[comtv-l] [cma-l] Local TV in trouble

[Bill Best]

There's a rather scathing follow-up opinion piece here:

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/oct/14/dont-make-the-bbc-bail-out-the-busted-flush-that-is-local-tv

Bill
-- 
Operations Manager
Community Media Association
http://www.commedia.org.uk
https://twitter.com/community_media
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Canstream Internet Radio
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On 14 October 2015 at 12:23, Two Lochs Radio <tlr at gairloch.co.uk> wrote:

> I see Jeff Henry of Archant is quoted as saying* "...
> <http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/12/bbc-ofcom-help-norwich-tv-station-mustard>in
> order for local TV to be commercially viable, it needs more financial
> support from the BBC and for Ofcom to allow the relaxation of programming
> regulations."*
>
>
> Presumably since the company is reported to have lost £657k last year,
> that is the sort of level of financial support it would need to be viable -
> that's approaching double the entire Community Radio Fund, just for a
> single local TV service.
>
>
> Maybe the real answer is that effective small-scale local TV is simply not
> viable in the way that community radio can be, which is certainly how it
> looked to me at the start of this scheme, and to a consultation report
> published by Ofcom, which said:
>
>
>
> *"Only London and Manchester can support a profitable standalone
> commercial local TV channel, given the levels of investment required to
> sustain local programming and low audience share and reach achievable by
> such a TV channel. The commercial prospects for local community TV channels
> in regions with under 200k homes are poor. Community channels are likely to
> have little appeal to advertisers and will have to rely on government
> funding and private donations"*and
> *"...audience share levels required for community TV channels to break
> even on minimal costs of £300k are highly unlikely to be achievable."*
>
>
> Alex
>
>
> Also see
> http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/oct/14/dont-make-the-bbc-bail-out-the-busted-flush-that-is-local-tv
>
> On 14 October 2015 at 09:45 Alan Coote <alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
> Surely the lack of money in community radio, in fact local media in
> general, should have told them life was going to be tough.
>
>
> http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2015/news/regional-publishers-local-tv-channel-lost-657000-last-year/
>
> Alan
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>
>
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