Local TV

I think you've missed my earlier point. Freesat - our non-subscription, non-pay satellite platforms is UNENCRYPTED.

That means that Freesat receivers don't need to have Conditional Access Modules (i.e. decryption devices). This means that to be received by a Freesat receiver, your broadcasts must be unencrypted. Which means you can't regionally restrict them - because any free-to-air receiver in the satellite footprint would be able to receive them... (Freesat allow postcode mapping of services - but this isn't the same thing)

You CAN regionally restrict if you encrypt, and the Sky pay-tv satellite platform in the UK allows this. There is a non-subscription option on the Sky platform (sometimes called Free-to-View / FTV or "Freesat from Sky") but this requires a Sky receiver (which has an integrated Conditional Access Module for the Sky Videoguard encryption system) AND a Sky viewing card. London Live is one of the few channels using this option I believe - though I may be wrong. They haven't launched yet.

AIUI the dominant US Satellite platforms are DIrecTV and Dish - and both of them encrypt - and they don't have a subscription-free offering...

My original point is that London Live is not likely to be on the UK Freesat platform (something which doesn't have a US equivalent AIUI)

More importantly are they allowed to use that Freeview logo in their posters? :O

Why not ? Aerial riggers etc are allowed (I assume) to use it on their vans, why would Freeview wish to restrict its use to promote a channel on the platform ?

And I'd have thought the actual schedule was more important than a logo used on their ads.

Returning to the City TV stuff from Canada.
Manchester's Channel M's template was City TV.
"Channel M, Everywhere" was the tagline.
The news was based on CityNews (CityPulse) format. Shoulder-mounted cameras. News reports were 1min 40secs long (especially at the start, later there was more flexibility). Lots of people in reports and vox pops within virtually every report.
CityTV's consultant Jacques de Suze spent a lot of time in Manchester developing it.
Channel M also showed MuchMusic stuff.
The Guardian Media Group ploughed lots of money into Channel M.
It got bags of publicity from the Manchester Evening News and its weekly papers around Greater Manchester.
But it still flopped.

How will the new generation of "local TV" stations differ (apart from being less well-resourced)?
How will they succeed?

Well you say these stations will be less well resourced, and in financial terms that's probably right. But isn't it a lot a cheaper to make good looking content these days if you've got the right people? For the evening news programmes you could probably get 3 decent reports each done by the one reporter per day for example, so out of a couple of reporters you've got a solid half an hour news programme.

Then you've got the Freeview slot (and Sky slots to an exent if taken), it's on channel 8, I'd say the significance of that would dwarf any advertising spend Channel M made, in a time when their channel 6 analogue slot was a lot less findable than a new service on Freeview is today.

Then you've got the national advertising sales factor, something I assume Channel M didn't have as the network didn't exist.

Then you've got the internet, a lot of people cite the fact non-linear viewing is on the rise as the reason this project can't work today. But it just means local broadcasters need to be in tuned to this also. They need to offer everything they do, with the full form versions of programmes and highlights made available on demand and linked to from their Facebook and Twitter pages. They also have the free advertising means of social media which can reach thousands for no cost, they've just got give people that initial exposure to that channel or brand to keep up the communication with them.

These channels need to play to their strengths. They need to do the things people want, but the national broadcasters can't give due to their remits being too large, they need to do things local radio would have once done but can no longer due to networking in many areas.

So local football magazine and discussion shows are no brainers in most licence areas. If these broadcasters have someone who used to be on the BBC or ITV's regional news programmes, they need to shout about it, so the EPG needs to read '[PLACE] Tonight with [INSERT NAME]' for example.

People still read local papers, probably because 1. they get them put in front of them for free in many cases, 2. because they are interested in what's happening locally and how the local teams are doing. There is no reason why this logic can't extend to television. You could also try and get doctors surgeries, shopping malls, and train stations to take your programming which could be mutually beneficial.

I'm no expert on the business case for it all, but if they keep the costs to a minimum i.e not employing more people than are needed for a job in this day and age and they shout about what they do I think they will succeed. As long as they're good at what they do and play to their strengths.

My worry is if the local TV model does prove to be sustainable it might still be more attractive for broadcasters to merge which would be fine in itself, but this could result in them just wanting to be the quasi-national Channel 8, with the local content kept to the minimum amount needed to satisfy the licence requirements and they could eventually argue for this to be done away with, which has happened with local radio and regional ITV.

COMUX the people in charge of the infrastructure have made this video stating why this time they think the local TV concept will work.

Having been a regular Channel M viewer at it's peak (2006/7), I can say that with a schedule like it had, in my opinion it did show that local TV could work. However what went against it was that it had a small terrestrial presence, and it was owned by Guardian Media Group who probably didn't know what to do with it. They gave the Mancunian audience what it wanted and what is mostly associated with Manchester, Football and Music which it did cover very well in its short time on air. It's News coverage was good, although it did help that they shared resources with the Manchester Evening News and the then GMG owned radio stations. In terms of promotion outside of GMG was virtually non existant which didn't do them favours, although they did get regular listings within the MEN.

The death knell came when they cut back about 95% of programming and when GMG sold off the MEN. Having a local company with good resources will probably show that Local TV can work, but I'm finding it hard to imagine the stations being a success in the smaller towns and cities, I think London Live will work, and maybe the STV stations, along with cities that aren't covered as well by BBC/ITV such as Liverpool.

Arguable though it's ultimate failure showed that the model didn't actually work.

Call me premature, but I can't see any of the local channels coming anywhere near to the standard Channel M achieved at it's peak - nor match the amount of new content they produced every week.

News was at it's heart and it's partnership with the Manchester Evening News was it's biggest strength in my opinion and without such a tie-in, where are the channels going to source their news content apart from press releases and following what local news sites are covering.

I do think STV will have a good idea of what to do with the local channels for Edinburgh and Glasgow. STV (Scottish TV) has been around since 1957. They have done not so bad so far by launching the Edinburgh STV News at SIx...

Mustard TV launches tomorrow evening 17:30, with schedules being released in the morning.

The lack of scheduling information is shocking really - they can't just rely on people stumbling over the channel. Even if 99% of the output is crap, if they don't get the viewers in for the 1% they're interested in they're simply always going to skip over the channel when browsing through the EPG.

Does the Evening Standard have a free weekly TV guide - presumably London Live listings will make it into that.