[Community Television] FINAL Call for Responses: "Local and Community Television in the UK: Problems and Opportunities"

[Chris Hewson]

LOCAL AND COMMUNITY TELEVISION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PROBLEMS AND 
OPPORTUNITIES

(UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN / COMMUNITY MEDIA ASSOCIATION)

*All responses received by MONDAY 29th NOVEMBER will be considered... all 
contributions welcome.

* A list of more detailed topics - around the allocation of digital 
spectrum, the development of 'Restricted Service Licence' television, and 
Community Media funding (amongst other topics) - is available on request.


Chris Hewson (c.hewson at lancaster.ac.uk)

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--- PLEASE FORWARD ---   (Apologies for Cross-Posting)

***WANTED: VIEWS ON THE FUTURE OF LOCAL TELEVISION***

The Community Media Association, in association with the University of 
Lincoln, has commissioned an update of Simon Blanchard's CMA/AHRB report: "A 
Third Tier of Television: The Growth of 'Restricted Service Licence' TV in 
the UK - Trends and Prospects" (2001). The remit is to expand upon, as well 
as update, Blanchard's original findings.

The report, provisionally entitled "Local and Community Television in a 
Digital World", will be geared towards a fortification of the CMA's policy 
base, as they seek to develop a coherent 'sector-wide' approach to underpin 
forthcoming contributions to DCMS and OfCom initiated consultation 
processes - particularly around the development of a 'Local Digital 
Television Order', the securing of digital spectrum for local television 
services, and the continued development of media-centred community 
regeneration programmes.

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE WELCOME - to be received by Monday 29th November. 
Contributions will be treated (on request) with the degree of confidentially 
stipulated.

A summary of the research is included below. Feel free to contact me.

Chris Hewson (c.hewson at lancaster.ac.uk)


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LINKS

Community Media Association - www.commedia.org.uk
CMA/AHRB Report - www.bftv.ac.uk/projects/thirdtier.htm
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LOCAL AND COMMUNITY TELEVISION IN A DIGITAL WORLD

RESEARCH BRIEF

This report foregrounds the vital role which LCTV stakeholders must play in 
ongoing debates around media reform and regulation - arguments centred 
around competing visions, and definitions, of 'converged media'. It will 
argue that a clear understanding, and vision, of social and technological 
change, within an increasingly networked media ecology, is imperative, in 
order that the LCTV sector might develop robust policy positions, and 
appropriate business strategies, going forward. Through a brief examination 
of a number of LCTV cases, and building upon previous research the report 
will provide a concise synopsis of an increasingly diversified sector - in 
terms of both organisational form, and content created - as well 
contributing a number of significant recommendations which could inform 
forthcoming LCTV discussions.

The report will embrace three key policy clusters. Firstly, new provisions 
within the Communications Act , in particular the burgeoning relationship 
between OfCom and the community media sector as a whole. Secondly, the work 
of the DTi/DCMS Digital Television Project, in particular the opportunities 
and dangers which digital switch-over presents for the LCTV sector, as well 
as the manner by which digitisation expands the range of prospective 
distribution mechanisms at the disposal of community media organisations. 
Thirdly, the OfCom Review of Public Service Broadcasting, in particular it's 
relationship to the DCMS review of the BBC Charter, and how the LCTV sector 
should both seek to understand, as well as influence, these entwined 
processes.


THE REPORT WILL PERFORM A NUMBER OF FUNCTIONS

* It will form an initial basis for future consultations with the DCMS and 
OfCom, towards both the refinement of the current LCTV licensing regime, 
initiated by the iTC, as well as the development of a Community Television 
Order and parallel LCTV working group.

* It will consider the issue, and likelihood, of LCTV being recognised as 
public service broadcasting, and the implications for future spectrum 
management.

* It will assess the concomitant issue of partnership working, with specific 
reference to the BBC's forays into local and community media schemes, as 
well as the disparate arguments advanced for the public funding of LCTV.

* It will outline a number of LCTV models, principally the proposed 
delineation of the sector into 'profit-making' and 'non-profit distributing' 
components.

* It will consider lessons drawn, thus far, from the Community Radio 
licensing process, particularly regarding the definitional construction of 
'local' and 'community'.


IN SUMMARY THE REPORT WILL PROVIDE INITIAL ANSWERS TO THREE PERTINENT 
QUESTIONS

* How can the LCTV sector maintain an adequate stake in both the new 
'communications settlement', and other New Labour policy schemes?

* How can the CMA best advance specific policy proposals, as well as its 
wider outlook, to Government, OfCom, and the wider media industry?

* Which distinctive models, and paradigms, might the LCTV sector seek to 
invest in, both financially and socially, in order to enshrine itself within 
the new communications ecology?