Partner</span></span><br><br><a style="color: #1155cc;" href="http://www.transplanuk.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/2SkDsnIzSZgRbNnNKBSiwxiFhFQWRGV55mTjVL23fulnJpstZmYxeKrrYefY4qxiSgkMrAETld64XINLXCsujE_zI5gAsQyWeCWvHixcrNYtar3Sij4YlVBgN2NSQ-n2DsgZvrnpWZlfwCQ=s0-d-e1-ft#http://www.transplanuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/transplan_UK_weblogo_190x60.png" alt=""></a><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><em><span style="font-size: medium;" size="3">Office: 01635 578435&#160;&#160;(7am-11pm UK time)</span></em></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><em><span style="font-size: medium;" size="3">Carphone: 07530 980115 (only responds when driving)</span></em></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><em><span style="font-size: medium;" size="3">6 Horn Street, Compton, NEWBURY, RG20 6QS</span></em></div></div><br><br><div><hr id="stopSpelling">From:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:marilyn@northernvisions.org">marilyn@northernvisions.org</a><br>Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2015 16:49:14 +0100<br>To:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:bill.best@commedia.org.uk">bill.best@commedia.org.uk</a><br>CC:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:comtv-l@commedia.org.uk">comtv-l@commedia.org.uk</a>;<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:cma-l@mailman.commedia.org.uk">cma-l@mailman.commedia.org.uk</a><br>Subject: Re: [cma-l] [comtv-l] Local TV in trouble<br><br>The Guardian reported losses of &#163;19.1million last year&#8230; and &#163;30 million the year before.<div><br><div><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/08/guardian-observer-narrow-losses" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/08/guardian-observer-narrow-losses</a><br><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/30/guardian-observer-publisher-guardian-news-media">http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/30/guardian-observer-publisher-guardian-news-media</a><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 15 Oct 2015, at 16:05, Bill Best &#60;<a href="mailto:bill.best@commedia.org.uk">bill.best@commedia.org.uk</a>&#62; wrote:</div><br class="ecxApple-interchange-newline"><blockquote><div dir="ltr">There&#39;s a rather scathing follow-up opinion piece here:<br><br><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/oct/14/dont-make-the-bbc-bail-out-the-busted-flush-that-is-local-tv" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/oct/14/dont-make-the-bbc-bail-out-the-busted-flush-that-is-local-tv</a><br><br><div class="ecxgmail_extra">Bill<br>--<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><br clear="all"></div><div class="ecxgmail_extra"><div><div class="ecxgmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div>Operations Manager<br></div>Community Media Association<br></div><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.commedia.org.uk</a><br></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/community_media" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/community_media</a><br></div><div><a href="https://facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation" target="_blank">https://facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation</a><br><br></div><div>&#160;<br></div>Canstream Internet Radio<br></div><a href="http://www.canstream.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.canstream.co.uk</a><br></div><a href="https://twitter.com/canstream" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/canstream</a><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br><div class="ecxgmail_quote">On 14 October 2015 at 12:23, Two Lochs Radio<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>&#60;<a href="mailto:tlr@gairloch.co.uk" target="_blank">tlr@gairloch.co.uk</a>&#62;<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>wrote:<br><blockquote><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><div>I see Jeff Henry of Archant is quoted as saying<em><span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>&#34;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/12/bbc-ofcom-help-norwich-tv-station-mustard" target="_blank">...</a>in order for local TV to be commercially viable, it needs more financial support from the BBC and for Ofcom to allow the relaxation of programming regulations.&#34;</em><br><br><br><br>Presumably since the company is reported to have lost &#163;657k last year, that is the sort of level of financial support it would need to be viable - that&#39;s approaching double the entire Community Radio Fund, just for a single local TV service.<br><br><br><br>Maybe the real answer is that effective small-scale local TV is simply not viable in the way that community radio can be, which is certainly how it looked to me at the start of this scheme, and to a consultation report published by Ofcom, which said:<br><br><br><br><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; font-size: 17.2549px; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><em>&#34;Only London and Manchester can support a profitable standalone commercial local TV channel, given the levels of investment required to sustain local programming and low audience share and reach achievable by such a TV channel. The commercial prospects for local community TV channels in regions with under 200k homes are poor. Community channels are likely to have little appeal to advertisers and will have to rely on government funding and private donations&#34;<br></em>and</span><br><em><span style="font-size: 10pt;">&#34;...audience share levels required for community TV channels to break even on minimal costs of &#163;300k are highly unlikely to be achievable.&#34;</span></em></div><br><br>Alex<br><br><br><br>Also see<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/oct/14/dont-make-the-bbc-bail-out-the-busted-flush-that-is-local-tv" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/oct/14/dont-make-the-bbc-bail-out-the-busted-flush-that-is-local-tv</a><br><br>On 14 October 2015 at 09:45 Alan Coote &#60;<a href="mailto:alan.coote@5digital.co.uk" target="_blank">alan.coote@5digital.co.uk</a>&#62; wrote:<br><br><br>Surely the lack of money in community radio, in fact local media in general, should have told them life was going to be tough.&#160;<br><br><a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2015/news/regional-publishers-local-tv-channel-lost-657000-last-year/" target="_blank">http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2015/news/regional-publishers-local-tv-channel-lost-657000-last-year/</a><br><br>Alan<br>____________________<br><br></div><br>_______________________________________________<br><br>Reply -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:cma-l@commedia.org.uk">cma-l@commedia.org.uk</a><br><br>The cma-l mailing list is a members&#39; service provided by the Community Media Association -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.commedia.org.uk</a><br>Twitter:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://twitter.com/community_media" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/community_media</a><br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation</a><br>Canstream Internet Radio &#38; Video:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.canstream.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.canstream.co.uk/</a><br>_______________________________________________<br><br>Mailing list guidelines:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/" target="_blank">http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/</a><br>_______________________________________________<br><br>To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:<br><a href="http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l" target="_blank">http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div></div>_______________________________________________<br><br>comtv-l mailing list -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:comtv-l@commedia.org.uk">comtv-l@commedia.org.uk</a><br><br>Community Media Association -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/">www.commedia.org.uk</a><br>_______________________________________________<br><br>To manage your mailing list subscription please visit:<br><a href="http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/comtv-l">http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/comtv-l</a><br></blockquote></div><br><div><div style="text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="font-style: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><br><br><br></div></div></div></div><br></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________ Reply -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:cma-l@commedia.org.uk">cma-l@commedia.org.uk</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>The cma-l mailing list is a members&#39; service provided by the Community Media Association -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/">http://www.commedia.org.uk</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>Twitter:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://twitter.com/community_media">http://twitter.com/community_media</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation">http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>Canstream Internet Radio &#38; Video:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.canstream.co.uk/">http://www.canstream.co.uk/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>_______________________________________________ Mailing list guidelines:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/">http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span>_______________________________________________ To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:<a href="http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l">http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l</a><br></div></div>_______________________________________________<br><br>Reply -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="mailto:cma-l@commedia.org.uk">cma-l@commedia.org.uk</a><br><br>The cma-l mailing list is a members&#39; service provided by the Community Media Association -<span class="Apple-converted-space">&#160;</span><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/">http://www.commedia.org.uk</a><br>Twitter:<span class="Apple-co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