CI
The sad thing is that this form of local TV is doomed, because companies tried to do too much too soon, and rather than build up carefully to a service that people and advertisers would buy into, they tried to run before they could walk. Now all this merging is killing the format, and before too long, it'll be another ITV clone, that is, one company, one schedule, across all the franchises. Whether the survivor will be Made TV or That's TV is up in the air, or even if either one survives.
DE
I don’t think local tv was ever really going to work in the U.K. Its not the USA, tv hasn’t ever worked in the way the us market works, even in the days of the old regional structure of ITV. The technical standards of some local broadcasts
are
a turn off, especially when at times you can’t hear what’s going on, or billed programmes simply don’t appear. Plus, add in the fact that linear tv is less popular than it once was, and audiences are harder to get.
KU
It just is too late.. I think local TV in the UK should have launched much earlier than in the 2010s
Someone was mentioning my country (Italy) as an example of "local" TV: well, I tell you that you chose the wrong example.. yes, we have TONS of local channels here, but many/most of them are run in a lower budget than many/most UK local channels
There are exceptions, like Telenorba, but most of them are low budget, some of them particularly LOW LOW budget, with a very low PQ.. I think Spain, with its "autonomous" channels like TV3 in Catalonia (excluding the more local TV channels), is a much better example
But it's not that local TV in the UK would never work, again, it's that it's launched too late and its projects have been too ambitious to be true, especially in an age where linear TV is declining
Someone was mentioning my country (Italy) as an example of "local" TV: well, I tell you that you chose the wrong example.. yes, we have TONS of local channels here, but many/most of them are run in a lower budget than many/most UK local channels
There are exceptions, like Telenorba, but most of them are low budget, some of them particularly LOW LOW budget, with a very low PQ.. I think Spain, with its "autonomous" channels like TV3 in Catalonia (excluding the more local TV channels), is a much better example
But it's not that local TV in the UK would never work, again, it's that it's launched too late and its projects have been too ambitious to be true, especially in an age where linear TV is declining
SP
I think possibly local TV’s best chance of gaining a foothold in the UK would have been if a raft of local licences has been issued in the 90s instead of creating the national licence for Channel 5.
With only four other terrestrial channels at the time, and next to no online advertising to compete with, they would have stood a much better chance of getting established.
Even so, by now they’d inevitably be facing cutbacks and mergers in the face of mounting competition in the same way as local commercial radio and local newspapers have.
Sadly the most successful and prosperous days of local media are long behind us - something Jeremy Hunt failed to grasp when launching his plans for Local TV.
With only four other terrestrial channels at the time, and next to no online advertising to compete with, they would have stood a much better chance of getting established.
Even so, by now they’d inevitably be facing cutbacks and mergers in the face of mounting competition in the same way as local commercial radio and local newspapers have.
Sadly the most successful and prosperous days of local media are long behind us - something Jeremy Hunt failed to grasp when launching his plans for Local TV.
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
I notice Made in Birmingham seems to be a direct simulcast of CBS Reality (with CBS Reality DOG) a lot of the time or at least after 9am. It may have been slightly more tolerable if they were simulcasting something that wasn't already on Freeview, but there we go.
I don't see how most of these channels are going to survive if truth be told. It was a cack-handed idea in the first place and I wouldn't be surprised if many, bar all, of the "requirements" in their Ofcom licences are stripped back to virtually nothing.
I don't see how most of these channels are going to survive if truth be told. It was a cack-handed idea in the first place and I wouldn't be surprised if many, bar all, of the "requirements" in their Ofcom licences are stripped back to virtually nothing.
BR
Exactly - it was just far too late. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but had the 90s seen the ITV regions protected and then C5 launched on a similar regional basis to compete on a local rather than national level then the TV landscape might be quite different today and regional TV still going strong, and perhaps a Channel 5 network of regions might have broken through stronger than one national channel.
I think possibly local TV’s best chance of gaining a foothold in the UK would have been if a raft of local licences has been issued in the 90s instead of creating the national licence for Channel 5.
With only four other terrestrial channels at the time, and next to no online advertising to compete with, they would have stood a much better chance of getting established.
Even so, by now they’d inevitably be facing cutbacks and mergers in the face of mounting competition in the same way as local commercial radio and local newspapers have.
Sadly the most successful and prosperous days of local media are long behind us - something Jeremy Hunt failed to grasp when launching his plans for Local TV.
With only four other terrestrial channels at the time, and next to no online advertising to compete with, they would have stood a much better chance of getting established.
Even so, by now they’d inevitably be facing cutbacks and mergers in the face of mounting competition in the same way as local commercial radio and local newspapers have.
Sadly the most successful and prosperous days of local media are long behind us - something Jeremy Hunt failed to grasp when launching his plans for Local TV.
Exactly - it was just far too late. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but had the 90s seen the ITV regions protected and then C5 launched on a similar regional basis to compete on a local rather than national level then the TV landscape might be quite different today and regional TV still going strong, and perhaps a Channel 5 network of regions might have broken through stronger than one national channel.
JA
Does the local TV ever come across as amateur? I looked at Estuary News a couple of days ago, and in half an hour they had the same weather bulletin (which had no map) three times, a caption that said Insert Name Here, a guest talking about a Smokefree campaign giving out an address and phone number which wasn't shown on screen, and another guest claiming that The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle was made into a movie in the 90s - that's actually Jurassic Park 2, which is based on a different book by Michael Crichton!
MA
Perhaps, but remember C5's analogue coverage (whether national or BBC1/ITV style regional) was never, nor could ever be national. It would have been a hotch-potch of areas, where the service was technically possible,
with less than ideal transmission power, in fact just what we have now !
I think possibly local TV’s best chance of gaining a foothold in the UK would have been if a raft of local licences has been issued in the 90s instead of creating the national licence for Channel 5.
Perhaps, but remember C5's analogue coverage (whether national or BBC1/ITV style regional) was never, nor could ever be national. It would have been a hotch-potch of areas, where the service was technically possible,
with less than ideal transmission power, in fact just what we have now !