BBC Local TV

hang on - so does midlands today provide a dedicated and updated 10 minute bulletin for the county of shropshire? and then a 10 minute bulletin for staffordshire? and then a 10 minute bulletin for the black country? a 10 minute bulletin for birmingham? and then a 10 minute bulletin for coventry and warwickshire? and then a 10 minute bulletin for hereford and worcestershire?

no they don't do they. perhaps you are talking out of your arse.

And Dunedin obviously hasn't listened to the loop currently playing out on local TV.

God forbid, but they're actually suggesting that you & I can send in a video piece!

Amateur ShakyCam TV is here!!

The loop's interesting and I like the look of the 'homepage' on DSAT. It looks like the whole thing's going out in the wrong aspect ratio to me though - 16:9 images being transmitted 4:3.

Well personally I don't want "ultralocal" news. Regional news isn't pointless. I'd rather hear about stories from my county as a whole (plus its surrounding neighbours) than limiting myself to knowing simply about my local area - it seems somewhat insular to me. I have a local newspaper for that. Regional TV news should stop at county level at the very most.

How can regional news be a waste of money when most nights the combined audience of the 11 shows is the most watched programme on BBC1 bar EastEnders?

I'd say the general public disagree.

Why?

That's not really a justified statement when you base it on viewing figures. The general public have little else to watch if they were already watching BBC1 at 6.30pm, when most people will be sitting down to their evening meal. The choices (let's take tonight):

Newsreaders/"Z-List Celebs" who can't dance on BBC2
Repeat of National News on ITV1
Teen-soap on C4
"about to be cancelled" soap on five

Mmmm....I see why BBC1 regional news has a large audience, but it doesn't really have anything to do with quality of regional content, or the desperate need for the BBC to waste alot of money providing "ultra-local" news.

If I wanted to know what was happening on an even more local basis I would either:

buy a local paper (that's what they are there for)
listen to the gossip in the local shop/local pub
or, if desperate I would chat to the "Old Bag" who watches everyone from behind her net curtains at the end of the street

........either way, the information is not broadcast-worthy material, or worthy of my licence fee!

Yes. I thought that interactive apps ( video through the app, rather than switching you to another "channel") could only be 4:3 at the moment. suggesting that whoever's putting it together hasn't arc'd it, or the service is going down to London with the ARC set to 16:9.

The loop did seem to have some correct bits?

Also it seems slow to get to? Possibly on another Satellite?

I call it "The Old Dear's Effect"- it's dying off as they do (as will regional news eventually):

Take a group of 100 average people.

Expose them to the same number of adverts for a particular programme.

Put it on BBC One for 50 of your sample.
Put it on BBC Two for the other 50 of your sample.

I GUARANTEE that you'd have a significantly higher audience on BBC One than on BBC Two completely independent of audience lead-in.

Old Dears watch things on BBC One because it's "always been there"- the "old dear effect".

It's what's holding back the digital expansion in the UK.

These people are dying and in the years to come it will be impossible to justify national bulletins and regional news on BBC One.

The future (which is what this trial should be working towards, NOT current viewing trends) is in News 24 for "proper news" and "ultralocal TV" for local and community news.

i.e. "ultralocal news" is about your community with some little bits of note about your region.

Read the BBC press release again.

They're selling it as "community broadcasting".

Boll0cks, unless you consider "Birmingham" or "<insert your city name with potentially millions of residents here>" your community.

I believe there was a report a few years ago on ultralocal TV that suggested something like 250 broadcast zones for the UK...this makes sense as it equates to approximately 1 zone per 2 parliamentary constituents. Still quite big, but not city big.

The BBC release only serves to highlight two things:

1) Regional TV (the status quo) doesn't meet the demands of viewers- that's their words not mine.

2) True ultralocal TV is currently too expensive to deliver.

I agree on both points.

Where I don't agree is that they should try and pretend they're delivering something that they're not. We haven't yet got the infrastructure to deliver true ultralocal TV cheaply enough.

When we do, regional TV news is dead.

Could well be, though DSAT text is often like that - taking an age to change between the pages that have different video streams associated with them.

I can't say that I noticed that some bits of the loop were right and others were wrong - the whole thing looked to me like it should have been in 16:9. Even the full screen video streams were 16:9 pics presented in 4:3. It's possible that if it's playing out via London that they've got the wrong codes set in the automation and they'll notice in due course, but I was under the impression it was being played out from Birmingham... Anyone knw who's handling the Playout ... Red Bee or BBC Birmingham?

It's assembled in Brum and sent to London as a complete service, with Coding & Mux + Adaptation for DSAT added as usual by Siemens!

And I missed it, but the missus says Midlands Today has just announced it's starting tomorrow.

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone on the forum that this is just your opinion (thank God) and that it shouldn't be used as a general indication of the public's view.