PC
First of all, the "more murders and stabbings than New York" figure is based on somewhat selective data over a short time during a relatively quiet news period. It feels important to state that at the outset.
Beyond that, there are a lot of problems in terms of trying to cover London and make the viewers give a toss:
- It's got a huge population in a very small area, so it's impossible to split the transmitters and make the TV stations more local.
- People who live in London generally give a toss about their bit of London, or at best their side of the river. They have no more interest in news from another part of London than they do about Yorkshire.
- London has a multitude of local councils, so trying to cover all of them (without losing the viewers who aren't covered by those councils and therefore don't give a toss) is borderline impossible.
- Most relatively important stories about London end up on the national news, leaving the local London news to pick up the scraps.
- Because London is covered (relatively) well nationally, viewers and listeners don't seem to put too much weight on a station being local 24 hours a day. There is no London equivalent of Clyde 1 or Key 103. Capital tried to make local its USP for years and it bombed, it only found its place as a Global brand that sold itself as a quasi-national alternative to Radio 1.
In terms of there not being the culture here for local television compared to the States, there also isn't the population. New York has double the population of London, which is by far the biggest city in the UK, and the US as a whole is a bigger country and has a good 250 million or so more people. As already pointed out, historically the US also has the heritage of the affiliate system. It was notable that NBC cut to their affiliate to get the latest from the YouTube shootings for extended periods of time. You can't imagine ITV handing over the reins to Granada for a major story in Manchester.
Beyond that, there are a lot of problems in terms of trying to cover London and make the viewers give a toss:
- It's got a huge population in a very small area, so it's impossible to split the transmitters and make the TV stations more local.
- People who live in London generally give a toss about their bit of London, or at best their side of the river. They have no more interest in news from another part of London than they do about Yorkshire.
- London has a multitude of local councils, so trying to cover all of them (without losing the viewers who aren't covered by those councils and therefore don't give a toss) is borderline impossible.
- Most relatively important stories about London end up on the national news, leaving the local London news to pick up the scraps.
- Because London is covered (relatively) well nationally, viewers and listeners don't seem to put too much weight on a station being local 24 hours a day. There is no London equivalent of Clyde 1 or Key 103. Capital tried to make local its USP for years and it bombed, it only found its place as a Global brand that sold itself as a quasi-national alternative to Radio 1.
In terms of there not being the culture here for local television compared to the States, there also isn't the population. New York has double the population of London, which is by far the biggest city in the UK, and the US as a whole is a bigger country and has a good 250 million or so more people. As already pointed out, historically the US also has the heritage of the affiliate system. It was notable that NBC cut to their affiliate to get the latest from the YouTube shootings for extended periods of time. You can't imagine ITV handing over the reins to Granada for a major story in Manchester.