Local TV

No no no, it works in the US so it MUST work here, we’re just not doing it properly apparently.

Sky News has never turned a profit because it was never designed or intended to be a profitable part of the Sky business.

It's value to Sky (and by extension Uncle Rupert) was influence and credibility, especially in 1989 when Sky was not to be taken seriously. We've always known that this was the model so to play Sky News as the card to say that in the UK news can't be profitable is disingenuous.

News channels can and are managing to be successful all over Europe and beyond. Still, in 2019. In many territories, so are local channels.

Spain has its autonomous region channels (govt funded), and it's local channels (private), France has BFM TV Paris. Canada has City. There are examples too in Russia, Asia.

Yes, there's American local TV too - but I'll try to avoid mentioning them as for some reason it seems to make some quite defensive, competitive and borderline irrational. Never really understood why.

The thing that's key though it that people won't watch crap that has no relevance to them. This is the problem with most of our local TV.... It's utter crap, trivial to the point of irrelevant and nobody is interested. There is still a strong appetite for local news, however.

Again - Sky News was never run with the intention of making a profit. It is not a commercial failure because it was never run on a commercial basis.... as well you know.

I actually think ITV regional news could be profitable if the network that produces it were a) interested in it and b) used it to its potential.

I'm baffled as to how you think this helps your point. If Sky chose to spend money on the operation expecting to make a loss, that still supports the argument about how difficult it is to make money out of news in such a small market, even with significant investment and widespread carriage.

BFMTV is not without its critics. It is widely seen as the Fox News of France, and while that has proved popular, I'm not sure such an operation would get away unscathed from the regulator in the UK. Indeed the French regulator has found the channel to over-represent the FN.

In which case, perhaps over-regulation is a reason a commercial news operation hasn't proved viable in the UK?

Yes, LBC has taken the route of balancing its schedule, rather than each and every minute of output. Ofcom has made Global 'attend meetings' with them, but they're not getting found in breach of the Broadcasting Code left, right and centre, so they must know what they're doing.

I don't really see any problem with is so long as you maintain 'separation of church and state' - ie don't fall into the trap of portraying opinion as fact or editorialising your news output.

Easier to get away with it on radio were the audience expect more opinion than purely factual content.