Culture Secretary unveils plans for new national TV channel

I still don't understand what the niche is for local TV. The RSLs tried it ten years ago and failed to get anywhere - Guardian Media Group threw money at Channel M only for the firm to scrap the channel years later. It would be great for local news if these businesses can get off the ground, but where's the revenue?

Channel M went on Sky as well as Virgin media cable.

The big problem the RSLs has was that they were in the analogue world, with weak transmitters usually positioned away from the ones with the other channels on. Therefore few people knew they existed let alone were willing to get a new aerial or tune in their telly. The new local ones won't have that issue so much, they'll appear on the EPG either automatically or at the next rescan. They'll be far more visible.


They will have the advantage of a bit of funding (from the license fee?) and shared/centralised distribution. Funding from advertising will of course depend on how the audiences go and how good the sales teams are. One thing that might be to their advantage is the decline in other local media. Local radio has largely disappeared in many areas and although they do have local ads, the local sales teams aren't as aggressive as they once were, the same with ITV. Newspapers too are in the decline. Maybe the local TV stations could fill the niche... at first at least there'll be the novelty value.

I think the ones that will succeed will be the ones that embrace the internet as being an equal partner to the television, and release all content online, not only in it's full form but shortened edits of broadcast as well.

These channels need to be on top of social media as well, in the same way the main broadcasters are. So they keep the viewers informed, involved and always invited back to the channel.

I think in the smaller areas, the licences will work if they have a set budget to play with every year and they intention isn't to make a profit. These will probably have to be backed by colleges and local authorities.

Hopefully the big city services can be profitable in their own right.

I just can't see how a service based in Mold can even have a chance of being successful when a service in Manchester ultimately met it's maker. I guess the problem with these local channels is they've kind of been devised nationally, and that never really works as they kind of need to begin in the locality and adapted across the country to fit the needs of the area.

So while it may make sense for Liverpool and Manchester to have their stations, in Wales it would probably make more sense to launch this service as a new national service for Wales (or at most a service for north and south) with sub-opts for each local area. I know it's a different world now but considering a service for North Wales was the one and only ITV franchise to fail to get off the ground in an era when the licences were seen as a licence to print money I don't really see how even on such a small scale services for the likes of Bangor and Mold are going to be viable.

I think they smaller ones will only viable if there is a group prepared to stick for example £250,000 a year at the projects, regardless of whether or not they make the money back and then for them to be run mostly be volunteers with maybe a couple of paid staff.

But do many colleges, universities and local authorities have that kind of money for this kind of thing these days?

I guess they'd hope to recoup some of what they put in, but I can't see them making a profit although there would probably be other arguments such as the economic benefits to these areas as whole.

Community TV exists in Ireland on cable in places such as Dublin and Cork, but it seems a lot more like community radio in the way it's run with everyone being done by volunteers rather than the idea behind these services. There doesn't seem to be regular news for example.
Dublin: http://www.dctv.ie/main/ Cork: http://www.corkcommunitytv.ie/

I personally think advertising these as non-profit community services, might have been the way to go. They might even look good if a few of our better mockers volunteered their services.

Anyway, I fully suspect local TV to be really good most of the larger areas, and I think they're will be some great presentation and probably some which isn't so good.

I believe some of these Local TV stations will work, we may even successful franchises taking over the running of less successful stations...with some networking thrown in (which is likely to happen anyway in the future methinks).

Let ITV reduce it's Evening Regional News offering to 20 minutes, in exchange for the scrapping of the Breakfast Licence ( though I feel there would still need to be some National/Regional News in the morning ). STV and UTV can then potentially make more money (and maybe offer other Regional services elsewhere). Although the Regional Evening News would be shorter, this could potentially make the Regional News services more punchy. This could actually be a better watching experience for the viewer, while being slightly more affordable for the commercial Broadcaster. I also feel ITV should provide a token weekly 20 minute Regional Political show on Thursday nights (after News At Ten) for all the Pan-Regions.

This change to ITV's Regional News offering and the fledging Local TV stations could potentially offer more (for less) to our PSB system (alongside the BBC) than is currently the case.

"Probably"??

I take it this is all for English ITV stations? since STV would not be happy in the cuts of the regional news, especial since there go above and beyond. Plus STV controls both Local tv channel up north.

Please no. This is the last thing they should be doing. By all means have a Twitter, Facebook and YouTube account etc. so that people can contact them and watch videos they have made but keep the social media stuff and the television stuff separate. There is no way reading out 'how to contact us' can ever make good television and reading out peoples tweets is usually just as bad. Most people don't write interesting things and those that can may not be able to write for 140 characters. Hearing a presenter give a shout out to someones Mum is hardly ever interesting television not even when it is ones own mother who is receiving said shout out.

Challenge[TV] is a good example of how social media can be used well. They have active Facebook and Twitter accounts which are manned by people who work at the channel who post news and answer questions, yet the social media stuff hardly ever gets mentioned on air at all. It means that their Twitter and Facebook are used by people who are interested in the channel and their programmes rather than people who have been prompted by a call to action on television and just want to hear their name on TV.

Maybe there is a good television format that combines television and some kind of social media or application but no one had come up with one so far.

Spot on. There's a limit for everything, and when it comes to tying the box & social media together, that limit has been reached.

In terms of social media, it's good to get people talking about your output and if they're encouraged to follow you, you've always got the abilty to show them and tell them what you are doing.

It's a vital tool for these broadcasters to use, when I imagine they'll be little funds available for marketing.