[Community Television] CMA Local and Community Television Research Project (Second Call for Responses)

[Chris Hewson]

COMMUNITY MEDIA ASSOCIATION 'LOCAL AND COMMUNITY TELEVISION' REPORT

*Potential contributors are reminded that responses received by this Friday
(22nd) will be included in the draft version of the report... 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 (preferably) before Friday
October 22nd, so they can be included in the report's first drafting, and
incorporated within ongoing strategic discussions. However submissions will
be accepted until mid-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?