[Community Television] Ofcom Phase III Public Service Television Broadcasting Review (Modified by Michelle McGuire)

[Dave Rushton]

ACTO CHECKLIST – A RESPONSE TO LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION
BROADCASTING IN THE NATIONS AND REGIONS

OFCOM PHASE III PSB REVIEW APRIL 2005

A LOCAL PSB NETWORK FOR THE NATIONS AND REGIONS

•	ACTO understands that local TV channels can be inserted using 
add/drop boxes into DTT bandwidth. This solution for local TV should be 
planned with the roll out of DTT and as part of the presentation to the 
Regional Radio Conference in 2006 (see Local TV Network submitted by 
the Institute of Local Television)

•	local TV is the new public service television broadcaster that will 
replace ITV’s regional service as ITV drops its PSB commitments across 
the nations and regions – the quid pro quo is that local TV is given 
access to bandwidth on the channel 3 mux which was provided to channel 
3/ITV in view of its PSB responsibilities – including regional PSB 
commitments

•	a universal network of local TV stations could potentially use each 
of the UK’s 1152 transmitter sites to transmit a signal to identified 
communities, using the transmitters and relays in smaller 
configurations than regional TV to encircle defined communities 
modelled as closely as possible on local authority boundaries

•	local TV channels combine highly local news and other community and 
locally made programming with ‘imported’ and ‘shared’ programmes. 
Shared programming can be made for few or several local TV channels to 
suit communities of interest in each locality. Combined they could 
provide a ‘nation-TV’ break-out to cover parliament and assembly, 
national or major festivals, other broadly shared events not 
represented by ITV and the UK-wide channels

•	to help achieve local DTT’s objective a must carry rule for cable and 
broadband TV redistribution should apply for local public service 
television broadcasting

•	in the nations MORI has established (for Phase III) that demand for 
local TV news is as strong in the isolated and smaller communities as 
it is in the cities

•	but MORI’s research also suggests that ‘local area’ is not synonymous 
with ‘regional ITV area’, that viewers require news from their 
immediate area and (in some cases) from nearby towns or cities as well 
as from areas where there is a strong association (see Institute of 
Local Television’s responses to Phase III, Speed Reading ‘Programming 
in the Nations’ and Defining the social geography of local news 
identity)

•	each local PSB channel would be independently owned

CHARACTER OF LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION BROADCASTING

•	local news, information, debate and participation is the core of 
local television – generating a sense of pride and ownership in each 
local TV channel

•	news includes cultural, social, documentary and current affairs, 
local entertainment information as well as hard news – but engagement 
with civic affairs, support for debate and intervention have a positive 
emphasis

•	viewer participation and community involvement in all aspects of the 
service are seen as important contributors to local TV’s distinctive 
and individual character in each area

•	local TV can deliver on media literacy, industrial and professional 
training, encourage audio visual production and co-productions with 
neighbouring stations for export throughout the network of local 
channels

•	local TV has three elements: a) a local news, information and 
participatory service, surrounded by; b) shared community or common 
interest programming and (for smaller channels if not for all); c) a 
sustaining network or networks which adds quality and value to the 
viewer’s engagement with the local channel

•	the sustaining network for local TV might be a non-profit company 
under the direction of the local TV channels it helps support. The 
model network suggested for each nation could in turn interact with or 
be part of a UK-wide or even a European-wide network or clearing-house. 
There’s clearly scope for several sustaining networks to evolve from 
initiatives already being built up in support of local TV

•	the sustaining networks’ video clips or programme contribution would 
be locally scheduled to retain the strong sense of local control, of 
programmes being imported through local choice rather than being 
imposed - music videos have been put forward as a model in discussions 
in Scotland because these offer positive and flexible features which 
can be locally identified, described in more detail in the submission 
titled Local TV Network in papers forwarded by the Institute of Local 
Television from the Scottish Local TV Forum

•	local TV is a channel that the viewers feel attracted to and with 
which they can closely identify, to which they are encouraged to 
respond and participate in – and this feature is most important

ECONOMICS

•	based on a local TV estimate for Spain, local TV would create 
10-15,000 jobs across the UK

•	Spain and France each propose 1000+ local DTT channels. An assessment 
has yet to be made for the UK, but the three-element local TV channel 
proposed by ACTO would encourage local TV for any area requiring a 
local news service. As a guide, in Scotland there are some 60 local 
newspapers. The Scottish Local TV Forum found interest from local 
authorities and community producers from the Western Isles, Dumfries 
and Galloway, Angus and Orkney. Smaller and sparsely populated 
communities should not be disadvantaged by their requirement for more 
transmitters and relays. The transmitter network costs needs resolving 
as part of the universal approach

•	the cost of the add/drop box solution – at £30-40,000 per transmitter 
site – is estimated at £46m across the UK

•	local TV is local public service television broadcasting – whether 
commercially, community or publicly owned – and should be able to 
access the PSP certainly for its core PSB provisions

