London Live

The UK tried similar services with Airport Information Radio which was on AM in the proximity of London's Heathrow and Gatwick Airport. http://www.thisisilr.co.uk/rm/airinfo.php

There was also Channel Tunnel Radio in Kent.

Both had very short lives.

We tried it in the days before satnav - but now people have Waze, TomTom traffic, Google Traffic etc. the requirement for radio traffic news is far less widespread. I used to ensure I had my RDS enabled with Traffic Alerts back in the day. Now I just use TomTom with Traffic - which is usually accurate to the 10 metres...

Ironically Tom Tom with traffic relies on RDS-TMC data transmited with Classic FM

Only some Tom Tom devices use TMC. The higher quality traffic data is delivered to devices with cellular data functionality. I've run TomTom on my mobile phone for years, with a data-delivered traffic subscription (now rolled into a grandfathered TomTom Go app)

There was also the national digital radio station Traffic Radio. On some major roads there are signs telling you what radio frequency to tune into for traffic updates.

I think I can picture what you think should be offered - maybe a Sky Sports News style with scrolling headlines at the bottom of the screen with Tube/rail/road/weather info on the right, something like that? Something that can be shown with the sound down?

If so, I get it (although I think that arrangement would be too fussy, and why would a venue screen that when there's national news or SSN on?) and I'm not going to rule out a London channel ever doing okay - but I really can't see it doing that without a massive, massive investment (looking at London Live's losses, well into eight figures) or a ginormous subsidy. And especially now Lebedev has made such a mess of London Live, it's sadly unlikely anyone else will give it a go.

And that's the real issue here. Two Beards brought in the wrong people pre-launch, they went for the wrong demographic and wasted news hours on inane rubbish in the early days while the likes of Mustard and Notts initially came up with formats that worked in their areas, joined later by Made TV. This has left them with debt that other broadcasters won't touch with the inevitable conclusion that ESTV will hand the licence back to Ofcom.

it may have been different if Made TV won the licence, but I still think even they would have struggled in a unique market in the UK such as London.

Toronto's CP24 runs a service similar to this since its inception in 1998. They call it an enriched screen format. It changes throughout the day depending on if business ticker is needed then it switches to sports and other news at the bottom. CP24 is shown across the Southern Ontario virtually everywhere. In shops and waiting rooms.


CP24 has a nowcast that give your a feel for how the channel looks on air.
Check it out here
http://www.cp24.com/now

That has to be one of the most hideous screencaps I've ever seen.

Then dont look at this youtube video in widescreen. Its quite good for screens with no sound like those found on public transport and waiting rooms and such or shops and restaurants. Common places you find CP24 playing.
Well it serves its purpose and is highly successful.

That is hideous the general idea is sound, it's graphically horrible and there is too much going on.

I would think the route to go down would be get rid of the full news programmes and invest that into reports that can be shown throughout the day and the ability to cover breaking stories when needed and expected.

Information on screen all day which could be updated automatically, the side bar could show weather/tube news swapping with traffic cams and business news.

Something like this, borrowed the weather and tube news from LL's website.



It would be a far better use of the licence than what we have now, could probably be done for a lot less than everybody thinks. Also who knows if the brought in programmes really returning a profit for London Live? I'm not after all suggesting they make much more original news programming than they are now.