Ofcom has awarded the licence to run the local TV service in London on digital terrestrial TV ( DTT).
The London channel is expected to cover around 4 million homes, the largest reach of all the new local TV services.
The award follows legislation enabling Ofcom to issue local TV licences.
The channels will broadcast on a specific ‘multiplex’, a discrete amount of spectrum reserved for local TV broadcasting on DTT.
The licence is awarded to:
London: ESTV Ltd
Channel name: London Live
Interesting choice, I personally think it brings up media plurality issues considering that the Evening Standard will have London's main newspaper and the only fully local TV station. That said, their coverage is excellent and I think they'll do a good job.
Interesting, I was expecting London TV to win as they seemed to have some innovative approach, lots of pilot content made as well as a website and content deal with Sony (I think?).
But I've not read the licence applications and the Evening Standard's proposal was probably seen as being more concrete.
Interesting how most of these local channels pretty much keep to the established 6pm and 10pm slots for their news. In theory the London licence has the best chance of success, but the schedule for this doesn't look very inspiring at all.
Interesting how most of these local channels pretty much keep to the established 6pm and 10pm slots for their news. In theory the London licence has the best chance of success, but the schedule for this doesn't look very inspiring at all.
Budget permitting I'd do an hour of news combined with a One Show style magazine programme at 5pm and repeat it at 9pm.
Interesting choice, I personally think it brings up media plurality issues considering that the Evening Standard will have London's main newspaper and the only fully local TV station.
I don't really see that as being a problem, there's still plenty of plurality in London's news provision across TV and radio, there are two speech based London radio stations not connected to the ES
How many of these local channels are actually being won by local businesses - even the Evening Standard seems to be Russian, while many of the bids across the country were from the same bidders, though admittedly many of those failed too.
How many of these local channels are actually being won by local businesses - even the Evening Standard seems to be Russian, while many of the bids across the country were from the same bidders, though admittedly many of those failed too.
STV local,
The other bid in this contest must have been in the same boat as the Scottish bids, CRAP, why else give it to a newspaper company.
Interesting how most of these local channels pretty much keep to the established 6pm and 10pm slots for their news. In theory the London licence has the best chance of success, but the schedule for this doesn't look very inspiring at all.
Budget permitting I'd do an hour of news combined with a One Show style magazine programme at 5pm and repeat it at 9pm.
No point trying to compete with the big boys.
Hmm - they could probably do a chat-based magazine programme - but I doubt they could afford to do the VTs that make-up half of The One Show.
Interesting how most of these local channels pretty much keep to the established 6pm and 10pm slots for their news. In theory the London licence has the best chance of success, but the schedule for this doesn't look very inspiring at all.
Budget permitting I'd do an hour of news combined with a One Show style magazine programme at 5pm and repeat it at 9pm.
No point trying to compete with the big boys.
Hmm - they could probably do a chat-based magazine programme - but I doubt they could afford to do the VTs that make-up half of The One Show.
Sorry, I was thinking of something less VT baed than the One Show, interviews with local people who have done interesting things.
For the smaller licenced areas, I would just have a half an hour show with about 5 to 7 minutes of news at the beginning the rest being made up of this chat based magazine format.
Unfortunately money has to be the motivator for these things but I think the channels which will probably find most success are the ones that invest in them, so can put out a 30 minute news magazine every night rather than just pad out a 5-7 minute bulletin. An hour-long news magazine though wouldn't be too far a stretch - basically an evening version of a breakfast show where they can repeat the main headlines at least on the half hour and with a couple of regular features it doesn't take long to pad out the hour.
I suspect though most local operators will fulfil any commitment to news with far cheaper short updates every hour and then at most a 30-minute bulletin at night put together in the cheapest way possible. I guess to it also depends on whether they're looking at just getting people watching the channel for short bursts to get an update, or are more interested in producing a show people will watch in full.
I have a feeling that London Live will rely heavily on features for the Evening Standard. If they have an interview for the paper, Homes and Property or ES Magazine, expect a camera to also turn up and record an interview for the tv bulletin.
Another question has to be staff, will we see print journalists also become multi-media journalists providing copy for the tv news as well as the newspaper? Or will they hire existing broadcast journalists, some poached from BBC London and ITV News London?
I would expect though that presenters will come from the TV side. There is some great talent who took redundancy from London Tonight recently who may move across. Ben Scotchbrook has to be a contender who'd be a solid presenter and Robin McCallum for weather. Lebvedev may also pull out the purse strings to acquire an existing presenter from the BBC/ITV bulletins. Riz Lateef would be a major coup he got her to leave BBC London. It'd also ensure that viewers know they mean business when it comes to competing with the established bulletins.
