How would you go about setting up a TV station...?

How would you got about setting up a TV station?

It seems that the barriers to entry to get a TV station on the air have fallen unbelievably in the last few years. I have to say of course that I am not asking this because I mean to do it, but I'm just curious.

I came across the RaptureTV website the other day, and they said they'd do full 24hr playout on a music channel for just under ten grand a month.

I'm also aware that the cost of EPG placement on Sky is £26,000 per annum. Plus, of course, you'd have to get an OFCOM license.

So, let's say, hypothetically, that someone wanted to start a music channel like the EMAP offerings.

What would you need to get it on the air (the technical details of it), and how much would it cost?

Please let me know if you can help as I am genuinely curious about it. Ta.

Hmm let me think. Fox News was started by (what's his name?) so I am guessing a hell of a lot of money would be a start.

If you had enough money to start up and operate a minor digital TV channel, would you actually do it? If so, what would
you put on it. And what would you do to ensure it doesn't end up with just teleshopping and pointless phone-in games?

Rupert Murdoch, wasn't it?

I'd make the SMTV Channel!

Running a tv channel these days can cost next to nothing. There are software packages available that allow you to run a virtual gallery from a pc so you can vision switch, monitor sound etc. Then you could have your content on hard disk recorders and as long as you have got access to a line to feed to a transmiter you are pretty much good to go.

The expense is content and quality. The above set up could get you on air, but it would look shocking, but then quality is no longer really an issue for any broadcaster so you would probably fit right in. And you don't really have to worry about staffing costs as the norm now is to hire anyone above the age of 14 and pay them 10p an hour.

Nip down to your local car boot, pick up a load of tat, spend a few grand decking out your living room as a studio and you are the latest home shopping channel!

It might not take a huge amount of money and and effort to be able to technically broadcast any old cr*p, but there is
the issue of getting a broadcasting licence, for however much they cost (likely to be very expensive). Otherwise you
would only be transmitting a pirate TV station. Once the relevant authorities catch up with you, you're toast!

Yes I think he's the one. I'm surprised we don't have a Virgin News Channel/Television Channel.

If I could...
I'd run sitcoms, movies, old soaps, blocks of music videos, invest in original programming and even produce a newscast that would be more of a satire than real news. I wouldn't run mass blocks of infomercials/teleshopping. Only a few hours and air...um porn for a few hours with commercials being a listings service that would loop for about 10 minutes...The programming would be expensive and hopefully I'd have enough advertisers keep the channel afloat. And I wouldn't sell to a big media conglomerate either.

But those are just dreams, in this case far-fetched dreams(porn movies?!?!)...

I was more thinking along the lines of the EMAP channels or the awful Channel U/Vibe.

So, you'd need a stock of perhaps 100 videos, some sort of texting service to raise extra revenue and a sales house for advertising.

Something very cheap and tatty, in other words. Could you get away with running a channel for less than £20,000 a month in fees, playout and uplinking? (excluding EPG costs).

Didn't Keith Chegwin run a TV channel from his bedroom for next to nothing - perhaps that does not count & does that count as programming?

Anything with Chegwin in doesn't count as programming