•	the PSP provides a possible means to help establish, coordinate and 
support local TV- but the application and bidding models proposed to 
date by Ofcom are for a single PSP which is difficult to reconcile with 
two or more distinctive PSP roles proposed in Phase III

•	local TV needs to achieve as much reach as possible within its 
locally identified area – to attract advertisers in competition with 
radio and newspapers and to satisfy local authority requirements as 
well as stimulate local engagement

•	At the Scottish Local TV Forum the advertising industry approach 
suggested that local TV should be primarily seen as local, attracting 
local advertising. Shared programming would ensure sponsorship for 
targeted programmes and a network contribution would interest brand and 
high street advertisers. It was felt important to engage with the 
advertising agencies with at least parts of a service they could 
recognise. Local TV will need to be adept in achieving local, regional 
and national advertising by focusing on local areas and communities of 
interest

•	local authorities are a possible major new stakeholder in local TV –
core funding for each local service (in the order of £0.50-1.00 per 
household per year) would involve redirecting 25-30% of the local 
authority advertising spend into local TV - rather than finding new 
money

•	one Scottish local authority currently spends £30k per year on a 
weekly 15 minute local TV news programme, but much of this funding also 
contributes to income from video productions, web images, making DVDs, 
video training and providing access to equipment. In this local 
authority it is believed that there is great untapped potential for 
involving education in production and out-reach programming when the 
service becomes widely accessible across the borough

•	regular programming on local arts, literature and cinema is not an 
expensive element and documentaries can be swopped and traded with 
other channels (see Institute of Local Television’s response to Phase 
III titled e-tv …… together with the DVDs forwarded to Ofcom of 
programmes from Edinburgh Television, Channel Six Dundee and e-tv in 
Aberfeldy including Artists’ and Writers’ Stories and Cityscape).

•	without daily news the running costs for local TV were £30k per month 
for Edinburgh Television and £15-20k per month for Channel Six Dundee – 
a daily news service would be the most costly element of a local TV 
channel

• 	local TV has been exchanging programming with local European 
channels since 1994 (for example, through the Open Channels for Europe! 
network) and can help explore international links of interest to the 
communities in its area – to date this has included on air festivals 
and celebrations of local music, animation and student video production

•	joint financing, sponsorship and grants are available for programmes 
made locally especially those with an ‘export’ dimension – Art in 
Scotland (made for local TV in Edinburgh and Dundee) taken by the 
Artschannel (UK satellite) and shown in Berlin and Belfast (on local TV 
networks) and also distributed to art libraries and through galleries 
on DVD by The Broadcasting Trust

•	local TV is a powerful motor for local confidence building, for 
economic development in the arts, for local publicity, to encourage 
tourism, providing the means for greater self-representation in the 
wider media. Local TV is the most significant development in public 
service television broadcasting since the introduction of Channel 4 
almost twenty five years ago

•	local television will reinvent and reinvigorate public service 
television broadcasting – adding a positive twist to what has recently 
become an overly defensive and protective PSB

CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE LOCAL PSB SERVICE

•	local TV has demonstrated (in Belfast) that it can provide 
alternative and innovative programming which reflects and enriches the 
diversity of the local community, promoting equality and social 
inclusion, fostering mutual understanding and cross community 
initiatives. This being a highly cost effective form of intervention 
which can help develop new ways of expressing local identity and 
confidence. It also has the capacity to mark political and social 
change in the local community through activity based initiatives

•	local television has demonstrated (Belfast) its potential to be 
accessed by community/cultural organisations as a tool for enriching 
the lives of volunteers. It can be an outstanding example of dedicated 
volunteerism and a model for community relations/development 
organisations. Volunteering can be seen as central to local 
television's social responsibility efforts, helping make communities 
better places to live and work, through community capacity building, 
community relations and media literacy

•	local television has a proven capability of working with a wide range 
of organisations - victims groups, bereavement groups, women's groups, 
youth groups, community development groups, media groups, voluntary 
organisations, peace and reconciliation groups, children's groups, 
disability groups, interface projects, church (and other worship 
centred) groups, local government, ethnic minority groups, arts and 
cultural groups

•	MPs who supported EDM1316 during the passage of the Communications 
Act recognised the important contribution community media can bring to 
social inclusion, neighbourhood renewal, citizens' participation, local 
democracy and lifelong learning. Local television to be proactive in 
encouraging access, participation, ownership and authorship in 
programme production in marginalised communities and communities of 
interest

•	provision of free training workshops in television  production for 
residents in local constituencies to become production volunteers, 
access to production equipment to produce programmes and development of 
  standards of practice and support on an inclusive basis for groups and 
individuals seeking to access local television production

•	local television can build upon programming policies which actively 
oppose and attempt to break down prejudice on the basis of race, sex, 
nationality, religion, disability, ethnic background, age or sexual 
preference.

ACTO is the industry advisory committee of the Institute of Local 
Television
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