I met George from STV Edinburgh the other week and was surprised at how low tech their camera was and how awesome and compact their 4g streaming gear was. The ability to go live from anywhere has come at such a great time for these local channels. It's just a shame some of them haven't got the programme ideas to use with them.
New to this and although i'm not a fan of forums and the way they have become an unbreakable clique of people that you feel you have to prove yourself to (very much like my school days). I felt this was the only way to get information out there and put it into someone else's hands.
Whether or not this forum is like others is up for debate, but let's see how insight into a local channel will go down here and if it can genuinely be put to good use.
My experience with local television is with a Walsall based channel. Any guesses yet?
Answer: Big Centre TV (or Big Centre Television as their logo would suggest now. As if the name wasn't bad enough, right?)
So, onto the insight of working for the channel:
Big Centre TV were not contract heavy - meaning they promised to issue a contract, but did not. After asking multiple times, they still did not issue one and to my knowledge, nobody had been given contracts.
As I delved deeper into work and things got busier (surprising, huh?) I stop asking for a contract and continued to receive my monthly wage.
Although, I and many others were guaranteed security in our jobs for at least two years, some people (like myself) were made redundant and others had their hours reduced. A News presenter left voluntarily as she was up for review. (Note: she hated working with Bob Hall and to this day I have no idea why. When talking about it, she said; "I do not want to be associated with him or stand next to him." which was the reason for her not appearing in the Virgin Media launch promo. She also mentioned at that point that she was looking for another job because she was now seen as a joke to her previous co-workers.
No pay outs were given and I had recently moved into a new apartment, leaving me completely f****d. Past this point, I have had little to no contact with any of my previous colleagues (not through lack of trying) I believe this has been the cause of somebody challenging them. Eventually, I was too stressed out to work towards the end and became seriously depressed and suffering from anxiety. This stopped me from leaving my apartment to go to work. I had spoken to my manager about all of these issues and she was extremely understanding, but I believe this is another reason I was made redundant.
Anyway, Very few people had worked in the television industry and this did not seem to be a warning sign to the then company director, Chris Perry. But there were about three people who would discuss the ridiculous problems with the channel i.e. badly edited programmes, formats for shows that should not exist (Sofa Club) and of course, the name of the channel and it's presentation.
While I was there, I was never once given a written brief. This made my job extremely difficult and was chasing people for meetings so I could have a good understanding of what was being asked of me.
When I was given a task, I then immediately asked for a brief but I was always told that they were too busy to do this. Hence why everything on the channel was (and still is) rushed and not promoted far enough in advance. (Is anyone awatre of their new networking event, "The Big Network"?)
It was an unprofessional environment to work in because their lack of organisation, which had an impact of my ability to work and later affected me at home.
Split decisions were turned into shows. Some of the shows that I worked on did not air, despite being told they were going to launch soon. Not that I'm bothered, they were not my ideas and were s**t, but I'll tell you about them later...
I understand the reason for wanting to add varied content to the channel, but when it hasn't been well thought out; why bother? When your existing shows have not been brought up to a decent standard; why bother?
I approached the producer of Sofa Club when I had first started as Chris Perry mentioned that feedback is always appreciated. Obviously, my naivity was on overdrive due to being passionate and wanting to make a difference to this channel and wanted to use this exciting opportunity to better the channel and myself, but none of my views were ever heard.
Excuse me, but you have zero television knowledge and/or experience, yet you won't take ideas on board from someone who had studied and worked with clients previously? ....Okay.
The producers "synopsis" of the show (if you can call it that) was: It's like the friends couch at central perk where they engage in conversation - This is a concept that never followed through. It continue to be a dull, idiotic way to get the "youf" of today involved. I offered my assistance and gave the producer topics which I felt where extremely important to discuss and trying to making it a political show for a young audience. I included a few Showbiz things in their as I was asked to look for things like this and the producer allowed the "presenters" (children) to chose their own topics as well as select from the list I had created.
The producer and I did not get on due to him being a self-centered c**t that would only do what he wanted to do; feedback was accepted but instantly rejected. Their were always poor excuses from this guy and he made my working life hell. He acused me of saying certain things and got my boss involved as well, which made me break down at work. He also changed his mind a few times after I had completed work for him, causing me to start from scratch. I took him through every stage of my process, making sure he gave me feedback at certain points to avoid such a disasterous, time consuming panic that it always came down to with him.
Shows that I worked on that did not go to air:
Knightmare Club - A scary story telling show, much like the one with the old man, but it was seen to be "Wacky" because it was spelled differently (which only reminded me of the game show, Knightmare) and again with the "club", what is with that?
Personal Column - A show that put viewers photos and comments on the screen for loved ones, etc. This would have lasted 30 minutes with only music and the photos/comments repeating. 30 MINUTES OF THAT CRAP? OH GOD.
Keeping It Real - Agony Aunt show. Again, probably 30 minutes of the same background and a lousy director, producer, presenter and editor.
***Note: none of these ideas were mine***
Regarding the new logo/branding that the channel currently has: It's better, but still not right.
