Culture Secretary unveils plans for new national TV channel

It would be for all Channel 3 franchises, surely the chance of a few more quid is not something that STV and UTV would turn down? There is plenty of space for further 'National' programming in Scotland/Northern Ireland should their Broadcasters wish to go that way.

With STV controlling both Local TV franchises in Scotland, it gives them a greater chance of working...would have been nice for someone new to enter the Local/Regional News 'Market' though.

Um STV are spending MORE money and doing MORE than what is required under its agreement, why would there agree to this.

Plus a " ITV should provide a token weekly 20 minute Regional Political show""

STV does a 30min political Monday to Thursday.

In all fairness though, ITV would have more Regions to produce for. I do see your point though. Surely STV would make more money if the Breakfast franchise was scrapped though, even if Daybreak stayed due to advertising being returned to STV not ITV in the morning...

Fair play to STV btw.

Would they though? Remember that they would get the ad revenue from that period.... but they'd also have to pay for the programming aired, be that Daybreak or something else.

How is shaving 10 minutes off a 30 min regional news programme going to deliver any substantial cost savings? All the costs involved in producing the programme will still be present, and it leaves ITV having to produce a 10 minute filler which would cost more than is saved.

The National News would surely be extended if the Regional News was just 20 minutes long? My idea was just an amendment of ITV/Ofcom's own proposal that wanted 10 minutes of filler from any old place at the end...What's the point? Surely a longer National News would generally be better quality programming for the viewer? Looks like the latter is what we're getting though as Border's new 30 minute programme seems to have been approved...why should the other Regions get any less? I'm wondering if the scrapping of the Contract Rights Renewal could be the key to the Regions keeping/gaining Sub-Regional News programming (with hopefully a Pan-Regional Political/Current Affairs programme too)?

Imagine that...a reasonable amount of Regional TV from ITV and hopefully some good upstart Local TV stations to compliment (and enhance what) the BBC's offering. How about a Region by Region quota for the BBC/ITV (C3)/C4/C5 too instead of this 'Outside London' nonsense too?

* Btw Inspector Sands has a great point about the buying of programming from ITV or whoever else...would be interesting to see the costs of programming versus ad revenue in the morning.

Comux, the mux operator, has advertised the additional 'national' capacity on the local muxes and are asking for applicants.


see here ……..

NEWS on DTG.ORG.UK
11-Jul-2013 @ 10:37

Hopefully, it'll be something that adds significant value to the platform.

Ahead of the launch of Latest 8

http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/45145-ofcom-agree-merger-of-coverage-area-for-new-local-tv-services/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=45145-ofcom-agree-merger-of-coverage-area-for-new-local-tv-services

Four separate local TV locations have been merged, which have yet to be advertised, following a consultation period.

The broadcasting regulator Ofcom invited views on merging the locations (Luton and Bedford, Gloucester and Malvern) to create two single local TV licences. A response said that Luton and Bedford shared ‘significant cultural similarities’. The same reason was given for Gloucester and Malvern.

Upon creating the Luton local licence, Ofcom said: “This is because we think that merging the two areas would make the licensed service more viable.” Ofcom said that merging of Gloucester and Malvern to create the single Gloucester licence would “make it more likely that we receive viable licence applications for this area.”

Ofcom has granted several broadcasting licences for the new local stations, with some expecting to be on the air at the end of the year.

I'm sure more and more will be merged or bought out by non-neighbouring licences as it becomes clear they're not viable.

Do we know how long the licences are for, or are they open ended?

Thankful STV owns the two Scottish one.