[CMA TV] TV enquiry

[Dave Rushton]

Hi Neeraja (and Michelle),

Not sure from your (Neeraja's) email if you want satellite, cable or 
terrestrial or broadband?

If cable then first of all consent of the local cable company to carry 
service is required - contact local cable company initially - licence 
is a formality from Ofcom once you have carriage secured. If in London 
there's also a video on demand and local TV capable service called 
Homechoice which reaches some parts of the city - it's basically like 
cable but comes down the phone line to the TV - again you'll get a 
contact off the web.

If it's a satellite service than The Community Channel might be able to 
help with contacts at Astra the satellite owner based in Luxembourg - 
but CC might also help by providing space on their channel to broadcast 
if you don't require a whole channel.

If it's terrestrial TV - the regulator Ofcom is looking into local 
digital TV just now with a consultation in the Autumn - there are no 
more analogue local licences being issued.

FInally, if it's broadband then Bill Best at the CMA is a good contact 
to get an overview of the technology, key players and software/hardware 
etc. (I'll cc this reply to Michelle at CMA so she can pass the 
broadband enquiry to Bill on your behalf.)

Sorry I can't be more specific - but there are an increasing number of 
ways of getting programmes out and coming up over the next five years 
will be local channels.

Also worth looking at is BT's recent announcement on broadband on TV - 
the type of service offered by Homechoice.

Again here if you have interesting content check out the broadband 
office at BT - on the web again - and explain what you want to do - 
with broadband capacity growing there is increasing scope for community 
of interest programmes.

Oh ..... and there's a device called 2.4TV we've been piloting and 
which is now being taken up in Doncaster - but really that's only a 
very local tower-block to tower-block TV or school to school TV set up. 
And there's more on the backround to that on localtvonline.com.

With best wishes,


Dave Rushton
Institute of Local Television