[webcast-l] Now is the time for community television!

[Diane Rodgers-Wilson]

++Apologies for cross posting+++
Now is the time for community television!

You may have recently received a copy of a questionnaire about community
television from the CMA
through the post - if not, it's available to fill in online via our website
at:
http://www.commedia.org.uk/about-community-media/community-television/questi
onnaire/

Digital television switchover will only happen once. This is a time of
unique opportunity to make sure that digital terrestrial television is
more than just the BBC and commercial television. Now is the time to
make sure that the richness, diversity and innovation of community
television is available to all.

The CMA is working on a project 'This is Community Television' over the
summer and into the autumn of 2005, to show what community television is
like and what it can be like in the future. The information we collect
will be used to influence and inform politicians and other
decision-makers in the run up to the Department of Culture, Media and
Sport’s consultation on proposals for a Local Digital Television Order.

The questionnaire is aimed at those who are, or would like to be,
involved in making community television. Through gathering information
about what communities are already doing and what they would like to do,
the CMA aims to demonstrate the unique and distinctive potential of
genuinely local and community television services, services which can be
truly inclusive and provide access to all through community involvement
in planning, training, production and scheduling.

Please spend 15 minutes now on the questionnaire: we’re aiming for many
years of community television.

I hope that you will be able to support this initiative by the CMA and
encourage others to do so. Television spectrum is a precious resource
which, alongside other platforms, has the potential to give real benefit
to individuals and their communities.