'IFNS' Halted by the Election

The shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has told media companies bidding for government money to run replacement ITV regional news pilots they will face legal action if the Conservatives win the next general election.

Hunt, speaking at the Oxford Media Convention today, said the Tories wanted an all-encompassing regional news solution to empower local radio, newspapers and websites with city-based franchises.

"Let me be clear, we do not support these provisions in the digital economy bill and we do not support the pilot [regional news] schemes," he added.

"The contracts are not due to be signed until May [and] anyone looking to sign one should understand that we'll do all we can to legally unpick them if David Cameron enters No 10. And if they haven't been signed, we won't be doing so," Hunt said.

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Might as well put the project on hold now, as this statement might put some good applicants off the process.

Regardless of the TV issue, is it really a good move by the Conservatives considering most of the applicants are large national and regional newspaper groups.

Who will clearly want to make regional news, not regional "50 more milk bottles were produced this year" style stories.

No, the Newspaper groups agenda is to cash in to compensate to falling sales and loss in advertising revenue. They don't *really* have local journalism as a top priority. Good on the tories I say, was a ridiculous idea in the first place, clearly they hadn't seen Channel M and the quality of output on that channel!

I know that Northcliffe are backing the return of Television South West - so they could use people from the Western Morning News as a hub, and then locate stories out to the Mid Devon Gazette, North Devon Journal and Express & Echo for example - they do have some good things on the video side of their website which can be enhanced through some training and better equipment.

They've been either killed off, or at least delayed considerably ........

Tories: we'll block regional TV news plan from getting through parliament'

This is a redline for us', says shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt of plan for independently funded news consortiums

The shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has ratcheted up his opposition to the government's plan for regional TV news consortiums by promising to block the proposal's passage through parliament in the digital economy bill.

Hunt has consistently opposed the idea of independently funded news consortiums (IFNCs) using a public subsidy to provide replacement news services for ITV in the English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Gosh, imagine the Central IFNS Maureen Messant as the lead anchor of "Birmingham and a Bit Tonight"

I think this is the best place to ask. Can anyone please expain what exactly ITV plan to do with the regional news? I don't exactly understand what will happen in this pilot.

I spoke to Ed Vaizey who said the following :

“The cost of TV news production has fallen dramatically thanks to changes in technology. But we will seek to lower the costs for new entrants to local TV even further by creating space for a new national network to provide prime time viewing for local TV affiliates. This means that local TV operators will only have to fund a few hours of local news daily, not expensive 24 hour news. It will also mean – critically – that as in America advertising on local TV franchises can be sold nationally as well as locally.”

http://www.atvnewsnetwork.co.uk/today/index.php/atv-today/2223-itv-local-news

So it does look like the Tories would definatly scrap the current plans to push their own ones through. It does seem that it's all in a right pickle at the moment.

I still believe that the C3 franchisees should be forced to provide the PSB local news requirement, or lose their licences.

I was hoping that whichever government came into place after the General Election would feel strong enough to offer that stark choice to ITV.

This fanciful idea of them being able to cherry pick which parts of their licences they will abide by is ridiculous.

Can you imagine the turmoil if every taxpayer turned round to Revenue & Customs and announced that they would only pay income tax to fund the parts of public spending that they 'liked'? It's basically what ITV have asked Ofcom to allow them to do!

Looks like they are officially on Hiatus till after the Election now

Regional TV news pilots unlikely to be signed off before election

DCMS forced to extend 'standstill period' before entering into formal contract talks on ITV replacement news schemes

The government looks set to fail in its attempt to get the ITV replacement regional news pilots signed off before the general election, placing the future of the project in doubt.

Today the Department of Culture, Media and Sport admitted that it had been forced to extend the "standstill period" required by government procurement rules before it can enter into formal contract negotiations with preferred bidders for the three ITV replacement news pilots in Scotland, Wales and the Tyne Tees and Border region in England.

It is understood that the standstill period has been extended by 10 days to 16 April, by which time Whitehall is expected to be in hiatus for the general election, making it impossible for the ITV news pilot contracts to be signed.

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The IFNCs may be as good as dead:

Regional TV news consortium plan misses election contract deadline