[comtv-l] Scottish cities should get own TV news channels, say Tories

[CMA-L]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Laurence <rjhlaurence at mac.com>

The reason US cities have local TV stations is because the FCC doesn't
allow the networks to own them - each network can own a maximum of
three stations and must buy air time on "affiliates" in all other
markets.

The affiliates decide how much air time they are prepared to let the
networks have, and sometimes they will drop network programming if
something of more appeal is happening locally.

It's the antithesis of the centralised, top-down approach we have here.

I told this to the select committee on local media when they came to
York and they didn't seem to understand what I was saying.

Richard Laurence MIBS, AM Inst V
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On 29 Jan 2010, at 12:32, CMA-L <cma-l at commedia.org.uk> wrote:

> Published Date: 28 January 2010 by Tom Peterkin
> Source: http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Scottish-cities-should-get-own.6020848.jp
>
> Scotland's major cities should have their own television news
> stations, shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. Under a
> Conservative government, a broadcasting model would be encouraged that
> would see Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness producing
> their own channels to deliver local news, he said.
>
> On a visit to Edinburgh, Mr Hunt criticised the current government's
> approach to the media sector, claiming that regulations preventing any
> single media group from owning newspapers, radio stations and
> television channels in the same geographical area were restricting the
> development of local television.
>
> "The media industry is going through a massive transition, mainly
> caused by technology and the internet," Mr Hunt said.
>
> He said rules were preventing media operators from following their
> audiences to the different news platforms such as television, the
> internet, and mobile phones.
>
> "These days, people get news on their mobiles, they get it on their
> PCs, on the radio, on TV. But the regulations prevent media operators
> from following consumers from one platform to another, because they
> say you can't have a significant stake in more than one platform.
>
> "The (Labour] Cabinet's plans simply set the current system in
> concrete and they don't allow for the new business models that we need
> to emerge. Why doesn't Scotland have a TV channel for people who live
> in Edinburgh? A city the size of Dundee in America would have a clutch
> of local TV stations and people are very hungry for local news."
>
> He added: "Bear in mind that the cost of producing TV is reducing
> dramatically with the technology. You can set up a TV newsroom with
> less than £100,000."
>
> His vision of all-encompassing regional news outlets involving local
> radio, newspapers and websites with city-based franchises was welcomed
> by David Rushton, director of the Scottish-based Institute of Local
> Television.
>
> Dr Rushton said: "This is quite possible to deliver, given Scotland's
> transmission capability. But we have to make sure that we don't
> concentrate too much on urban areas to the detriment of rural
> Scotland. We can develop a system of local television that can be just
> as much for rural regions as it is for cities."
>
> Mr Hunt confirmed that a Conservative government would not support the
> current UK administration's plans for regional news schemes that would
> see publicly subsidised consortia bid to run pilots for replacement
> ITV regional news bulletins in Scotland, Wales and England.
>
> Companies pitching for the contracts include News at Ten producer ITN,
> broadcasters UTV and STV, owner of The Scotsman Johnston Press and
> fellow newspaper groups Trinity Mirror and Newsquest, and news agency
> the Press Association.
>
> Mr Hunt said:
>
> "I think the trouble with subsidy is that choice is then determined by
> ministers rather than by the public."
>
> \\
>
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