NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
On what basis?
Crap low-budget TV in 2019 would have still looked crap and low-budget in 1975, the only differences would have been the presence of massive sideburns, flared trousers and 4:3 presentation.
Crap low-budget TV in 2019 would have still looked crap and low-budget in 1975, the only differences would have been the presence of massive sideburns, flared trousers and 4:3 presentation.
NJ
Why would it be more successful? People were getting their regional news over the aerial already.
And it still doesn't address the underlying problem that modern day local TV has, in that the population in this country does not lend itself to local TV. It works in America because a) it's a far larger country and b) it has a far larger population so local TV can work there. That hasn't changed for years over there.
What would have putting Leeds Live on cable in 1975 achieve exactly that putting it on Freeview in 20xx hasn't?
Neil Jones
Founding member
I'm talking more along the lines of sub regional optouts. For example a Lincolnshire/East Anglia news service
Why would it be more successful? People were getting their regional news over the aerial already.
And it still doesn't address the underlying problem that modern day local TV has, in that the population in this country does not lend itself to local TV. It works in America because a) it's a far larger country and b) it has a far larger population so local TV can work there. That hasn't changed for years over there.
What would have putting Leeds Live on cable in 1975 achieve exactly that putting it on Freeview in 20xx hasn't?
BR
Hypothetical discussions only work when they have some basis in fact and you've some information about how things if things had gone differently. For example, failed franchise bids usually have a lot of information either from the bid themselves or reports at the time, or subsequent interviews and claims with key players.
You've just opened a discussion which is too vague and too unconnected to generate any reasonable discussion - the two events are completely uncorrelated.
You've just opened a discussion which is too vague and too unconnected to generate any reasonable discussion - the two events are completely uncorrelated.
BR
Context - quite important when starting a seemingly random post. Interesting article that but I think it answers your question - there were several wider experiments following that initial period in the 70s and ultimately they all failed.
For me the only way local TV had a chance is if local stations were part of regional franchises, which in turn was part of a national network. We kind of saw it with sub-opts, but the time has passed now for it to be even tried. If at the birth of digital TV rather than encouraging consolodation into a national network the ITC had been focused on regions getting more regional and granting them the rights to bandwidth for local channels we may have seen the likes of Granada Manchester and Granada Liverpool, alongside a regional service on ITV. Ultimately though I suspect at best they'd have merged into regional channels for each region, and had they been vaguely successful ITV would have gone fully national with regional content on it's own channel.
For me the only way local TV had a chance is if local stations were part of regional franchises, which in turn was part of a national network. We kind of saw it with sub-opts, but the time has passed now for it to be even tried. If at the birth of digital TV rather than encouraging consolodation into a national network the ITC had been focused on regions getting more regional and granting them the rights to bandwidth for local channels we may have seen the likes of Granada Manchester and Granada Liverpool, alongside a regional service on ITV. Ultimately though I suspect at best they'd have merged into regional channels for each region, and had they been vaguely successful ITV would have gone fully national with regional content on it's own channel.