Local TV

Don't worry - we do, though it's regional not local.

The BBC 1830 regional news bulletin slot is usually the most-watched half-hour of news broadcast each day. It rates very strongly, and AIs suggest it is valued by its audience.

I could be here for days pointing out how in the US you can get away with lots which would never make print or air here in a million years.
Just let me point this out as one example of thousands from the USA.

In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.

http://www.projectcensored.org/11-the-media-can-legally-lie/

Yes of course, but you digress because thats waaay off topic. LOL

Not really though - it's another significant difference between the UK and the US. In the US you can broadcast fiction as fact in a news programme. In the UK Ofcom would take you to the cleaners.

It's another major demonstration of the difference between the US and UK broadcast worlds. As you seem so keen to suggest that the US model should be an inspiration for UK local TV, it's useful to be reminded that we are very different countries in so many ways.

But it's not off topic to point out that Local TV stations in the UK have to abide by laws and regulations that Local TV stations in the US don't have to abide by. It's easier to gain an audience when you have News as entertainment in the US, when a Local station here would be Shut down by Ofcom if the same material was broadcast.

Right.

Hilarious, Im not keen to suggest anything. Most have said that most local tv in the UK is horrible and cheap and rubbish and is stupid in some form or fashion. Well maybe so, but at the end of the day, your license fee is helping to fund it and these stations are coming online in fits and starts. You can repeat over and over it aint gonna work here, we're different, were not like everyone else, were too small, yada yada. Thats fine and dandy. But the stations ARE launching and its obvious that the models that have been used in the UK arent working. So whats the solution? But of course no one will have an answer or a creative answer. LOL

And what station are you referring to?

Having seen the previous incarnations of local TV and this latest attempt my opinion remains that there is one major downfall - the stations are trying to be 'mini' mainstream stations (in London Live's case, just trying to be a mainstream station full stop). I've always thought that these stations should model themselves more on rolling news channels, naturally there will never be the resources to run live all day, but I think the idea of a rolling schedule could be made to work.

A lot of these local stations put the big the flagship programmes on at the same time as the ITV and BBC regional news which seems to me futile, but then what time do you put out your flagship programme? My idea would simply be to repeat it throughout the evening so viewers can fit it in to their existing habits. So for the evenings you could have say a two-hour block of programming made up of local news (which should be the most important part of these stations) and a couple of the other typical programmes and then just repeat on a cycle for the rest of the evening.

Thats an interesting suggestion. I initially like the idea of the National Spine for the just the primetime programming.

I think you'll find if you go over the whole TV forum Site you'll find loads of Creative and interesting answers that would attempt to solve the problem of Local TV in the UK.

In the case of LL, I don't think it was trying to be mainstream at all. The 'news' output is testament to that, along with targeting an audience which is more niche.

If anything, Notts, STV Glasgow, Mustard and the others are trying to be mainstream in their audience targeting, but within their limits of budget and airtime.

There does seem to be a hint of "Argh, we're nothing like America" though. Like the sort of people who can be as nice as pie but turn near violent if one says the word "soccer". If America drove on the left, they'd want us to change over to the right.

In the end, it's not going to work, except perhaps in the larger areas and that'll be because A) it's not network TV, like one finds in the Great Satan/Canada/Japan/ITV-in-the-good-old-days and B) most of the areas are simply too small. ITV regions, including subregions in the larger areas, were and would've been the appropriate units, for most of the country at least.

What I fear though is that if and probably when it does fail, it'll be used as an excuse to demonstrate that no one cares about local/regional tv and ITV will try and ditch its obligations on this front entirely.