Ofcom's report into Ch3 and Ch5 Licence renewal

UK government CAN overrule local assembly of the channels islands

I presume a similar arrangement must exist for the Isle of Man, as that's not part of the UK either, although they've always been part of a UK TV region. Douglas transmitter is now fed from Winter Hill, so it's part of the Granada region, but I think the BBC1 feed is switched to either Sandale or Caldbeck at certain times of the day so the IoM gets NE&C news. Manchester-centric news on ITV and Newcastle-centric news on the BBC!

http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/09/06/25692-stv-could-begin-to-broadcast-to-southern-scotland-in-2014/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14805095

There really is some stupid MSP!



Border TV is gone, he is living on cloud coo coo land if he thinks it will be back,

That's true in certain matters: the Privy Council (in effect the UK Government, through the Foreign & Commonwealth Office) can overrule the States of Jersey & Guernsey, but I wouldn't have thought that extends to some of Ofcom's rules, such as the appointment of a C3 licencee.

The Channel Islands don't have 'local assemblies', they are self governing entities outside both the UK and EU. They are classed as 'British Crown Dependencies'.

I suspect they agree to Ofcom's role as a matter of convenience rather than compulsion. They probably don't want to have the hassle of conducting a franchise round of their own.

Interestingly, Channel Television did face a rival bid from 'CI3 Group' in 1992, who were disqualified on quality grounds, despite offering a bid more than 100 times higher than that of CTV.

So the end game is in sight then for regional ITV (at least in England - the least important part of the UK).

Especially love the idea of the Wales license going to a unique company. Welsh viewers will probably end up with more 'regional' TV than at present, whereas it will completely go in England. Unless, of course, the ever wonderful ITVplc has a complete change of tact and decides to take regional commitment for its new 'England' franchise seriously. Can't wait for England Tonight to start. Who do you reckon would present it? I'll go for Fred Dineage & Lucy Meacock - a real North-meets-South love affair.

The Isle of Man is an interesting one because they had their own commercial radio station, Manx Radio, long before it started in the UK. I'm pretty sure that the other 2 radio stations on the island are licensed by the Tynwald and not Ofcom.


I think that's changed now, it would have had to due to DSO

Yes, all IoM transmitters are now firmly in the BBC North West, and ITV Granada regions.

The switch to Caldbeck for BBC NE&C news ceased at DSO.

**Shudders**. Please make sure this doesn't happen. The Midlands would be even more forgotten that it is at present...and then you've got the BBC practically pulling out of Birmingham.

Birmingham, the biggest city in Europe without a major TV studio. The City Council don't seem to want to know either.

Btw anyone think adding three 20 minute slots of Children's programming in what is the 'Daybreak' slot at present could work? Surely sponsors like Coco Pops or Ready Brek would want to be involved and be wholesome enough to sponsor these programmes? Surely this is more PSB than talking about socks or something...

Are you sure there are no larger cities without a TV studio? I'm not sure all of the larger European countries have regional or local TV.

If so though, then surely Liverpool has to be the current champion. We're also the largest town or city not to have a sorting office. UKplc really loves Liverpool.

There are twenty cities in the EU with one million inhabitants or more (at least according to Wikipedia). If you exclude the capital cities (who, one assumes, must all have fully fledged TV studios), that leaves Hamburg, Barcelona, Munich, Milan, Cologne, Birmingham and Naples. I know there are full service TV studios in most major German cities (at least those where an ARD member is headquartered), and they have at least one in Barcelona. Don't know about Milan or Naples, though.

What do you want the City council to do about it? and at somewhere's got to be the biggest city in Europe without a major TV studio.

But yeah it is bad what's happening to BBC production outside of Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and London. But there doesn't need to be big studios for more production in Brum.

I think that the Channel compliance was for indies, where the commissioning ITV "franchise" has no production role, but does have some compliance responsibility.

So shows like X Factor and Britains Got Talent, which have no ITV Production element (i.e. aren't ITV Studios - and I guess aren't STV or UTV productions either) and are commissioned from indies, would be commissioned via Channel - so that Channel were responsible for compliance (and thus any potential fines through lack of compliance) I think Channel were/are paid fees for this role - so it generates them extra income as well?