[comtv-l] The Observer: Channel 6 - the TV station that knows where you live

[CMA-L]

Peter Preston, The Observer, Sunday 22 March 2009

Last year's big media row erupted over the BBC's wish to put out more
video with its local online news. And this year's outbreak of peace,
apart from its regional partnerships with ITV, may see fury from local
newspapers turned on its head as everyone begins to agree about really
local television. Follow the logic of events now, and watch Andy
Burnham, the secretary of state involved, begin to finger the Go
button.

Here's the logic, stretching back 50 years. Britain could have had
television for cities and counties when the BBC's hegemony fractured.
Instead, worshipping the great god Centralisation, we got ITV and its
"regions" peddling regional news. But those regions are increasingly
constructs of convenience, not natural definitions. Meridian's coastal
stretch is from Southend to Weymouth, with a lot of the Thames Valley
thrown in.

And that, surely, can only grow more stretched as ITV cuts back on
regional news teams and wishes it could merge with Channels 4 and 5 to
form one monster repository for commercials. So when Burnham, who
cherishes his local roots and local Leigh newspaper, starts to think
about what comes next, local TV seems to be pushing at an open door.

The door is pretty well open in Scotland already, thanks to the
Holyrood parliament's reverence for tartan roots. Next year, the
Scottish Borders seem set to get their own local TV service, with 15
more stations across the country poised to follow on. And once the
analogue switch-off is complete and digital delivery via Freeview can
offer near universal coverage, the concept of "Channel 6" can become a
reality - not just north of the border, but for between 50 and 80
local areas in England and Wales, too.

Take those new community areas and see how you'd proceed (as already
under way in Cardiff, Kent and via Channel M in Manchester, owned by
the Guardian Media Group). First, approach Ofcom and win the
franchise. That victory - anxious editors please note - could go to a
local newspaper or consortium of papers. Then appoint a great and good
governing board of local worthies to do the public-service policing
job close to home. Budget running costs at £400,000-£450,000 a year,
with maybe an extra £100,000 for transmission fees. Plan between four
and six hours of broadcasting a day, constantly repeated on a loop.
Hire staff and print local advertising rate cards and you're away.

Even if local papers don't want to bid for an ownership role, they can
still be contracted news providers. Thwarted in its local TV ambitions
by a vigorous campaign from local papers, the BBC seems in a much less
confrontational mode - positively keen to provide technological help
and shared local facilities here as well as further up the regional
chain. "It's not a satisfactory situation if the BBC thrives while the
rest of the UK media struggles," director general Mark Thompson said
last week.

So everyone's happy, including a government keen to see jobs created
rather than scrapped and a new public service dimension to television
channels otherwise losing that plot. And it can happen fast when the
right switches are pulled.

Snags? Of course. Local TV in the US and Canada seems to be sliding
down (though cost structures there are very different). Scottish
running expenses, more costly at up to £16m a year for the 16 new
stations, include an eventual £10m grant from the Scottish government,
which any parallel operation in England and Wales might find hard to
replicate via a Gradgrind Whitehall. And Channel 6, for your local
fix, would have to be high on the Freeview list where audiences could
find it.

But don't let such little difficulties curb enthusiasm here. The first
stations are working. The Scottish plan is going ahead next year. The
digital switchover is happening. And Michael Grade might actually fork
out a few bob to get local television established if it meant that his
regional burden got lightened still more. What Burnham likes, and is
having formally vetted, Burnham could set in train long before any
election.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/22/television-bbc

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