[Community Television] Ofcom Television Production Sector Review

[Dave Rushton]

Diane & TV Colleagues,


It may not be too late to intervene on the terms of reference on this - 
CMA members should write to Khalid Hayatt at Ofcom - 
khalid.hayat at ofcom.org.uk

For info ......

Date: Wed May 11, 2005  1:41:24 PM Europe/London
Subject: Review of television production sector: Project terms of 
reference

Dear Khalid,

With reference to the above Review. It seems appropriate to consider in 
the terms of reference of this forward-looking review the role of three 
sectors adjacent to the mainstream TV production sector: these are the 
community TV, educational TV and local TV production sectors. The role 
of these sectors is not represented in the 25% quota or in independent 
sector organisations like PACT because they are not primarily 
addressing programme making for mainstream TV.

Take the community TV sector in Scotland - represented through Media 
Access Projects Scotland (MAPS) which has some 10 or more member 
organisations producing programming in one or more of three ways; as 
the by product of social or confidence building education (often with 
young or socially disadvantaged people), as short programming for 
community use and representation and/or occasional mainstream TV use 
and as the product of video and TV training initiatives of comparable 
standard to FE and HE video courses.

The TV production sector in post-school education in the UK is also a 
large contributor of 'productions'. As an external examiner to one TV 
production course at University of Teesside I'm probably looking at a 
sample of programmes amounting to two to three hours drawn from a total 
of perhaps fifteen-twenty hours of original production made by students 
in the final year of the media course. In colleges and universities 
where TV production is at the core throughout the curriculum the 
production quota is probably higher. Taken across the FE and HE sector 
as a whole you'd anticipate - very roughly - 500-1000 hours of new 
production per year from the final year and post-graduate year students 
of the FE and HE sector. This is production - a portion of which is of 
high value - which is not seen on current television and the relevance 
of much of which is highly localised, stories shot in and around the 
community served by the college or from the home town of the student.

Between Edinburgh Television and Channel Six Dundee - two of Scotland's 
three RSLs - two to three hours of original programmes were produced 
each week. Lanarkshire TV probably produced more - while between the 
three RSLs in Scotland there were some thirty-thirty five staff. The 
staffing estimate for 1000 DTT stations currently being rolled out in 
Spain is some 10-15,000 staff.

In short - your Review of the television production sector is 
restricted by the current limitations of the large scale, 
over-centralisation of the 'national' television sector. As jobs are to 
go in regional TV some assessment would be valuable as to how these can 
be replaced through a local TV sector, which will provide an outlet and 
a spur to quality for producers in the FE and HE educational as well as 
community TV sectors. And finally - the web broadcasting sector has 
barely begun and is largely off the organisational map too ......

A Review of the independent and in-house sector should not be confused 
with a snap-shot of production potential in the television sector.

With best wishes,


Dave Rushton
Institute of Local Television


Following
On Monday, May 16, 2005, at 09:39 AM, Diane Reid wrote:

> Ofcom is beginning a review of the television production sector and 
> today
> sets out the terms of reference for the review. This process is 
> expected to
> be completed by April 2006. The review covers issues such as quotas 
> for PSB
> broadcasters, intervention in the independent production sector,
> relationships between independent producers and broadcasters, 
> production
> quotas, production outside the M25, new media rights concerning 
> programmes
> originally commissioned for TV broadcast. The review does not 
> specifically
> cover local TV services. For more detail see
> http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/tpsr/
>
> Diane
>
> Diane Reid
> Director
> Community Media Association
> Access to the media for people and communities
> http://www.commedia.org.uk/
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