The logo should not say "Big Centre Television" when they publicise themselves as "Big Centre TV". Also, it's complete nonesense anyway, but now it's longwinded as well. Their branding is inconsitent (and was when I worked there) for example, they had multiple logos that were being used all at once across social media. The excuse I got for the Twitter page not having the same logo as the Facebook page was, and I quote: "I prefer this logo to the other one." Also, "We're looking into changing it [to the one I like]" - Whether or not you like the branding, it should always be consistant and be sorted out behind the scenes. Which is again, another point that shows how unprofessional and unaware this channel and it's employees are.
So, for now, I finish my post of with... Does anybody know the monetary value of this channel is and together, can we buy it up?
Yikes! Doesn't surprise me in the least! Thanks for the input, 452Maximum. Sounds like a complete ego-zoo mashed with headless chickens running the channel.
Yikes! Doesn't surprise me in the least! Thanks for the input, 452Maximum. Sounds like a complete ego-zoo mashed with headless chickens running the channel.
It really was. Intially it was the best opportunity I'd had, but have since had others and this is no longer on featuring on the list. It was a learning curve and I hope to prove that I can, one day, do better than them.
Unfortunately, my work was never the best it could have been and I'm not 100% proud of it, but i was dealing with people higher up that had no idea how important and difficult my job was, was in fact 100% beneficial to me and nobody can tell me that I did not do the best I could when surrounded my morons.
On a regular basis I had to create something crap that I was sort of OK with putting out.
Much improvement is neccessary and Chris Perry had the right idea to jump when he did.
New to this and although i'm not a fan of forums and the way they have become an unbreakable clique of people that you feel you have to prove yourself to (very much like my school days). I felt this was the only way to get information out there and put it into someone else's hands.
Probably not the best way to introduce yourself to said forum though, especially a forum which very much welcomes insight from people like yourselves.
However the piece that followed your introduction was a very interesting read and initially Big Centre TV was one of the more discussed local channels mainly thanks to be it being stuck in an ATV timewarp. It went from being ridiculed to just not being talked about - and we know there is nothing worse in entertainment than just not being talked about.
I do think your piece highlights one of the huge problems Big Centre TV had - the management were from a bygone era with bygone ideas of what local viewers wanted and what was acceptable for broadcast. A younger although less experienced team would still of course face the same financial constraints and the difficult of breaking into a market which really doesn't exist but at least it would feel more current, perhaps more in line with the original City TV bid for Birmingham.
Considering the priveleged position I don't think getting more local viewers than History Channel, National Geographic and CBS Drama is anything to shout about. If they're not at least pulling in similar figures to the second tier of flagship digital channels there is no point in their existence.
New to this and although i'm not a fan of forums and the way they have become an unbreakable clique of people that you feel you have to prove yourself to (very much like my school days). I felt this was the only way to get information out there and put it into someone else's hands.
Probably not the best way to introduce yourself to said forum though, especially a forum which very much welcomes insight from people like yourselves.
Howevee the piece that followed your introduction was a very interesting read and initially Big Centre TV was one of the more discussed local channels mainly thanks to be it being stuck in an ATV timewarp. It went from being ridiculed to just not being talked about - and we know there is nothing worse in entertainment than just not being talked about.
I do think your piece highlights one of the huge problems Big Centre TV had - the management were from a bygone era with bygone ideas of what local viewers wanted and what was acceptable for broadcast. A younger although less experienced team would still of course face the same financial constraints and the difficult of breaking into a market which really doesn't exist but at least it would feel more current, perhaps more in line with the original City TV bid for Birmingham.
Apologises, I'm an honest person so I thought I would address my concerns this first.
Whether or not this forum is like others is up for debate, but let's see how insight into a local channel will go down here and if it can genuinely be put to good use.
Hopefully this quote shows that I mean to harm or conflict within your community. I'm unsure what this forum is like, but bad experiences in the past have lead to me be cautious.
I hope that Big Centre TV can be talked about again, but in a positive light and not under the name "Big Centre TV (Television)" but I believe we are the only ones who can speak out about this, hence my first post with my experiences. I do not wish to cause harm to individuals who worked their, which is why I failed to mention names, although I'm sure many of you are smart enough to guess who these individuals are.
Does anybody know the monetary value of this channel is and together, can we buy it up?
Also, can this be found out?
I'm curious and would be very interested in how we can tackle the problem of local TV instead of commenting on them. I feel we need to step up and do something to show off our talents and knowledge to the world by banding together.
Maybe not overtaking a local television channel, but by doing something productive with our time and putting this forum to good use. Conversations = amazing, but can we do more? Can we do better? I believe so.
:-(
A former member
Only Local channel that seems to be doing fine is STV, and there expanding, Of course there have the clout behide them and repeats but at least there come up with decent ideas for shows.
The only way Local TV might work would be for either ITV or Ch4 getting into bed with them.
Only Local channel that seems to be doing fine is STV, and there expanding, Of course there have the clout behide them and repeats but at least there come up with decent ideas for shows.
The only way Local TV might work would be for either ITV or Ch4 getting into bed with them.
Which defeats the whole idea of local channels adding to the plurality of media which is available.